Amos Chapple traveled to Oymyakon, Russia, whose average temperature in January is below -50 C Think you’ve had a tough winter so far? Don’t tell that to the people of Oymyakon, Russia — the coldest permanently inhabited settlement on Earth. Though it’s situated just one degree north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, average January temperatures in Oymyakon are nearly 20 degrees colder — below -50 degrees Celsius. It’s that extreme cold […]

Washington: Scoffing at Russia’s plummeting economy in the aftermath of a host of sanctions imposed on it, US President Barack Obama has suggested that what the Russian leader Vladimir Putin did (with Crimea) was a “strategic mistake”.   In a wide-ranging interview given to NPR News, shortly before the President was to leave for Hawaii for his annual vacation, Obama said that how Russia’s falling economy had disproved those (his […]

Zlata has won awards and holds world records for her contortion skills Real name Julia, she has been contorting since she was just four years old Poses in a gold bodysuit for dramatic 2015 calender Promises her fans ‘more surprises’ for them in the coming year These incredible photos reveal how world’s bendiest woman contorts herself into unbelievable shapes in her 2015 calendar. Russian-born Zlata twists herself into the most […]

More than 200 protesters buried their heads in the sands of Bondi Beach on Thursday in a demonstration over climate change inaction. The protest came as world leaders began arriving in Australia ahead of the G20 summit in Brisbane at the weekend. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been criticised for not including talks on climate change in the summit. Since coming to power, Mr Abbott has axed a carbon tax […]

Moscow: Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Sunday in downtown Moscow against the war in neighbouring Ukraine and, in particular, against the Kremlin’s support for the pro-Russian rebels there. “The March for Peace”, a demonstration organised by the extraparliamentary opposition most critical of the Kremlin, kicked off in Pushkin Square, where protesters gathered carrying Ukrainian flags, although Russian flags were also in evidence. “Putin, enough lying and war-making” was one […]

This is Russia. This is “not Russia”. That’s the message the Canadian Nato delegation tweeted, in map form, to Russian soldiers “who keep getting lost and ‘accidentally’ entering Ukraine”. “Geography can be tough,” it notes snarkily. On Tuesday Ukraine released video of Russian paratroopers it says it captured within its eastern border. In response, Russian military sources said the men had crossed an unmarked portion of the border “by accident”. […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has named a new target as global sparring over Ukraine grows: food. In a decree signed Wednesday, Putin banned food and agricultural imports from countries that have imposed sanctions against his country. The retaliatory move comes more than a week after the United States and European Union increased economic sanctions on Moscow for supporting pro-Russian separatists fighting Ukraine government forces in the eastern regions of Donetsk […]

Russian criminals have stolen 1.2 billion Internet user names and passwords, amassing what could be the largest collection of stolen digital credentials in history, a respected security firm said Tuesday. The news was first reported by The New York Times, which cited research from Milwaukee-based Hold Security. The firm didn’t reveal the identities of the targeted websites, citing nondisclosure agreements and a desire to prevent existing vulnerabilities from being more […]

In Pic :The US is sending the USS Donald Cook, a guided missile destroyer, to the Black Sea. The United States is dispatching a warship to the Black Sea amid tensions between Ukraine and Russia, a Pentagon official said on Monday. “We have decided to send a ship into the Black Sea. We expect it will arrive there within a week,” said Pentagon spokesman colonel Steven Warren, without disclosing the […]

Ukraine’s young government is running out of viable options for restoring its control of eastern regions and preserving the country’s territorial integrity. Government and police buildings in more than a dozen places are still held by pro-Russian protesters, sometimes led by masked and well-armed men in uniform. The response from Kiev to this assault has been inconsistent and hesitant. Amid a war of words between Washington and Moscow, the “agreement” […]