Wednesday, 9 October 2013

A castle on Mars?

The European Union Times

US House unanimously votes to retroactively pay 800,000 furloughed workers

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 10:29 AM PDT

The Republican-led US House of Representatives unanimously voted to approve a bill which will see 800,000 workers furloughed during the ongoing partial government shutdown paid once the crisis ends.
The 407-0 vote in the House was a rare moment of bipartisanship within the deeply divided lower house of Congress.
The measure will now be sent to the Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats. The White House announced that President Barack Obama will sign the measure into law once it passes Congress.
“This is not their fault and they should not suffer as a result,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said of federal workers. “This bill is the least we should do. Our hard-working public servants should not become collateral damage in the political games and ideological wars that Republicans are waging.”
Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, said federal workers should not have to worry about paying their bills while the Congress and the White House battle over funding the government.
“They have child care expenses, house payments to make, kids that are in college, and while the president refuses to negotiate, while he’s playing politics, they shouldn’t worry about whether or not they can make ends meet,” Turner said.
In the 1995-96 government shutdowns, furloughed workers were retroactively paid their salaries in full.
Republicans plan to introduce piecemeal budget votes over the weekend which would see symbolic funding granted to additional public services. If approved, the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and child nutrition and development programs could be reopened.
Democrats are likely to vote down the stopgap measures, however, which they view as part and parcel of the Republican strategy to shift blame for the shutdown away from the GOP, which has been accused of holding the White House ransom over healthcare reforms.
The shutdown ensued after House Republicans failed to come to an agreement with Democrats with regards to passing the federal budget. It was sparked by the GOP’s reluctance to accept President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” which finally went into effect Tuesday morning amid the shutdown.
On Saturday, President Obama called on the House to “stop this farce” and end the US government shutdown by unconditionally approving a federal budget.
“Take that vote. Stop this farce. End this shutdown now,” Obama said in his weekly radio and video address.
Earlier in the day, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned the partial government shutdown could weaken the United States’ global standing.
“If it were prolonged, or repeated, people would begin to question the willingness of the United States to stay the course and its ability to, but that’s not the case and I don’t think it will be the case,” Kerry told journalists at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Indonesia’s Bali.
He continued that Congress should think “long and hard” about the message the US was sending to the world when “we can’t get our own act together.”
Kerry called on lawmakers to “end it now, end it today.”
President Barack Obama had planned to attend the summit of Asian leaders, but canceled his travel plans to remain Washington and deal with the shutdown, which entered its fifth day on Saturday. Kerry is now heading the US delegation in the talks.
‘This isn’t some damn game’
Public opinion has placed responsibility for the shutdown at the Republican’s feet, reducing the debate over the government shutdown to allegations and recriminations that both sides are seeking to prolong the crisis for political advantage.
Republicans jumped on off-the-record quotes in the Wall Street Journal which allegedly showed the White House was prepared for a protracted battle.
“… It doesn’t really matter to us [how long the shutdown lasts] because what matters is the end result,” the paper cites a senior administration official as saying.
“This morning I get out the Wall Street Journal out and it says: ‘We don’t care how long it lasts because we [the Democrats] are winning’,” said House Speaker John Boehner. “This isn’t some damn game. All we are asking for is to sit down and have a discussion.”
Although it remains unknown if the anonymous quote in the Wall Street Journal reflects on the actual Obama administration position, the White House and Democrats remain firm that they will only negotiate with Republicans after the government is reopened and the $16.7 trillion debt limit is raised.
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Australians divided over centenary celebrations

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 10:19 AM PDT

To most Sydney siders, it was a magical moment- a majestic fleet of tall ships elegantly floating into sunny Sydney Harbour. But to some, including Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, it was enough to make them sea sick.
Either way – The International Fleet Review is unlike anything the Australian public has seen before.
This event has been one of the biggest public celebrations in Australia since the Olympic Games in 2000.
The review, held between October 3 and 11, commemorates 100 years since the Royal Australian Navy fleet first entered the Sydney Harbour. Joined at one stage by the Royal Prince Harry himself, Sydney celebrators have had the chance to participate in a variety of activities, including tours of the warships, a dazzling fireworks display and a rare defense showcase held at Darling Harbour’s Exhibition Centre as part of the Pacific 2013 International Maritime Conference.
The Pacific 2013 showcase is an international initiative that allows commercial maritime and naval defence industries to promote their capabilities.
But as inquisitive onlookers milled around the assorted army displays this morning, a group of angry protesters congregated outside the exhibition centre.
The review certainly hasn’t been a cheap affair, costing Australian taxpayers around 40 million dollars. Nonetheless, the overall reaction to the event seems to suggest that in the minds of most Australians, the gains far outweigh the losses. The celebrations have attracted more than 1 million visitors to Sydney and has been said to have put the nation back on the map.
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Italian researcher Matteo Ianneo discovers castle on Mars

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 09:59 AM PDT

Italian researcher Matteo Ianneo who previously discovered dozens of other interesting things on Mars, has now found something new and interesting again.
This time he found a castle on Mars which can be seen as confirmation on Google Earth, planet Mars, at the following coordinates: Latitude 84°13’27.72″N Longitude 22°32’19.53″W.
In a short interview, we asked Mr. Matteo what does he think about all these mysterious discoveries found on Mars and he provided us with the following answers:
“Mars is a planet like our Earth. In the past, this planet has gone through wars, nations devastated by incessant wars of visitors universe. Peoples of giants, civilizations that have manipulated the DNA to create giant breeds over time. Giant pets, giant men. The same giant fell on our land to build colossal monuments.
The pyramids are an example of their coming. Every people of the universe, trying to get hold of the heavenly bodies. The policy also taking root in the universe. Peoples who were enslaved, and made available to the powerful. As is happening today in our land. Everyone took possession of the resources of each planet. Nuclear wars also have happened on Mars. There were grandiose monuments billion years ago. Monuments that were erected in their beauty and in their perfection. But something went wrong. Mars was hit by nuclear technologies, not the entire planet died, some tried save you in the bowels of the planet, many others died. Someone were able to move with time on our earth. Life began on Earth and Mars slowly trying to recover. Its water still present on the planet, was sucked into its bowels. Today it is still this life on what planet. There is still water, lakes, forests, giant animals that drift in the sand, monuments destroyed, pyramids, and are convinced that the man Came To them on this planet for a long time. You can breathe on Mars, there’s enough oxygen. Someone wants to bring that planet as it once was and they are already there to make it more hospitable. I have studied this area for several years, and I found things that no one has yet seen. Sphinxes, pyramids, hangars, castles, pictures of animals, destroyed cities, monuments, human faces, alien faces, trees, forests, human profiles and more. If you know any newspaper you can spread this news for fear of spreading these realities and the fear that history can have a social impact. The sending only some elements of study, others I’m picking up in my next book will come out slowly. My first book titled “MESSAGES FROM MARS” is my first book in a series of books which contain many things that I found on this planet. I think the missions on Mars, probes etc… are only virtual missions also because I am convinced that Russians and Americans are already there for a long time. I have seen well. I enclose some of the findings that slowly put the web. Some praise me saying that my findings are unique in the world. I hope to be helpful to our humanity. Sleepless nights and burning eyes, brought about my results. I hope to be invited to a foreign transmission, with an interpreter, I hope everyone enjoys my new discovery.
Mars is still inhabited.”
Matteo Ianneo

Brazil criticizes Canada over spying reports

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 09:08 AM PDT

Brazil has strongly criticized Canada over reports of spying on the country’s mining and energy ministry.
On Monday, President Dilma Rousseff said her country seeks explanations from Canadian officials over the issue.
She added that new revelations about the espionage activities by the US and its allies prove that economic motives are behind the move.
The president called on Washington and Ottawa to stop the “inadmissible” practice.
“This is inadmissible on the part of countries which want to be partners. We reject cyber-warfare,” she said, adding, “The United States and its allies must urgently end their spying activities once and for all.”
Brazil’s foreign ministry has also summoned the Canadian ambassador to convey its strong protest.
The new disclosure was reported by Brazilian Globo television on Sunday and was based on leaked documents by US whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The documents showed that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had made a detailed outline of the Brazilian ministry’s communications including phone calls, emails, and internet traffic.
Brazil’s Mining and Energy Minister Edilson Lobao described the revelations as “serious” and said that it has possibly been spied on due to Canadian companies’ mining interests in the country.
Moreover, Brazilian newspaper O Globo revealed in July, citing documents leaked by Snowden, that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has gathered metadata on billions of emails, phone calls and other internet data flowing through Brazil.
The US spying revelations on Brazil have greatly strained the relationship between the two countries and caused Rousseff to cancel last month a visit to Washington.
Brazil has announced that it plans to bypass the US-centric internet, with measures including storing data locally and to lay underwater fiber optic cable directly to Europe and all the South American nations in order to create a network free of US surveillance.
Rousseff spoke recently at the United Nations General Assembly, calling for international regulations on data privacy and limiting espionage programs targeting the Internet.
Snowden, who was granted political asylum in Russia on August 1, has been charged in the United States with espionage and theft of government property after leaking documents that revealed the NSA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have been secretly gathering information of people in both the US and all around the world.
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Iran arrests 4 men in ‘nuclear facilities sabotage’ plot

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 06:25 AM PDT

The Iranian authorities have arrested four men for planning to sabotage nuclear sites, reports state news. The announcement comes as Iran’s newly-appointed president takes steps to allay fears over its supposed nuclear weapons program.
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, announced on Sunday that a “number of saboteurs” had been caught “red-handed” before they could carry out their plan.
“Four of these individuals were caught red-handed and their interrogations are ongoing,” he said, according to the Mehr news agency on Sunday. Salehi did not elaborate on any of the details of the alleged plot to sabotage Iranian nuclear facilities and did not specify the nuclear sites that were targeted.
He added that the suspects were now being interrogated by Iranian authorities.
Iran has accused the West on a number of occasions of sabotaging its nuclear program. In the past Tehran has slammed the US and Israel for orchestrating the Stuxnet cyberattack on nuclear facility systems in 2010. Iran has also claimed the West is behind the assassination of its nuclear scientists.
The arrest of the suspected saboteurs comes as the Iranian government takes steps to dispel western fears over its nuclear program. The West believes that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, something that the country’s leadership has consistently denied, maintaining its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.
New to office, President Hassan Rouhani has reached out to Washington in a move to restart negotiations over Iran’s supposed nuclear weapons program.
Rouhani spoke to President Barack Obama last week in a telephone call, which marked the first talks between US and Iranian leaders in over three decades.
As it stands President Rouhani is set to meet with leaders from the UK, Germany, France, Russia and China in Geneva in mid-October in landmark negotiations. Iran’s new moderate leadership wants to lift the crippling economic sanctions implemented against Tehran by Washington with a view to curtailing the Iranian nuclear program.
Tehran has said that the international community must come up with new conditions before the negotiations in Geneva. Currently, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – plus Germany demand that Iran cease enrichment of uranium to 20 per cent. In addition, they have asked Tehran to ship out some uranium stockpiles.
Iran’s new stance on the nuclear issue has been hailed by world leaders as a step in the right direction and a possible end to the diplomatic stalemate.
‘Iran is one year away from nuclear armament’
However, Washington has voiced skepticism over Tehran’s motives. On Friday Obama told press that while Rouhani was saying “all the right things,” it remains to be seen whether or not he will follow through with his pledges. In addition, Obama stated that Iran is one year away from developing a nuclear weapon, citing US intelligence sources.
Israel, on the other hand, claims that Tehran’s wish to negotiate is merely a ruse and Iran is months away from developing its nuclear capabilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel will move to strike Iranian nuclear facilities if Tehran does not cease its alleged nuclear weapons ambitions.
On Tuesday Netanyahu urged the UN General Assembly not to be fooled by Iran, stressing that Israeli was ready to “stand alone” against the country it has branded an enemy of the state.
“Rouhani is a wolf in sheep’s clothing – a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community,” said Netanyahu. He appealed to the international community to keep the financial penalties against Tehran in place.
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UN сhemical disarmament team begins destroying Syria arsenal, machinery

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 10:46 AM PDT

The UN confirms chemical experts in Syria destroyed missile warheads, aerial bombs, and chemical mixing equipment on Sunday as they started eliminating the country’s chemical weapons.
“The process of destroying Syria’s chemical weapons program began today,” said a statement released by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The experts supervised Syrian personnel who “used cutting torches and angle grinders” to make sure the weaponry could not be used, the statement read.
“The process will continue in the coming days.”
The team crossed into Damascus on Tuesday tasked with dismantling Assad’s estimated 1,000-ton chemical weapons stockpile.
A UN official earlier confirmed to AP that the weapons inspectors have begun to destroy the stockpile and machinery.
Earlier this week, a Hague-based OPCW official stated that all “expedient methods” would be used to ensure Syria’s production facilities would be rendered unusable. He added that procedures might entail the use of explosives, sledgehammers, or the pouring in of concrete.
“We’re very transparent. The experts can go to every site. They are going to have all the data from our government,” Assad told German magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday.
The mission follows a UN resolution which demanded that Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal be destroyed. The procedure to purge the country of chemical weapons stocks has a target finish date of mid-2014.
The US and its allies have been threatening Syria with military action in response to the August 21 attack in Damascus’s eastern Ghouta suburbs, when UN experts say sarin gas was used “on a large scale.”
Both Syria’s government and rebel forces have accused each other of using chemical weapons, and both sides have denied carrying out attacks.
The US and Britain were quick to accuse the Assad regime of perpetrating the August 21 attack, based on the warheads’ technical characteristics, established by UN experts.
Russia and Syria accused the US and its allies of jumping too quickly to conclusions. Damascus claimed that the UN had ignored evidence passed to them confidentially. Russia, who believes the Aug.21 attack was a provocation by the rebels, has been calling for a so-called “Geneva-2” peace conference.
The UN Syria peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, said on Sunday that it was not certain that mid-November peace talks will take place in Geneva as planned. “This is not a certainty… I am encouraging everybody to come to Geneva in the second half of November,” he said in an interview with TV5 television and RFI radio.
Long-term plan for eliminating stockpiles
Alongside the aforementioned usage of explosives and sledgehammers, a larger piece of chemical processing equipment will play a role in the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles.
In early November, a mobile and highly developed disarmament system will be constructed, according to the New York Times.
The Field Deployable Hydrolysis System will probably be set up outside the country, in order to neutralize large quantities of chemicals that are to be transported outside the country’s borders. The process will see the conversion of chemical agents into compounds which cannot be put to military use.
A US state department official told the New York Times that the mobile system is an “early demonstration” that steps are being made to shrink the weapons’ arsenal.
The UN inspectors have said that the success of their work depends on getting cooperation both from the Syrian government and the opposition. The opposition was disappointed by the diplomatic solution to Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile and are therefore the most likely element to disrupt the work of the UN team, Tariq Ali, a historian and Middle East expert, told RT.
“Whether sections of the opposition are going to disrupt the inspectors from taking off and disarming the chemical weapons, I don’t know. It wouldn’t totally surprise me if some sections from within them tried to create a provocation and then blame it on the government because they were very upset when no war (American airstrikes) happened,” he said.
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Egypt panel suggests dissolving Muslim Brotherhood

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 05:53 AM PDT

A panel of Egyptian judges has recommended the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, which has been protesting against the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi since July.
The judges made the recommendation on Monday, saying the party represents an outlawed group, The Associated Press reported.
The recommendation is to be delivered to a Cairo court which is reviewing a case demanding the party’s dissolution on October 19.
The move is seen as part of the widening crackdown on activities of the group that has backed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected leader.
On September 23, an Egyptian court banned the Muslim Brotherhood from carrying out any activities in the country and ordered the seizure of the group’s funds.
“The court bans the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood organization and its non-governmental organization and all the activities that it participates in and any organization derived from it,” said the presiding judge Mohammed al-Sayed.
The decades-old Muslim Brotherhood formed a political party in 2011, months after the fall of former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.
During Mubarak’s era, the Brotherhood was the only opposition voice as all other alternatives were suppressed.
Egypt has been experiencing unrelenting violence since July 3, when the army ousted Morsi, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the parliament. It also appointed the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mahmoud Mansour, as the new interim president.
The government of Mansour has launched a bloody crackdown on Morsi supporters and arrested more than 2,000 Brotherhood members, including the party’s leader, Mohamed Badie, who was detained on August 20.
About 1,000 people were killed in a week of violence between Morsi supporters and security forces after police dispersed their protest camps in a deadly operation on August 14.
The massacre sparked international condemnation and prompted world bodies to call for an independent investigation into the violence.
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Obama Supporters Don’t Know What Party Obama Is Affiliated With

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 04:13 AM PDT

How can Americans even begin to understand Obamacare or the government shut down?
In his latest ‘man on the street’ video, Mark Dice talks to Obama supporters in San Diego who struggle to work out which political party Obama is actually affiliated with.
The majority of the people Dice talked to didn’t know which party Obama was associated with and some even thought he was in fact a Republican.
One man thought Obama was associated with the “best ideas” party.
“The average American is a zombie and doesn’t even know what political party he stands for,” Dice tells one man who asserted that Obama was a Republican. “I would agree,” the man responds.
“What political party is Barack Obama affiliated with?” Dice asks another man, who responds, “It’s one of those.”
In response to the same question, another woman responds, “I have nothing good to say, I’m sorry.”
The clip would be hilarious if it wasn’t a tragic reflection of how dumbed down and ignorant of basic facts Americans have become in the modern era. Given that a substantial percentage of them don’t even know that Obama is a Democrat, how could they possibly hope to understand things like Obamacare or the government shut down?
If you think that this footage is a misrepresentation of the average intelligence of Obama supporters and other politically naive Americans, then you should probably become familiar with Dice’s countless other videos, which all point to the same conclusion. They include;
- Obamacare supporters signing a petition to add birth control drugs to the water supply;
- Students at the University of California accepting “abortion in a can” fruit juice drinks;
- Endorsing 19th century communist ideologue Karl Marx as the next President of the United States;
- Signing a petition to repeal the 4th amendment to the Constitution;
- Supporting a move to end the right to remain silent by repealing the 5th amendment;
- Signing a petition to support post-birth abortion up to age 3 and making infanticide a part of Obamacare;
- Signing a petition to support making euthanasia of senior citizens a mandatory part of Obamacare;
- Supporting a move to release all illegal aliens from prison no matter what crime they have committed and then giving them free US citizenship;
- Signing a petition to grant Obama immunity for all crimes he commits while in office.
And those are from just the last few months alone.
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Greek ex-minister gets 20 years in jail

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 04:08 AM PDT

A court in Greece has sentenced former defense minister, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, to 20 years in prison for money laundering.
The court found Tsochatzopoulos and 16 of his co-defendants guilty in a six-million money laundering case that has become emblematic of political corruption in the European country.
Akis Tsochatzopoulos, 73, a founding member of the socialist Pasok party and a leading figure on the Greek political stage for the past 30 years, served as defense minister from 1996 to 2001.
The ex-minister and his accomplices have been found guilty of money laundering from bribes in the purchase of military hardware, including Russian anti-aircraft missiles when he was in office.
“There were so many bribes he could not even calculate the total amount,” Prosecutor Georgia Adilini said, citing sums of money transferred in “bags, suitcases, cheques, bank accounts, businesses”.
Throughout the five-month trial Tsochatzopoulos denied the charges against him. Prosecutors have demanded jail terms from six to thirteen years for his co-defendants.
Greek politics has been embroiled in corruption-related cases in recent days. Several MPs of the far-right Golden Dawn party were arrested a few days ago on false charges of money-laundering and murder.
In April, Tsochatzopoulos was sentenced to eight years in prison for submitting false income declarations. The court also ordered the seizure of his Athens home and imposed a 520,000 euros (about USD 706,800) fine. The case originated from corruption in purchases for military hardware.
Greece is ranked as Europe’s most corrupt country by Transparency International. The country has been at the epicenter of the eurozone debt crisis.
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Olympic torchbearers set off from Moscow

Posted: 07 Oct 2013 04:01 AM PDT

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the start of the Russian leg of the record-breaking Olympic torch relay for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The relay kicked off at Moscow’s Red Square, where the flame arrived on Sunday.
The first people to carry the torch around Kremlin were aspiring Russian ice-skaters Lina Fyodorova, 16, of Moscow and Maksim Miroshkin, 19, of Ekaterinburg. The pair won silver medals at the 2012 Junior Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and took first place at the 2013 Russian skating championships.
Russian bobsleigh racer, Irina Skvortsova, was also among the torch bearers. Skvortsova, who has undergone several dozen operations following a high speed collision incident in Germany, threw off her crutch to proudly carry the Olympic flame.
In his speech at the torch relay ceremony, the Russian President said the Olympic flame would travel through all regions of country, and “will show Russia to the world as it really is, as the one we all love.” Russia’s scale, unique character and beauty, including its natural and cultural wealth, will be on full display during the relay, Putin said.
Putin thanked all the people taking part in the longest Olympic torch relay ever, saying that every one of the 14,000 relay participants – which include notable public figures, athletes, teachers, doctors, students and veterans – has “earned the right to become part of Olympic history.”

The President added he was sure the Olympic flame will “light the hearts of millions of people, and the Olympic torch, designed in the shape of a feather of the magic firebird, will bring luck and joy” to the multicultural society of Russia.
At one point during the Olympic torch’s Kremlin run the audience gasped as strong wind apparently put the flame off. However, the torch was promptly relit with the help of a security guard.
The chairman of the Sochi Organizing Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, has later assured that at every stage of the Olympic flame’s 123-day trip across Russia the relay participants will light their torches from the original, authentic flame which was lit in the ancient Greek city of Olympia and delivered from Athens on Sunday. The organizers have 30 backup lanterns containing the Olympic flame, so “there will not be any problem,” he added.
The Olympic flame was lit in Athens exactly 7 days ago. The flame was flown in from Greece in two small lanterns and arrived in Moscow earlier Sunday to the welcome of a guard of rifle-bearing soldiers.
“Today can truly be called a historic day for us,” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, who headed the delegation to Greece, said upon arrival. “We – all Russians – have a right to be proud”.

It’s been 33 years since the flame lit in Athens was in Russia – then the Soviet Union – for the Summer Games [Moscow 1980]. The rare event will make it a very special moment for every single person carrying the torch – and it will pass through thousands of hands as it goes across the country.
Among the lucky first ones to welcome the Olympic flame on Russian soil are bikers who are accompanying the torch all the way from the airport to the center of Moscow. The leader of the Night Wolves biker club, Aleksandr ‘Surgeon’ Zaldostanov shared his feelings about it with RT.
“The last time the Olympic flame was in Russia was a long time ago and we don’t know when the next time will be that it will arrive here, so the fact that we, the “Night wolves” are going to convoy the Olympic flame is a very honorable mission. There will be many people with major sporting achievements among us, one of the bikers is a very famous Russian sportsman, Olympic champion and a trainer of the Russian national team,” the Night Wolves leader said.
The record-breaking 65,000 km long relay across the biggest country in the world will see the flame go through 83 Russian regions, 2,900 towns and settlements before it reaches its final destination in the city of Sochi at the brand-new Olympic stadium on the Black Sea resort on February 7, 2014.
Before it gets there, it will be taken all the way up Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe. We will also see it dive to the bottom of Lake Baikal – the oldest and the deepest lake in the world. We’ll even watch it blast into space on board the Russian Soyuz rocket. As Dmitry Kozak said, it will shed light on a lot of what Russia has to offer.
“It is a very important event first of all for Russia as a nation and for its regions, as it is a chance to show their own culture, traditions and investment opportunities,” Kozak said. “The Olympic torch relay will grab the attention of the whole world through the mass media. It is an important factor in the cultural, social and economic development of the Russian regions.”
The Olympic torch was kindled by the sun’s rays on September 29 during a spectacular ceremony in the ancient Greek city of Olympia. 250 torchbearers then carried the flame 2,000 kilometers through 33 towns and 23 regions of Greece.
Following the six-day Greek leg of the relay, the flame was presented on October 5 to the Russian delegation at Athens’ Panathenaic Stadium, which hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.
The Russian part of the relay will last 123 days. 14,000 torchbearers are expected to take the flame to the newly-built Olympic Stadium at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where the opening ceremony of the 22nd Winter Olympic Games will be held.

Lina Fyodorova and Maxim Miroshkin performing their pairs short program at the Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final. Sochi, Russia.

Carrying the Torch: Heroes, athletes, young pianists, renowned ballet dancers
The first 10 torchbearers for Russia were carefully chosen and don’t just number renowned athletes. Some of them are national heroes, life-savers and rescuers. They come from various cities and are of different ages and backgrounds.
One of them is the legendary Shavarsh Karapetyan, seventeen-times world champion in diving and also a hero who has saved dozens of lives. In 1974 he was one of the passengers on an out-of-control bus. The driver had got out of the vehicle which then started to move down a slope of a mountain. Shavarsh reacted very quickly – he broke the glass separating the driver’s cabin from the rest of the bus and took control of the vehicle, which helped prevent a catastrophe. In September 1976 was witness to a trolleybus falling into Yerevan Lake. Shavarsh jumped into the water and, at a depth of 10 meters with zero visibility, he broke the rear window of the bus and managed to save 20 out of 92 passengers. Doctors, who were treating the rescued, could not believe they were all taken out of water by a single man.
Another torchbearer from the top ten is Daniil Kharitonov, a fourteen-year old pianist. He was born in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the Russian Far East. By the age of seven, Daniil had won the grand-prix at an international competition in Vienna and the honorary title of “Mozart Wunderkind”. To date, the young pianist has been a prize-winner at several international competitions and has toured numerous countries of the world to great acclaim.
Another on the torchbearer list is Diana Vishnyova, an internationally acclaimed ballet dancer from Saint Petersburg. At the beginning of her career, in 1994, she won the International Young Ballet Dancers’ Competition in Lausanne, where she took both the Gold Medal and the Grand Prix. This double victory has so far never been repeated by any other competitor.
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