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Giant portrait of besuited president in front of a Russian flag was draped from New York landmark New York City police were looking for whoever draped a gigantic banner featuring a portrait of President Vladimir Putin over the side of the Manhattan Bridge on Thursday. The 20ft by 30ft banner appeared on the side of the bridge between lower Manhattan and the borough of Brooklyn, featuring Putin dressed in a suit in front of the Russian flag with the word “Peacemaker” in capital letters. New York City police received a call about the banner at 2.45pm and removed it about half an hour later,...

What happens to Hillary Clinton? Not that us, Frenchmen, have the right to look into this matter, but knowing that she could be elected president of the United States next November and, so, become one of the most powerful people on the planet, her health, in case she would have an influence on her decisions, have an importance automatically to each of us. A recent video captioned in French has something to worry about. It can be seen that, indeed Hillary is suffering from what well seems to be a crisis of partial convulsions, very evocative of a partial epilepsy...

Western countries do not identify themselves with the Christian tradition and harass those who defend Christian values, said Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill on Wednesday at a meeting with US preacher Franklin Graham at the St. Daniel Monastery. "Russian Church during the Cold War was actively developing relations with Western Christians. We were living in difficult conditions of atheistic ideology and perceived Western civilization as Christian civilization. We appreciated the freedom in which they lived, Christians in the West, and considered them our brothers and allies" - said the Patriarch. He stressed with regret that in recent years...

Tanked-up Ukranian troops are crammed into small metal cages as a punishment for getting drunk. Video footage of the soldiers being shoved into the cages to sober up in eastern Ukraine has been published online. The men are forced to sit on the floor of the metal enclosure as it is not high enough for them to stand. The disgraced men are only released when they have sobered up. War reporter Andrei Tsaplienki explained the reason these soldiers were punished so harshly. 'In some army units, alcoholism has come to the level of an epidemic,' he said. 'So, radical measures...

This guy sounds more sober and convincing than any other candidate...

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday. Putin and Francis spoke privately for about 50 minutes before exchanging gifts and making brief remarks in front of reporters present for the event. The meeting, Putin’s second with the pontiff, came as one U.S. diplomat said he hoped the Vatican might use the occasion to “continue to express its concern” about Russia’s recent actions, “particularly about what’s happening in Ukraine.” After their discussions, Putin gave the pope a gold-thread embroidered portrait of the Russian Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was destroyed in the Soviet era...

Protesters have clashed with police in the German town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, as thousands demonstrated against a meeting of Group of Seven (G7) leaders that starts on Sunday. Police responded with pepper spray when a group of marchers tried to break through their cordon; scuffles first broke out as the demonstrators, some throwing bottles, faced off with riot police. The crowd was estimated by police at 3,500 to 4,000, while organisers put it at 7,500. Playing drums, tambourines and shaking rattles, protesters shouted: "Brick by brick, wall by wall, stop G7 and make the system fall!" They carried banners reading "Fight...

The Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Friday voiced support for LGBT rights, saying he believed an 'Equality March' planned for Saturday in Kiev should take place as planned. "I don't see any reason to impede this march because it's a constitutional right of every citizen of the Ukraine," he said. No president of the Ukraine — a post-Soviet state of 40 million conservative Orthodox Christians — has ever voiced support of the country's LGBT communitby. In neighboring Russia, laws banning gay propaganda have been passed and there have been cases of gays being brutally attacked.

A Chinese state owned newspaper warns of a conflict with the US, unless Washington stops demanding that China halts land reclamation and construction projects in the South China Sea. The Global Times says ‘War is inevitable’ unless the US backs down on Chinese land reclamation and the consequent rights to territorial boundaries of such man made islands. The islands that are man-made are in disputed waters of several regional nations. Some of these nations have close ties with the United States. The US maintains that it is also maintaining the free passage of the waters of the South China Sea for all...

 Islamic extremists in Belgium have publicly threatened to kill the mayor of the Belgian city of Antwerp, Bart De Wever, if he does not convert to Islam, local media reported Monday. A sign written in French stating threats against de Wever, who is also the head of the nationalist political party the New Flemish Alliance, was placed on one of the main squares of Antwerp. Experts are currently assessing the seriousness of the action and the message. “I always warned that we will not get rid of the threat from Islamic extremists in the near future. This was ignored for years. This wound became apparent now with [the current developments in] Syria and will fester for a long...

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Connor Hellebuyck (Commerce, Mich./St. John’s University) made 26 saves, but the U.S. Men’s National Team fell to Russia, 4-0, here today in semifinal action at the 2015 World Ice Hockey Championship. Team USA will face the Czech Republic tomorrow (May 17) in the bronze-medal game. Puck drop is set for 10:15 a.m. ET at O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Connor Hellebuyck (Commerce, Mich./St. John’s University) made 26 saves, but the U.S. Men’s National Team fell to Russia, 4-0, here today in semifinal action at the 2015 World Ice Hockey Championship. Team USA will face the Czech Republic tomorrow (May 17) in the bronze-medal game. Puck drop is set for 10:15 a.m. ET at O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic.

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic -- Ben Smith (Avon, Conn./San Jose Sharks) and Charlie Coyle (East Weymouth, Mass./Minnesota Wild) scored goals :57 seconds apart midway through the second period and Jake Gardiner (Minnetonka, Minn./Toronto Maple Leafs) added an insurance goal in the third period to help the U.S. Men’s National Team defeat Switzerland, 3-1, in quarterfinal play here today at 2015 IIHF Men’s World Championship. The U.S. will move to Prague tomorrow and will play the winner of the Russia/Sweden quarterfinal in semifinal action on Saturday (May 16). The game time will be determined after all quarterfinals games are complete. NOTES: Team...

Saudi Arabia's highest religious authority has issued a fatwa allowing a starving man to eat his wife in order to save himself, causing a stir among the Kingdom's residents, London-based daily al-Quds al-Arabi reported. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, according to the report, said that the act would display the wife's obedience to her husband and her willingness to become one with his flesh. Saudi Twitter users quickly took to the social network to express their shock at the strange fatwa attributed to the Grand Mufti. Following the report Saudi media accused Iranian media of fabricating the fatwa, noting...

High-ranking members of some of Europe's most controversial parties descended on St. Petersburg on Sunday to participate in the first International Russian Conservative Forum, an ultranationalist convention glorifying Russia as a refuge for the world's most marginalized far-right political forces. Through the course of the day, U.S. President Barack Obama was called a Nazi, white Christians were urged to reproduce, gays were referred to as perverts. "The American way of life is not at the center of our politics, nor are gays and lesbians," said Udo Voigt, a member of the European Parliament and the former head of Germany's far-right...

New York (AFP) - For a second year in a row, Russian President Vladimir Putin has beaten Barack Obama to the title of world's most powerful leader as ranked by Forbes. In a year in which Russia annexed Crimea, stoked a conflict in the Ukraine and clinched a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline deal with China that Forbes called the world's largest construction project, Putin remained on top. It was the third time in Obama's presidency that he has lost top billing -- twice to Putin and once to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Third prize went to Jinping, who is expected to...

10/30/2014 ST. PETERSBURG LAWMAKER SAYS OPENLY GAY APPLE CEO TIM COOK SHOULD BE BANNED FROM RUSSIA 'FOR LIFE' BY KYLER GEOFFROY Vitaly Milonov, the St. Petersburg lawmaker behind the city's anti-gay "propaganda" ban and the disruptions at last month's Queerfest, is now calling for a lifetime travel ban on Apple CEO Tim Cook, who came out publicly as gay earlier this morning. Buzzfeed reports: “What could he bring us? The Ebola virus, AIDS, gonorrhea? They all have unseemly ties over there,” St. Petersburg city council member Vitaly Milonov told the FlashNord website on Thursday. “Ban him for life.” [...] Milonov, an MP in St. Petersburg whose local “gay propaganda”...

Orbán, who was formally endorsed by Parliament as Prime Minister for a second consecutive term after a landslide election win in April, said on Saturday that ethnic Hungarians living in western Ukraine "must be granted dual citizenship, must enjoy all of the community rights and must be granted the opportunity for autonomy." He said these people were entitled to Hungarian citizenship and also the right to self-administration. "This is our clear expectation from the new Ukraine which is taking shape now," Reuters cited the PM as saying. Ukrainian troops are battling pro-Russian rebels who are trying to wrest control of...

Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, has given an insight into his views on political figures leaders, including some admiration for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Salmond said he admired "certain aspects" of Putin in an interview conducted before Russia's annexation of the Crimea. He told Alastair Campbell, the former Labour strategy director: "Obviously, I don't approve of a range of Russian actions, but I think Putin's more effective than the press he gets, I would have thought, and you can see why he carries support in Russia. "He's restored a substantial part of Russian pride and that must be a good...

Turkish and Greek fighter jets engaged in a mid-air dogfight over the Aegean Sea twice on April 15 in a first since January 2012, Greek media has reported. According to the reports based on Greek military sources, four F-16s belonging to the Turkish Air Force approached the Samothraki Island before the first dogfight. Four Greek F-16s took off “to locate and prevent” the Turkish aircraft. Sides faced off against each other north of Samothraki, as well as southwest of Limnos Island. Greece unilaterally claims 10 nautical miles (19 km) of airspace, as opposed to the six miles of territorial waters,...