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Russia began dropping cases on Wednesday against the Greenpeace activists, detained over a September protest staged at a Russian Arctic oil rig, as part of a broad prison amnesty approved by state lawmakers earlier this month. The St. Petersburg Investigative Committee had formally dismissed charges against at least 16 of the activists by Wednesday afternoon. All 30 are expected to be cleared by the end of the day. The activists should be able to go home within days once they receive exit visas.

THIS urgent message from the North Pole is courtesy of Downton Abbey star Jim Carter, playing the part of a very dark-looking Santa in the latest global warming propaganda video finding its way around the internet: "Dear children, regrettably I bring bad tidings. "For some time now, melting ice here in the North Pole has made our operations and our day to day life intolerable and impossible. And there may be no alternative but to cancel Christmas." Santa can no longer function. His warehouse is flooded. The presents are ruined. This is the work of Greenpeace. Merry Christmas, now let's...

The global warming crowd is out to prove that “deniers” are anti-science and their arguments aren’t based in reality, and what better way to counter them than by having Santa Claus make the “green” case? At the beginning of the video, it was kind of rude of Greenpeace UK to interrupt “Santa” while he was taking a whiz: Greenpeace UK is soliciting donations to combat global warming with a video entitled “An Urgent Message From Santa.” The video features a deeply depressed, creepy-looking Santa who claims that “melting ice” at the North Pole will force him to “cancel Christmas” unless...

MOSCOW, November 7 (RAPSI) – Some participants of the Greenpeace raid on a Gazprom drilling platform, dubbed the “Arctic 30”, may face new charges in the ongoing trial, the Investigative Committee’s official spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Thursday. “Some of the raiders, in addition to the hooliganism charges, will be charged with resisting law enforcement officials," Markin said in an online interview to Gazeta.ru. The Arctic Sunrise ship was seized by Russian border guards on September 19 in international waters, within Russia's exclusive economic zone, a day after two Greenpeace activists scaled the Prirazlomnaya drilling rig in the Pechora Sea,...

Dramatic new footage has been released of the moment a Greenpeace ship was raided by the Russian authorities following a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic. The footage, shot on 19 September, shows a Russian helicopter hovering over the deck of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise. Armed men drop on to the deck, while members of the Greenpeace crew are seen with their hands in the air. The footage also shows the ship being towed towards Murmansk, where the 30 people on board were taken ashore and arrested. The families of all six UK nationals being held by the Russian authorities...

Every so often the Left gets a rude reminder that America is where freedom lives and not the “oppressive” gulag they believe it to be. The Left, both here and abroad, is finally beginning to feel what it is like to be abandoned by their powerful friends. They are feeling the sting of reality. The “safety net” supplied by their powerful friends, which once extended around the world, is tearing apart especially in Russia their old capital where Vladimir Putin has shown he doesn’t care about political correctness or a critical media. A group of self-styled Greenpeace warriors determined “to...

A 2009 study concluded that golden rice is effectively converted into vitamin A in humans. A 2012 study that fed 68 children ages 6 to 8 concluded that golden rice was as good as vitamin A supplements and better than the natural beta-carotene in spinach. Recently, scientists gathered evidence from Mozambique and Uganda that vitamin A enhanced sweet potatoes are, in fact, improving people's lives. Children who are eating them do have more vitamin A in their blood. Based on other studies of the effects of vitamin A, nutritionistsare confident that the boost is big enough to improve the health...

Colorado - The Gilmore case attracted national attention because he supported demonstrations at an Occupy Wall Street encampment a block away from where the fire was started. Occupy activists were protesting against economic inequality and government policies favoring the wealthy. The early-morning fire caused an estimated $10 million damage to a four-story apartment complex under construction and the occupied Penny Flats condominium and retail building next door.

Bristol, Rhode Island (CNN) -- The Willcox family has long been accustomed to prolonged absences from their seafaring patriarch. In fact, run-ins with the law were not unusual, given the fact that Peter Willcox had spent decades working for the environmental activist group Greenpeace, which is well-known for its provocative, headline-grabbing protests. But no one expected the 60-year-old mariner to end up languishing in a Russian jail in the Arctic, facing up to 15 years in prison on charges of piracy. "The situation he's in now is just way too extreme," said his wife, Maggy. She and other members of...

Greenpeace, the world’s biggest and most battle-hardened environmental campaigning organisation, is in a state of shock. Last week, Russian investigators said that they had found ‘narcotic substances’ on board Arctic Sunrise, the Greenpeace vessel they seized after its crew had used it in an attempt to storm an oil rig of the state-controlled firm Gazprom. They added that the drugs included poppy straw, an ingredient for opiates. You would think that Greenpeace might be proud to have been identified as scrupulously organic in its drug use; but its spokesman denounced the Russians’ claim as a ‘smear, pure and simple’. Of...

Rubin rose before Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Portland, where she pleaded guilty to a dozen crimes – in Colorado, Oregon and California – as part of the underground Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. ... Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen F. Peifer recounted Rubin's crimes as part of the largest group of eco-saboteurs ever taken down by the FBI. They called themselves The Family and committed an estimated $40 million in damage from 1996 to 2001. ... the terms of the highly structured plea agreement sets limits on the number of years Rubin will spend in prison....

My, don't they look proud. But after shooting this rare albino moose near Belle Cote in Nova Scotia last week — and posting the pics to social media — the trio has sparked considerable outrage, particularly among the region's Mi'kmaq indigenous community. These guys breached a kind of unwritten code of conduct that has also upset many in the hunting community.

MOSCOW, October 9 (RAPSI) - Greenpeace activists on trial for maritime piracy in Russia soon may face new charges after drugs were found at the Arctic Sunrise ship, Investigative Committee's official spokesperson Vladimir Markin told journalists on Wednesday. Markin added that the investigators have secured an official court order to seize the ship. Earlier, 30 members of the crew were charged with maritime piracy. "With this new evidence that came to light during the investigation, the charges against the accused will be augmented accordingly. It is very clear to the investigation that a number of participants will be chraged with...

Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded an apology from the Netherlands on Tuesday after what Moscow says was an attack on a Russian diplomat in The Hague by armed men over the weekend. Russia has lodged a formal diplomatic protest over the incident, in which it said a minister-counselor at its embassy in the Netherlands, Dmitry Borodin, was badly beaten in his home in front of his children by the unidentified assailants. “We are awaiting an explanation, an apology and also punishment of those responsible,” Putin said at a news conference after an Asia-Pacific summit in Indonesia, calling the incident a...

Actor Jude Law and musician Damon Albarn have joined around 800 people protesting outside the Russian Embassy in London over the arrest of 30 Greenpeace activists. The pair, along with Paul Simonon from The Clash, have called the arrests a disgrace and described them as a personal blow as their friend Frank Hewetson is among those being held. Relatives of the activists have also organised several protests across the country for the six Britons who are in custody, and a further 47 demonstrations are being held around the world.

The foreign minister of the Netherlands said Friday he is seeking to obtain via diplomatic channels the release of Greenpeace activists who were charged with piracy by Russia after the environmental group protested at an oil platform in the Arctic Sea. Two Canadians — Alexandre Paul of Montreal and Paul Ruzycki of Port Colborne, Ont. — are among those facing the piracy charge, which can result in a 15-year prison sentence upon conviction. Frans Timmermans, the Dutch foreign minister, also said Friday he will file suit to recover the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, which was seized by the Russian government...

I related an anecdote many posts ago about flying into Jolo in late 1980s to attend a meeting on recent attacks by the MNLF on civilians. In the seat beside me on the plane was a European man, who introduced himself to me as a member of a well known humanitarian NGO. He announced his intention to travel to Patikul, or some such town. I told him, “that’s Indian country. If you try that you’ll be kidnapped before sundown.” His answer was “nonsense. I have humanitarian status. They won’t hinder me.” He mentioned an affiliation with some other International agency...

I was locked up on the ship from Thursday 19 September 18:30 until Tuesday evening. I was one of the first ones to be taken in to what I thought would be an interrogation. There I sat, on a chair inside a cold room. Next to me was a translator, a young lady, who apparently had studied English. She told me that a written report had to be compiled on the incident. I requested a Dutch translator and was told, "That's not possible." I willingly stated that I would confirm my personal details, but that I would not say anything...

Moscow (AFP) - A Russian court on Sunday ordered the detention for two months of eight more crew members of a Greenpeace ship who protested against Arctic oil drilling as part of a probe into alleged piracy. The Lenin district court in the northern city of Murmansk on Thursday had already ordered the detention of 22 other Greenpeace activists for two months, pending the investigation into suspected piracy after a protest at a Gazprom oil rig on September 18. With the court's decision on Sunday, all 30 members of the Arctic Sunrise icebreaker crew will remain in custody until November...

MOSCOW — Nearly 30 years ago, Peter Willcox was captain of the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior when it was blown up by French agents. Today, the American is in a Russian jail, accused of piracy after members of his latest Greenpeace crew tried to board an offshore oil platform in the Arctic in a protest against drilling. Willcox, now the 60-year-old captain of the Arctic Sunrise, was among 22 Greenpeace activists from around the world who were ordered detained for two months this week by a court in Murmansk, a Russian port above the Arctic Circle. After a hearing...