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The Russian punk-protest group Pussy Riot had pledged for months to seek to disrupt the Sochi Olympics, and has begun carrying through on that promise. But the group's latest attempt at a protest was dismantled almost before it began. One day after members of the loosely-connected group were questioned in connection with some suspected thefts at a Sochi hotel, Pussy Riot gathered at a restaurant in downtown Sochi, about 20 miles from the Olympic village. The band attempted to begin performing, but was set upon by whip-wielding Cossack militiamen.

In addition to physical work on the farm in the afternoons, weekends and holidays, he was regularly charged with what his father refers to as "incredibly boring stuff," like picking stones from a field, just to improve his psyche. Every time he hurt himself, his father would tease him until he stopped crying. Eventually, he came to believe pain is cool. "My father taught me at an early age to tackle pain—I think that's my strength. I can go for hours in pain without giving up," he said.

Both chambers of Congress have introduced legislation to keep 2014 Olympic medalists and beyond from having to pay taxes on their newly acquired metals. The Senate version, introduced by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), is co-sponsored by Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chuck Shumer (D-N.Y.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and John Hoeven (R-N.D.).

Tap water that looks like urine? Soiled toilet paper that you can’t flush? Unfinished hotel rooms? Pillows you have to surrender to the athletes? The most expensive Olympic Winter Games in world history is looking to be waste gone wild in an obscene expenditure of an estimated $51 BILLION, money that could be better spent helping the world’s poor! “Critics claim that the huge cost of the Games and alleged corruption are evidence of endemic problems,” says the UK GUARDIAN newspaper that points an accusatory finger at Sochi. (1) The huge outlay for the “RusSki Gorki Jumping Centre, $265 million,...

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One of the Naval warships assigned to the Black Sea for U.S. protection during the Sochi Winter Olympics ran aground last Wednesday in a Turkish port as it was attempting to refuel. The port was 240 miles from Sochi.

Try as they might, some commentators during the U.S.-Russian hockey game could not muster much credible moral argument for making a comparison between Sochi of 2014 and Lake Placid of 1980. Of course, we all wanted the US team to win this time, just like in 1980. But as part of a larger world morality play, it pales to near nothingness in comparison. President Obama immediately moved to seize a political advantage, sending out a tweet claiming to “never stop believing in miracles.” The president’s grasp of history is self-evidently weak and self-serving. Back then, the joy of the American...

... Through Monday night, a review of the events at the Extreme Park counted at least 22 accidents that either forced athletes out of the competition or, if on their final run, required medical attention. Of those, 16 involved women. The injury rate is higher when considering that the men’s fields are generally larger. The question, a difficult one, is why. The Winter Games have always had dangerous events. But the Extreme Park, as the name suggests, is built on the ageless allure of danger. All of the events there have been added to the Olympic docket since 1992, each...

There are those who are champions on courses of competition. Then there are those who are victors in their caliber of character, too. In our often wayward world, the latter ought to be given not just a gold medal but a golden crown. Being dead last is never fun. I would imagine that it is particularly painful if you've trained like a world champion, traveled halfway around the world and are competing at the Winter Olympics. Roberto Carcelen of Peru was racing in a 15-kilometer cross-country skiing event. One unique hurdle he had, however, was that he was competing with...

Sochi's more than 20,000 Muslims helped build the infrastructure and stages for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia, where Muslim athletes from a range of participating nations will compete within these multi-million-dollar stadia, slopes, and structures, vying for gold and the glory that comes with Olympic victory. However, for Muslims in Sochi, the rampant Islamophobia has cast a shadow of concern and danger during these Olympic Games. Coverage of the Sochi games mentions Islam and Muslims exclusively in the form of terrorist threat , head-scarved " black widows ", and, the familiar conflation of religious observance with national security concerns....

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — An Italian gay-rights activist says she was detained by police in the Olympic host city after being stopped while carrying a rainbow flag saying "Gay is OK" in Russian. Vladimir Luxuria, a former Communist lawmaker in the Italian parliament who has become a prominent transgender rights crusader, said on her website and Twitter feed that she was held for several hours Sunday before being released. It was not known if she was charged with any offense. Her website published a photograph of her after her release. Before her arrest, she tweeted: "I'm in Sochi. Greetings in...

They've spent four years training for the chance to win Winter Olympics gold, so spare a thought for these athletes who have come a cropper on the snow and ice in Sochi. Britain's Rowan Cheshire has posted a pictured of her injuries on Twitter after becoming the latest freestyle skier to be injured at the Sochi Olympics. Cheshire was knocked unconscious after falling heavily on her face during a training session at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. The 18 year-old, who is due to compete in the ski halfpipe, is understood to have remained unconscious for several minutes after crashing...

While that hockey win over the Russians might have given us a nice morale lift the numbers don't lie- the Americans have unfortunately slipped to 7th place in overall medals at the 2014 Winter Games, this after a record-breaking dominance at Vancouver last go-round. We're all but mathematically eliminated from any kind of top finish already. You knew we were in trouble from the minute they rolled-out those collegiate-grunge opening ceremony outfits that Ralph Lauren came up with... and what's up with Pee Wee Herman in the announcers' booth? This Olympics so far has far too much of the dreadful...

Bode Miller had just tied for a bronze medal in the men’s super-G at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia, on Sunday and it was time to be interviewed. NBC had already established Miller’s quest as an emotional story line, putting a microphone on his wife, Morgan, to hear her reactions to his races, and having the couple sit for an interview with Tom Brokaw. He was being humanized — as the changed man, the family man, the mature 36-year-old whose brother had died last year.

Sometime after 9 p.m. local time on Monday night in the Sochi suburb of Adler, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will step on the ice for what will be their final Olympic skate of a memorable career. What the two spoke about the day before, after a near perfect rendering of their short program, will come back into play at this moment – their moment. “We sat in the kiss and cry and looked at each other and said, 'It doesn’t matter,' because that [short program skate] was the moment we wanted to have,” said Moir. It doesn’t matter. It...

Unbelievable !!! Female NBC Reporter interviewing Bode Miller after his Super G Bronze Medal asked a question concerning the passing of Bode's brother. That was a fair question to ask. Then, she asked a second question about his brother. Fair? Questionably ... But, like a pit bull attacking a ham bone - she couldn't let go. HAD to ask two more questions concerning the brother ... It left Bode in tears ... Way to go NBC - Proud of yourselves ???

Does Putin know about this? The Adler Arena at Sochi, venue for Olympic speedskating, was hit by a feline attack.

The London Daily Mail reported this week that “CNN caused a firestorm when it included a war monument in Brest, a city in the former Soviet republic of Belarus, in an article on the 'world's ugliest monuments' published last month.” This isn’t Ted Turner’s CNN, where a reporter would be disciplined for saying the word “foreign” in a sentence. The online article from a travel-piece contributor was intended as humor. A Russian news commentator responded by suggesting the Marine Corps War Memorial – the Iwo Jima sculpture just north of Arlington National Cemetery – is “easy to mock” for its...

US figure-skating champion Jeremy Abbott lashed out at his critics in a foul-mouthed rant after his and teammate Jason Brown's spectacular slump at the Sochi Olympics. Olympic champion Evan Lysacek did not defend his title and Abbott and pony-tailed teen Brown failed to sparkle in the Iceberg Skating Palace, to leave the United States off the men's podium for the first time since the 1998 Nagano Games.