2012
The New York Post reported that New York City cops busted more than 50 members of rival gangs after monitoring their activity on the social network Facebook.
13 September 2012
RIA-Novosti
Title card from the movie (taken from a Muslim newspaper in Jakarta)
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that the film director of the insulting film about Prophet Mohammed Innocence of Muslims was an idiot and emphasised that Israel had nothing to do with the production of this film. Reports appeared in some media said that Israel might have been involved in the production process. Amongst other things, The Wall Street Journal reported that an American Jew made the film.
13 September 2012
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_13/Israel-has-nothing-to-do-with-Innocence-of-Muslims-Yigal-Palmor/
Russian athletes are starting to prepare for the next Paralympics. Two-time Paralympic champion Olesya Vladykina and four-time Paralympic champion Sergei Punko are dreaming to leave for Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The gold medal winners at the London Games shared their plans for the next four years. They didn’t rest after their triumphal performances in London, but they’re starting preparations for the next Games. If they want to stay on Team Russia, they’ll have to go through four years of persistent training and compete at international competitions. Only the strongest will make the team. Two-time Paralympic swimming champion Olesya Vladykina believes that, despite her having won gold, silver, and bronze medals, she’ll have to compete with young, but potentially strong, swimmers if she wants to be on Team Russia once again. She said, “They’ll make no concessions. If I make this mad choice, it’ll be my third Paralympics. I’ll take part only in the standard events. I’d like to go to Rio de Janeiro, as it’s a very beautiful city. I’ve already been there. The selection of athletes has become tougher. The main task of the experienced and the young sportsmen is to make the national team. We’re competing for a place on the team at the same level”.
The athletes are expecting no concessions for them at the selection. This is real sport and only the strongest win. Russian athletes hope to push the Chinese sportsmen off the podium. Sergei Punko, who won a full set of medals in London in different swimming events, said, “Practically every Russian athlete who won gold set a world record. We’ll hardly be able to top this year’s list in the quantity of medals, but we can up the quality. There’s a need to do a lot of work and promote Paralympic sports throughout the country. If we can do this, we’ll win more medals”.
Victory isn’t the main thing for Paralympic athletes. In every event, they showed the world that they have unlimited capabilities. As compared to the past, the attitude towards them has significantly improved. This is the main victory. At present, some of the Paralympians are taking part in ad campaigns. Olesya Vladykina, who lost an arm in an auto accident, said, “Before the London Games, I was asked if I’d be photographed for glamour magazines, a project which wasn’t accessible to Paralympic sportsmen in the past. People receive us, understand us, and are ready to see us, and we’re respected and admired. This is great. Paralympic sportsmen have many things to teach people and make them think. I’d like to see that people don’t turn away from us”.
People don’t turn away from them, of course. At the London Games, practically all the events were full of fans. Thousands of people came to support the athletes. The Paralympians said that they’d never seen such an attitude. Such an active support shocked the athletes in the beginning, but later, it helped them to win medals.
13 September 2012
Voice of Russia World Service
Editor’s Note:
I’ve ENJOYED covering the Paralympics… these people are great athletes. They’re not “Special Olympians”… they’re not “disabled athletes” (although they ARE disabled)… they’re athletes whose performance is well above the median. I’d challenge any of my readers to bench-press as much as Vlad Balunets does, toss the shot-put as far as Aleksei Ashapatov does, or to outswim Olesya Vladykina. Trust me… the people named are top-flight athletes, period. That’s why the Russian state pays them the same bonus as they do for Olympians winning the same medal; that’s why Paralympians are part of the Unified Sport Classification System (both Aleksei Ashapatov and Olesya Vladykina are Honoured Masters of Sport).
If the USA doesn’t get serious, trust me, the Big Red Chinese machine and the Team Russia steamroller will crush them in Rio. China and Russia are serious about supporting their Paralympians. What does that tell you about the USA? As I said in an earlier post, “This ain’t no sorry-ass Special Olympics”. If the US government doesn’t get off its arse and put some real money behind American Paralympians, well, next time, expect an even-lower showing than this year’s sixth place.
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Two Orthodox Crosses Vandalised in Siberia
Tags: Altai Krai, Christian, Christianity, Cross, Eastern Orthodox Church, FEMEN, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, political commentary, politics, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Russia, Russian, Russian Orthodox Church, Siberia, True Crime
______________________________
On Thursday, local police sources said that two more Orthodox crosses were destroyed in Russia, this time in southern Siberia’s Altai Krai. Officials in Pervomaiskoye told a local news portal that they’d replace the crosses at the entrance to the village in the near future. The head of the village administration said, “The village’s residents were outraged that someone dared to destroy a symbol of the Orthodox faith”. Five other crosses were vandalised across Russia in late August and early September, after topless activists from the Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN chopped down a wooden crucifix in the centre of Kiev to voice their support for the Russian punk band Pussy Riot.
13 September 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/crime/20120913/175934359.html