MOSCOW — An unprecedented battle is taking place inside the Kremlin in advance of Vladimir Putin’s departure from office, the Guardian has learned, with claims that the president presides over a secret multibillion-dollar fortune. Rival clans inside the Kremlin are embroiled in a struggle for the control of assets as Putin prepares to transfer power to his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in May, well-placed political observers and other sources have revealed. At stake are billions of dollars in assets belonging to Russian state-run corporations. Additionally, details of Putin’s own personal fortune, reportedly hidden in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, are being discussed for the first time. The claims over the president’s assets surfaced last month when the Russian political expert Stanislav Belkovsky gave an interview to the German newspaper Die Welt. They have since been repeated in the Washington Post and the Moscow Times, with speculation over the fortune appearing on the internet. Citing sources inside the president’s administration, Belkovsky claims that after eight years in power Putin has secretly accumulated more than $40bn (£20bn). The sum would make him Russia’s – and Europe’s – richest man. In an interview with the Guardian, Belkovsky repeated his claims […]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) just announced that the Senate will not clear four new appointees for the Federal Election Commission, meaning the panel that acts as a watchdog on political campaigns cannot function during the critical election-year period. Reid is blaming the White House for refusing to withdraw to allow a majority vote on the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky for a seat on the commission. Republicans want von Spakovsky approved as part of a slate of four FEC nominees or they will refuse to consider any of the nominees. Von Spakovsky was recess appointed by President Bush to the FEC, but his term expires at the end of the year. Democrats have refused to allow his nomination to move forward, arguing that his actions while at the Justice Department disqualified him for the post. Bush, though has not backed down, and the matter has been at an impasse for the last four months. Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) placed holds on von Spakovsky’s nomination, meaning Republicans needed 60 votes to approve his nomination over Democratic objections. Now, with the Senate moving toward adjournment until mid-January, Reid signalled that Democrats will […]
WASHINGTON — President Bush today defended the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to deny California’s bid to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, saying that a national strategy toward climate change is more effective than a state-by-state approach. ‘The question is how to have an effective strategy,’ Bush said at a year-end news conference. ‘Is it more effective to let each state make a decision as to how to proceed in curbing greenhouse gases, or is it more effective to have a national strategy?’ Bush said. With the enactment this week of a landmark energy bill raising automobile gas mileage standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, Bush said, ‘We know have a national plan. It’s one of the benefits of Congress passing this piece of legislation.’ EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson on Wednesday denied the state’s request to implement its own landmark law, dealing a blow to the state’s independent attempts to combat global warming and prompting an immediate vow from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to take the decision to court. ‘The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution, not a confusing patchwork of state rules,’ Johnson said in announcing his decision. […]
Sex education programs do work to help discourage many teens from becoming sexually active before age 15, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Formal programs — such as those presented in schools and church groups — did appear to delay onset of sexual activity. For example, teen girls in the nationally representative sample were 59 percent less likely to start having sex before age 15 if they had received sex education, while teen boys were 71 percent less likely, the study found. ‘We were obviously hoping to find that sex education is effective. We’re glad to see the strong associations,’ said lead author Trisha Mueller, a CDC epidemiologist. She emphasized that in order to be successful, sex education should take place before young people become sexually active. Mueller’s team also learned that teen boys who attended school were almost three times more likely to use contraception if they had attended a sex education program, compared to those who had not. However, attendance at a sex education class did not seem to impact girls’ use of birth control, the survey found. The survey did not differentiate between […]
The Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday that the Christmas story of the Three Wise Men was nothing but a ‘legend’. Dr Rowan Williams has claimed there was little evidence that the Magi even existed and there was certainly nothing to prove there were three of them or that they were kings. Archbishop says nativity ‘a legend’ Dr Williams argued that the traditional Christmas story was nothing but a ‘legend’ He said the only reference to the wise men from the East was in Matthew’s gospel and the details were very vague. Dr Williams said: ‘Matthew’s gospel says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire, that’s all we’re really told. It works quite well as legend.’ The Archbishop went on to dispel other details of the Christmas story, adding that there were probably no asses or oxen in the stable. He argued that Christmas cards which showed the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus, flanked by shepherds and wise men, were misleading. As for the scenes that depicted snow falling in Bethlehem, the Archbishop said the chance of this was ‘very unlikely’. In a final blow to […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
