Russian oil baron reunited with family
BERLIN – The former oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky was reunited with his family in Berlin on Saturday, a day after being released from a decade-long imprisonment in Russia.
Khodorkovsky, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was meeting with his eldest son Pavel and his parents, Marina and Boris, who had flown separately to the German capital to meet him, said Christian Hanne, Khodorkovsky’s spokesman.
Khodorkovsky also spoke to the editor of the Russian weekly New Times in what is believed to be his first interview since his release. In its video recording released by the magazine, Khodorkovsky, wearing a black pullover, looked tired but composed as he recalled tough prison conditions. He said the only break from a tough prison regime came when his wife and other family members were allowed to see him for a few days.
“During these years, I had an opportunity – three days per quarter during four years out of 10 – to spend the nights in a visiting room, when I had visitors,” he said.
‘Topless’ protest falls flat on Brazil beach
RIO DE JANEIRO – A much-hyped protest for the right to go topless on Rio de Janeiro’s beaches fell flat Saturday when only a handful of women bared their chests for the movement.
More than 100 photojournalists stampeded across the golden sands of Ipanema beach when the first woman took off her bikini top to flout Brazilian law. Just three or four other women joined in.
“A breast isn’t dangerous!” said Olga Salon, a 73-year-old Rio native, as she stripped off her black tank top. “It’s a false-Puritanism and indicative of our macho culture that we have a law forbidding that a woman can go topless.”
Internationally, Brazil has a reputation as a nation of liberal sexual mores, where nudity is not only tolerated but enthusiastically embraced during Carnival parades.
The hundreds of thousands of foreigners who’ll descend on Brazil for next year’s World Cup and the Olympics two years later will indeed see the famed “dental floss” bikinis that expose the wearer’s rear end.
But under Brazil’s penal code, which dates back to the 1940s, female toplessness is an “obscene act,” punishable by three months to a year in prison or fines. Even the law’s critics admit few are prosecuted.
Raul Castro warns Cuba’s entrepreneurs
HAVANA – President Raul Castro has issued a stern warning to entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries of Cuba’s economic reform, saying “those pressuring us to move faster are moving us toward failure.”
Castro has legalized small-scale private business in nearly 200 fields since 2010 but has issued tighter regulations on businesses seeing as going too far or competing excessively with state enterprises. In recent months, the government has banned the resale of imported hardware and clothes and cracked down on unlicensed private video game and movie salons.
Castro threw his full weight behind such measures in an address to the biannual meeting of parliament Saturday, saying “every step we take must be accompanied by the establishment of a sense of order.”
He blamed inadequate government controls for “creating an environment of impunity.”
Polish pranksters stop tram to film Tolkien scene
WARSAW, Poland – It’s almost like in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of The Ring: Gandalf stands in the way of Balrog and tells him to “go back to the shadow” to buy time for fleeing Frodo Baggins and his companions.
But the scene is Warsaw, not the Mines of Moria. A Polish prankster dressed as Gandalf stops a city tram, which represents Balrog, and recreates the scene with several others dressed as Middle-earth characters.
Tolkien’s Gandalf almost died in the confrontation, but the Warsaw practical joker, called SA Wardega, just irritated the tram driver.
A YouTube video of the prank posted last week has gone viral with nearly 3 million views by Saturday, just days before Poland’s premiere of the “The Hobbit” film sequel.
Associated Press
