Snowden Submits Asylum Request

A Russian lawyer says that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has asked for temporary asylum in Russia.

Anatoly Kucherena said that Snowden submitted the asylum request Tuesday to Russia’s Federal Migration Service. The service had no immediate comment.

He said Snowden made the move following their meeting at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

Snowden has been stuck in Sheremetyevo’s transit zone since he arrived from Hong Kong on June 23. He said Friday at a meeting with Russian rights activists and public figures that he would seek at least temporary refuge in Russia until he could fly to one of the Latin American nations that have offered him asylum.

 

President Serzh Sargsyan sent a letter of condolences to the RF President Vladimir Putin

Սերժ Սարգսյան

 

 Today, President Serzh Sargsyan sent a letter of condolences to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on the tragic accident with the bus near Podolsk.

The President of Armenia asked to convey his condolences and words of support to the families and friends of those killed in the accident and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

Chinese wedding couple caught on camera brawling in French lavender field after ‘photobomb’ row

chinese touristsThe idyllic French countryside is backdrop to many a romantic photo.

But the view was spoiled when two Chinese couples started brawling in the middle of a Provence lavender field.

The fight was started when one couple complained that the other had ‘photobombed’ their picture.

Pictured: Wedding brawl in Lavender fieldPhotos posted onto Chinese forum Sina Weibo last week show two men having a fist fight and the women grabbing at each other.
One of the women was in a wedding dress as she brawled with her rival.

The photos were posted by a tour guide who asked not to be named.

He told the Global Times that one on of the couples had just been married: ‘It started because the young couple and their friends accidentally stepped into the newlyweds’ photo. The women began to argue first, and then the boyfriend and the groom joined in.

‘Most people there tried to drag them apart since it was quite embarrassing.

The two men fought shirtless and the bride’s dress was reportedly ripped.

The fighting couples ruined parts of the fieled with their trampling.

Earlier this year, a Chinese 15-year-old carved his name into a 3,500-year-old temple in Egypt.

The boy was identified online and his parents were forced to apologise.

In May Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Yang asked Chinese tourists to behave better when travelling abroad.

Professor of sociology at Shanghai University Gu Jun believes that incidents such as this should be noticed, to bring attention to their behaviour.

 

Centuries-old trees destroyed as rainforest is chopped down for Pope’s visit to Brazil to allow pilgrims to celebrate mass

PapaAuthorities in Brazil have denounced church leaders as criminals for chopping down more than 300 centuries-old trees in a national park – so pilgrims can celebrate mass during the Pope’s visit to Rio de Janeiro.

Pope Francis will make his first international trip to the world’s largest Roman Catholic country later this month.

Organisers of an event in the diocese of Sao Sebastiao de Itaipu, in the city of Niteroi, claimed they needed to clear an area of Atlantic rainforest to accommodate the expected crowd of up to 800 pilgrims.

Serra da Tiririca national park1A total of 334 trees at the edge of the Serra da Tiririca national park, but also on church-owned land, were felled.

Niteroi’s vice-mayor, Axel Grael, claimed the church did not seek permission to ‘deforest’ the land.

He told Brazil’s O Globo newspaper: ‘The incident is lamentable. An event for youth should be educational and demonstrate a commitment to the environment and the future. This removal is a criminal act.’

Andre Ilha, from Rio de Janeiro’s state environment institute – which is responsible for the forest – said the destruction would never have been allowed.

He said: ‘What was razed was the buffer zone of the Tiririca park. We would never have authorised that. It is a fragment of the endangered Atlantic rainforest. We will charge them with a crime.’
The diocese has reportedly offered to replant trees in the area following the event.