Camera takes dramatic shot of Russian eagle attack

LONDON (AP) — Remote cameras set up to track Siberian tigers in Russia have caught a golden eagle attack on a sika deer, snapping three photos as the massive bird digs its talons into the distressed animal's back.

Golden eagles typically eat small birds or mammals, but they've also been known to target deer. It's rare for a camera to catch such an attack in progress.

The Zoological Society of London's Linda Kerley said in a statement Thursday that she couldn't believe the pictures when she saw them.

The society said they were shot in the Lazovsky State Nature Reserve in the Primorye region of Russia's Far East in December 2011.

The eagle vs. deer photos were published this month in the Ohio-based Journal of Raptor Research and have since grabbed attention online.

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Smitten spies? Snowden gets proposal tweet from Russian agent

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A tabloid says Vladimir Putin is Russia's most eligible bachelor, but the president may have competition from an American half his age: Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy agency contractor believed to be holed up at a Moscow airport.

Snowden, 30, has received a marriage proposal of sorts in a tweet from Anna Chapman, the glamorous redhead who was one of 10 Russian agents arrested in the United States and deported in a Cold war-style spy swap in 2010.

"Snowden, will you marry me?!" a posting on a Twitter account bearing Chapman's name and photograph said late on Wednesday.

After a few hours with no reply, a second tweet appeared.

"@nsa, will you look after our children?" it said, a wry reference, perhaps, to the surveillance powers of the U.S. National Security Agency.

Chapman, 31, did not immediately respond to an emailed query about the authenticity of the tweets and the proposal to Snowden, who is wanted by Washington on espionage charges.

Former NSA contractor Snowden is believed to have been living in a transit area in the Moscow airport since arriving on June 23. He has appealed to various countries for asylum.

Putin, 60, who praised Chapman and the other Russian agents deported from the United States, has separated from his wife, prompting the weekly Secrets of the Stars to speculate on his eligibility, under the headline: "Any woman would marry Putin!"

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Man uses spoon to break out of Russian maximum-security prison

Russian officials say Oleg Topalov used only a spoon to escape from a maximum security prison (Federal Prison Supervision …

One man, using only a spoon, has escaped from one of Russia’s most infamous prisons.

Sky News reports that 33-year-old Oleg Topalov escaped from Matrosskaya Tishina, apparently by using a single spoon to dig a hole through his cell’s ceiling.

He is only the fourth person in 20 years to escape from the prison. Russian investigators have blamed Topalov’s escape on the prison staff, who they say engaged in a, "dishonest or careless attitude to their work that was made use of by the prisoner Topalov."

Topalov, who was sentenced for double murder and arms trafficking, used the spoon to create a hole in the cell’s roof, opened a ventilation shaft and then climbed to the prison’s roof, finally escaping over the building’s perimeter fence.

"Because of the building being run-down, Topalov had no difficulty in widening the vent of the air-shaft, through which he got to the prison’s roof,” Russian Federal Penitentiary Service representative Kristina Belousova told RIA Novosti. “Using sheets tied one to another he managed to go down the wall, then jump over the fence and run away.”

One unnamed witness says Topalov didn’t use sheets, but rather acquired rope from the prison’s psychiatric ward.

Prison officials described Topalov as “mentally unstable and liable to escape,” and have offered a “large reward” for his capture.

Interestingly, under Russian law, Topalov only faces an additional four years of incarceration if he is captured.

Reports said Topalov shared a cell with around seven other prisoners, though it’s unclear what role, if any, they played in his daring escape.

Matrosskaya Tishina was first opened in 1946 and is considered one of Russia’s most secure prisons. Over the years, it has been home to high-profile Russian prisoners, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Sergey Magnitsky.

Inmates and their cells are checked each day for illegal objects. Because of this strict enforcement policy, investigators say Topalov could only have used a spoon to make his escape attempt.

Prison service spokesman Sergei Tsygankov said Topalov had been singled out as someone who was likely to make a prison escape attempt. And while Russian officially typically are reluctant to provide details surrounding inmates, they have released pictures of Topalov to the public as part of their attempts to apprehend the former organized crime member.

The prison’s last known escape occurred in 2005, when convicted hitman Aleksandr Solonik used mountain climbing equipment provided to him by a prison officer to escape. The pair rappelled over the prison’s walls using 20 feet of rope and have not been seen in public since.

Moscow's maxium security prison, Matrosskaya Tishina, as seen in a 2009 photo (AFP)

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Russian alcohol Crackdown topples monument to vodka

Moscow (Reuters)-a Russian monument for a bottle of vodka has been upended over fears that it could be seen as an illegal announcement for the favourite drink of the country.

The three-metre metal sculpture had become a local landmark in the Ural city of Glazov, 1,000 km (600 miles) East of Moscow. But residents woke one morning last week to find that had disappeared, leaving only an empty.
Fall of the bottle reflects a new spirit, sober of age in Russia under President Vladimir Putin, a judo black belt who rides, flies and dives for the cameras but is rarely seen raising a glass-unless in Brindisi a deal of billions of dollars of oil.
Putin signed a ban on all alcohol advertising in July last year, while other laws have banned the sale of alcohol from kiosks or after 23 Street at night.
Initial reports suggest that local authorities were behind the disappearance of the Memorial, built 13 years ago to celebrate the centenary of local spirits factory Glazovskiy.
But factory boss later told local media that they had decided to remove the monument from public view on fears that it might fall foul of strict advertising laws again.
"The monument of the bottle ... could be considered as an advertisement for our products. For this reason, a decision was taken to remove it, "Dmitry Pozdeev, head of the Legal Department of the factory, said local media. The sculpture was moved to the factory.
Russian Media suggested anti-drinking activists may have more work to do in the region. Stressed another sculpture of meatballs-a popular Russian drink-snack is still standing in the regional city of Izhevsk.
(Reported by Sonia Elks; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Oliver Holmes)

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Russian "sleeping judge" resigns after video exposé

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian judge has resigned after a video apparently showed him asleep during a trial that ended with him sentencing the defendant to five years in a penal colony, Russian media reported on Friday.

Critics of the Russian justice system, which has a notoriously high conviction rate, were outraged when the video purporting to show judge Yevgeny Makhno sleeping through a defence lawyer's speech in court was posted online in January.

"The Judges Qualification Panel accepted Makhno's resignation from his judge's post," regional judge and panel member Valentina Pozharskaya told state news agency RIA Novosti.

The film, allegedly shot during a fraud trial last July in the far-eastern town of Blagoveshchensk, seems to show Makhno slumped in his chair fast asleep with his head cocked to one side.

The businessman sentenced to five years hard labour will have a new trial on February 14 after an appeal was lodged over the "unjust" sentence, Russian media said.

Russia's justice system has been in the spotlight recently over several high-profile court cases including the trial of punk protest collective Pussy Riot.

The band's three members were sentenced to two years in prison on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after they performed an anti-Putin prayer in Moscow's main cathedral in 2012, which Russian and foreign commentators called excessive.

Makhno will eventually be able to return to his post provided he retakes his exams, Russian media said.

(Editing by Douglas Busvine and Sonya Hepinstall)

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