Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama Sunday of appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin and said there’s “no question” that Putin “believes he is weak.”

Cheney said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation that Obama and his advisers “have created an image around the world, not just to the Russians, of weakness… the Syrian situation is a classic. We got all ready to do something -- a lot of the allies signed on -- and at the last minute, Obama backed off.”

Cheney said that in responding to Russia’s seizure of Crimea, “there are military options that don’t involve putting troops on the ground in Crimea. We could go back and reinstate the ballistic-missile defense program that was taken out, that was originally going to go in Poland (and) the Czech Republic and Obama took it out to appease Putin.”

He also suggested that Obama offer military equipment and training to the Ukrainians and do joint training exercises in Poland.
Cheney did admit that Bush administration’s responses to the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia “were not effective in terms of driving Putin out.” Some observers see Putin’s successful invasion of Georgia as the template for Russian actions in Crimea.

Cheney’s comments came as Robert Gates, who served as defense secretary under both President George W. Bush and under Obama, said on Fox News Sunday that Putin’s seizure of Crime appeared to be irreversible. “I do not believe that Crimea will slip out of Russia's hand," he said.

More Republican criticism of Obama’s handling of the Ukraine crisis came from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a potential Republican presidential contender. In an interview on ABC’s This Week, Cruz said Obama’s foreign policy was “to alienate and abandon our friends and to coddle and appease our enemies. You better believe that Putin sees in Benghazi four Americans are murdered and noting happens, there’s no retribution. You better believe that Putin sees in Syria (that) Obama draws a red line and ignores a red line.”

The embattled new government of Ukraine accused Russian forces of a major escalation in military pressure over control of the Crimean Peninsula on Monday, saying Russia had deployed 16,000 troops in the region over the last week and had demanded that Ukrainian forces there surrender within hours or face armed assault.

Russia denied it had issued any ultimatum but was clearly moving to strengthen its grip on Crimea, brushing aside new admonitions from President Obama and European leaders of economic punishment and isolation.

At the United Nations, where the Security Council met for the third time in an emergency session since Friday, the Ukrainian ambassador, Yuriy Sergeyev, distributed a three-page letter asserting that the Russians had sent 16,000 troops into the Crimean Peninsula since Feb. 24.
The troops, Mr. Sergeyev wrote, had moved to “seize, block and control crucial governmental and military objects of Ukraine in Crimea.”

If these warnings are just noise, then it would be better if they were not made; it just hurts the credibility of the U.S. and West. More red lines are not what is needed.
726 COMMENTS
Russia has denied Western accusations that it flouted international law in asserting military control in Crimea, a historically Russian region that is home to its Black Sea naval base. The Russians have asserted that they moved to protect their legitimate interests there after President Viktor F. Yanukovych fled more than a week ago after protests in Kiev that reflected opposition to his shift toward closer relations with Russia.

The Sri Lankan government has denounced a UN call for an international investigation into human rights abuses in its long civil war as 'unwarranted interference'

The UN believes 40,000 Tamils were killed in the last months of the war before the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009 Photo: Getty
By Dean Nelson, South Asia Editor 3:23PM GMT 25 Feb 2014
More than forty new bodies were found in a mass grave in Sri Lanka's Tamil north, officials said on Tuesday, after the government rejected a UN call for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes.
The discovery of the grave in Mannar, a key battle zone in the last stages of Sri Lanka's long civil war, will increase pressure on the United Nations Human Rights Council to support an independent war crimes investigation when it meets in Geneva next month. Eighty bodies, including those of children, have now been recovered there and another mass grave with 155 bodies was discovered in 2012.
The report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, highlighted these mass graves in her report and said they demonstrated the "magnitude and gravity of the violations alleged to have been committed" by both sides. The thousands of civilians killed in the last months of the war in 2009 and allegations of summary executions of surrendering or arrested Tamil Tiger leaders demanded an independent investigation, the report said.
The UN believes 40,000 Tamils were killed in the last months of the war before the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. Many of them were killed in Army shelling of civilians in official "no-fire zones".
David Cameron, the prime minister, and other leaders had warned President Mahinda Rajapaksa at last year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo that there would be an international inquiry if Sri Lanka did not launch its own credible and independent inquiry before March 2014.

Ms Pillay effectively called time on its delays when her report calling for an international investigation was released late on Monday evening.
Its failure to launch "independent or credible investigations," reflected a lack of political will, it added.
It cited political interference in the judiciary, continuing disappearances and intimidation of witnesses as further reasons for an international inquiry which would guarantee witness protection.
"The international community has a duty to take further steps, which will advance the right to truth for all in Sri Lanka," the report said.
Its criticisms of Sri Lanka's own reconciliation attempts were rejected by the government which said the report "reflects bias and is tantamount to an unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state".
Critics said Sri Lanka is hoping that support from China and Russia might help it defeat the war crimes inquiry proposal at the Human Rights Council meeting next month. But they will not be able to veto the proposal if a simple majority of the 47 council members support it.

With the death toll already at 50 and rising in two days of violence, clashes in Kiev, Ukraine, show no signs of slowing down, despite President Viktor Yanukovych's announcement of a truce on Wednesday evening. Though the protests have persisted for nearly three months, the bloodiest days of unrest have come this week after both Russia and the European Union maneuvered to further influence the former Soviet state.

A multitude of videos circulating the Internet show the outrageous levels of violence in the Ukrainian capital. In one video from Radio Svoboda, Radio Free Europe's Russian service, a riot policeman with an unmistakable AK-47 assault rifle fires off the screen.

The video then cuts to footage of a sniper in the prone position, flanked by other police. Eventually, they all scamper out of frame.

In a Sky News video, another riot police officer fires his AK-47 as he retreats down a street.

It's unclear what he's firing at, though the news anchor suggests some sort of "firework" went off above the police.

 Ukraine's opposition leaders signed an EU-mediated peace pact with President Viktor Yanukovich on Friday, winning a raft of concessions in a delicate deal to end violence that killed at least 77 people and turned the capital into a battle zone.

By nightfall, opposition leaders who signed the deal were addressing peaceful crowds from a stage in Independence Square, which for the past 48 hours had become an inferno of blazing barricades, where protesters were shot dead by police snipers.

But the crowd was still defiant, holding aloft open coffins of slain demonstrators and making speeches denouncing the opposition leaders for shaking hands with Yanukovich.

If it holds, the deal - hammered out with the mediation efforts of the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland - would mark a victory for Europe in a tug-of-war with Moscow for influence in the divided ex-Soviet state of 46 million people.

But it remains to be seen whether violence can be halted and whether a lurch away from Moscow will cost Ukraine a $15 billion Russian financial lifeline it needs to stave off bankruptcy.

Under pressure to quit from mass demonstrations in Kiev, Russian-backed Yanukovich agreed to create a national unity government, change the constitution to reduce his powers and leave office early for new elections.

"There are no steps that we should not take to restore peace in Ukraine," the president said in announcing his concessions before the agreement was signed. "I announce that I am initiating early elections."

Within hours, parliament voted to revert to a previous constitution slashing Yanukovich's prerogatives, sacked his interior minister blamed for this week's bloodshed and amended the criminal code to pave the way to release his rival, jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

EU leaders and the White House praised what European Council President Herman Van Rompuy called a "necessary compromise". Moscow made grudging comments that fell short of endorsing the deal. The European envoys signed the document as witnesses, but a Russian envoy did not.

That envoy, Vladimir Lukin, acknowledged that Moscow had fallen behind the EU in the latest diplomacy: "The EU representatives were in their own way trying to be useful, they started the talks.

"We joined the talks later, which wasn't very right. One should have agreed on the format of the talks right from the start," Lukin was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

A local beauty queen has died of a gunshot wound, becoming the fifth fatality from Venezuela's political unrest, as imprisoned protest leader Leopoldo Lopez urged supporters to keep fighting for the departure of the socialist government.

Tensions have risen in Venezuela since Mr Lopez, a 42-year-old Harvard-educated economist, turned himself in to troops on Tuesday after spearheading three weeks of often rowdy protests against President Nicolas Maduro's government.

The latest victims of the unrest included college student and model Genesis Carmona, 22, who was shot in the head at a protest on Tuesday in the central city of Valencia. She died later in a clinic.

College student and model Genesis Carmona (EPA)
"How long are we going to live like this? How long do we have to tolerate this pressure, with them killing us?" a relative, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

"She only needed one more semester to graduate," he added of Carmona, who had been studying tourism and had won the 2013 Miss Tourism competition in her state.

Three people were shot dead in Caracas after an opposition rally a week ago, and a fourth person died after being run over by a car during a demonstration in the coastal town of Carupano. Scores of people have been arrested or injured.

State television channel VTV said the mother of one its employees died while being rushed to hospital in Caracas. VTV said she suffered a heart attack while the ambulance carrying her was stuck in gridlock due to opposition supporters blocking roads.

"We cannot underestimate those fascist groups whose boss is behind bars," Mr Maduro said in a nationally televised speech late on Wednesday. "I'm not playing with democracy. I do not accept that they challenge the Venezuelan people and our Constitution."

Speaking in Mexico, US President Barack Obama criticized Mr Maduro's government for arresting protesters and urged it to focus on the "legitimate grievances" of its people.

Instead of "making up false accusations" against three US diplomats expelled this week, he said, Venezuela's government should release detained protesters and engage in a real dialogue. "All parties have an obligation to work together," Mr Obama said.
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 Ukraine's pro-European opposition sought last minute changes to a deal with Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich intended to resolve the former Soviet republic's political crisis, but EU mediators said they still expect an agreement on Friday.

The German and Polish foreign ministers were in Kiev to try to broker an end to the worst violence since Soviet days amid a stand-off between riot police and anti-government protesters who have occupied a central square for nearly three months.

The sprawling nation of 46 million with a shattered economy and endemic corruption is at the center of a geopolitical tug-of-war between Russia and the European Union.

Diplomats said a compromise drafted in all-night negotiations involved appointing a transitional government, with a reformed constitution by September reducing presidential powers, and fresh elections by the end of the year.

Whether such a gradual transition would be acceptable to grassroots activists who want Yanukovich out now was unclear.

"This is just another piece of paper. We will not leave the barricades until Yanukovich steps down. That's all people want," said Anton Solovyov, 28, an IT worker protesting in the central square.

A senior EU diplomat said the president and opposition leaders were expected to sign the deal on Friday, even though the opposition still wanted some changes.

Earlier, police said in a statement that anti-government militants fired on security forces near the central Independence Square, scene of a three-month-old protest vigil.

However, there was no independent confirmation of such an incident and no report of casualties.

The square, known as Maidan or "Euro-Maidan", appeared peaceful, with thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans interspersed with patriotic singing.

After the visiting ministers suspended talks at dawn, the presidential press service said an agreement with the opposition would be signed at noon (1000 GMT) but it gave no details. That time passed with no word of a signing.

He was remembered as a freedom fighter, a political prisoner, a moral icon impervious to hate, and a reconciler of seemingly irreconcilable camps. He was recalled as the crucial figure in the struggle that ended apartheid in South Africa, and as the president who then put aside retribution in favor of building a lasting democracy.

But as the world mourned the death of Nelson Mandela, who died at his home in Johannesburg on Thursday night, words of loss resonated less as historical underscoring than as a collective yearning for a future in which his signature virtues would persevere: Through a human life as complex and vulnerable to contradiction as any other, Mandela consistently evinced an unwavering commitment to improving his nation and the state of human society.

In Britain, David Cameron praised Mandela as "a towering figure in our time; a legend in life and now in death - a true global hero," adding that "a great light has gone out in the world." Former prime minister Tony Blair celebrated Mandela as a transformational figure whose impacts on the events of his era went beyond his own nation.

"He came to represent something that was much more than just about the resolution of the issues of apartheid and of South Africa," Blair said. "He came to represent something quite inspirational for the future of the world and for peace and reconciliation in the 21st century."

In Washington, President Barack Obama called Mandela "one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with," adding: "He no longer belongs to us, he belongs to the ages."

Obama spoke about Mandela's importance in strikingly personal terms, a recognition of the historical distinction they share as the first black men elected to their nation's highest offices.

"I am one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela's life," Obama said. "I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example set by Nelson Mandela."

Those words effectively closed the book on previous American conceptions of Mandela who, until 2008, remained on the nation's terrorist watch list given his support for armed resistance.

In a sign that this sort of sentiment has yet to be dispatched to history, Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Pakastani activist who has earned global acclaim for championing the cause of girls' education, issued a statement in which she called Mandela "my leader."

"He belongs to the whole world because he is an icon of equality, freedom and love, the values we need all the time everywhere," Malala said. "His long, long struggle is a great demonstration of humanity."

In Italy, Minister of Integration Cecile Kyenge -- the first black woman to serve at that level of Italian government -- also described Mandela as a historical current whose force lives on even after his death.

"He leaves the whole world a message of civil society that has accompanied us throughout the twentieth century and that will accompany future generations for centuries to come," Kyenge said. "The man himself has passed away but he left his light on, a flame that we will continue to feed in conveying his being, his teachings."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Mandela "a giant of history," whose focus on peaceful change over historical revenge made him a "statesman with a message that is valid in every country and at every time."

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed sorrow for the loss of "a beacon of hope for the future," while emphasizing how Mandela had focused on bridging the racial chasm dividing his country in the years after apartheid.

"Not only was former President Mandela a tireless fighter, he was also a promoter of reconciliation," Abe said. "Indeed, after bringing about the abolition of apartheid at the end of long years of suffering, he devoted himself to the pursuit of national unity rather than seeking vengeance."

Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino expressed admiration for Mandela's willingness to acknowledge the role of F.W. de Klerk, the last South African president under apartheid, in working to eradicate the racist system. "It was not an easy thing to say, and to say it in those years to his people," Bonino said. "Yet Mandela had the intellectual honesty to proclaim it and to start his policy of reconciliation."

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, visiting China as a dispute over a new Chinese air defence zone rattles nerves around the region, said on Wednesday that relations between Washington and Beijing had to be based on trust.

Beijing’s decision to declare an air defence identification zone in an area that includes disputed islands has triggered protests from the United States, Japan and South Korea and dominated Biden’s talks in Tokyo on Tuesday.


The United States has made clear it will stand by treaty obligations that require it to defend the Japanese-controlled islands, but it is also reluctant to get dragged into any military clash between rivals Japan and China.

Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping he believed Xi was a candid and constructive person.

“In developing this new relationship, both qualities are sorely needed,” Biden said during a meeting in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

“Candor generates trust. Trust is the basis on which real change, constructive change, is made.”

Xi said the international situation and regional landscape were “undergoing profound and complex changes”.

“Regional issues keep cropping up and there are more pronounced global challenges such as climate change and energy security. The world is not tranquil,” he added.

Neither made any mention of the air defence zone in remarks before reporters. Biden flies to Seoul on Thursday.

As Biden arrived, the official English-language China Daily said in a strongly worded editorial that he “should not expect any substantial headway if he comes simply to repeat his government’s previous erroneous and one-sided remarks”.

“If the U.S. is truly committed to lowering tensions in the region, it must first stop acquiescing to Tokyo’s dangerous brinkmanship. It must stop emboldening belligerent Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to constantly push the envelope of Japan’s encroachments and provocations.”

Under the zone’s rules, all aircraft have to report flight plans to Chinese authorities, maintain radio contact and reply promptly to identification inquiries.

U.S., Japanese and South Korean military aircraft have breached the zone without informing Beijing since it was announced on Nov. 23.

The move followed clashes over the weekend and on Monday, with tear gas and rubber bullets used.

The mood in the capital Bangkok appeared calmer after the police move, which officials said was aimed at avoiding further confrontation.

The Thai prime minister has rejected protesters' demands that she step down.

Yingluck Shinawatra said she was open to negotiations but that calls for the government to be replaced by an appointed council were illegal and unconstitutional.

The protests, which began on 24 November, had been largely peaceful until Saturday, when they became violent.

Over the weekend and on Monday demonstrators tried to break apart police barricades and storm the prime minister's office, Government House, with police using tear gas and water cannon to repel them.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban said on Monday that the protesters would "take over the Metropolitan Police Bureau and make it the people's".

On Tuesday morning - in a surprise and possibly shrewd move - the police took down barriers and razor wire outside their building and it was announced that the protesters were welcome inside, the BBC's Jonah Fisher reports from Bangkok.

Protesters are also being allowed through the barricades outside Government House, the scene of violence on Monday.

The move is seen as an attempt to prevent further clashes.

"In every area where there has been confrontation, we have now ordered all police to withdraw. It is government policy to avoid confrontation," police chief Kamronvit Thoopkrachang told Reuters.

"Today, we won't use tear gas, no confrontation, we will let them in if they want," he said.

With the obstacles removed the demonstrators have so far declined to enter any of the buildings, our correspondent says.

Protesters have described the latest developments as a victory for the people.

 Police confirm that a Metro-North passenger train has derailed in the Bronx.

A woman at the scene says numerous emergency vehicles have responded.

Police sources told NBC and the New York Daily News that at least four people died after the commuter train headed towards Grand Central derailed around 7:20 AM.

The FDNY confirmed the 4 deaths in a press conference. They also said that at least 67 people were injured, 11 seriously. Of the 4 people killed, 3 were thrown from the train after it derailed.

According to News 12, several passengers were taken away on stretchers. The FDNY said that all of the injured people were in stable condition.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo later arrived on the scene and thanked first responders for their quick action. The NYPD estimated that about 100 people were on the train, which was scheduled to arrive at Grand Central Station at 7:43 AM.

According to the MTA, 5 of the 7 cars on the train derailed early Sunday morning. Though early witnesses to the scene said that some of the cars were submerged in water, police later said that wasn't true.

As the AP reported, the train derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx.

WABC7 said that the area where the train accident occurred is known to be a dangerous curve. Another train derailed at the same spot in July.

Authorities said it was unclear what caused the derailment, but a passenger on the train told WABC7 that the train appeared to be going faster than usual.

Thailand’s week of antigovernment demonstrations entered a dangerous and volatile phase on Sunday after shootings involving rival political camps left at least four people dead and more than 50 wounded.

 Many areas of Bangkok, the sprawling metropolis that is a major hub of commerce and travel in Southeast Asia, remained unaffected by the demonstrations. But the shootings and the increasingly provocative moves by protesters spread fears that unrest could move beyond the pockets of the capital where protests — and violence — have raged.

As protesters traveled through the city by motorcycle and on foot Sunday, vowing to shut down additional government buildings, Bangkok’s largest shopping malls, which normally teem with visitors on weekends, hastily announced that they were closing their doors for the day.

Nearly 3,000 soldiers began arriving in the capital to shore up key government buildings.

Protesters are pursuing the quixotic goal of ridding the country of the influence of Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire tycoon and former prime minister whose political party has captured the allegiance of voters in the countryside, winning every election since 2001. The protesters say they are frustrated with the dominance of Mr. Thaksin and are disillusioned with the current democratic system. They have proposed an alternative to the country’s democracy, an ill-defined people’s council made up of representatives from many professions.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is Mr. Thaksin’s youngest sister, repeatedly said over the weekend that she was open to discussions with protesters but that she would stand firm.

“I will remain here,” she told reporters Saturday, her voice cracking with emotion. “I will not flee anywhere. I may be a woman, but I have the courage to face all possible scenarios.”

Pakistan has appointed Lt Gen Raheel Sharif as its new army head after weeks of speculation, a move correspondents say could define PM Nawaz Sharif's third term in office.

Lt Gen Sharif replaces Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who retires on Thursday.

The government has also named Lt Gen Rashid Mahmood as the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

The appointments are seen as vital in fighting the Taliban and in determining the army's role in politics.

Correspondents say Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will have carefully considered his crucial appointment of Lt Gen Sharif - who is not related to him - because the prime minister has twice had run-ins with the military during previous terms in office.

In 1999 Mr Sharif was forced from office in a military take-over led by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

In 1993 army chief Abdul Waheed Kakar led a push to get Mr Sharif to resign and hold elections following a long-running political stand-off between the prime minister and President Ghulam Ishaq.
Overt interference

Little is so far known about Gen Sharif, correspondents say, apart from the fact that his brother was one of the army's most decorated soldiers and was killed in the 1971 war with India.

The new army chief, a career infantry soldier, is expected to continue Gen Kayani's policies and to avoid overt interference in politics.

Lt Gen Sharif is thought to have been third on the army's seniority list.

He is not known as an ambitious general, the BBC's Shahzeb Jillani in Islamabad says.

Before his promotion, he headed the army's training and evaluation department and has previously served in senior roles as a corps commander and head of the country's premier training institution, the Military Academy in Abbottabad.

The change of command comes as Pakistan faces a daunting array of challenges - including a home-grown Taliban insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives, strained relations with India over the Kashmir dispute and the winding-down in 2014 of the 12-year Nato mission in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistan has experienced three military coups since independence in 1947 and has been run by the army for half of its 66-year history.

Gen Kayani's stance of not overtly interfering in politics allowed the country to experience its first successful transition between democratically elected governments earlier this year.

"A kiss is not a crime," hacktivist organization Anonymous tweeted Wednesday, in an effort to grab the Moroccan government's attention before a hearing for three teens arrested over a Facebook photo on Oct. 3.

The group led the online protest using the hashtag #NadorKiss to demand the exoneration of the teenagers, who were charged with public indecency after posting a photo featuring two of the teens kissing outside a school. The other teen was arrested for snapping the picture.

The teens, all from the city of Nador, are due in court Friday for a closed hearing, followed by a sentencing next week, according the Agence France-Presse.

The charge carries a possible prison sentence of five years.

"Their sentence will be educational at most, in my opinion," Mohamed Abdennabaoui, the criminal affairs and pardons director at Morocco's Justice Ministry, told Al Jazeera.

A Moroccan nongovernmental organization originally filed the lawsuit early last month, claiming the photos had a negative effect on society and upset people's feelings, the AFP reported.

On Oct. 12, two dozen demonstrators staged a kiss-in to defend the right to public displays of affection in Morocco’s conservative Muslim society and to show solidarity with the teens being charged.

As the Nador teens' trial date quickly approaches, Anonymous continues its quest to stop prosecution. The group released the following statement in a press release:

    This is yet another example of a government taking something that wouldn't normally have been a major issue but by removing it from the usual framework it would be viewed within simply because of the "online" aspect, it is made into a "problem."

Philippines Typhoon Update

Here are the latest casualty figures and damage reports from the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan, according to the national crisis management agency.

 National: 3,976 confirmed deaths, 1,598 missing and 18,175 injured, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Eastern Visayas region covering the islands of Leyte and Samar: 3,725 dead, 17,821 injured and 1,574 missing. Widespread severe damage. Tacloban, Leyte's main city with a population of 220,000, lies in ruins. Communications, transport cut in many areas.

Western Visayas region: 161 dead, 228 injured, 19 missing.

Central Visayas region, which includes Cebu: 74 dead, 102 injured and 5 missing.

A Russian performance artist was hospitalised Sunday after stripping naked and nailing his testicles to a Red Square cobblestone in protest against the Kremlin's crackdown on political rights.

A video of the graphic action, available on Russian websites, showed artist Pyotr Pavlensky sitting naked outside Lenin's Mausoleum being covered with a blanket by police officers while horrified passersby looked on.

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency said Pavlensky was taken to a police station after being treated in a central Moscow clinic.

The Saint Petersburg-based artist said in a statement posted on the Grani.ru website that he was trying to draw attention to Russian society's inaction in the face of the development of a "police state".

Russia marked its annual Police Day holiday on Sunday.

It is not the first time the 29-year-old has resorted to eye-watering methods of protest.

He has previously sewn his lips together to demonstrate against the jailing of two female members of the Pussy Riot punk band who staged an anti-Kremlin performance inside Moscow's main cathedral in 2011.

He was also arrested after wrapping his naked body in barbed wire outside a Saint Petersburg government building in May.

 In Russia today, a Moscow political performance artist was arrested after he drove a large nail through his testicles into a cobblestone street in Red Square to protest Vladimir Putin‘s crackdown on civil rights — and the Russian people’s own apathy.

Pyotr Pavlensky can be seen in the video below sitting naked in front of the Lenin’s Mausoleum and nailed to the street.

Later, a police officer comes to arrest him. He reportedly could get 15 days in jail. Pavlensky says his “action can be seen as a metaphor of apathy and political indifference and fatalism of the modern Russian society,” according to a Google translation of what he wrote on the Russian website, Grani.ru.

One thing we really need to thank the internet for: colorized historical photographs. Of course, the phenomenon comes to us courtesy of Photoshop and the talented editors who transformed black and white images into digital works of art. We're just happy we get to feast our eyes upon them.

Thanks to a Reddit user named Brinkman87, we have a plethora of polychromatic snapshots that bring history back to life. Behold, 15 of the best colorized photos on the web:

Possibly the strongest typhoon ever to hit land devastated the central Philippine city of Tacloban, killing at least 100 people, turning houses into rubble and levelling the airport in a surge of flood water and high wind, officials said on Saturday. The toll of death and damage from

Typhoon Haiyan on Friday is expected to rise sharply as rescue workers and soldiers reach areas cut off by the massive, fast-moving storm, now barreling out of the Philippines towards Vietnam.
The category 5 “super typhoon” weakened to a category 4 on Saturday, though forecasters said it could strengthen again over the South China Sea on its course to hit Vietnam early on Sunday.

Authorities in 15 provinces in Vietnam have started to call back boats and prepare for possible landslides. Nearly 300,000 people were moved to safer areas in two provinces alone – Da Nang and Quang Nam - according to the government's website.

The Philippines has yet to resume communications with officials in Tacloban, a city of about 220,000 that appeared to suffer the worst of the typhoon, but a government official estimated at least 100 were killed and 100 wounded.

“Bodies are lying on the street,” said Captain John Andrews, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority.

The national disaster agency has yet to confirm the toll but broken power poles, trees, bent tin roofs and splintered houses littered the streets of the city, suggesting the toll could be higher.

Television images showed residents of Tacloban, about 580 km (360 miles) southeast of Manila, wading through flooded streets that were littered half-submerged cars.

The United Arab Emirates state security court on Tuesday launched the trial of 30 Emiratis and Egyptians charged with setting up an illegal branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

A total of 24 defendants attended the hearing in Abu Dhabi, WAM state news agency reported, saying that the session was attended by families of the defendants as well as by representatives of civil society and the media.

The so-called "Muslim Brotherhood cell" comprises 10 Emiratis and 20 Egyptians, including six who remain at large.
The judge appointed a three-member medical committee to perform checkups on some defendants, WAM said, adding that he adjourned the hearing until November 12 to allow more time for lawyers to call in witnesses.

Prosecutor Ahmed al-Dhanhani accused the group of having "established and managed a branch for... The international organisation of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, without a permit."

The founders set up an administrative structure aimed at recruiting members for the Muslim Brotherhood, strengthening its presence in the UAE and maintaining allegiance to the main party in Egypt, he said.

The group also "raised money through donations, Zakat (Islamic alms), and membership fees to support" the Brotherhood, he added.

The Egyptian defendants, including doctors, engineers and university professors, were arrested between November 2012 and January 2013, according to Human Rights Watch.

The UAE has not seen any of the widespread pro-reform protests that have swept other Arab states. However, authorities have boosted a crackdown on dissent and calls for democratic reform.

The Gulf emirate strongly supported the July 3 ouster by the Egyptian military of the country's first democratically- elected president -- the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi.

Ties between the UAE, where political movements are banned, and Egypt were severely strained during Morsi's year in power during which the Gulf state arrested a number of Egyptian residents.

The top UAE court in July jailed 69 Emirati Islamists for up to 15 years each on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, at the end of a mass trial criticised by rights groups.