The winners in the professional competition of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards were just announced and they include a photographer who took some fascinating photos of modern life in North Korea. Under the Current Affairs category, the winner was Moscow, Russia-born Ilya Pitalev, a photographer who works for RIA Novosti, a Russian and international news agency. In 2012, North Korea celebrated the centennial birthday of the state’s founder, and in doing so opened its doors, albeit for a few days, to a select group of international photographers. As Pitalev told Sony, “It was very important for North Korean regime  [ Read More ]

Former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, who was sentenced in June to two years in prison for corruption, was released Monday after a decision of the Bucharest Tribunal dismissing an appeal by the prosecutor against the release. Expected by his eldest son Andrei, friends and many journalists, former Social Democratic Prime Minister (2000-2004) was released Monday night Jilava prison, near Bucharest, without statements. “The appeal was rejected prosecutors’ said earlier Monday the President of the Tribunal Laura Andrei AFP. On February 12, the trial judges had granted an early release Nastase as Romanian law allows for inmates over 60 years  [ Read More ]

With the news of Hugo Chavez’s death, Venezuelan supporters took to the streets to mourn the loss of their president. According to Reuters, Chavez’s death has devastated his millions of supporters, who loved him for his charisma, anti-US stance and oil policies that helped bring subsidized food and free health clinics to the country’s slums. More from PlusThings Media: Venezuela: Hugo Chavez is dead The president’s supporters poured onto the streets within minutes of hearing the news, crying and chanting “Chavez lives!” and “We are Chavez!” The hospital where Chavez had been treated was immediately surrounded by security forces. Read More  [ Read More ]

A Dutch entrepreneur residing in the province of Antwerp could be the central figure in the scandal of the European horse meat. His company has bought 60 tonnes of horse meat in Romania and have illegally resold as the beef, reported Thursday Het Nieuws Laatste based on information from the British media. Jan F. is the owner of the company Draap Trading, based in Breda but registered in Cyprus. Horse meat he has bought a slaughterhouse in Romania was sold as beef for dishes prepared in Britain. It is unclear where the meat has been labeled. According to documents provided  [ Read More ]

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has filed paperwork to run for a Senate seat in Australia’s Victoria state. Assange plans on running as a member of the newly formed WikiLeaks party, according to The Age, and his campaign will focus on “the democratic requirement of truthfulness from government.” However, the entire process may seem a bit complicated considering that Assange currently resides in the Ecuadorean Embassy in England. Fortunately, according to Australian law, The Atlantic Wire clarifies, citizens living overseas can file to vote as an overseas elector, and then run for Senate if they left Australia within the  [ Read More ]

Moldova has launched an investigation into a Russian money-laundering scheme linked to a $230 million tax fraud exposed by the late Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky. Anti-corruption officials were investigating allegations that some of the stolen money was wired through a Moldovan bank, Bloomberg reported. Magnitsky had accused Russian bureaucrats of defrauding the state of $230 million by setting up “bogus tax refunds,” Reuters reported. Bloomberg said the case was the biggest tax fraud in Russian history. Sergei Magnitsky died in police custody in 2009 – allegedly beaten to death – sparking a diplomatic dispute between Russia and the United States.  [ Read More ]

A sign from God? Lighting strikes the basilica of St.Peter’s dome earlier this evening during a storm that struck Rome on the same day Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation. A lightning bolt strikes the top of the Vatican’s St Peter’s Basilica, just hours after Pope Benedict XVI announced his surprise resignation. The pontiff’s decision came as a bolt from the blue that shocked the Catholic community worldwide. The departure will make Benedict the first pope to resign since the middle ages. Read More from ThingsNews Media February 28, Date on which the Pope Benedict XVI will resign Pope meets  [ Read More ]

In the course of “The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945″, the Soviet Union mobilized 29,574,900 men. Wartime turnover in manpoweramounted to 21,700,000. During 1,418 days of barbarized warfare,bereft of any legal or moral constraints, the Red Army’s battlefield losseswere more than half those 21 million, 11,440,100 men put permanentlyout of action. Almost one million men were variously convicted:376,300 charged with desertion and 422,700 sentenced to service inpenal battalions, or strafbats, assigned to the most dangerous sectors. Civilians were not spared. German rule in occupied territory took the lives of some 16,350,000 citizens, shot, starved, neglected, ormurdered in concentration camps. More than  [ Read More ]

Russian lawmakers passed a tough anti-smoking measure on Tuesday. The new legislation comes as President Vladimir Putin has identified smoking as a major public health issue, the Lebanon Daily Star reported. Over 40 percent of Russia’s adult population are smokers. If enacted, smoking will be banned in public buildings and children’s playgroundsstarting this summer, Voice of Russia reported. It will also be difficult to find out where to get cigarettes. Ads for cigarettes will be prohibited and cigarette packs will not be on display in stores. The ban will become stricter one year after it goes into effect. Smoking will  [ Read More ]

SEOUL: North Korea conducted its third-ever nuclear test on Tuesday, a move likely to anger its main ally China and increase international action against Pyongyang and its new young leader, Kim Jong-un. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned North Korea’s test, saying it was a “clear and grave violation” of UN Security Council resolutions. South Korea said the size of the seismic activity indicated a nuclear explosion slightly larger than the North’s two previous tests at 6-7 kilotons, although that is still relatively small. The Hiroshima bomb was around 20 kilotons. The US Geological Survey said that a seismic event measuring  [ Read More ]