Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has defended Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson after A&E placed him on indefinite hiatus for making anti-gay remarks.
Sarah Palin tweeted her support of the reality star: “Free speech is endangered species; those ‘intolerants’ hatin’ & taking on Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing personal opinion take on us all.”
Phil Robertson came under fire Wednesday for comments he made in a recent interview with GQ magazine.
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In a statement, Bobby Jindal praised 67-year-old Phil Robertson and his family as “great citizens” of Louisiana state, where the lucrative show is filmed, and he slammed the “politically correct crowd” for criticizing his comments.
“I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive,” Bobby Jindal said.
“But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.”
At first glance, the Indian-American convert to Roman Catholicism with a national political profile and Phil Robertson wouldn’t seem to be completely natural allies.
However, some conservative Christians are arguing that Phil Robertson, a self-described “Bible-thumper,” was singled out for expressing a religious belief that homos**uality is wrong.
Asked in an interview with GQ magazine what he believes in sinful, Phil Robertson replied: “Start with homos**ual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.”
A&E said in a statement that Phil Robertson’s “personal views in no way reflect those of A&E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community”.
Bobby Jindal was not the only prominent GOP political figure to weigh in on the controversy.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin expressed her support for Phil Robertson in a Facebook post.
“Free speech is an endangered species. Those “intolerants” hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us,” Sarah Palin said.
And Texas Senator Ted Cruz posted on his Facebook page that Americans should be “deeply dismayed” about Phil Robertson’s treatment.
“Phil expressed his personal views and his own religious faith; for that, he was suspended from his job,” Ted Cruz said.
“In a free society, anyone is free to disagree with him–but the mainstream media should not behave as the thought police censoring the views with which they disagree.”
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The Russian president said he had received a request from Mikhail Khodorkovsky – in custody for a decade – to pardon him on humanitarian grounds as his mother is ill.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s representatives said they needed to meet him before commenting but that the family would be “elated to see him finally freed”.
On Wednesday, MPs backed a wide-ranging amnesty for at least 20,000 prisoners.
Speaking to reporters after his annual news conference in Moscow on Thursday, Vladimir Putin confirmed the amnesty would apply to the two members of punk band Pussy Riot still in prison and Greenpeace activists detained for their protest at a Russian oil rig in the Arctic.
Analysts say Vladimir Putin may be trying to ease international criticism of Russia’s human rights record ahead of February’s Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 50, and fellow defendant Platon Lebedev were convicted of stealing oil and laundering money in 2010. They were already serving time for tax evasion.
As head of the now defunct oil giant Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was once Russia’s richest man.
Vladimir Putin said he had not received a request from Mikhail Khodorkovsky in the past.
“And then quite recently he wrote such a document and addressed a request for a pardon to me,” Vladimir Putin said.
“He has already been in detention more than 10 years, this is a serious punishment and he is referring to humanitarian circumstances as his mother is ill.
“I think given the circumstances we can take the decision and very soon the decree to pardon him will be signed,” Vladimir Putin said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP news agency the request had been personally “signed” by Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s mother, Marina, said she did not know about any clemency request by her son.
“I spoke to Mikhail last Saturday for about three minutes, but we did not discuss this. He only asked about my health,” she said.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky is currently scheduled to leave jail next August. His supporters have long argued he is a political prisoner.
A statement from his press centre reads: “Until his legal team can meet with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, it cannot be commented on whether a request on a pardon was made, by whom and for what reasons.
“All of his family and supporters would of course be elated to see him finally free after 10 years of imprisonment.”
The amnesty passed in the State Duma on Wednesday covers at least 20,000 prisoners, including minors, disabled people, veterans, pregnant women and mothers.
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“I started the show being a singer and a musician, and so I’m going to go back to that,” the singer said on the show’s red carpet on Wednesday evening.
“It’s been really great but I’m so excited for 2014. I’m going to dedicate it completely and entirely to music, touring and making a new album.”
Demi Lovato also told The Hollywood Reporter she would most miss her fellow female judges.
“Being able to sit next to Kelly [Rowland] and Paulina [Rubio] and see them twice a week, and also helping mentor the contestants,” she said.
Series creator Simon Cowell added: “I always knew she wasn’t coming back because she’s touring, so I knew that.”
Demi Lovato, 21, joined the show in 2012 and took part as a judge and mentor for two series.
On Monday, Simon Cowell revealed he was planning changes to the format of The X Factor USA.
The series has suffered record low ratings this year, but Simon Cowell told reporters in a teleconference that he expected it to return in 2014.
The music mogul said the judging panel would change, but declined to comment on who he wanted to recruit.
Simon Cowell also said he envisioned a “different kind of role” for himself, but gave no specifics.
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Jeffrey Gonano, 25, said he was looking for a picture to hang on his wall when he read an article about the painting being raffled by Sotheby’s in Paris.
L’Homme au Gibus (Man with Opera Hat) had been bought by a charity working to save the ancient Lebanese city of Tyre.
The charity issued 50,000 tickets at 100 euros each, hoping to raise $5 million.
Jeffrey Gonano’s winning ticket was picked by a computer system on Wednesday.
“I was looking for art and I thought I might as well,” said Jeffrey Gonano, a project manager at a fire sprinkler firm in Pennsylvania.
Despite the enormous value of his new acquisition, he says he will not sell the artwork, at least for the time being.
Organizers said buyers from all over the world had taken part in the raffle, with a large number from the US.
The 1914 artwork had been bought from a New York gallery by the UNESCO-registered charity the International Association to Save Tyre with the help of a large bank loan.
Raffle organizers say they paid slightly less for the work than the $1 million estimate given by Sotheby’s experts.
Pablo Picasso’s grandson, Olivier Picasso, was among those drumming up interest in the tickets.
He said his grandfather would have approved of his work being put to good use.
“My grandfather was a pioneer in everything, in his love life, in his artwork, so tonight I’m sure he would have helped the cause,” Olivier Picasso said.
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“Our soldiers have lost control of Bor to the force of Riek Machar,” said army spokesman Philip Aguer.
President Salva Kiir Mayardit has accused Riek Machar, the former vice-president, of plotting a coup – a claim he denies.
The unrest, which began in the capital Juba, has killed some 500 people and sparked fears of widespread conflict.
Since independence, several rebel groups have taken up arms and one of these is said to have been involved in the capture of Bor.
The UN has expressed concern about a possible civil war between the country’s two main ethnic groups, the Dinka of Salva Kiir and the Nuer of Riek Machar.
The organization has called for political dialogue to end the crisis, and the Ugandan government says its president has been asked by the UN to mediate between the two sides.
The UN peacekeeping mission says it is sheltering civilians in five state capitals, including Juba, Bor and Bentiu, the main town of the oil-producing state of Unity.
The US and The UK have both sent planes to airlift their nationals out of the country, and a US defense official described the situation as “getting ugly”.
Bor is the capital of Jonglei state, and even before the current unrest, it was seen as one of the most volatile areas of South Sudan.
Overnight there were reports of gun battles in the town, as renegade officers fought with troops still loyal to President Salva Kiir.
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Asked about their recent visits to the protest camp in Kiev, Viktor Yanukovych said: “I am categorically against anybody coming and teaching us how to live.”
The opposition is furious after Viktor Yanukovych accepted a Russian bailout, seen as a reward for rejecting EU integration.
President Vladimir Putin said he was defending the Russian economy.
“We just want to defend our gates,” Vladimir Putin told journalists in Moscow, days after Russia gave Ukraine a $15 billion (10.9 billion euros) bailout and gas discount.
Ukraine, Vladimir Putin said, was a fraternal state with close industrial ties to Russia.
Protests have gripped much of Ukraine since President Viktor Yanukovych suspended the EU deal last month.
The opposition has been demanding to know what, if any, conditions the Kremlin attached to its decision to buy $15 billion in Ukrainian government bonds and slash the gas price from more than $400 per 1,000 cubic metres to $268.5.
Russia’s financial help averted a debt crisis for Ukraine in the short term.
At a news conference in Kiev on Thursday, Viktor Yanukovych was asked about visits to the pro-EU protest camp by foreign politicians who have included US Republican Senator John McCain, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, former German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and others.
“What is very important is that this is our internal matter, and that other countries do not intervene in our internal affairs,” he said.
He said the deal with Moscow did not run counter to Ukraine’s course towards European integration and blamed Ukraine’s current economic problems on the policies of his predecessors, the leaders of Ukraine’s pro-Western Orange Revolution.
Asked why the Ukrainian economy was in such trouble, Viktor Yanukovych said the gas contract signed with Russia by former PM Yulia Tymoshenko in 2009 had incurred a loss of $20 billion.
Another problem, he said, was the repayment of an IMF loan of $16.4 billion negotiated in 2008, and a third factor was the recent fall in trade with Russia and other ex-Soviet states.
Asked about his position on the Customs Union led by Russia, Viktor Yanukovych said that Ukraine only had observer status but he suggested that it could adopt certain clauses.
“Ukraine’s government is studying these clauses and, once conclusions are drawn, the corresponding transparent decisions will be taken on which clauses we will adhere to,” he said.
Ukraine’s pro-EU protesters have rejected any move to join the Customs Union, which was set up in 2010 and includes Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Ahmed Shafiq, who has been living in the United Arab Emirates since losing the presidential election to Mohamed Morsi in 2012, was tried in absentia.
Gamal and Alaa Mubarak have been involved in a series of trials since their father’s fall from power.
All three men are still facing other corruption charges.
Ten other defendants were also cleared in Thursday’s verdicts in Cairo.
The case examined whether Ahmed Shafiq had enabled the Mubarak sons – both of whom were prominent businessmen – to buy land belonging to the Egyptian pilots’ association at a cheaper price than the market rate.
Egypt’s Al Ahram reports that the verdict in the second corruption case against Ahmed Shafiq will be announced later on Thursday.
Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak is being held under house arrest following his release from detention in August.
His retrial on charges of complicity in the killing of demonstrators in 2011 is under way, after his conviction in June 2012 was overturned on appeal in January 2013.
Hosni Mubarak is also charged in a further three corruption cases.
Germany’s Dax and France’s CAC were 1.5% in mid-morning trading, while the UK’s FTSE rose 1%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 1.7%.
The Fed said it would scale back its $85 billion a month bond-buying programme by $10 billion a month.
Analysts said the taper was less than markets had expected.
Investors and economists have been watching closely for when the Fed would scale back its stimulus, fearing that a steep taper could undermine economic recovery.
US markets had ended sharply higher on Wednesday following the Fed’s decision. The Dow Jones jumped 292.71 points, or 1.84%, to close at 16167.97, while both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes rose by more than 1%.
The stimulus programme, called quantitative easing, was introduced by the Fed after the global financial crisis.
The main objective was to increase the money supply and improve liquidity in the financial system in the hope of sparking economic growth and supporting employment.
The Fed’s governing committee cited stronger job growth as a reason for the decision to begin winding down the programme.
It forecast the unemployment rate would fall to 6.3% in 2014 from its current level of 7%.
Analysts said the Fed’s decision to scale back the programme also indicated that it was confident of a sustained recovery in the US economy.
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Thamsanqa Jantjie “might have had a breakdown”, his wife Siziwe is quoted as saying.
Sign language experts accused Thamsanqa Jantjie of referring to “prawns” and “rocking horses” while translating eulogies at Nelson Mandela’s memorial last week.
Thamsanqa Jantjie said he suffered a sudden attack of schizophrenia.
He insisted he was a qualified interpreter.
South Africa’s Deputy Disability Minister Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu has said the company which had employed him had “vanished”.
Thamsanqa Jantjie’s wife took him to a psychiatric hospital near Johannesburg for a check-up on Tuesday, and it was suggested that he be admitted immediately, Johannesburg’s The Star newspaper reports.
“The past few days have been hard. We have been supportive because he might have had a breakdown,” Siziwe Jantjie is quoted as saying.
Last week, Thamsanqa Jantjie said he was supposed to have gone for a check-up on the day of the memorial, but he postponed it.
During the memorial at Johannesburg’s FNB stadium, which was broadcast live around the world, Thamsanqa Jantjie stood on the stage next to key speakers including President Barack Obama, South African President Jacob Zuma and Nelson Mandela’s grandchildren, translating their eulogies.
Thamsanqa Jantjie blamed his flawed interpretation on a schizophrenic episode, saying he had seen angels coming into the stadium.
The White House has downplayed fears that he was a security risk to President Obama.
Sign language experts said Thamsanqa Jantjie had made “funny gestures” and little more than “flapping his arms around”.
The governing African National Congress (ANC) said it had used Thamsanqa Jantjie as an interpreter several times before, and “had not been aware of any of complaints regarding the quality of services, qualifications or reported illnesses” of the interpreter.
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The former basketball player has previously described his visits as “basketball diplomacy”, and called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un his “friend for life”.
The US State Department has stressed that Dennis Rodman is not representing the US government on this trip.
The visit comes weeks after Kim Jong-un’s uncle Jang Sung-taek was executed.
Speaking to reporters in Beijing before heading to North Korea, Dennis Rodman said politics had “nothing to do with [him]”.
“I’m just going over there to do a basketball game and have some fun,” he told Reuters news agency.
Organizers of the trip say that Dennis Rodman will also arrange a friendship basketball match between North Korea and a group of former NBA players on January 8, to mark Kim Jong-un’s birthday.
Dennis Rodman remains the most high-profile American to meet Kim Jong-un since the leader took over after his father died in 2011.
He said that he spent time with Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju during his last visit in September, and said Kim had a baby daughter called Ju-ae.
US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Tuesday: “Dennis Rodman is not a representative of the US government in his trip to North Korea.”
“We need to focus on what’s really important here when it comes to North Korea… the brutality of the North Korean regime he’s going to meet.”
American citizen Kenneth Bae (known in North Korea as Pae Jun-ho) is detained in North Korea after being arrested in November 2012. He was sentenced to 15 years’ hard labor in May.
Dennis Rodman previously rejected calls to lobby for Kenneth Bae’s release.
“That’s not my job to ask about Kenneth Bae,” Dennis Rodman told reporters after his September visit.
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Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick are reportedly separated, InTouch magazine has claimed.
The magazine reported that Scott Disick has moved out of the Kardashian’s Calabasas, California, estate and into the Montage Beverly Hills Hotel.
According to InTouch, Scott Disick, 30, he was seen last week with an “exotic-looking” brunette, with a body language-reading spy maintaining that the way “they looked at each other suggested they were a lot more than friends. A man with a long-term partner and two children should never behave like that with another woman.”
However, Kourtney Kardashian, 34, and Scott Disick – who have 4-year-old Mason and 17-month-old Penelope together – were spotted Tuesday cruising around Los Angeles in Disick’s red Ferrari.
The Kardashians insiders called the rumors “ridiculous” and “not true”.
“This, in and of itself, is heartbreaking and torture to my soul,” Khloe Kardashian wrote, seemingly in reference to her parting of ways with Lamar Odom.
“Please, I don’t need the extra rumors and BS right now.”
Khloe Kardashian, 29, has stepped out with Matt Kemp several times in recent weeks, including a gym date last Friday, the day she filed for divorce. While sources have insisted the two are just friends, Kardashians insiders tell TMZ they’re “in the early, early stages of a relationship” and are “taking it really slow.”
As for The Game, those rumblings date back to early 2013, and despite OK!’s latest assertion that “he’s helping [Khloe Kardashian] through her heartache”, the story has once again been roundly denied.
The investigation also ruled out debris or other roadway conditions as causing the car in which Paul Walker was a passenger to careen into a light pole and tree.
“We’re looking at speed and speed alone,” a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have calculated a speed range at which they think the car was traveling but won’t firm up that number until Porsche engineers come to California next month to extract information from onboard data collectors. The official would not disclose that range.
Though the car exploded in flames after the crash, the data recorders survived and may produce information to pinpoint the speed.
The official told AP that the Porsche appeared to have negotiated a curve in the road just fine before crashing in an industrial park about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
“They were well out of the curve when they lost control,” the official said.
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A & E Networks said in a statement that the Robertson family patriarch had been placed on indefinite hiatus.
“We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series<<Duck Dynasty>>,” the company said.
“His personal views in no way reflect those of A & E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community. The network has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.”
Phil Robertson, 67, caused controversy with his comments, in which he grouped gays with “drunks” and “terrorists,” and said that they won’t “inherit the kingdom of God.”
Asked what he considered sinful, Phil Robertson told GQ magazine: “Start with homos**ual behavior and just morph out from there — bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.”
Phil Robertson has described himself as a product of the ’60s who engaged in the s**, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, but has since embraced Jesus Christ as his savior.
GLAAD excoriated Phil Robertson for the interview, accusing him of pushing “vile and extreme stereotypes.”
“Phil and his family claim to be Christian, but Phil’s lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe,” GLAAD spokesman Wilson Cruz said.
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Uncle Si Robertson will be at Temple Baptist Church on February 1st, 2014, for a Meet & Greet that begins at 4:00pm and a Q&A program that starts at 6:00pm.
Ticket Prices: $500 Meet & Greet Package, $100 Preferred Seating Package, General admission tickets are between $25 and $40.
How to purchase tickets: Tickets can be purchase through ticketmaster.com or in person at Temple Baptist Church.
Start date & time: Reception for Meet & Greet and Preferred Seating ticketholders begins at 4:00pm. The one hour Q&A program with Uncle Si begins at 6:00pm
End date & time: The Q&A program will conclude at 7:00pm
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Michael Moore’s documentary Roger and Me have also been chosen for preservation at the Library of Congress.
Other new additions include John Wayne film The Quiet Man (1952) and sci-fi favorite Forbidden Planet (1956).
This year’s selections bring the number of films in the collection to 625.
The registry was instigated in 1989 to ensure that notable titles from America’s movie history would be preserved for posterity.
The films admitted, which must be at least 10 years old, are selected from hundreds of titles nominated by the public.
“The National Film Registry stands among the finest summations of more than a century of extraordinary American cinema,” said the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington.
Michael Moore said that he was “grateful” his 1989 film, about the economic decline of his Michigan hometown, had been deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Also admitted this year are 1946 film noir Gilda starring Rita Hayworth, 1960 western The Magnificent Seven, 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg and 1983’s The Right Stuff.
A Virtuous Vamp, a 1919 silent film starring Constance Talmadge, and Daughter of Dawn, a 1920 romance with an all-Native American cast, are the oldest of this year’s new additions.
The inclusion of Mary Poppins coincides with the release of Saving Mr. Banks, a drama about how the Disney film came to be made.
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Some 52 people – including three sons of cabinet ministers – were arrested in dawn raids on Tuesday in connection with a high-profile bribery inquiry.
Five police chiefs who oversaw raids in Istanbul and Ankara were sacked for “abuse of office”, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
“We will not allow political plotting,” he said.
However, the deputy prime minister promised not to stand in the way of the judicial process.
“We will always respect any decision made by the judiciary and will not engage in any effort to block this process,” Bulent Arinc said.
Commentators in Turkey believe the arrests – and subsequent firings – are evidence of a new dramatic fault-line in Turkish politics, one within the AK Party itself.
The feud is believed to involve supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an influential Islamic scholar living in exile in the US who once backed the ruling AK Party, helping it to victory in three elections since 2002.
Members of Fethullah Gulen’s Hizmet movement are said to hold influential positions in institutions from the police and secret services to the judiciary and the AK Party itself.
In recent months, the alliance began to come apart and in November the government discussed closing down private schools, including those run by Hizmet.
Fethullah Gulen has been living in the US since 1999, when he was accused in Turkey of plotting against the secular state.
The five police commissioners sacked include the heads of the financial crime and organized crime units, who were both involved in the earlier arrests, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reports.
Also dismissed were the heads of the smuggling unit, the anti-terrorism branch and the public security branch, the paper says.
In a brief statement, the police said they had reassigned some staff, in some cases due to alleged misconduct and others “out of administrative necessity”.
The mass arrests were carried out as part of an inquiry into alleged bribery involving public tenders.
The sons of Interior Minister Muammer Guler, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar were among those detained.
This year’s edition includes Jennifer Lawrence, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, ABC News’ very own Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts, Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, together known as KimYe, the breakout stars from the hit reality TV show Duck Dynasty, and arguably the most famous infant in the world, Kate Middleton and Prince William’s baby George.
This year’s show will also reflect on moments from the past 20 years of Barbara Walters’ Most Fascinating People of the Year specials, which started in 1993.
This will be the last Most Fascinating special for Barbara Walters, who announced last May that she would retire from TV journalism in 2014.
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Speaking to Barbara Walters, Jennifer Lawrence, 23, added: “Because why is humiliating people funny?”
Jennifer Lawrence said she was worried about how the media’s attitude affected young people.
The actress features in Barbara Walters’ series The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2013.
“I get it, and I do it too, we all do it,” Jennifer Lawrence told Barbara Walters.
“[But] the media needs to take responsibility for the effect that it has on our younger generation, on these girls who are watching these television shows, and picking up how to talk and how to be cool,” the actress said.
“So all of the sudden being funny is making fun of the girl that’s wearing an ugly dress. And the word fat! I just think it should be illegal to call somebody fat on TV.”
She added: “I mean, if we’re regulating cigarettes and sex and cuss words, because of the effect they have on our younger generation, why aren’t we regulating things like calling people fat?”
Jennifer Lawrence, who won an Oscar earlier this year for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook, has previously spoken out against gossip magazines and TV shows such as E!’s Fashion Police, presented by Joan Rivers, which criticize the way women look.
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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been filmed dancing in the City Council to songs including Bob Marley’s One Love.
He refused to resign in November despite a special move by the council to remove most of his powers.
Rob Ford has admitted smoking crack cocaine and buying illegal drugs while serving as mayor.
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The government’s surprise U-turn on an EU association agreement last month has sparked weeks of mass demonstrations.
But Mykola Azarov said the package from Russia would provide stability.
Russia has agreed to buy $15 billion (11 billion euros) of government bonds and slash the price of gas.
Ukraine’s opposition has demanded to know what Ukraine offered Russia in return.
Thousands of pro-EU protesters have been holding rallies in Kiev – occupying the capital’s Independence Square – and other cities in western and central Ukraine.
Critics say President Viktor Yanukovych has sold out to Russia and are calling for him and his government to step down.
But Ukraine’s prime minister defended the deal with Russia in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
“What would have awaited Ukraine? The answer is clear – bankruptcy and social collapse,” Mykola Azarov said.
“What a present for New Year that would be for the people of Ukraine.
“The agreements between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents allow us to plan the years to come as years of development and people’s confidence about their stable lives.”
He said a pact to lower gas prices by about a third would allow for “a revival of economic growth”.
There was no way Ukraine could have signed the EU agreement as Kiev would have had to accept unfeasibly stringent IMF conditions for economic reform, he added.
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Prosecutors said Egypt’s ousted president had formed an alliance with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Thirty-five others, including former aides and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, have also been charged.
Since being deposed by the military in July, Mohamed Morsi has already gone on trial for inciting murder and violence.
The new charges carry the death penalty. Prosecutors describe the new charges as “the biggest case of conspiracy in the country’s history”.
Human rights organizations have expressed concern over whether Mohamed Morsi will be able to get a fair trial.
Mohamed Morsi’s supporters say the prosecutions are politically motivated, something the military-backed government denies.
He is one of thousands of Brotherhood members to have been detained in a crackdown portrayed by officials as a struggle against terrorism.
Hundreds of people have also been killed in clashes with security forces.
Mohamed Morsi and the other defendants, including the Brotherhood’s general guide Mohammed Badie and his two deputies, have now been charged with revealing state secrets to foreign organizations, sponsoring terrorism, and carrying out military training and other acts that undermined Egypt’s stability and independence.
Prosecutors allege that the Brotherhood had prepared a “terrorist plan” that included an alliance with Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza, and Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese Shia Islamist movement.
Several of the defendants, including Mohamed Morsi’s former chief of staff Essam Haddad, were also reportedly accused of giving state secrets to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The prosecutors also implicated the Brotherhood in the surge in attacks on the security forces since Mohamed Morsi’s overthrow, most of which have taken place in the Sinai peninsula and been claimed by jihadist militants.
The violence was intended to “bring back the deposed president and to bring Egypt back into the Muslim Brotherhood’s grip”, they claimed.
Last month, Mohamed Morsi went on trial on charges of incitement in connection with clashes between his supporters and opposition protesters outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012, in which at least seven people died.
Proceedings have been adjourned until January 8th, but Mohamed Morsi will also go on trial on December 23rd on separate fraud charges connected with the Brotherhood’s economic and social programme for Egypt’s recovery, called Renaissance (al-Nahda).
BTC China has said that local payment companies have been blocked from providing it with clearing services.
It means that the firm – the world’s biggest Bitcoin exchange in terms of trading volumes – can no longer accept yuan-based deposits.
Prices tumbled following the news.
One bitcoin was trading for as low as 2,560 yuan ($421), according to the South China Morning Post.
That compares with an all-time high of 7,588 yuan ($1,250) in late November.
Exchanges in other countries also reported drops, with Japan-based MtGox seeing the exchange rate for one bitcoin fall from $717 to as low as $480 in Wednesday’s trade.
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The criminal was part of the gang which escaped with £2.6 million – the equivalent of £40 million ($63 million) in today’s money from the Glasgow to London mail train on 8 August 1963.
Ronnie Biggs, Bruce Reynolds, Ronald “Buster” Edwards and the other gang members wore helmets and ski masks to carry out their crime, which took place near Cheddington, Buckinghamshire.
They made off with 120 bags of money totaling £2.6 million.
Ronnie Biggs was given a 30-year sentence but escaped from Wandsworth prison in 1965.
In 2001, he returned to the UK seeking medical help but was sent to prison. He was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after contracting pneumonia.
Ronnie Biggs, who died early on Wednesday, was being cared for at the Carlton Court Care Home in East Barnet, north London.
He could not speak and had difficulty walking after a series of strokes.
Ronnie Biggs was last seen in public at the funeral of his fellow Great Train Robber, Bruce Reynolds, in March.
Christopher Pickard, ghost writer of Ronnie Biggs’s autobiography, said he should be remembered as “one of the great characters of the last 50 years”.
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