UN withdraws from Libya, Angara rocket successfully takes off, Goods with vegetable fats will not be called dairy, Wild World Cup bets pay off, Edward Snowden applies to extend stay in Russia, Second German government worker suspected of spying for US.
Due to deteriorating situation in the country, the United Nations has evacuated a number of its representatives from Libya. Stéphane Dujarric, the Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said that around 60% of the UN mission to Libya have been relocated to Italy. According to the spokesperson, this is a temporary measure and it will be reconsidered as soon as the situation in the country improves. The newspaper talked with an expert on Libya from Human Rights Watch, Hannah Sala, who said that the country has a very weak police and military force. On the other hand, rebel groups formed after the revolution of 2011 retain strength. In the last two years embassies of the United States, France and Russia have been attacked by militants. An assault on the American embassy led to the death of the ambassador and three diplomatic workers, she noted, adding that the UN’s concerns are well-grounded. The new wave of violence began July 7 in downtown Tripoli, when a renowned Sufi imam Tarek Abbas was kidnapped, the newspaper reminds.
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Due to deteriorating situation in the country, the United Nations has evacuated a number of its representatives from Libya. Stéphane Dujarric, the Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said that around 60% of the UN mission to Libya have been relocated to Italy. According to the spokesperson, this is a temporary measure and it will be reconsidered as soon as the situation in the country improves. The newspaper talked with an expert on Libya from Human Rights Watch, Hannah Sala, who said that the country has a very weak police and military force. On the other hand, rebel groups formed after the revolution of 2011 retain strength. In the last two years embassies of the United States, France and Russia have been attacked by militants. An assault on the American embassy led to the death of the ambassador and three diplomatic workers, she noted, adding that the UN’s concerns are well-grounded. The new wave of violence began July 7 in downtown Tripoli, when a renowned Sufi imam Tarek Abbas was kidnapped, the newspaper reminds.
After 22 years of research, design and launch attempts, the Russian Angara rocket has finally taken off. The launch commenced at 4pm on Wednesday at the Plesetsk cosmodrome. Moskovskiy Komsomolets notes that it took the rocket five unsuccessful attempts to fly into the sky; perhaps this is why the launch was not highly publicized and a representative of Roscomsos, Russia’s Space Agency, only told the daily that it was the beginning of test flights. The newspaper reminds that the latest launch attempt ended up in failure June 27. There was no live feed of the launch or even an official announcement ahead of the flight. According to an unspoken order issued by the Defense Ministry the space agency press service contacted journalists only after the Angara booster landed on the Kamchatka peninsula. According to information provided by one of the manufacturers working on the rocket, the June 27 failure was caused by depressurization in the oxidizer dampener pressure chamber. Experts confirmed that it was possible that this was caused by damage incurred during installation of the rocket at the launch pad.
Russia’s Agriculture Ministry has started working on prohibits the use of word ‘diary’ when denoting goods containing vegetable fats. The agency has proposed amendments to the Customs Union’s technical regulations for product labeling. Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports that according to Vladimir Labinov, head of the Livestock Breeding Department of the Agriculture Ministry the new laws can come into force as early as next year. For now regulation permit using ‘dairy’ and derivative terms, such as 'cheese' or 'sour cream' when labeling products containing non-dairy fats. However, the regulator believes that producers have to only use markings denoting consistency of the content, such as 'paste' or 'cream'. The spokesman said that the amendments can be adopted after coordination with other member states of the Customs Union – Belarus and Kazakhstan, admitting that speed with which the initiative comes to fruition largely depends on strength of opponents. The daily notes that according to experts currently at least 30% of foodstuffs sold as ‘sour cream’ contain vegetable fats. As far as ice cream or cheese go, the ratio of products based on vegetable, not dairy fats, is 60 to 70 per cent, which confuses consumers.
A Russian woman won 223,000 rubles (over sixty five hundred dollars) by correctly guessing that Brazil would be devastated 7-1 by Germany on Tuesday, The Moscow Times reports. The daily notes that the win was reported on Facebook by an employee of Russian search engine Yandex, who identified the winner as a colleague. The woman bet just 100 rubles – less than three dollars – with the odds of 2,230 to 1. These odds were worse than what the British bookies were offering, according to The Guardian. It was reported that a total of four Brits bet on the unexpected result of the World Cup semi-final against odds ranging from 300:1 to 500:1, the British newspaper wrote Wednesday. The Moscow Times highlights that Britain outmatches Russia for risk-takers: Only three people in Russia bet on the 7-1 outcome the Russian winner's colleague said. While the post announcing the winning was swiftly deleted, the newspaper states that its authenticity was confirmed. On the other hand, his information could not be independently verified as poster declined to provide further information or identify the bookmaker, the article admits.
The Guardian reports that German authorities are investigating the second case of a government employee suspected of spying on confidential government affairs for US secret services within a week. Public prosecutors confirmed that the home and office of a defense ministry employee in the greater Berlin area had been searched on Wednesday morning. Officials told the daily that a search had been conducted "under suspicion of secret agent activity" and that evidence – including computers and several data storage devices – had been seized for analysis. The federal prosecutor's office confirmed that no arrest had yet been made. According to Die Welt newspaper, the staffer being investigated is a soldier who had caught the attention of the German military counter-intelligence service after establishing regular contact with people thought to be working for a US secret agency. The Guardian reminds that the news came just days after a member of the German intelligence agency BND confessed to having passed more than 200 confidential files to a contact at the CIA.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has decided to stay in Russia for now as long as authorities are willing to allow it, The Washington Post writes. Snowden's attorney in Russia Anatoly Kucherena, announced on Wednesday that he and his client "have submitted documents for extending his stay in Russia" past when his temporary asylum is set to expire July 31, the daily reports, reminding that the Russian government granted Snowden asylum for a year last summer after he became stranded in a Moscow airport trying to fly from Hong Kong to Cuba. He could not continue his initially planned journey to South America as the U.S. officials had revoked his passport and charged him with espionage and theft of government property. He could face up to 10 years in prison for each crime. A recent investigation conducted by the newspaper revealed that the United States still doesn't know exactly where Snowden lives in Russia or how much regular contact he has with the Russian security services.
