‘Putin was a wife-beater, love cheat’
LONDON: Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has been accused by a German spy agency of being a “wife-beater” and having many “sexual affairs” while he himself was a spy in the KGB, a media report said on Thursday.
Putin headed Soviet intelligence operations in the then East German city of Dresden from 1985 to 1990, the Daily Mail.
Secret files from West German spy agency BND published in the German media now claim an interpreter agent befriended Putin’s wife Lyudmila, who spoke about her marriage with Vladimir Putin.
She reportedly told the agent her husband used “domestic violence and had numerous sexual affairs” , the daily said. The secret files were discovered by BND expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom , author of several books on the spy agency. “This report gives added nourishment to the rumour that Vladimir Putin left in his black Volga limousine in the spring of 1990 allegedly leaving an illegitimate baby behind,” says a report in German newspaper Bild. (IANS)
SA gifts one ton oranges to ‘7th-billionth’ baby
Kaliningrad: South Africa’s Citrus Growers’ Association has granted a gift certificate of a ton oranges to the mother of newborn Pyotr Nikolayev from Kaliningrad, who is being recognised as the seven-billionth person.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Russia’s Federal Service for State Statistics decided that seven-billionth person honours would go to the first baby born Oct 31, 2011, since it would be impossible to determine the actual baby who put the planet’s population over seven billion.
The association’s representative in Russia, Irina Merkel, arrived at Kaliningrad’s maternity centre and handed Pyotr’s mother, 36-year-old Yelena Nikolayeva, the certificate, along with flowers and a token baskets of oranges.
“We are granting Petya’s [Pyotr’s] parents a certificate for seventy 15-kg boxes of oranges, they can get them in any of our chain’s stores in the Kaliningrad. We have not set a deadline, so Pyotr’s parents can get the oranges whenever they want,” Merkel said.
The newborn Pyotr is the family’s third child, as his parents already have a son and a daughter.
Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Kaliningrad maternity center where Pyotr was born.
The UN has not formally designated a seven-billionth inhabitant and many different countries have marked the event. (IANS)
Ukraine to build shelters for stray dogs
Kiev: Ukraine will build shelters for stray dogs in big cities ahead of the Euro 2012 football championship, the government has announced.
“It is extremely important for Ukraine to solve the problem of stray dogs in a civilised manner. This case become topical on the eve of the Euro-2012,” Mykola Zlochevsky, minister of environment and natural resources, was quoted as saying.
The new shelters will be built in accordance with European animal asylums. They will first start in the capital Kiev.
Stray dogs have been a big problem in Ukraine. It is estimated that nearly 30,000 dogs run loose in Kiev. (IANS)
San Francisco slaps ban on naked dining
Melbourne: Its tolerant and liberal image notwithstanding, San Francisco has banned naked dining in public.
The Board of Supervisors for the city have introduced new rules that puts a ban on nudists from dining in public and forces them to place a cover on any public surface they sit on.
The law has been introduced by supervisor Scott Weiner.
“We did hear from folks in the neighbourhood that these are actually tangible issues that are happening in the Castro and so the legislation is important for that reason,” the Courier Mail quoted him as telling the San Francisco Examiner.
“I”m not a health expert, but I believe sitting nude in a public place is not sanitary,” he was quoted in September on introducing the ordinance. “Would you want to sit on a seat where someone had been sitting naked? I think most people would say no.” (ANI)
Window cleaners plunge to death
Beijing: Two window cleaners in China fell to their death from the 22nd floor after their safety rope snapped.
The accident took place in Shanghai.
“I heard a bang as I was preparing to go out,” a local said.
Police said the workers fell from the 22nd floor while cleaning the glass. (IANS)