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Tag: Russia

  • Edward Snowden Releases First Statement Since Landing In Moscow

    Edward Snowden, the man behind the recent NSA spy program leaks, is the most wanted man in the world at the moment. The U.S. government is doing everything it can to bring him back while journalists are still scouring a Moscow airport looking for him. Nobody knows where or how he is, but he’s apparently well enough to release a statement via Wikileaks.

    Here’s the full text:

    One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.

    On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic “wheeling and dealing” over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

    This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.

    For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

    In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.

    I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

    As the Huffington Post pointed out, Snowden’s statement is a little strange. There are a few times where European English is used instead of the American English that would expect from Snowden. Some are even suggesting that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange wrote the statement.

    Now, we don’t know if that’s the case or not, but we do know that the statement did go through Wikileaks. An editor could have changed some of the wording to match their writing style. We just don’t know, and we won’t know until Snowden decides to stop being the hide and seek world champion.

    In other Snowden news, Wikileaks’ Sarah Harrison is now delivering asylum requests on his behalf to embassies in Moscow. She’s attempting to get one of the following countries to grant Snowden’s asylum requests – Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela.

    There have been no responses from any of these countries yet, but they have already pulled their asylum request from Russia after the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, said that Snowden could stay in Russia as long as he stops “his activities aimed at inflicting damage to our American partners.”

    If it isn’t obvious already, Snowden and his partners have no intention of stopping just yet. The Washington Post published another round of PRISM leaks over the weekend, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw more surveillance leaks in the coming week as well.

  • Pride Parade in Russia Leads to Arrests

    Pride Parades in the U.S. this weekend come hot on the heels of victories for marriage equality advocates. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 to be unconstitutional. Proposition 8 in California, which banned same-sex marriage in that state, was confirmed to also be unconstitutional. But even without the extra victories for marriage equality in the U.S. this past week, Pride Parades have become fairly passé on our landscape. In the past they were unusual events, avoided by and bewildering to straights. Nowadays just as many straights attend, march, observe and celebrate as gays.

    But the more things change, the more they stay the same. In Russia this weekend, a group of about 40 gay rights activists were gathered at a rally in a place that is designated as space for public demonstrations. Having such a space may seem in itself to be a great advance for Russia. But using it to demonstrate for gay rights is not allowed. Police reportedly arrested dozens of people at the rally.

    The arrests came on the heels of a newer statue in Russia that prohibits any public displays of homosexuality, as well as talking about it to children. Anyone violating the law is subject to arrest and fines, including media organizations who may report on it.

    There is a widespread hostility toward homosexuality in Russia. Some blame it for the low birth rates in that country. Some further say that gay persons should be barred from government jobs, be subjected to forced medical treatment or even be forced to leave the country.

    Activists have tried to draw attention to their cause in ways that are would not be considered too hostile or salacious, allowing them media coverage without endangering the media organizations that might report on it. For example, several gay and lesbian couples tried to marry at a local registry office, knowing they would be turned away by authorities.

  • Next Angry Birds Update is Russian-Themed

    Next Angry Birds Update is Russian-Themed

    Though the Angry Birds brand has embraced new seasons, movie tie-ins, and even Star Wars, all of the game series’ success can be traced back to the original Angry Birds game. Released in 2009, the game dominated Apple’s App Store games and has spawned a multi-million dollar brand with cartoons, plush toys, and even a movie. What’s remarkable is that after over four years, Rovio is still supporting that original game with updates.

    Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds, this week announced that the next “episode” of the original Angry Birds game will have a Russian theme. Titled “Red’s Mighty Feathers,” the episode will feature 15 new levels that highlight the original Angry Bird – the Red Bird. The update will be pushed out to Angry Birds apps sometime in July.

    To celebrate the announcement, Rovio held a concert in the Red Square in Moscow, Russia. The video below shows some of the festivities. Also, Rovio has put all of its Red Bird merchandise (including t-shirts, backpacks, hats, golf club covers, towels, headphones, umbrellas, lunch boxes, and flip flops) in its online store on sale.

  • Edward Snowden Will Release NSA Documents If He’s Caught

    Over the past month, a number of NSA spy programs have been revealed thanks to some leaked documents that came from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. It appears that he’s not done leaking either, and things could get much interesting if he’s caught.

    Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist that wrote the original stories on the NSA surveillance program, told The Daily Beast that Snowden has an insurance file that contains all of the documents that he took from the NSA. The files have been given to “many different people around the world” to ensure that the “stories will inevitably be published.”

    To make things more interesting, the files that Snowden shared are all heavily encrypted. Those who have the files can not open them without the password and those passwords are hidden even from them. It’s not known how the information will be accessed, but Snowden apparently will give them full access in the event that something happens to him.

    In the meantime, Greenwald will continue to work through the thousands of documents that Snowden gave to him. He’s not going to “gratuitously publish thing” as he believes that would do more harm than good. Instead, he will be very selective in what he publishes making sure to avoid documents that detail the technical specifications of NSA systems or harm individuals within the CIA and NSA.

    As for Snowden, he’s still in Russia. To be more specific, he’s hiding out in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport since he can’t leave the transit zone on account of his passport being made invalid. In this situation, Russia could easily hand over Snowden to U.S. authorities, but Russian President Vladimir Putin says that his country doesn’t have an extradition treaty with U.S. In other words, there is no legal basis for Russia to extradite Snowden, but Putin would like Snowden to leave Russia at his earliest convenience because “it is better for us and for him.”

    Well, Snowden may leave Russia sooner rather than later, but the saga of the most wanted man on the planet isn’t going to end anytime soon. This is one for the history books, and possibly even a movie.

  • Edward Snowden Is Now In Russia, Is Seeking Asylum In Ecuador

    Edward Snowden, the man behind a series of leaks that exposed NSA spy programs, is now on the run from the U.S. He was originally lying low in Hong Kong, but now he’s going to try the Wikileaks escape route.

    The Guardian reports that Snowden has hopped on a plane from Hong Kong to Moscow. From there, he’s planning on making his way to Ecuador. You may recall that Ecuador had previously granted asylum to Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange.

    Before he can get to Ecuador, however, Snowden must be approved for asylum by the government. The country’s foreign minister has received his asylum request, and now he’s reportedly in talks with an Ecuadorian diplomat in the Moscow airport. Assange, who is currently living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, is also petitioning the Ecuadorian government on Snowden’s behalf.

    Of course, all of this raises a question – how did Snowden get out of Hong Kong in the first place? The U.S. put in a request to have him returned to the U.S., but that request was denied after it was found that the U.S. “did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law.”

    To add insult to injury, Hong Kong officials did not notify the U.S. that Snowden had left the city for Moscow until five hours after. The reason? Snowden leaked that the U.S. government regularly hacks computer systems in Hong Kong. In its statement, the Hong Kong government says that it has requested “clarification on reports about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by U.S. government agencies.”

    So, where does all of this leave us? Snowden will be holed up inside a Moscow airport for a while until he can figure out a way to leave the country. That’s going to be problematic as his passport was revoked and he does not have a Russian visa. The Russian government may intervene on his behalf, however, as it has indicated that it may offer him asylum itself. He may very well be discussing that right now as his plane to Cuba, and then Ecuador, was found to not have him on it.

  • Gay Pride Fines Law Passes Russian Parliament

    Gay pride is a dangerous thing to publicize in many parts of the world. Now those who want to do so in Russia will face heavy fines.

    Fox News reports that the lower house of Russian parliament has approved a law that would fine those who publicly display gay pride. The bill was overwhelmingly approved with 436 members voting in favor, none voting against, and only one – Ilya Ponomaryov – abstained from the vote.

    Officially, the law calls for a ban on “propaganda of nontraditional sexual values.” If put into effect, the law would ban groups from handing out LGBT information and holding gay pride rallies. Both President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church have come out in favor of the law. They both blame homosexuals for Russia’s declining birth rate, a degradation of values, and a general resistance towards authority.

    It’s reported that many members of the Russian homosexual community attempted to protest outside of parliament as the bill was being debated, but were soon attacked by Orthodox Christians and groups loyal to Putin. The police soon moved in and arrested the protesters. There were also reports saying members of the homosexual community were beaten by masked men on another street.

    The bill’s passage has been decried by LGBT and human rights groups around the world. Those groups may find themselves in trouble, however, if they decide to move in and help protesters. The bill as it stands allows the government to arrest and deport any foreigners spreading “homosexual propaganda” in Russia.

  • Russian Navy To Have Permanent Presence Near Syria

    The Russian Navy has always had a presence in the Mediterranean, but now it has the go ahead to stick around permanently.

    Bloomberg reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has endorsed his Navy’s plan to stick around the Mediterranean Sea. More importantly, the Navy will be able to stay close to Syria – a region that’s been embroiled in a bloody civil war for three years now. It’s said that 16 ships in total will be stationed in the region.

    So, why is the Russian Navy staking a permanent presence in the region? Putin says it’s to maintain national security:

    “This is a strategically important region. We have our national interests here, linked to the need to maintain national security. Resuming a permanent Russian military naval presence in the Mediterranean sea isn’t saber rattling.”

    The move isn’t all too surprising considering that Russia has been regularly patrolling the area around Syria since fighting broke out in 2010. Earlier this year, the Russian Navy also took part in an exercise involving 36 warships.

    Putin says the large scale deployment and permanent presence doesn’t equate to “saber rattling,” but that’s not going to convince some. Those who lived during the Cold War will remember that the Soviet Union stationed its Navy at a Syrian port that’s still staffed by Russian naval crews to this day. The port is likely to see a lot more use very soon.

    This isn’t the first time in recent memory that Russia’s Navy has been on the move. The country announced over the weekend that it would resume patrols of Southern waters with its fleet of nuclear submarines.

  • Russian Nuclear Submarines To Resume Patrols Of Southern Waters

    Russia’s nuclear submarines have not been spotted in Southern waters for more than 20 years. That’s all going to change soon.

    Reuters reports that Russia plans to send multiple nuclear submarines to the Southern hemisphere. It will be the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union that the country has sent its nuclear submarines to the South.

    An unnamed military official said the reason for the deployment in the South is merely for deterrence reasons. It’s a pretty good deterrent as Russia’s nuclear submarines are capable of carrying 16 long-range nuclear missiles.

    Of course, it’s not like Russia is just going to send a fleet of nuclear submarines right now. The country is going to send them in waves over many years.

    Still, Russia sending nuclear submarines to the Southern hemisphere is likely to raise concerns among certain countries. That’s the goal with deterrence, however, and it will likely work. Russia has the second most number of active nuclear warheads in the world, trailing only behind the U.S. Both countries still have enough weapons to decimate the entire world so the country is unlikely to see any aggression directed towards it from Southern actors once these submarines are deployed.

    [Image: Bellona]

  • Beaver Kills Fisherman By Biting Him To Death

    A man in Belarus–which is located between Russia and Poland–has died after a beaver literally bit him to death.

    The man, who was on his way to a fishing trip with friends, spotted the large animal on the side of the road as they made their way towards the lake and stopped to have his picture taken with it. But when he picked it up, the beaver attacked and began biting him, eventually slicing open a large artery in his leg. The 60-year old man bled to death before his friends could get help.

    “The character of the wound was totally shocking,” said the village doctor Leonty Sulim. “We had never run into anything like this before.”

    Beaver attacks are not uncommon in Belarus, though the latest victim is the only person known to have died from one. Locals say the animals are growing exponentially in population–up to 80,000 in Belarus alone–and are fiercely protective of their young, which makes them vicious.

    Wildlife experts say they’ve seen a rash of beaver-related incidents involving humans because the animals are moving further away from wooded areas as their numbers grow.

    Below is a separate beaver attack, filmed in Russia.

  • 8.2 Quake Hits Eastern Russia, No Deaths Reported

    A magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck in the Sea of Okhotsk of Friday. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the epicenter of the quake was located just off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far eastern part of the country. The massive quake was followed by a smaller (but still very large) magnitude 6.8 aftershock further out in the Sea of Okhotsk.

    The quakes occurred deep in the Earth, with both centered at a depth of more than 600 km (about 372 miles). Neither the USGS’s West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center nor its Pacific Tsunami Warning Center have issued tsunami warnings connected to the Okhotsk quakes. No deaths have been reported as a result of the quakes.

    Several large earthquakes have been reported in the past two months. In April 2013, an 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Iran caused extensive damage to rural communities in neighboring Pakistan. That massive quake was followed within days by a quake in Papua new Guinea that was measured at magnitude 6.8, a quake in northern Japan that was measured at magnitude 7.2, and another Papua New Guinea quake measured at magnitude 6.4.

  • Moscow Attack Foiled, Two Suspects Killed In Shootout

    A terrorist attack in Moscow was foiled after Russian security forces engaged in a firefight with the alleged militants.

    Sky News reports that two terror suspects were killed and a third captured after a shootout that took place in the town of Orekhovo-Zuyevo. The town is 85km east of Moscow, but Russian intelligence claims that the three people were planning on attacking Moscow in an unspecified manner.

    Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee released the following statement:

    “Our forceful actions prevented an attempted act of terror in the capital. These criminals, who are citizens of the Russian Federation, came from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, where they received training and preparation to commit a terrorist act. In the exchange of fire two of them were killed and one detained. A special forces officer was slightly wounded.”

    Other details have since emerged claiming that the militants were trained in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. The nationalities of those killed and arrested were not revealed though.

    Most terrorist attacks in Russia are carried out by radical militant groups in territories under Russian control. The last major attack from one of these groups was a 2011 suicide bombing in Moscow that killed 37 people.

  • Russian Dash Cam Catches Insane Car Flip [VIDEO]

    Just when you thought Russian dash cams couldn’t possibly catch anything more insane than we’ve already seen, this clip, dated May 13th, comes along and forces a complete O_O.

    If you want to skip right to it, go to about 30 seconds in. There, you’ll see a car launched at least 20 feet into the air, flip, and land off-camera.

    If you’re looking for a Russian dash cam video that doesn’t scare the crap out you, check out this clip that captures to good in humanity.

    [via reddit]

  • Russian Dash Cams Sometimes Capture the Good in Humanity, See?

    Russia’s numerous highways and byways have a reputation of being full of crazy stuff. Much of the reputation is perpetuated by the omnipresent Russian dash cam, which seems to be attached to about every single automobile in Russia. Search YouTube for Russian dash cam, you’ll see what I mean.

    But it’s not all explosions, crashes and such on Russian roads. Good stuff is happening too, as this beautiful compilation proves. Sure, there’s still a lot of crazy stuff happening, even when we see a good samaritan helping out his fellow man – but this is better than most of those videos you’ve seen, right?

    [ArkadiYM93 via reddit]

  • 38 Die In Mental Hospital; Fire Investigation Underway

    38 people died in a horrific fire at a mental hospital just outside Moscow on Thursday night, officials say. The cause is believed to be a short circuit in the wiring.

    Of the victims, 36 were patients and two were doctors. It’s been reported that only three people managed to escape the one-story building; fire officials are investigating the cause, but say it appears to have originated in a wooden annex of the hospital before spreading to the patient area. Because most of them were under heavy sedation, the victims were tragically burned alive in their beds.

    In an unfortunate turn of events, not only did the fire spread quickly because of the wooden structure of the building, but firefighters were delayed arriving on the scene by more than an hour because they were forced to make a detour.

    The Emergency Ministry is looking into fire safety protocol as Russia has a notoriously tragic past; about 12,000 deaths were reported in 2012 alone.

    Image: Ministry for Emergency Situations

  • Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Tells Authorities Tamerlan Masterminded Boston Bombing

    The remaining suspect in the Boston bombings is blaming the whole thing on the dead suspect.

    Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been talking to authorities (or writing rather, as he can’t talk because of a gunshot wound to the throat), and says that his brother, the late Tamerlan Tsarnaev, masterminded the whole thing.

    According to a report from CNN, Tsarnaev told authorities that there is not any international terrorist group involved, and that his brother orchestrated the attack. CNN’s Jake Tapper and Matt Smith report:

    Tsarnaev has conveyed to investigators that Tamerlan’s motivation stemmed from jihadist thought and the idea that Islam is under attack, and jihadists need to fight back, the source said Monday.

    The government source cautioned that the interviews were preliminary, and that Tsarnaev’s account needs to be checked out and followed up on by investigators.

    So far, officials have not found evidence that the suspects collaborated with other people on the attacks, though Tamerlan had taken a long trip to Russia last year. The details of this trip are unclear, though he had posted and taken down a YouTube video of Islamic militant Abu Dujana, who was killed in a gun battle with Russian security forces a few months after Tamerlan’s trip.

    Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged on Monday with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction (an improvised explosive device) against persons and property within the United States resulting in death, and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death. He could face, upon conviction, the death penalty or life imprisonment.

    More details about Tsarnaev’s conversations with authorities will no doubt emerge in time.

  • 7.2 Quake Off Japan Rocks Northern Islands

    It seems that the planet’s recent surge of large earthquakes isn’t quite over. The U.S. Geological Survey has recorded a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that shook the islands North of Japan on Friday morning.

    The quake was centered around 250 km (155 miles) Northeast of the town of Kuril’sk, Russia and 521 km (324 miles) Northeast of Nemuro, Japan. Kuril’sk is located on the string of islands located Northeast of Japan, and Nemuro is one of the Easternmost cities on the Japanese mainland. No damage has been reported as a result of the quake.

    The National Weather Service’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has not issued a warning as a result of the earthquake, and neither has the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.

    Earlier this week, over two consecutive days, earthquakes hit Iran and Papua New Guinea. The earthquake that hit Iran was measured at a 7.8 magnitude on the Richter scale and caused multiple fatalities in a rural area of Pakistan. The 6.6-magnitude earthquake in Papua New Guinea caused no reported injuries.

  • Yandex Announces Homepage Redesign

    Yandex Announces Homepage Redesign

    Russian search leader Yandex announced a redesign of its homepage today. The goal, according to the company, was to make the most relevant information more visible and more easily accessible.

    The page is less cluttered than previous versions (you can see them all here), and has less text. They’ve replaced images with blocks of text, and placed related items together. News from big media outlets, for example, are now placed with news from blogs.

    “We have moved the most popular services to a more visible position and our specialist services went to the background – for example, Yandex.Mail is now in a more prominent spot, while Yandex.Direct and Yandex.Metrica have moved down to the bottom of the page,” the company explains. “The Yandex.Maps feature has been expanded, so that users can now find the nearest pharmacy or cafe with one click, along with taxis, public transport routes and panoramas. As a result, the homepage is both simpler and more functional.”

    According to Yandex, the new page is up to 50% faster than the previous one.

    “Yandex is both a search engine and the gateway to the internet for millions of people,” said Vera Leyzerovich, head of desktop and mobile products at Yandex. “On the homepage, besides the search bar, users are accustomed to seeing information that they need every day – news, weather, exchange rates, the traffic situation. But the more data it includes, the harder it is to navigate. On the new version, we have retained the emphasis on search and kept the page informative and familiar for its users, but at the same time we have made it clear and uncluttered, so people will enjoy visiting it again and again.”

    A report came out earlier this year that Yandex had surpassed Bing in search queries.

  • Kate Upton Look-Alike Imitates Swimsuit Cover Pic

    Kate Upton has once again graced the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue, this time wearing a revealing parka and not much else on the 2013 swimsuit issue cover.

    The pic, of course, has been much imitated since it was revealed, with women using their winter coats to “tastefully” show off their cleavage and abs. However, the pic has probably not been recreated as well as by this Russian beauty, who was brave enough to publicly tweet a picture of her attempt to Twitter. The tweet was quickly re-tweeted by Kate Upton herself, making Ania famous overnight.

    Now that Ania has proven she is a dead ringer for the world’s current most popular supermodel, Sports Illustrated took the time to interview the Upton doppelganger. Ania, revealed that she decided to take the photo because she had been told she looks like the model, and because she owned the exact same coat Upton was wearing on the SI cover. It remains to be seen whether Ania can dance the Cat Daddy as well as Upton.

    (image)

    Ania didn’t expect anyone but her friends to see the photo, but seems ok with the attention she’s drawn. The retweets and comments about her photo were, predictably, about the most prominent (and lighted) part of the pic:

  • Yandex Launches Its Own Android App Store With Only Apps Verified By Kaspersky Lab

    Yandex announed today that it has launched a new app store for Android at Yandex.Store. It has over 50,000 paid and free apps.

    “Yandex.Store is a global product and it is already available in eight languages for users around the world,” said Alexander Zverev, Head of Yandex.Store. “We welcome app developers to publish their apps to Yandex.Store and look forward to working with device manufacturers from around the world who wish to install Yandex.Store on their devices. The global market for Android-based mobile phones is very fragmented. There are only a few major players who enjoy a meaningful share, with the remaining portion of the market distributed among hundreds of smaller companies. We are joining the game to contribute to competition that ensures freedom of choice for the end user and other members of the market.”

    Payments in the store go through Yandex’s Yandex.money service, and all of the apps are verified by Kaspersky Lab.

    “The Android app stores are a magnet for malware developers. The platform’s popularity and the fact that its source code is publicly available made Android a popular target for malicious attacks – 99% of all malware detected on mobile devices in 2012 were aimed at Android smartphones,” says Petr Merkulov, Director of Products and Services Development, Kaspersky Lab. “We provide comprehensive anti-virus protection for Yandex.Store by integrating our special Kaspersky Anti-Virus SDK.”

    Device manufacturers can integrate Yandex’s app store into their devices and get a share of the revenues.

  • Yandex Launches Cab Fare Payments Service

    Russian search company Yandex, who had some major social search plans in the U.S. fall apart last month, has now launched a new cab fare payments service via itsYandex.Taxi iPhone app, which allows users to pay with a bankcard, even if the taxi itself isn’t equipped with a card terminal.

    “In many countries it’s possible to pay for practically anything with a bankcard, and in Russia it’s gradually becoming the norm as well, especially in big cities,” said Lev Volozh, head of the Yandex.Taxi service. “People enjoy the convenience of using bankcards to make payments in shops, restaurants and at the cinema ¬– but in Moscow there are still very few taxis equipped to take bankcards. With the help of our service, people can pay for their taxi ride whichever way suits them best – by cash or by card.”

    “Thanks to the new service’s integration with Yandex.Money, users can be confident that their transaction will be fast and secure: they can pay by card without actually handing their card to the driver or disclosing their card details to the taxi company,” Yandex says in its announcement. “Yandex.Money has been working with bankcards for a long time and has a strong track record, having processed millions of transactions, including payments to many transportation providers. Yandex.Money can already be used to buy plane, train and intercity bus tickets.”

    The service, for now, is only available in Moscow, but the company says it will soon launch in other cities and on other mobile platforms. It will also come to taxi.yandex.ru.

    Yandex reported fourth-quarter earnings this week, missing estimates for profits. The company leads in Google in search market share in Russia, with over 60% of the market.

    Earlier this month, numbers from comScore showed that Yandex is actually leading Bing worldwide in terms of search queries.

  • Russia Meteor Blast Being Assessed by the ESA

    Last week, as astronomers around the world turned their attention toward the passing asteroid 2012 DA14, a meteorite entered Earth’s atmosphere and broke up over Chelyabinsk, Russia. The blast shattered windows and injured hundreds in the small town.

    The European Space Agency (ESA) today announced that it is studying the event, which isn’t quite as rare as humans might hope. Astronomers predict an event of this sort may happen every “several of tens to 100 years.”

    This particular meteorite was around 17 meters wide when it entered Earth’s atmosphere, traveling at around 18 kilometers per second (around 40,000 miles per hour). It exploded around 15 to 20 kilometers above the planets surface with the force of a 500 kiloton bomb. That’s around 30 times the energy released by the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima.

    In a statement, Detlef Koschny, head of the Near-Earth Object activity division of the ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program, said that the meteorite was unrelated to the passing of 2012 DA14. This was determined due to the trajectory of the meteorite and the time of its impact in relation to the passing asteroid.

    “The terminal part of the explosion probably likely occurred almost directly over Chelyabinsk. This was perhaps the single greatest contributor to the blast damage,” said Koschny. “As the explosion and fireball progressed along a shallow trajectory, the cylindrical blast wave would have propagated directly to the ground and would have been intense.”

    Koschny stated that the airburst was the likely cause of most of the damage seen, and that window damage is expected starting at air pressures of 10 to 20 times normal air pressure.

    (Image courtesy Eumetsat/ESA)