Section: Business Insider (USA)
NASA signs $490 mn contract with Russia for ISS travel
Washington (AFP) – NASA has extended a contract with Russia’s space agency for $490 million to carry US astronauts to the International Space Station amid a lack of Congressional funding, the US agency said. The United States will continue to rely exclusively on Russia to take astronauts to the orbiting outpost under the new contract,...
Hollande, Putin reach accord on cancelled warship deal: Paris
Paris (AFP) – French President Francois Hollande’s office said Wednesday he had reached an agreement with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on compensation for failing to deliver two Mistral warships over the Ukraine crisis.The fate of the two helicopter carriers has plagued Franco-Russian ties for more than a year, following...
Athletics doping claims ‘declaration of war’ – Coe
London (AFP) – New doping claims against athletics are a “declaration of war” on the sport, British Olympic great and International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) presidential candidate Sebastian Coe said on Wednesday.”The fightback has to start here,” said Coe in a statement after the Sunday Times and...
Bale scores as Real Madrid meet Bayern in Audi Cup final
Munich (Germany) (AFP) – Gareth Bale scored against former club Tottenham Hotspur as Real Madrid won 2-0 on Tuesday to set up a final against Bayern Munich in the pre-season Audi Cup friendly tournament in Germany.The Wales international was playing against Spurs for the first time since his £85.3m world record transfer to Madrid in...
Nemtsov’s daughter receives million-euro Polish rights prize
Warsaw (AFP) – The journalist daughter of slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov on Tuesday received a million-euro ($1.1 million) Polish prize for championing democracy and human rights.Zhanna Nemtsova, 31, picked up the annual Solidarity Prize at a ceremony in Warsaw, saying she hoped it would inspire many in Russia to believe...
A Navy SEAL-turned-CEO explains why companies are outsourcing in droves
Economies are incentive driven, and the current incentives in America are driving more and more business owners to cut American workers in favor of cheaper hires in Asia, eastern Europe, and elsewhere. I know this because I’m one of them: I own media business that’s content driven, and most of our tech operations are offshore. This...
Western sanctions are hitting Russia harder than people realized
Sanctions linked to the Ukraine crisis could end up costing Russia 9% of its gross domestic product, the International Monetary Fund has said. Russia’s economy is showing signs of stabilisation after slumping under pressure from Western financial sanctions and Russian counter-measures. Low international prices for its oil exports have added...
The changing face of Russia’s emblematic matryoshka dolls
Moscow (AFP) – From cheery peasant girls in Tsarist times to Soviet-era cosmonauts to today’s Pussy Riots, the changing face of Russia’s matryoshka nesting dolls reflects the country’s tumultuous history.For tourists the dolls inside dolls that generally depict a buxom woman in a coloured headscarf are a must-buy souvenir...
This is how the FBI hunts down the world’s most notorious cyber-criminals
Cyber-attacks are ten a penny now, and the FBI and other authorities that investigate these crimes around the world have many hurdles to cross if they want to catch a hacker. Police forces can often be hindered by the dark web and anonymizing tools used by cyber-criminals to cover their tracks, but there are also political barriers in arresting...
Everyone around Joe Biden is discussing a presidential run, but the vice president hasn’t made any decision yet
Vice President Joe Biden’s associates have resumed discussions about a 2016 presidential run after largely shelving such deliberations while his son was sick and dying earlier this year. But Biden has yet to tell his staff whether he will run or personally ask them to do any planning for a potential campaign, according to several people...
