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‘I can kill someone with this ring’: Vladimir Putin denies he stole an NFL Super Bowl ring from team owner Robert Kraft
Russian President Vladimir Putin is denying insinuations that he stole New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl ring that’s now on display in the Kremlin, but says he’s ready to buy him another ring as a gift.
Putin was reacting Sunday through a spokesman to a New York Post story quoting remarks made by Kraft at an awards gala at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel last Thursday.
“I took out the ring and showed it to (Putin). And he put it on and he goes, ‘I can kill someone with this ring,”’ Kraft said, as quoted by the Post. “I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out.”
The diamond-encrusted Super Bowl ring worth about $25,000 changed hands while Kraft was visiting St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2005 with an American business delegation that met Putin. At the time, Kraft had said he gave the ring to Putin as a gift. (Photo: Larry Busacca// Anthony Devlin/AFP/Getty Images)
Internet censors up in arms as bloggers note uncanny resemblance between Winnie the Pooh and China’s president
China’s army of Internet censors has picked an unusual target in its battle to wipe dissent from the country’s computer screens: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger.
Following the recent California summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping, Chinese micro-bloggers picked up on an uncanny resemblance between a photograph of the two strolling through the Sunnylands estate and a cartoon image of AA Milne’s cartoon creations. The two images were published side by side this week on the Chinese social media site Weibo.
But the posts were almost immediately “harmonized”, as censors appeared to take exception to the comparison between their president and a podgy bear with a penchant for honey. (Photo: Weibo)
‘Julia Gillard Fried Quail: Small Breasts, Huge Thighs’: Australian PM furious at opposition fundraiser menu
Gender has again taken center stage in Australia’s bitter and drawn-out election campaign after a menu at an opposition fundraiser featured a series of sexually derogatory names for dishes based on Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The menu, posted on Twitter by a journalist, was from a fundraiser for Mal Brough, a minister in former Prime Minister John Howard’s government who is seeking to return to parliament after losing his seat in 2007.
One of the dishes was described as “Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail – Small Breasts, Huge Thighs & A Big Red Box.” (Cameron Spencer / Getty Images)
Meanwhile in Canada (well, North Carolina)… Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, 79, spotted wakeboarding
“He’s a strong man for his age, I can tell you that,” Mr. Luckett said from a dock in Buxton, N.C.
Gawker’s Rob Ford Crackstarter hits its $200,000 goal to buy alleged drug video
Gawker’s “Crackstarter” campaign to crowd-fund the money to purchase the alleged video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine has hit its $200,000 goal.
The campaign was started on May 17, a day after the U.S. website first published a story from its Editor-in-Chief John Cook that reported about the alleged video. Cook flew to Toronto to watch the tape which was shown to him by a pair of people who claimed to be part of the Toronto drug trade. Two reporters from the Toronto Starpublished a story that they had also seen the video.
However, in a note posted on the site, Cook said his confidence in completing a deal to buy the video has “diminished” because the dealer who apparently has it has been incommunicado in recent days.
“The owner of the video is presumably frightened and skittish, and it’s not entirely unreasonable that he would go to ground,” Cook wrote in an update on May 24.
‘I do not use crack cocaine’: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford breaks silence to categorically deny drug report
Breaking a nearly week-long silence, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has denied allegations he smokes crack cocaine or has a drug problem.
“I do not use crack cocaine nor am I an addict of crack cocaine,” Ford said in a statement Friday afternoon. “As for a video, I can’t comment on a video I have never seen or does not exist.”
Ford made the statement to reporters inside a packed room at City Hall. Ford said he stayed quiet for the past week on the advice of his lawyer.
“It is most unfortunate, very unfortunate, that my colleagues and the great people from this city have been exposed to the fact that I’ve been judged by the media without any evidence,” Ford said. (Tyler Anderson / National Post)
Trudeau’s Liberals hit historic highs as senate scandal has ‘drastic effect’ on Tories: poll
With the Conservatives ensnarled in the biggest political scandal in their seven years in government, a new poll suggests Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are en route to winning a massive majority in the next election.
More than four in 10 Canadians, 44%, said they would vote Liberal in the next federal election, according to latest Forum Poll for the National Post, compared to 27% support for the ruling Conservatives and 20% for the opposition NDP.
The Liberals would claim 192 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons with that support, leaving the Tories with 77 and dropping the NDP all the way back to 37. (CP)
‘He’s cleaning up the city by smoking all the crack in it’: U.S. late night TV hosts turn Rob Ford into international laughing stock
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may not have a word to say about the growing crack cocaine video scandal, but U.S. comedians are finding plenty to say about the besieged leader of Canada’s biggest city.
Ford’s alleged crack cocaine use, not to mention his colourful past, was the butt of jokes on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night.
The high-profile airings in the U.S. should only increase the bidding on Gawker’s “Crackstarter” — a crowdfunded attempt to raise $200,000 to buy the alleged video. Bidding topped $107,000 Wednesday morning with six days to go. (YouTube)
Gawker claims to have seen video of Rob Ford using crack cocaine pipe
A published report says a video that appears to show Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine is being shopped around by a group of men allegedly involved in the drug trade.
There was no way to verify the video, however, which was the subject of a report on Gawker on Thursday and then became the subject of numerous stories.
The Toronto Star said two of its reporters watched the video and said it appears to show Ford in a room, sitting in a chair, inhaling from what appears to be a glass crack pipe.
A story on the Star website Friday also alleges Ford makes several disparaging and crude remarks about Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and the high school football team he coaches.
A lawyer retained by Ford, Dennis Morris, told the newspaper that Thursday’s publication by the Gawker website of some details related to the video was “false and defamatory.”
Is this the best way to share your feelings? Yes. Yes, it is.
Philadelphia Eagles guard Evan Mathis responds to the recent IRS scandal by urinating (or fake urinating) on an IRS sign. This is how you change the world, people.
In praise of our own — National Post’s photographer Tyler Anderson won a National Newspaper Award in the News Feature Photography category for this shot of a man sleeping behind a curtain during a speech given by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford at a Toronto Real Estate Board luncheon in Toronto, Ontario, Friday, June 1, 2012. (Tyler Anderson/National Post) — Read more about Mr. Anderson’s NNA win
