The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Washington returns Russian documents penned by last tsars Posted: 13 Jun 2013 10:18 PM PDT  MOSCOW, June 13 — The United States has returned documents written by Russia's last tsars and composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky that had been smuggled into the West after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The documents were spirited out of Russia in the early 1990s — some of them in shipping containers from St Petersburg shipyards — and sent to the US where they were recovered in New York, Chicago and Atlanta at auction houses. "You need to remember what ... the 1990s was like. One state ceased to exist and the new state was barely functioning. If it weren't for the investigation, none of these documents would have been returned," said the head of Russia's State Archive agency, Andrei Artizov. Relations between the US and Russia have been strained since President Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency last year, and both countries are seeking to improve ties that range from intelligence sharing to cooperation over logistical help as NATO-led forces pull out of Afghanistan. The documents, returned yesterday, included handwritten orders by Tsarina Catherine the Great and by the empire's last Tsar Nicholas II (picture), who was deposed by Bolsheviks in 1917. A personal letter written by Tchaikovsky to 19th century writer Konstantin Zvantsev was also among the papers. Artizov said US and Russian authorities had worked over the last six years to recover more than 100 historical artefacts that had been smuggled out of Russia in the chaos that followed the fall of the Soviet Union. He said two criminal cases had been opened into how the documents were stolen from Russian artistic, historical and military archives and that one of the men behind the crime had been identified and was living in Israel. — Reuters |
| Jellyfish ‘ambush’ ends Australian woman’s record Cuba-US swim Posted: 13 Jun 2013 08:36 PM PDT
"It felt like explosions hitting my body," she told reporters yesterday after returning to Key West. McCardel, 28, was pulled from the water on Wednesday night. She said the stings were so numerous she was paralysed from the waist down by the pain and forced to gave up the attempt 11 hours into the 103 mile (166 km) marathon swim. Despite being stung repeatedly on her arms, legs and back by venomous box jellyfish tentacles McCardel kept going for 20 to 30 minutes, said team spokesman, Matt Nelson. When crew members saw her trying to remove a tentacle from her face and mouth, one of her team jumped into the water to help, but the damage was done. Aboard one of the team's support vessels, McCardel's husband and crew chief, Paul McCardel, decided it was too risky to continue and ordered her out of the water. "We were worried about breathing issues. It just got too dangerous," Nelson said. Unlike bee stings, jellyfish tentacles keep stinging as long as they are in contact with the skin. "The tentacles wrap around you and they have to be peeled off," he said. McCardel said she did not remember being stung in the mouth but was unable to speak for three hours after being pulled out of the water on Wednesday. Jellyfish, not sharks, had been the team's biggest concern all along. "You can't see them, they are translucent and they can just ambush you in the middle of the night," said Nelson. McCardel had a team of scientists in the United States to help guide her through the powerful and unpredictable current that has stymied many previous attempts, and was aware of the hazards posed by jellyfish.
She said that before she left for Cuba, US Customs officials confiscated an experimental ointment to prevent jellyfish stings supplied to her team. McCardel plunged into a calm, crystal-clear sea at Havana's Hemingway Marina early in the morning, hoping to cross the Straits of Florida in about 60 hours and reach Key West today. Her swim was timed with the season and moon phase to minimise the presence of the box jellyfish, which had plagued previous swimmers, including American Diana Nyad who was stung repeatedly in August on her fourth failed attempt. Only one person, Australian Susie Maroney in 1997, has completed the Cuba-US swim, but she used a shark cage, which helps cut through the water. Last summer, British-born Australian Penny Palfrey got tantalisingly close to the Florida Keys but could not finish when she swam into a Gulf Stream eddy that pushed her in the wrong direction. McCardel said she has no plans to make another attempt and planned to spend the next 24 hours recuperating. — Reuters |
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