Free Republic

Russia has finally confirmed that it measured increased levels of radioactive activity in the Urals, some weeks after French officials said it may have been due to an "accident" at a Russian or Kazakh nuclear facility. The state had, in fact, measured increased levels of the Ruthenium-106 isotope in the Southern Urals. But there was nothing to be worried about, said the head of the Russian Metereological Service, Maxim Yakovenko. Yes, the levels might have been several hundred times background levels, but they were still safe for the general public. In any case, in Romania, the figures were at least...

European authorities are providing new details about a cloud of mysterious radioactive material that appeared over the continent last month. Monitors in Italy were among first to detect the radioactive isotope ruthenium-106 on Oct. 3, according to a fresh report by France's Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute, known as IRSN. In total, 28 European countries saw the radioactive cloud, the report says. The multinational Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation, which runs a network designed to monitor for nuclear weapons tests, also confirmed to NPR that it had detected the cloud. Based on the detection from monitoring stations and meteorological data, the...

Sochi has one gay club. It is called Mayak, or “light house,” and it is located behind an unmarked door right off one of the city’s lush parks. You have to buzz to be let in. Once you’re in, though, you’re just as likely to encounter a foreign journalist as a local. As Olympic preparations have ramped up and now that the Games are in full swing, Mayak has been mobbed by foreign journalists eager to capture how the local gays live now that Russia is now internationally known for hating gays. “Too many,” Zhanna the butch cashier says rolling...