11 January 2014 Last updated at 05:58 GMT
Vladimir Putin promised the Olympics in Sochi would be as green as could be. Instead, the construction of facilities has had disastrous consequences for the environment, particularly for the residents of Baku Street, whose homes have become the victims of man-made erosion.
When Tigran Skiba, 52, leaves home in his delivery truck each morning to supply fresh bread throughout Sochi, he gets a view of the new sporting facilities: Fisht Olympic Stadium in the valley and the grand ice-skating palace, which shimmers in the moonlight like a pearl. It looks as if it's all right nextdoor.
Oympia Park is located less than two kilometers away from Skiba's home. What worries him these days, though, is the fact that this distance isn't remaining constant. The space between his home and the stadium is decreasing, slowly but ever so surely. The hillside upon which his home is built is sliding down into the valley at a pace of 1.5 meters (nearly five feet) per year, Skiba claims.
In early 2008, Gen. David Petraeus was presiding over a strategy that was designed to restore security to Iraq and, crucially, give the country's political factions breathing space to pursue reconciliation and compromise.
CAR crisis: Stranded foreigners to be evacuated
Emergency evacuations of the first of thousands of foreigners stranded in the conflict-ridden Central African Republic are due to begin on Saturday.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it would start airlifting 800 Chadians from a makeshift camp in the capital, Bangui.
Some 33,000 Africans from neighbouring countries needed urgent help, it said.
CAR's interim President Michel Djotodia resigned on Friday over the fighting between Muslim and Christian militia.
Mr Djotodia, CAR's first Muslim leader, seized power last year. Since then 20% of the population have been forced to flee the violence.
At least 1,000 people have died since the clashes broke out in December.
Call for ICC probe into British 'war crimes' in Iraq
Two NGOs say they have asked the International Criminal Court to investigate allegations of abuse of prisoners in Iraq from 2003 to 2008. They say hundreds of former prisoners have complained.
A German human rights group and a British law firm say they have asked the prosecutor's office at the International Criminal Court in The Hague to look into allegations that British soldiers carried out systematic abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq between 2003 and 2008.
The Berlin-based European Centre for Constitutional Rights and the law firm Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), based in Birmingham, said in a statement on Saturday that they had jointly filed a complaint with the ICC.
Olympic Construction Sins: The Leaning Houses of Sochi
Vladimir Putin promised the Olympics in Sochi would be as green as could be. Instead, the construction of facilities has had disastrous consequences for the environment, particularly for the residents of Baku Street, whose homes have become the victims of man-made erosion.
When Tigran Skiba, 52, leaves home in his delivery truck each morning to supply fresh bread throughout Sochi, he gets a view of the new sporting facilities: Fisht Olympic Stadium in the valley and the grand ice-skating palace, which shimmers in the moonlight like a pearl. It looks as if it's all right nextdoor.
Oympia Park is located less than two kilometers away from Skiba's home. What worries him these days, though, is the fact that this distance isn't remaining constant. The space between his home and the stadium is decreasing, slowly but ever so surely. The hillside upon which his home is built is sliding down into the valley at a pace of 1.5 meters (nearly five feet) per year, Skiba claims.
S Sudan loyalists eye last rebel-held town
South Sudan's loyalist troops have prepared for an offensive on the last major town held by rebels a day after recapturing the country's main oil hub.
The United Nations urged President Salva Kiir to release detainees in a show of goodwill to kickstart stalled peace talks in Ethiopia.
Riek Machar, the sacked vice-president who took the helm of the rebellion that formed after rival army units clashed in mid-December, remained defiant after losing Bentiu on Friday.
"We withdrew from Bentiu but it was to avoid fighting in the streets and save civilian lives," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by phone from an undisclosed location.
He vowed to defend the central town of Bor, which is the capital of the flashpoint state of Jonglei and lies around 200km north of Juba.
"We fight on, we will continue the battle," he said.
The government has said it was mobilising thousands of troops to deal a final blow to the rebellion.
The myth of Iraq's squandered stability
The finger-pointing in the US over who "lost" Iraq ignores an important reality: It was never won.
In early 2008, Gen. David Petraeus was presiding over a strategy that was designed to restore security to Iraq and, crucially, give the country's political factions breathing space to pursue reconciliation and compromise.
In March of that year, Gen. Petraeus said that despite a lack of progress on national reconciliation, he was hopeful that Iraqi leaders would "exploit the opportunities that we and our Iraqi counterparts have fought so hard to provide them." A key to his strategy was the Sahwa, or Awakening, a militia movement that drew its strength from Sunni Arab tribes who were sick of Al Qaeda's local affiliate and wanted to carve out a peaceful future in a new Iraq.
As it turned out that opportunity was spurned at the very moment that it was offered. Instead, the political course that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his allies charted in 2008 has, more than anything, led to the state of near open-insurrection across the Sunni Arab dominated Anbar Province today.
Is Cambodia at a tipping point?
January 11, 2014 -- Updated 0434 GMT
Phnom Penh, Cambodia (CNN) -- Earlier this week, Cambodia marked 35 years of freedom from the Khmer Rouge regime, whose revolutionary blueprint for an agrarian paradise caused the deaths of nearly two million in the 1970s.
But instead of uniting Cambodians, the date perennially divides them.
Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party casts the anniversary in the light of victory and liberation. Opposition figures shrug off the festivities as propaganda, a reminder that after the Khmer Rouge leaders retreated in 1979, the Vietnamese who defeated them stayed for 10 years.
The diverging perspectives underscore what's happening now. In the name of public order and security, the government commemorating the fall of a regime is leading one of the most aggressive campaigns against dissenting foes in recent memory, according to analysts.
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