Canada vows to protect Santa Claus from Russian troops in the Arctic

Canada has vowed to defend the North Pole and Santa Claus, insisting the mythical figure is a citizen, after Russia ordered its military to step up its Arctic presence.

Paul Calandra, parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, cited Canada's claim of the North Pole to bash an opposition party in Parliament.

"We are defending the north further by making a claim on the North Pole," he said.

"We know that the (opposition) Liberals do not think that the North Pole or Santa Claus are in Canada. We do. We are going to make sure that we protect them as best we can."

Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the move by ordering the formation of new military units in the Arctic that are to remain on constant combat alert.
Russia, he said, was "ever more actively reclaiming this promising region, returning to it" after a brief absence that followed the Soviet Union's collapse.

Source: The Telegraph

Ex-cop, 'perfect husband and father' confesses to murdering 24 women in Siberia

The married serial killing  former cop, Mikhail Popkov, 49, forced victims to strip naked before killing them and having sex with their blood-soaked bodies. He has been charged with, and confessed to, the murder of 24 victims, but police suspect him of a total of at least 29 killings and one attempted murder.
Of these, 25 were aged 19 to 28, and four were from 35 to 40. He selected victims who were full-figured, and not tall, say police sources.
He beheaded at least one woman and gouged the heart out of a victim.
Popkov claimed he suddenly stopped killing after he 'became impotent', suggesting a sexual motive to his murder spree. Typically, his victims were slightly intoxicated when he lured them to their deaths. He snared them after they had been to  bars or parties. He is suspected of seeking revenge on his mother who was an alcoholic and allegedly abused him in his childhood.
At least one crime expert believe he committed more than the 24 murders he admits, and may have been behind unexplained killings as far away as Vladivostok where he travelled frequently after leaving the police, say reports. Originally labelled the 'Wednesday Murderer' because many of his victims were found early on this day of the week, his reign of terror continued from 1992 to at least 2000. Police have been unable to prove any killings since then, even though he was only finally arrested on 24 June 2012.
One detective hunting him labelled him a 'werewolf'. His first murder happened 'spontaneously', Popkov told investigators.
'I just felt I wanted to kill a woman I was giving a lift to in my car', he said. Popkov, married with one daughter was finally caught after analysis of the DNA of 3,500 policemen and former policemen in Irkutsk region, where the murders took place. As a result, they obtained a 100% match with his sperm that was found on some of his victims.
Earlier, police were severely criticised for failing to catch a sexually-motivated killer, and ignoring vital evidence. He murdered the women with a slipknot, knife, awl, screwdriver or an axe which he used up to 17 times on some victims. He used his police uniform and car to gain the trust of at least some of his victims. Key clues came from a failed attack on a teenager called Svetlana M, 15 years ago. She was 15 at the time but looked older, said police.
On 26 January 1998, she told how a police car stopped near her and offered to give her a lift. He took her into woodland where he forced her to take off all her clothes. He then smashed her head against a tree. She lost consciousness and next day was found alive near the village of Baikalsk, somehow surviving despite being naked in sub-zero temperatures. She awoke in hospital.
For years police suspected the killer's job was a metalworker, driver, railway employee or heating station engineer. Or even a cemetery worker. Even Svetlana's evidence was not properly acted upon and only much later did the police understand that the killer was one of their own. Born in 1964, he worked as a policeman before becoming a security guard for Angarsk Oil and Chemical Company - big city industrial complex, and later for a private security agency.
His wife Elena, 47, was also in the police, and his 26 year old daughter Ekaterina is a schoolteacher. It is not believed his family - who thought of him as a 'perfect husband and father' - were accomplices, even though on two occasions his wife gave him alibis when suspicion focused on him.
One victim gave Popkov syphilis. The police knew the dead victim had the disease, and also discovered that Popkov had contracted it.
'It was enough just to perform a DNA test of this man but the police interrogated Popkov's wife who composed an alibi for her husband,' said Nikolai Kitaev, an ex-police investigator who is critical of the handling of the probe. 'Later he became more careful and carried on with his horrific crimes.'
The next occasion was the case of  Svetlana M, the survivor. 'She was unconscious because of severe head injuries. Police did not start a criminal investigation for a long time despite numerous complaints from the girl's mother'. Svetlana was questioned 'and told in detail about her rapist-policeman and his car'.
She was shown a picture of him and his police car. 'She clearly confirmed it was him. But again, the police trusted Mikhail's wife - once more she composed an alibi for him and the criminal investigation was stopped and sent to the archives', Kitaev said.
Kitaev is convinced there are at least a dozen more cases in police files that are likely to be Popkov's victims. Many of the details from the crime scenes match his modus operandi, he said.

Source: Siberian Times

Scientists get inside woolly mammoth's 39,000 year old brain to understand behavior of the extinct species.

The superbly-preserved remains of Yuka were found in 2009 in the Siberian permafrost, but only recently have specialists begun to analyse her brain in a unique study.

Scientists disclosed that the remains are in such good conditions that a full-scale brain mapping exercise is underway which is expected to significantly boost our understanding of the woolly mammoth, a creature which scientists are separately planning to bring back to life using modern technology.

The initial findings were presented at the 73rd Symposium of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Los Angeles. 

Click here for more details and photos of the moment the brain was removed from Yuka's remains before the analysis began.