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VIENNA (Reuters) - Yulia Stepanova, the Russian former drugs cheat whose whistle blowing revelations helped expose the massive doping problem in her country, could be allowed to compete in the Rio Olympics as an independent athlete, the IAAF said on Friday. Stepanova, an 800-metres runner described as “a courageous athlete” by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), went into hiding after revealing the details of the problem, and now lives in the United States at a secret location....

“Given the damage that they cause to [our] infrastructure, and [the harm] to the lives and well-being of our citizens, they must only be eliminated,” said Sheremet, who is a member of the Duma Security and Anti-Corruption Committee, Russian news agency Tass reported. Sheremet’s remarks come in reference to Ukraine’s recent counteroffensive against Russia, including an explosion Saturday on a bridge that links Russia to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and is crucial to providing supplies to Russian troops....

Lapid said the country’s foreign affairs ministry is partnering with the Bank of Israel, the finance ministry, the economy ministry, the energy ministry and airport authorities to make sure that Israel won’t become “a route to bypass sanctions.” It’s a significant move for the country, which despite condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine has so far refused to join much of the world in imposing sanctions. The country has also recently started monitoring and limiting the entry of private jets and yachts, preventing Russian oligarchs fleeing seizures in Europe to find refuge within its borders....

Real Madrid are in negotiations to sign Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, according to Madrid-based radio station Radio Onda Cero. The Belgium international has been part of Antonio Conte’s table-topping Chelsea team and has turned in some fine performances, which has attracted interested from Spain. Real Madrid failed to sign Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea in 2015 meaning Keylor Navas took the number one position, but the club have continued searching for a long-term replacement....

Very rarely, however, a runny nose can be caused by a condition called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) rhinorrhea, which is when the fluid that surrounds the brain leaks into the nose. CSF rhinorrhea can be caused by an injury or a surgical complication. This article explains the causes, symptoms, and treatment of CSF rhinorrhea, and how you can tell the difference between a common runny nose and a CSF leak....

Murdoch, the younger son of News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch, expressed their disappointment with Fox News and the Australia faction of his family’s publications Tuesday in comments made to The Daily Beast. In a statement, Murdoch and his wife Kathryn referred to their long-held public record in fighting against climate change causes and its devastating impacts, and noted their “frustration” with News Corp’s reporting on the worst fires in Australia in decades....

“They promised blockbuster stuff, and then nothing happened,” Limbaugh said of the days following the legal team’s much-discussed November 19 press conference. “And that’s just, that’s not—well, it’s not good.” “You call a gigantic press conference like that, one that lasts an hour,” Limbaugh said, “and you announce massive bombshells, then you better have some bombshells, there better be something at that press conference other than what we got.”...

After briefly surfacing on the injury report before Week 5, Wilson has been receiving treatment for a shoulder injury in hopes he wouldn’t be forced to miss any time. Wilson is set to start for the Broncos in a critical divisional game against the Chargers on Monday night, but his shoulder will be worth monitoring as Denver attempts to jumpstart its sluggish offense. Through five games this season, Wilson hasn’t played anywhere near the level he did with the Seahawks....

The Russian embassy in Washington, D.C., issued a statement on its Facebook page Saturday disputing media reports in the U.S. blaming the Kremlin for staffing issues at the American embassy in Moscow. One report in The Washington Post said the situation was so dire that senior American diplomats had to carry out day-to-day tasks like shoveling snow and handling disinfectants. The Moscow embassy is the last American diplomatic facility in the country following last week’s decision to close the consulates in Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok....

The Russian Defense Ministry made the announcement Wednesday as Ukrainian officials and others reacted skeptically to claims from Russia that it would draw down its troops. But Ukrainian officials said they have agreed to a humanitarian corridor to provide relief for residents of Mariupol who have remained in the city without food, water, heat or electricity. The ministry said it will allow civilians to leave from the southern port city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, roughly 140 miles away, according to a statement obtained by Sky News....

On Monday morning, Ukrenergo, a Ukrainian national power company, said the line between Chernobyl and the city of Slavutych had been “damaged by the occupying forces” despite repair crews repairing it just one day prior. Russian forces have occupied the Chernobyl plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, since the early stages of Russia’s widely-condemned invasion of Ukraine on February 24th. The occupation of Chernobyl has caused concern since the site must continuously be manned and operated by staff in order to keep the radioactive remains of the 1986 disaster contained....

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that vaccination levels in those regions were notably low and called the hospitals’ need to turn away non-COVID patients “very sad.” Russia has consistently broken records for death toll highs in recent weeks, with the 1,028 reported Wednesday by the government task force becoming the highest number throughout the entire pandemic. Putin said Wednesday that he backed a proposal from the Cabinet to initiate a nonworking period on Oct....

Relations between Washington, D.C. and Beijing have collapsed amid the coronavirus pandemic, which exacerbated existing tensions between the world’s two largest economies. This brewing conflict, Gorbachev told Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper in an article published Friday, could yet be avoided with Moscow’s help. “The pandemic exacerbated a new bipolar conflict that arose as a result of increased tensions between the United States and China,” the last leader of the Soviet Union explained....

It is currently unclear what the exact targets were, but the footage was obtained Tuesday evening from the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD), along with a short statement saying that the images show “the launch of two Oniks high-precision missiles at military infrastructure facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” They added that the operation was “performed by the Bastion coastal missile system from the Black Sea coast.” Zenger News contacted Russian and Ukrainian officials for comment but had not received a reply at the time of writing....

The creative breakout star for Russia never doubted the team would perform well — long before it beat Spain on penalties in the round of 16, setting up a matchup with Croatia in Sochi on Saturday. “We knew that everything was possible,” he said Wednesday. “Even before the beginning of the tournament we all understood that we could reach the final, we seriously counted on this and see this as the real state of things for us now....

In a statement released by the Russian Ministry of Defense, defense minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow would “form an army corps in the Republic of Karelia,” which lies next to its Nordic neighbor with which Russia shares an 830-mile border. Finland also has two regions, North Karelia and South Karelia bordering the Russian republic bearing the same name. Moscow threatened in May 2022 to take “retaliatory steps” after Finland declared it would join NATO in light of the growing perceived threat posed by Russia following its invasion of Ukraine....

The Russian Defense Ministry branded the incident a “terrorist attack” and said nine Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and seven “maritime drones,” conducted the operation. In a statement posted on its official Telegram channel the Ministry said: “Today at 4.20 a.m., the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian ships that were on the outer and inner roadsteads of the Sevastopol base....

The Estonian and Latvian foreign ministers were both in the capital when Russian ordinance began raining down on Ukrainian cities—including Kyiv—early on Thursday, and as Russian troops and tanks crossed into Ukrainian territory with war goals as yet unknown. Lithuania’s foreign minister was also due to arrive in the city on Thursday morning, but the flight was canceled shortly before, the country’s Foreign Ministry told Newsweek. A source in one of the Baltic delegations told Newsweek from Kyiv they had not yet been able to leave the capital as of Thursday morning, but that at least one foreign minister would soon do so....

During a segment on the program Pravo Znat (Right to Know), journalist and political scientist Maxim Yusin described the Russian retreat from the southern Ukrainian city which sparked celebrations across Ukraine as a “sad loss.” But he said that it was ill thought-out to erect billboards in September proclaiming that the region was “with Russia forever” given “how unfavorable” the balance of forces was. “Did these people not know how tough it would be to hold the city?...