By Vestnik Kavkaza
The American newspaper the New York Times published an article called “Obama to Meet With Wife of American Pastor Jailed in Iran” The wife of an American pastor held prisoner in Iran says President Barack Obama will meet with her during his short visit to Idaho on Wednesday. On Tuesday confirmation was received that Obama had agreed to meet with her and her two young children. Abedini had recently written an open letter to the president requesting a face-to-face meeting. Abedini declined to reveal any other details about the meeting. Christian pastor Saeed Abedini has been in Iranian custody since September 2012. He was given an eight-year sentence in 2013 for what was termed undermining state security when he attempted to build a church network in private homes.
The British newspaper the Daily Mail writes today about the Russian daughter of the famous tennis player Boris Becker. “Boris Becker’s lovechild makes her modelling debut: Red-headed Anna, 14, shines on the catwalk at Berlin Fashion Week.” Her superstar father - and the circumstances of her birth - made her famous before she could even walk. But last night 14-year-old Anna Ermakova stepped out of Boris Becker's shadow and on to the catwalk as she appeared at Berlin Fashion Week.
The tennis star's lovechild was conceived during a scandalous, short-lived and much disputed encounter at the London outpost of celebrity haunt Nobu in 1999. Her mother Angela Ermakova initially claimed the liaison took place in a store cupboard but Becker later confessed they had made love on a staircase between two bathrooms. “There's no mistaking Anna Becker as the daughter of tennis champ Boris. They look so alike it's uncanny.”
George Costakis’s apartment on Prospekt Vernadadskogo in southern Moscow was an Aladdin’s cave of avant-garde art, full of works by Kazimir Malevich, Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky and many more — all bought on the salary of a humble embassy employee. According to the British newspaper the Guardian, Costaki’s spent 35 years at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, building up a stunning collection of 20th century art, most of which he eventually donated to the State Tretyakov Gallery when he left the Soviet Union in 1977. In honour of the centenary of his birth, the Tretyakov Gallery is now holding an exhibition entitled Georgy Costakis: departure from the USSR... devoted to Costakis and his collection.
When socialist realism became the only officially approved art in 1934 under Joseph Stalin, avant-garde art became anathema and often dangerous for artists and for art lovers. But as a foreigner, Costakis was able to purchase works from some of the Soviet Union’s most talented artists or from their relatives — and for very affordable prices. Costakis bought some for around $100 — works that today would cost millions. Costakis was able to afford the art he bought because of an unusual agreement he made with the Canadian government. He was paid not as local staff, but as a Canadian, with a bank account in Ottawa. Costakis also benefitted financially from buying his Canadian colleagues’ extra rubles, which were purchased at a rate subsidised by the Canadian government.
