Prodimex has 16 sugar factories in 3 different provinces, and produces over 1.1 million tons of sugar a year. The company’s general director, Viktor Aleksakhin told Vedomosti that production requires such a large land holding due to the nature of sugar beet cultivation – which must be replanted on a different field each year. Russia accounts for a sixth of the world’s landmass and has several private land owners, with the top five having ties to agricultural production. At the beginning of 2012, agricultural land in Russia was 196 million hectares, 115 are fertile and in use. In April 2013, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture said the industry was ‘unprofitable’, and only made possible by state subsidies. RusAgro, which specializes in pig breeding, and production of sugar and cooking oil in the Moscow region, owns 452,000 hectares. Vamin, a dairy specialist in Tartarstan that has recently declared bankruptcy, owns 450,000 hectares. Siberian agricultural major Sakho has 400,000 hectares and is owned by State Duma Deputy Airat Khairullina. Tatar agro-company Krasny Vostok Agro has 350,000 hectares. Before Prodimex was founded in 1992, nearly all sugar was imported from Ukraine.America’s cattle kingdomKings of agriculture dominate landholding in Russia, but in the US, it’s a millionaire ranch and cattle club. John Malone, Liberty Media Chairman, owns almost twice as much land as Russia’s largest sugar producer, about 890,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) which combined are the equivalent of 150 Manhattans. Malone owns ranches in Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and New Mexico. The most famous is ‘The Bell Ranch’, a 290,100 acre cattle ranch which he bought in 2010 for a listed, but not confirmed price, of $83 million. Malone’s equities are widespread. Liberty Global agreed to buy Britain’s Virgin Media cable company for $16 billion in February 2013. Malone also has diversified interests in US sports teams (the Atlanta Braves) and media (Starz channel). Land has made a comeback – from cattle, private ski resorts, hunting and fishing clubs, to Maine coastline – for American entrepreneurs who prefer to take a stake in natural real estate to diversify and hedge their assets against the risky gold, oil, and stock prices. With an improving US housing market, land holdings are likely to appreciate, especially those acquired during the recession.Media mogul Ted Turner, the owner of CNN has over 2 million acres of land spread through New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Florida. The grand Vermejo Park ranch in New Mexico and Colorado is 590,823 acres and his hunting sanctuary in Florida, where he has residence is 30,000 acres. … Read More
Rapper Chris Kelly of Kris Kross dies aged 34
Rapper Chris Kelly, who shot to fame as part of the 1990s duo Kris Kross, has been found dead at his home in Atlanta, reports said Thursday. He was 34. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on its website that Kelly’s death was being treated as a possible drug overdose. The rapper —…
Unabomber lawyer to defend suspected Boston terrorist Tsarnaev
United States Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler approved on Monday a request made by public defender Miriam Conrad to add a high-profile name to the roster of attorneys representing the 19-year-old accused bomber. Judy Clarke will now join the legal counsel that will defend the surviving suspect of the Boston bombing when Tsarnaev is put on trial for using a weapon of mass destruction, a felony terrorism count that comes with a possible death sentence if convicted.Clarke, a San Diego, California-based attorney with decades of federal experience under her belt, previously represented “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, convicted Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph and the Arizona man who shot former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in 2011. In those three cases as well as others, Clarke succeeded in having her clients receive only life imprisonment sentences in lieu of the death penalty.Authorities say Tsarnaev killed three people and injured more than 200 others when he and his brother Tamerlan, 26, detonated a pair of homemade bombs during the Boston Marathon two weeks ago. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died days later after a gunfight with police, but his brother survived and is now accused of crimes not dissimilar to those of clients Clarke worked with in the past: Kaczynski was convicted of killing three people and injuring nearly two dozen others with a series of homemade explosives and is considered a domestic terrorist by the FBI; Rudolph earned that distinction as well after being convicted of killing two and injuring 150 others in the 1996 Olympic blast.In approving the defense’s request to enlist Clarke as a representative for Tsarnaev, Judge Bowler said the accused bomber required an attorney with experience in a case where prosecutors will likely seek the death penalty.“In light of the circumstances in this case, the defendant requires an attorney with more background, knowledge and experience in federal death penalty cases than that possessed by current counsel,” Bowler said. The appointment will “provide the defendant with adequate and proper representation.”Northampton, Massachusetts lawyer David Hoose has gone toe-to-toe with Clarke in court, and speaking to Fox News he described her as “simply the best.”"She has an ability to relate to people who are charged with these horrific, horrific crimes and to humanize them, to portray them as human beings to the government and to a jury,” Hoose said.Just last week, Clarke told attendees at a legal conference in Los Angeles about being “sucked into the black hole, the vortex” of death penalty cases nearly two decades ago when she represented Susan Smith, a South Carolina woman convicted in in 1995 of drowning her two young children.”I got a dose of understanding human behavior, and I learned what the death penalty does to us,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “I don’t think it’s a secret that I oppose the death penalty.”Conrad also asked the court to appoint a second death penalty lawyer, Washington and Lee University School of Law Professor David Bruck, but that request was rejected for the time being. … Read More
WATCH LIVE: Atlanta gunman holds fire fighters hostage
A gunman is holding fire fighters hostage in Suwanee, Georgia, about 35 miles from Atlanta. A SWAT team has responded to the incident. Watch live video, courtesy of NBC News, below:
5 Georgia firemen held hostage
SUWANEE, Ga. (AP) — Authorities in northwest Georgia say a barricaded man is holding five firefighters hostage.Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Edwin Ritter says firefighters on Wednesday responded to a medical call in Suwanee and were taken hostage by a suspect he didn’t identify.Ritter says information on a possible motive was not immediately available and a SWAT team is on the scene. He gave no more details. A call to the Gwinnett County Fire Department was not immediately returned.Suwanee is about 35 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.Continue Reading… … Read More
Georgia lawmaker who supported drug testing for welfare gets second DUI
Georgia state House Rep. Chuck Sims (R-Amrbose) was arrested last week and charged with Driving Under the Influence, his second such arrest in the last three years. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that Sims was arrested and taken into custody shortly before midnight on April 2. An…
Former Reagan official links Atlanta cheating scandal to higher taxes, defense cuts
Former budget director David Stockton says that a “huge cultural problem” concerning defense cuts and higher taxes is linked to a massive alleged conspiracy to cheat on standardized tests in Atlanta Public Schools. Last week, former Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall was…
