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Russia

Kremlin-Backed Mayoral Candidate Wins In Moscow

KOMMERSANT (Russia), BBC, AFP

Worldcrunch

MOSCOW — Kremlin-backed candidate Sergei Sobyanin has won the mayoral election in Moscow, reports the Russian paper Kommersant. With the support of 51.37% of voters, he secured just above the 50% threshold needed to avoid a second-round ballot.

His main rival, Alexei Navalny, received 27.2% of the vote. According to the BBC, Navalny called for a runoff and refused to accept the results, saying that they had been “deliberately falsified.” He decided to “appeal to the citizens and ask them to take the streets of Moscow.”

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Sergei Sobyanin in June 2013. Photo: www.kremlin.ru.

Moscow’s electoral commission refused to consider a runoff and said that there were no election irregularities. During a late-night rally, Sobyanin characterized the election as the “most open and honest” in Moscow’s history. Kommersant also reports that he asked his opponent “not to divide the people,” saying that protests aren’t a constructive way to demonstrate disagreement.

Nevertheless, city authorities have authorized Navalny to hold a rally Monday evening with up to 2,500 supporters.

The opposition leader is currently out on bail after having been sentenced to five years in a penal colony on fraud charges that he says were trumped up, AFP reports.

In late 2011, Moscow was the site of the biggest anti-government protest since Soviet times after allegations of ballot rigging in a general election.

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About 500 people participated in an unauthorized protest in St. Petersburg after candidate Alexei Navalny was found guilty of fraud in July 2013. Photo: Andrey Pronin - Andrey Pronin/ZUMA

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Society

Sleep Divorce: The Benefits For Couples In Having Separate Beds

Sleeping separately is often thought to be the beginning of the end for a loving couple. But studies show that having permanently separate beds — if you have the space and means — can actually reinforce the bonds of a relationship.

Image of a woman sleeping in a bed.

A woman sleeping in her bed.

BUENOS AIRES — Couples, it is assumed, sleep together — and sleeping apart is easily taken as a sign of a relationship gone cold. But several recent studies are suggesting, people sleep better alone and "sleep divorce," as the habit is being termed, can benefit both a couple's health and intimacy.

That is, if you have the space for it...

While sleeping in separate beds is seen as unaffectionate and the end of sex, psychologist María Gabriela Simone told Clarín this "is not a fashion, but to do with being able to feel free, and to respect yourself and your partner."

She says the marriage bed originated "in the matrimonial duty of sharing a bed with the aim of having sex to procreate." That, she adds, gradually settled the idea that people "who love each other sleep together."

Is it an imposition then, or an overwhelming preference? Simone says intimacy is one thing, sleeping another.

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