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More Olympic-linked furor over Russia’s anti-gay law ahead of Sochi games
Protesters in cities around the world targeted major Olympic sponsors Wednesday, just ahead of the Winter Games in Sochi, urging them to speak out against Russia’s law restricting gay-rights activities. Two more sponsors of the U.S. Olympic team condemned the law, but leading global sponsors did not join them.
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Norway’s Health Minister to take husband to Paralympics in Sochi
OSLO — Norway’s most high-profile openly gay politician will attend the Paralympic Games in Russia with his husband, despite the controversy surrounding Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law.
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Olympic chief slams world leaders for using Sochi games as ‘political’ platform
SOCHI, Russia — International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach accused world leaders Tuesday of using the Sochi Olympics as a political platform “on the backs of the athletes,” and of snubbing the games without even being invited.
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AT&T becomes first U.S. corporation to condemn Russian anti-gay law
AT&T, a long-time sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Committee, on Tuesday became the first major U.S. corporation to make a public statement condemning anti-LGBT Russian law outlawing “homosexual propaganda.”
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Putin promotes cuddly image as Sochi Olympics near
SOCHI, Russia — Vladimir Putin, rugged outdoorsman and tough-guy Russian president, promoted a cuddly image Tuesday as his Olympics drew near. Putin checked in at a preserve for endangered Persian leopards and visited a group of cubs born last summer in the mountains above the growing torrent of activity in Sochi for the Winter Games.
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UN chief to attend Sochi Olympics, give keynote address at IOC assembly
UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will take part in Friday’s opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and deliver a keynote address to the International Olympic Committee’s general assembly, the first by a U.N. secretary-general, officials said Monday.
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IOC president: Criticism of Russia’s anti-gay law will not detract from Sochi
SOCHI, Russia — International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach says heavy security and criticism of Russia’s anti-gay law will not detract from the Sochi Olympics.
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Finnish Olympic swimmer comes out ahead of Sochi games
Finnish Olympic swimmer Ari-Pekka Liukkonen has come out as gay, saying he wants to talk publicly about his sexual orientation close to the Sochi Olympic games to help raise awareness of Russia’s controversial anti-gay “propaganda” law.
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Activists target Sochi with social media, boycotts in protest of Russia anti-gay law
NEW YORK — Despite seven months of international outcry, Russia’s law restricting gay-rights activity remains in place. Yet the eclectic protest campaign has heartened activists in Russia and caught the attention of its targets — including organizers and sponsors of the Sochi Olympics that open on Feb. 7.
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Sochi organizers back-track on free speech rights of athletes
SOCHI, Russia — A day after the head of the Sochi organizing committee appeared to contradict International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on the rights of Olympic athletes to freely express themselves at news conferences, organizers issued a back-pedaling statement Thursday “to clarify” their position.