Two freed members of the Russian group Pussy Riot made their first public appearance in the United States Tuesday after being released from prison in December. Nadia Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina served nearly all of their two-year sentences for protesting Russian leader Vladimir Putin inside an Orthodox cathedral. Shortly after they arrived in New York, the two Pussy Riot members spoke at a news conference organized by Amnesty International.
Across the United States on Monday, protesters took to the streets in hundreds of rallies urging President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. The actions in at least 44 states followed a State Department report claiming the pipeline's northern leg would have a minimal impact on the local environment and climate change. Environmentalists disagree, saying plans to pipe 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta's tar sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast would accelerate global warming and threaten communities along the pipeline's route.
