The final results are in. Who tops our Alternative Olympic medal table?
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The Royal Statistical Society and the Datablog teamed up with four statisticians at Imperial College, London, to help us work out how key factors might change the Olympic league...

The credibility of a woman's voice is often undermined by sexual slurs – as rape victims, Madonna and Pussy Riot well know

Every now and again the rhetoric of patriarchal power reveals itself in a way that – were it not so pernicious – one would almost call poetic.

Last week in Moscow, Madonna lent her voice to the growing international condemnation...

The Russian punks invoked that young Palestinian woman who desired that the mighty be brought down and the lowly lifted up

Using swear words in church is an abuse of God," said the prosecutor, demanding three years jail for the punk band Pussy Riot following their 40-second protest in Moscow's Orthodox cathedral. Their crime was to sing "Mother of...

Children from sect led by self-proclaimed prophet Faizrakhman Satarov found by police investigating murder of moderate cleric

A self-proclaimed prophet had a vision from God. He would build an Islamic caliphate under the earth.

The digging began about a decade ago, and 70 followers soon moved into an eight-level subterranean labyrinth of cramped...

Philosophy student Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, has been described as the evil genius behind Pussy Riot

At 22, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has a long history of political activism, often in cohort with her husband, Pyotr Verzilov, who has championed Pussy Riot's cause in Russia and abroad.

The duo, members of the radical art collective Voina, shot to...

Punk band's members claim they are freer than those carrying out their prosecution as judge sets 17 August for verdict

Three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot said Vladimir Putin's Russia was the one on trial as they delivered closing arguments on Wednesday in a case seen as a key test of the powerful president's desire to crackdown on...

Unofficial spokeswoman for Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina has challenged witnesses and remains defiant over the charges

Maria Alyokhina, 24, has emerged as the unofficial spokeswoman of Pussy Riot, making impassioned speeches and conducting sharp questioning of witnesses from inside the glass cage where she had been tried with her bandmates.

She spent...

Art lover Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, warns of government campaign to instil fear among Russians with 'opposition' views

Sitting with arms crossed, hunched on the bench in her glass cage, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, is the quietest of the three women, but her statements are often the most complicated.

She has called particular attention to the...