Vladimir Putin once compared ruling Russia to being a “galley slave”, but the four yachts that come with the job, not to mention palaces, aircraft and a wealth of luxury perks, help explain his refusal to quit the presidency, leading critics said yesterday.

Listing 58 planes and helicopters, 20 homes with opulent fittings worthy of the tsars and 11 watches that are worth several times Putin’s annual salary, a report published under the ironic title ‘The Life of a Galley Slave’ by opposition leader Boris Nemstov denounced a “blatant and cynical challenge” to millions of Russians who are barely managing to survive.

The Kremlin, which has long portrayed the 59-year-old president as a man of simple tastes and a liking for popular sports and active outdoor pastimes, did not immediately comment.

Cold War museum row

More than two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, differences over how to represent the Cold War past are hampering plans to build a new museum at the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing.

Every day, thousands of tourists flock to the site of a dramatic standoff between Soviet and American tanks in 1961 in the centre of what is now the capital city of a reunited Germany.

Though still a potent symbol of the confrontation between communist East and capitalist West, the checkpoint today looks rather ramshackle and has been dubbed ‘snackpoint Charlie’ by local media because of a proliferation of food stands.

The site features a rebuilt guard house and a cramped private museum focused on the methods used by East Germans to flee over the Wall.

Tokyo has first red light robot revue

In a restaurant down an alley in one of Tokyo’s best-known red light districts, four massive female robots wink and wave as they lumber to the beat of traditional Japanese drums and a Lady Gaga dance tune.

It’s show time at the ‘Robot Restaurant’, a new and high-tech take on the city’s decades-old cabaret scene that puts a friendly, if unusual, face on the robot technology – in which Japan is a world leader.

Italy mulls France-style drinks tax

Italy’s health minister is considering the inclusion of a tax on drinks that are deemed unhealthy in a spending Bill due to go before the Italian cabinet later this week, a health ministry official said.

The official confirmed Health Minister Renato Balduzzi may propose a drinks tax of three euro cents a bottle to raise revenues of €250 million, but did not clarify which beverages would be affected.

Mucking about to stay fit

Mud runs, essentially military-style obstacle races in muck, might appall neat freaks, but for some it is a challenging test of true grit and fitness.

Neal Pire, owner of Inspire Training Systems, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, has trained several people for mud runs.

They come in varying lengths and levels of difficulty and appeal to people who enjoy performing and withstanding the elements.

Fight for right to go topless

Some two dozen topless women protested in a New York City park on a hot, sweaty Sunday as part of what they called ‘National Go-Topless Day’ to draw attention to inequality in topless rights between men and women. There were topless men in the park, too, but nobody paid them much attention, a disparity, organisers said, that demonstrated the need for the event.