Colin Russell is coming back home from Russia – It’s up to Australia, two other icebreakers couldn’t get to a stranded ship in the Antarctic – A New York Times investigation refutes the accusations of US President Obama’s political foes.

Colin Russell is on his way back to Hobart, after getting permission from Moscow to leave Russia.  Most of the rest of the Greenpeace Arctic 30 didn’t have nearly as far to go to get home, but it’s expected that Colin will be back by New Year’s.  The 28 activists and two journalists were arrested and charged with hooliganism because of their protest at a Russian oil drilling platform in the northern Pechora Sea – But they were released under a pre-Olympics amnesty that cleared the Kremlin’s slate of questionable human rights cases.

An Aussie icebreaker “Aurora Australis” is now trying to reach a Russian ship trapped by ice in the Antarctic, after Chinese and French ships couldn’t cut through and were released from the rescue effort.  Our ship isn’t expected to get there until later Sunday night.  An Australian research expedition is among 74 people on the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy attempting to recreate Australian explorer Douglas Mawson's century-old voyage to Antarctica.  Green Party politician Janet Rice is on the ship, and says people have been assured they are not in danger.

Egyptian state television is blaming Islamist protesters for torching university buildings during clashes in Cairo.  At least four people have been killed in the violence after the government labeled the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.  The Brotherhood denies it is behind the fires, and claims the police are trumping up charges.

A New York Times investigation found no al Qaeda involvement in the December 2012 attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and thre others were killed.  It throws cold water on US congressional conservatives who have sought to make a scandal out of attack; they’ve suggested that the Obama administration for some unspecified reason was trying to cover up al Qaeda’s alleged involvement.  The New York Times report says a local, malcontent militia leader played a central role, and US investigators called him a prime suspect.

A helicopter dropped a large barrel bomb onto a marketplace in Aleppo, Syria, killing at least 25 people and causing all sorts of destruction.  An extremely graphic video from a human rights group on the scene shows people desperately picking up broken bodies from mangled cars and lorries.  Hundreds have been killed by Syrian government attacks in recent days, women and children among the victims.

Indian police arrested eleven men and a juvenile in yet another sexual assault case that shows India has a problem it has not yet dealt with.  The 21-year old victim was waiting outside a friend’s house, picked up by three men and assaulted by one of them.  After her friends rescued her, a second gang of seven attacked the group and assaulted the victim again.  Among those arrested are the victim’s friends, for not reporting the first attack.

Brazil sent security forces into the Amazon to quell a disturbance between an indigenous tribe and transplanted farmers and loggers.  The leader of the Tenharim tribe, Ivan Tenhaim, was found dead on the Trans-Amazon highway.  Police say he was likely struck by a hit and run vehicle, but the tribe believes he was murdered.  Farmers and loggers accused the Tenharim of kidnapping three contractors, amd stormed the tribal village, sending 400 people looking for refuge on a military base.