Putin Says Russian Boy, Not Filipino, Is World's No. 7 Billion

Strongman pronounces home-grown baby as the symbolic birth

There was the Cold War, and now there is the Baby Battle.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimiir Putin pronounced a boy born near the altic Sea as the newborn that tipped the wold's population over the 7 billion mark. That came two days after the United Nations named a baby born in the Philippines as the one who got us to the number.

"How did you manage to do it on the very 7 billion mark?" Putin, who is running for president in a March election, asked new mom Yelena Nikolayeva in front of a group of television reporters.

There have also been claims from India, Sri Lanka and Great Britain, and the truth it, no one can really say which baby was No. 7 billion. The population figure is only an estimate and te UN only made a big deal of it to draw attention to the world's fast-growing population. The headcount hit six billion only 13 years ago, and the rapid growth could be ptting too much stress on the planet.

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