The billboard promoting Zen Magnets at 2142 Welton St. Denver, Colorado. Zen Magnets now selling its magnetic balls at marijuana dispensaries and head shops. (Hyoung Chang, Denver Post file)

Denver-based Zen Magnets has won a temporary stay against a federal regulation that would ban the sale of tiny magnetic balls.

The ban was scheduled to take effect April 1, but under a challenge filed by Zen, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday issued a stay.

The court ordered the Consumer Product Safety Commission to file a response on the stay motion by April 14.

"It's far from time to post the 'mission accomplished' banner, but this is a giant and tangible indicator of momentum," said Zen Magnets founder Shihan Qu.

Zen Magnets is the last surviving major magnetic-ball company. The other large player, Buckyballs, stopped sales in 2012 and recently agreed to establish a trust fund to cover the costs of recalling its product.

The BB-size magnetic spheres can be molded together in sculptures or artistic designs.

But the CPSC maintains that the magnets are dangerous. The agency cites nearly 3,000 incidents of children swallowing the 5-millimeter balls during a five-year period from 2009 through 2013. Some of the accidents required emergency surgery because if two or more balls are swallowed, they can bind intestinal tissue together.

Qu said he is not currently selling magnets because he's not sure how long the temporary stay will remain in effect, and because he can't predict how the court will ultimately rule on his challenge to the CPSC's ban.

Zen Magnets also is battling the safety agency on a related case over the CPSC's proposed order requiring Zen to recall the magnet sets already sold.

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Denver's Zen Magnets wins stay against federal ban on magnetic balls

After 17 years cultivating mindfulness in St. Paul's Lowertown, Clouds in Water Zen Center has moved.

It didn't go far, though. Committed to staying east of the river, the center is offering its slate of meditation and Buddhism classes near the Sears building at 445 Farrington St.

"Lowertown was wonderful for the center, but as the area has developed, all to the benefit of the city. It made it a little harder for an organization dedicated to quiet and meditation," said executive director Will Hegeman. "The board made the decision that we had to stay in St. Paul, but we needed to look at other options ... Then we found this wonderful building."

The organization owns the new space. It had rented its old home on Prince Street behind Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar.

That change will allow the center to expand its community outreach and bring in more "mission-compatible" practices, such as yoga and tai chi, Hegeman said.

Clouds in Water Zen Center offers classes on Buddhist meditation as well as courses on the history of Zen Buddhism. The center also offers Sunday services.

Sarah Horner can be reached at 651-228-5539. Follow her at twitter.com/hornsarah.

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St. Paul Zen center relocates from Lowertown to Farrington Street

Relations between the West and Russia remain at their lowest since the Cold War, on the first anniversary of the start of the Ukraine conflict. But all bridges have not yet been burned, analysts say.

Washington and Brussels have imposed sanctions as part of a sea change in ties with Moscow, while a defiant Vladimir Putin has rejected accusations of Russian involvement in the fighting.

A fragile ceasefire has now held in Ukraine since February, but Europe's relationship with Russia is stuck in the deep freeze.

"Trust is just not there," Judy Dempsey of the Carnegie Europe think-tank told AFP.

A NATO diplomat was more scathing.

"The Russians have shown complete revisionism about international rules. That has created a confidence problem and in fact the situation is much more uncertain than during the Cold War," the diplomat said.

>>Read: Russia hosts far-right gathering

Two decades of Western assumptions about a largely cooperative post-Soviet Russia -- the Georgia war of 2008 notwithstanding -- were thrown into turmoil by Moscow's response to the Ukraine crisis.

Outraged Western nations were quick to take action after Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014, followed by the start of the fighting between pro-Kremlin rebels and government forces on 6 April April.

Politically, they expelled Russia from the G8 club of industrialised nations, while economically the US and EU imposed first targeted individual sanctions and then, after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, broader economic sanctions.

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West's ties with Russia frozen after year of Ukraine conflict