The Moscow government has officially abandoned the construction of a tunnel with an underground shopping center under Pushkin Square, Interfax reports , citing a source in the city administration. As the agency's interlocutor stated, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin signed a decree canceling another decree, according to which it was planned to build a tunnel under the square. It was adopted by the previous Moscow mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, back in 2004.

The Kremlin administration did not expect that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013 would be awarded to Russian President Vladimir Putin, press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov told the Russian News Service radio station on Friday. “Did anyone expect it? The media predicted it, let them comment,” Peskov said.

The leader of the Civic Platform party and billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov (No. 10 on the Forbes list of the richest businessmen in Russia, net worth $13 billion) on Friday, in an interview with the Podmoskovye TV channel, announced his readiness to lead the united entity of Moscow and the Moscow region if voters choose him.

The government approved a bill proposing to establish a ban on the creation of new non-state pension funds (NPFs) in the form of non-profit organizations from January 1, 2014, according to a message on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers. The draft law allows for the possibility of reorganizing existing non-profit funds only through merger or accession, and from July 1, 2014 - only through transformation into joint-stock NPFs. The corresponding decision was made at a meeting on October 10.

ATMs and terminals of a number of the largest Russian banks in Moscow have stopped accepting banknotes in denominations of 5,000 rubles due to increasing cases of counterfeiting, the Prime agency reported on Friday . In mid-September, the Central Bank sent out a recommendation to banks to replace software in ATMs. “Cases of distribution of counterfeit 5,000-dollar bills with elements of real ones have become more frequent.

One person died and two fell into a coma as a result of an accident involving a bus carrying Russian tourists in Thailand, Interfax-Tourism reports, citing the consular department of the Russian Embassy in Thailand. According to the consulate representative, all other people on the bus received injuries of varying severity. The condition of the four children is unknown, the consular officer said. Earlier it was reported that there were 42 tourists on the bus.

The transition to winter time in Russia before the 2014 Olympics in Sochi could cost the Russian budget $300 million, RIA Novosti reported on Friday , citing the head of the organizing committee of the games, Dmitry Chernyshenko. “We foresee, in addition to reputational risks and discomfort for our athletes, logistical problems, financial risks,” the agency quotes him as saying during a hearing in the Public Chamber.

The United Russia faction in the State Duma supported the statement of the head of the Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy Andrei Isaev about the resignation of the deputy secretary of the party’s general council, faction leader Vladimir Vasilyev told reporters on Friday. “We reviewed the statement of Isaev’s colleague, discussed it and supported it,” RIA Novosti quotes Vasilyev .

The draft broad amnesty for the twentieth anniversary of the Russian Constitution, which will be prepared by the Human Rights Council under the President of Russia, will be studied by the Presidential Administration as soon as it is submitted for consideration, RIA Novosti reports . “What will be prepared will be carefully studied in the presidential administration, in the state legal department.

Facebook users will no longer be able to hide their profile in search, according to a message published on the company's website. Thus, everyone registered on the network will be able to track all publicly available information from user chronicles. The option "Who can search your timeline by name?" was removed from access last year and, as follows from the social network’s message, until now it has continued to be used by a small number of subscribers.

The State Duma, at a plenary session on Friday, October 11, adopted in the first reading a bill introducing a mandatory drug test for citizens whose activities are related to driving or organizing the movement of vehicles or trafficking and carrying weapons, ITAR-TASS reports .

The Presidium of the General Council of United Russia on Friday dismissed Andrei Isaev from the post of Deputy Secretary of the General Council of the party and suspended his powers as a member of the Presidium of the General Council, RIA Novosti reports . The decision was made after considering a statement from Isaev, who accepted responsibility for the incident on board the St. Petersburg-Moscow plane that occurred on October 8. “A normal human conversation took place.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications proposed introducing a rule that would allow cellular operators to postpone the introduction of the MNP (mobile number portability) service, which will allow subscribers to keep the number when changing cellular operators, from December 1, 2013, as established by law, to April 15, 2014, reported in Friday portal Digit.ru .

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko expressed doubt that Russian oligarchs earned their money honestly, the Interofax agency reported . “We heard that 35-40% of Russia’s wealth is owned by 110 people. 110 people - who are they?” asked the head of the Belarusian state during a press conference for Russian media in Minsk. Lukashenko recalled that 10 years ago there were 25-27 such billionaires. According to him, it is impossible to earn such billions in 10 years.

Apple has decided to halve the production of budget smartphones iPhone 5c, which it presented only in September, CNet reports . reported that Apple had reduced the order for the production of iPhone 5c from 300,000 to 150,000 units per day Initially, the Chinese portal C Technology . The portal did not give reasons for this reduction. CNet writes that this is presumably due to unjustified demand for a budget smartphone compared to the flagship iPhone 5s.