The value of 100% of the Italian fashion house Gianni Versace, a minority stake of which is up for sale, is at least €850 million ($1.2 billion) including debt, the Financial Times newspaper has calculated . According to the publication, the main contender for the purchase of 20% of the Versace house is the Italian state investment fund Fondo Strategico Italiano, headed by former Merrill Lynch top manager Maurizio Tamagnini.

Representatives of the Ukrainian opposition on Thursday registered in the Verkhovna Rada a bill on the liquidation of the special unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs "Berkut", Interfax reported with reference to the leader of the Batkivshchyna (Motherland) faction Arseniy Yatsenyuk. “The opposition has just introduced a bill that contains two points,” the agency quotes him as saying. Yatsenyuk clarified that the first point is the liquidation of the Berkut special forces.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela died on Thursday, December 5, at the age of 96. This was reported by Reuters with reference to the current head of African state Jacob Zuma. Zuma announced Mandela's death in a televised address late Thursday. According to him, the ex-president of South Africa “passed away calmly, surrounded by his family.” Zuma confirmed that a long illness was the cause of Mandela's death. A state funeral will be held in the coming days.

Ilya Zhegulev Author Max Novikov Author Field kitchens, volunteer security guards, Woodstock on Khreshchatyk and the calm before a stormy weekend in a Forbes photo report from Kyiv On Thursday, a representative of the bailiffs came out to the protesters in front of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, supporters of European integration. Showing his ID to all interested journalists, he read out into the loudspeaker the court decision prohibiting blocking government work.

A criminal case on human trafficking was opened in Russia after a journalistic investigation into the fate of 26 Russian children in the United States conducted by Reuters and NBC television, said on Thursday. Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin The case was initiated on the grounds of a crime provided for in paragraphs. “a, b” part 2 art. 127.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (trafficking in persons, in relation to two or more persons, in relation to a minor).

In 2014, the Ministry of Defense will create its own news agency, which will cover not only military topics, but also socio-political and other “resonant” events in Russia and abroad, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday, citing a source in the department. According to the agency's interlocutor, this decision was made by the leadership of the Ministry of Defense.

Russia has gigantic reserves to accelerate economic growth, but the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development are not making efforts to find them, Russian presidential aide Andrei Belousov said on Thursday. “We have colossal reserves. It’s strange that the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development, which should be looking for these reserves, are not looking for them,” the Prime agency quotes him as saying.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he is not against corporate events in state-owned companies, but not at the expense of budgets, RIA Novosti reports . He invited employees to contribute from their own pockets to celebrate the New Year. The topic of corporate parties was raised during the forum of the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF), at which Vladimir Putin spoke.

Photo by Diomedia How to take advantage of the first Russian Black Friday discounts and not regret it? For the first time, Russia will host its own “Black Friday” - a day when many stores, in imitation of America, announce significant discounts, but only online. On December 6 at 00.00, several dozen online stores will put up their products on one Black Friday 2013 site with “unreal” discounts, as stated. The promotion will last 24 hours.

The mayor of Yekaterinburg, Evgeny Roizman, proposes to change the status of Yekaterinburg and make it a city of federal significance, Interfax-Ural reports . “We need to raise the status of the city, because it deserves it. Yekaterinburg has outgrown its status of regional subordination. In many respects, it is ahead of other subjects of the Federation,” Roizman said on Thursday in an interview with the agency.

The third largest Russian pharmaceutical manufacturer Veropharm may delist if minority shareholders offer up to 25% of the company's shares for redemption, Kommersant wrote on Thursday with reference to the company's main owner Roman Avdeev (No. 69 in the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes , net worth: $1.3 billion). “If we have a stake of more than 76%, we may think about delisting Veropharm,” said Avdeev, who now owns 52.01% of Veropharm.

Hackers stole almost 2 million usernames and passwords from accounts of Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Odnoklassniki and other social networks, CNN Money reports, citing a study by the American company Trustwave. A massive information leak occurred using a malicious program that was installed on computers around the world. The number of infected computers is unknown.

A criminal case has been opened against the former deputy head of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr) Sergei Sapelnikov and a number of other service officials suspected of negligence, said on Thursday, December 5.

The publication of Rolling Stone Russia magazine is suspended indefinitely due to the difficult economic situation. this The editor-in-chief of the publication, Alexander Kondukov, announced on his Facebook page. “Due to the difficult economic situation, which everyone in our business feels quite acutely, we are suspending the publication of Rolling Stone Russia magazine for an indefinite period,” Kondukov wrote in a message.

US President Barack Obama, speaking at the White House at an event dedicated to health care reform Obamacare, said that he could not use the iPhone smartphone, writes The Verge . "I'm not allowed to have an iPhone for security reasons," Obama said. However, he confirmed that his daughters Sasha and Malia have iPhone smartphones and “seem to spend a lot of time” on them, The Wall Street Journal reports .