Pope Benedict XVI's valet Paolo Gabriele will stand trial on charges of stealing secret Vatican documents, said Federico Lombardi, head of the Holy See Press Hall. Also on trial will be an employee of the papal chancellery, Claudio Sharpelletti, who is accused of aiding Paolo Gabriele. Mr. Lombardi clarified that Claudio Sciarpeletti was not a full-fledged accomplice, since he played only a “minor role” in this case. Paolo Gabriele, in turn, is accused of aggravated theft.

Hillary Clinton fights Beijing's expansion on the Dark Continent US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has completed her tour of Africa. The main objective of the trip was to combat the influence of China on the Dark Continent. Over the past five years, Beijing has emerged as the largest trading partner and main arms supplier for many countries in the region.

Kinds of sports Athletics , 18 medals 8 5 5 Gold: Yulia Zaripova, Ivan Ukhov, Natalya Antyukh, Tatyana Lysenko, Sergey Kirdyapkin, Elena Lashmanova, Anna Chicherova, Maria Savinova Silver: Evgenia Kolodko, Daria Pishchalnikova, Elena Sokolova, Olga Kaniskina, team relay Bronze: Tatyana Chernova, Tatyana Petrova (Arkhipova), Elena Isinbaeva, Svetlana Shkolina, Ekaterina Poistogova Wrestling , 11 medals 4 2 5 Gold: Jamal Otarsultanov, Natalya Vorobyova, Alan Khugaev, Roman Vlasov Silver: Rustam

563 1 min. ... Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's "Open Government" (OP) faced its first scandal. Not all of the 200 people included in the expert council at the EP are ready to work in it and have agreed to their participation. In any case, this is what a number of experts said from those whose names were published on the OP website. The number of people appointed to the expert council included several unexpected people who were even considered to be in opposition.

Russian athletes grabbed medals in the last days of the Olympics medal standings The last two days of the Olympics became the most successful for Russian athletes during the entire Games. A kind of finishing spurt brought nine gold medals to the team's treasury at once - four in athletics, two in rhythmic gymnastics, one each in boxing, rowing and, finally, in volleyball, where the men's team excelled.

Italy placed one-year bills worth 8 billion euros. The country's borrowing costs have increased as investors fear that even the European Central Bank's (ECB) purchase of bonds from troubled eurozone countries will not be able to contain the country's debt crisis. The weighted average yield of the placed bills amounted to 2.767% per annum compared to 2.697% during the previous auction held on July 12.

The pre-crisis year of 2007 turned out to be extremely successful for global food markets. In particular, soybeans have risen in price over the year by more than 60%, and wheat on the European market by 68% (see graph below). Tropical goods have also become more expensive: cocoa on the world market has become more expensive by 18%, and coffee by 20%. American authorities even complain that it has become too expensive to purchase grain from their farmers for food aid to developing countries.

Islamist supporters of the new Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi came out to a rally to show support for his decision to remove one of the country's most powerful military officers from the leadership of the armed forces. Thousands of Egyptians responded to Mr. Morsi's call to support him.

85 YEARS AGO 159 1 min. ... It is considered inappropriate to further expand Japanese oil and coal concessions in the Far East. Give a directive to the Main Concession Committee to prevent as much as possible the further expansion of Japanese forest concessions in the Primorsky region. From the minutes of the Politburo meeting N120, 1927. Materials prepared by Svetlana Kuznetsova and Evgeny Zhirnov

The Cabinet of Ministers allowed the country's largest oil producing company PJSC Ukrnafta to supply 270 million cubic meters this year. m of gas to industrial enterprises instead of the population. The corresponding changes to the “Forecast balance of gas receipts and distribution for 2012” were made by government decree No. 431 of July 25. According to the document, the volume of gas produced by Ukrnafta and used for the needs of the population in 2012 decreases by 270 million cubic meters.

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development have agreed on a bill on introducing the institution of a financial ombudsman in Russia, the Prime agency reports, citing a source in the Ministry of Finance.

The damage from the bankruptcy of the Italian carrier could amount to millions of dollars, experts are sure. Meanwhile, Russians who bought plane tickets as part of a tour package are luckier than independent travelers: they have a chance to get their money back. The bankruptcy of Wind Jet will bring millions of dollars in losses to its partners. Maya Lomidze, executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, told Kommersant FM.

OJSC Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant (BMK, part of the Mechel group) in January-June 2012 reduced its net profit calculated according to RAS by 12.2% compared to the first half of last year - to 393.04 million rubles ., says the BMK report. The decrease in net profit “is associated with a change in the structure of sales of metal products of the enterprise, caused by consumer demand in the hardware market,” the company explained. BMK's revenue increased by 9.9% – to 10.66 billion rubles.

The Russian Ministry of Economic Development proposes to encourage citizens and entrepreneurs to register real estate by simplifying the procedure in order to improve the collection of property taxes, the Prime agency reports on August 13.

There are no more tickets left for free sale for the friendly match between the national football teams of Ukraine and the Czech Republic on August 15 in Lviv. “Now there are almost no tickets left for free sale. Of course, there was no such excitement as on the eve of the first game against Austria at the Lviv Arena, but given the holiday period, the start of sales was very good. In almost a week, all tickets were sold to residents of Lviv ", said stadium operations director Alexey Zhukovin.