One of the most famous British authors of spy novels, Frederick Forsyth, admitted that he was an agent of the British foreign intelligence service MI6 for more than 20 years. According to the 77-year-old writer, he was recruited by an MI6 officer during his work covering the fighting during the war of independence of the unrecognized state of Biafra in south-eastern Nigeria, which lasted from 1967 to 1970.

Starting to issue your own currency The Islamic State has officially announced the start of the fight against the “hegemony of the dollar and the US Federal Reserve.” The organization presented its vision of the global financial system, saying that it intends to destroy this flawed system by issuing its own currency of gold and silver. Photo: AP Earlier reports about the plans of the Islamic State (IS) to begin issuing their own currency were confirmed today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi congratulated the winners of the international combat sambo tournament held in Sochi. The Russian martial arts team and the world team, which included the strongest athletes from the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, competed in the ring of the sixth international professional combat sambo tournament.

The results of the study of biological passports of athletes who were suspected of violating anti-doping rules will be published by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on September 1. “The IAAF has made serious efforts in the fight against doping. Over the past two years, we have tightened control in this matter and achieved excellent results. Suffice it to say that at this championship we detected two positive doping tests.

Denis Pushilin said they will pass according to the election law The representative of the self -proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in the contact group to resolve the Ukrainian crisis Denis Pushilin said that the local elections in the DPR planned for October cannot create a threat to the Minsk agreements. Mr. Pushilin said that they will pass according to the election law and in accordance with a set of measures to resolve the situation in the Donbass.

A rally was held in the center of Moscow to cancel the increase in fees for major repairs, which, according to the organizers, was attended by about 300 people, the radio station “Moscow Speaks” reports. “Everything was quite organized, and people did not sleep. Among the speakers there were a lot of young people, representatives of various regions, including the Moscow region and other regions of the country. The rally was very cheerful, people left charged.

The agreement on the Iranian nuclear program (INP), reached between the Six and Iran, will allow Tehran to allocate more funds to support terrorist activities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Individuals and companies in Greece will have to pay taxes on more than €24.7 billion in the coming months, the Kathimerini newspaper reports. According to the publication, €12.3 billion of this will be VAT and excise taxes. We are talking about taxes on real estate, on profits, on wages, an increased solidarity tax and a tax on cars. According to the publication, most of them will be listed after the elections on September 20.

A protest rally is taking place in the capital of Japan today against a law expanding the powers of the national self-defense forces, which was adopted in July by the lower house of the country's parliament. According to the organizers of the demonstration, about 120 thousand people take part in it, TASS reports. Mass protests against the adoption of a law to expand the powers of the self-defense forces are taking place in Japan for the second weekend in a row.

Firefighters extinguished a fire on the fishing trawler "Cape Elizaveta", which caught fire on Thursday evening in the port of Sovetskaya Gavan in the Khabarovsk Territory, a representative of the State Emergency Management Directorate for the region said. On Thursday evening, a fire broke out in the fish processing shop on board the Cape Elizabeth vessel. There were 125 tons of diesel fuel on board.

Employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) discovered and seized two large quantities of weapons in the special operation zone in Donbass, which were collected and were going to be illegally exported by former fighters of one of the volunteer battalions, the SBU press center reported.

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova, Natalia German, said that the country can apply to join the European Union no later than 2018. “Moldova needs political stability in order to fully implement the Association Agreement plan with the EU and implement all reforms. I believe that we can apply to join the EU within the framework of the current government mandate, which expires in November 2018,” RIA Novosti quotes her.

The Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations for Moscow warns residents and guests of the capital about adverse weather events on August 30. “The Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the city of Moscow warns: on August 30, 2015, gusts of north-west wind of 12-17 m/s are expected in Moscow in the coming hours, continuing until 22:00,” the message says.

Parliamentary elections in Egypt will be held in two stages, Reuters reports citing a message from the country's Supreme Election Commission. The first phase is scheduled for October 18-19 in 14 provinces. The second round, which will cover the remaining regions, will take place on November 22–23. Earlier, Kommersant reported that the State Council of Egypt approved amendments to the new electoral laws, which previously did not allow parliamentary elections to be held in the country.

All bus fleets of the State Unitary Enterprise Mosgortrans are launching a project to monitor the work of drivers on city routes, according to the company’s website. On vehicles participating in the project, special stickers are placed with the hotline number “Accident No!”, by calling which motorists can report cases of violation of traffic rules or accidents caused by drivers of regular buses.