The board of directors of the Energia rocket and space corporation has suspended the powers of the company's president and chief designer Nikolai Sevastyanov, RIA Novosti reports citing the RSC press service. The Russian government intends to initiate the issue of his removal from office. As Nikolai Moiseev, chairman of the company's board of directors, told RIA Novosti, the responsibilities of the head of the company are assigned to Energia vice-president Alexander Strekalov.

The Israeli Air Force is conducting exercises aimed at practicing combat missions at a considerable distance from their home bases. According to The Jerusalem Post, pilots and equipment are being trained for possible attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. Among other things, Israeli combat pilots are practicing in-flight refueling skills, the publication notes.

The Intel Communications Technology Lab, a research laboratory located in St. Petersburg, is developing a chip that can switch between wireless communication standards on the fly, The Inquirer reports. The laboratory's new development supports wireless data transmission standards WiFi, WiMax, 3G, Bluetooth 2.0 EDS and others. Modules for these standards are assembled on a single chip. The development is complemented by a simple scripting language for instant switching between standards.

The Russian company TNK-BP, a subsidiary of the British BP, agreed to sell to Gazprom 62.9 percent of the shares of RUSIA Petroleum OJSC, which owns the license for the giant Kovytinskoye gas condensate field. In addition, Gazprom will receive half of the shares in OJSC East Siberian Gas Company, BP reports in its press release. Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal reported that TNK-BP and Gazprom are close to signing an agreement to transfer the Russian monopoly shares of RUSIA Petroleum.

The Inhabitat website published a ranking of the smallest prefabricated houses. In the process of their manufacture, advanced technologies were used to make housing not only compact, but also environmentally friendly. In total, the rating included five prefabricated houses. The smallest of them, Micro-mini home (ranked No. 5) occupies a volume of 2.65 cubic meters. Its area is about 7 square meters.

Bioware will release a role-playing game featuring Sega's famous platform arcade character Sonic the Hedgehog, Eurogamer reports. "Bioware is one of the world's best RPG developers. Everyone at Sega is confident that Sonic is in good hands," Sega representatives said. In turn, Bioware employees said that they were “extremely pleased with the opportunity to work with one of the most famous gaming characters.” However, both companies do not provide any details about the project itself.

June 22 will be the last day of peace in the UK between Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and thousands of rich people who have successfully evaded taxes for many years. Until 12 o'clock at night, the latter can admit to non-payment, and then the department will limit the fine to 10 percent of the amount owed. Those who do not want to make peace with the tax authorities will face much more severe sanctions - from 30 to 100 percent of the debt.

The commander of the Estonian Defense Forces, Ants Laaneots, denied allegations that he allegedly sees a threat to the Estonian state in the increase in the number of Russian-speaking conscripts. As Postimees writes on Friday, the Estonian general, on the contrary, set Russian-speaking conscripts as an example for Estonian conscripts, who are not only more willing to join the army, but also more physically resilient. “Russians, in principle, have a long tradition of military service.

Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev - Director of the Federal Security Service of Russia, head of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, permanent member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. In the past, he was deputy head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation. After graduating from the KGB Higher Courses, he worked in the counterintelligence units of the USSR KGB Directorate for the Leningrad Region, where he met Vladimir Putin.

Pearson, publisher of one of the world's largest business newspapers, The Financial Times, and General Electric, owner of cable TV channel CNBC, have abandoned a joint proposal to buy the Dow Jones publishing house, which, in particular, owns The Wall Street Journal. This is stated in the official press release from Pearson. The news boosts the chances of another Dow Jones contender, News Corp. American billionaire Rupert Murdoch. He offered five billion dollars for the asset.

In the south of Russia it is proposed to create a special court that will deal with the most complex cases of crimes committed in the Southern Federal District. The justification for the need to create a district court in the region was presented by the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation in the Southern Federal District, Ivan Sydoruk, reports the Interfax agency .

Only one in six businessmen living in the UK and earning over £10 million a year pays income tax, The Daily Mail writes, citing data from the Kingdom's Ministry of Finance. As it turned out, the amount of lost payments reaches 2 billion pounds sterling. The extent of the tax evasion came to light through several requests under the Freedom of Information Act. It found that of the 400 wealthy Britons in the 2004-2005 tax year, only 65 filled out an income tax return.

Moscow "Spartak" beat "Saturn" near Moscow in the match of the 14th round of the national football championship. The red-whites played their first match under the leadership of new head coach Stanislav Cherchesov and achieved a victory with a score of 2:0. After this game, “Spartak” single-handedly topped the championship standings.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair , who will leave office on June 27 after ten years in this post, has revealed the secret of his political longevity and successful career. In an interview with The Times, he said that he traditionally wore the same pair of leather boots, bought 18 years ago, for each Prime Minister's Questions program, which is broadcast weekly on British television, where the Prime Minister publicly answers questions from members of Parliament.

The US administration is ready to close the prison camp at the Guantanamo Bay base and transfer prisoners there to other military prisons, the AP reports, citing anonymous sources in the White House. According to them, the decision had already been made, and the president's national security advisers were supposed to discuss the details of this event at a special meeting on June 22, however, after information about this was leaked to the press, the meeting was postponed to a later date.