The seller of a painting by artist Francesca, stolen in Slovenia in 2004, has been detained in Moscow. A man who tried to sell a stolen canvas was detained by employees of the Department for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DBOPiT) of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Interfax reports .

Participants in the protest against police brutality, which took place on April 18 in Moscow, blocked Tverskaya Street and marched from Pushkinskaya Square in the direction of the Belorussky Station, a Lenta.Ru correspondent reports from the scene. About 150 people took part in the action. The movement of vehicles along Tverskaya from the center towards the region was difficult. There were no police officers at the scene.

In Chechnya, the chief of staff of the Sunzhensky District Department of Internal Affairs was kidnapped on Thursday evening, told Interfax on Friday morning. representatives of the headquarters of the United Group of Forces in the North Caucasus According to them, the attack on the head of the police department headquarters, police captain Ali Gaydamurov, was carried out in the village of Asinovskaya, Sunzhensky district.

At the St. Petersburg Pulkovo airport, a special vehicle collided with a Mi-8 helicopter standing on the airfield, Interfax reports . It is reported that the lift truck touched the main rotor blade. Despite minor damage, the owner of the Mi-8, Spark Plus Airlines, will have to replace the entire set of blades, which cost about 120 thousand dollars.

A luxury holiday village - "Golden Sands" - will appear on the banks of the Mozhaisk Reservoir. The village project was presented at the last real estate exhibition "Domexpo" by the investment and construction holding Rodex Group, according to a company press release. The village is located 119 kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road along the Minsk Highway. On a plot of 48.5 hectares, 269 houses of different classes will be built according to several projects.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, during a meeting with Vladimir Putin reports on the island of Sardinia, said that he would seek the abolition of the visa regime between the EU and Russia, Interfax . “I consider it necessary to abandon the practice of visas and undertake to discuss this issue on behalf of the EU,” said the Italian Prime Minister.

Students of the Russian State Humanitarian University (RGGU) on Friday, April 18, staged a flash mob in front of the university building on Nikolskaya Street, protesting against the eviction of the university, RIA Novosti reports . About 30 students in yellow jackets with the symbols of the Russian State University for the Humanities came out onto the sidewalk in front of the building, opened their books and began to read.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a press conference in Italy, denied rumors that he was going to marry State Duma deputy Alina Kabaeva, Interfax reports . “I have always had a bad attitude towards those who, with some kind of flu-like nose and with their erotic fantasies, meddle in someone else’s life,” Putin said. At the same time, the Russian president clarified (quoted from Gazeta.Ru ): “Successful and beautiful girls are mentioned in publications of this kind.

Publisher Activision has officially announced the next part of the Spider-Man series, IGN reports. The game, which received the subtitle Web of Shadows, is being created for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, Wii and Nintendo DS. The development of the project was entrusted to the studios Shaba Games and Treyarch.

Rice prices on the world market for the first time exceeded the mark of one thousand dollars per ton. This happened at the auction on April 17, writes The Financial Times. The increase in the cost of the staple food product for many countries around the world is associated with a decrease in exports from Vietnam, India, Egypt, China and Cambodia. A record of $1,046 per ton of rice was set at auction in the Philippines, notes Finfacts.

On April 17, the Federation Council introduced amendments to the law on municipal employees, Vedomosti newspaper wrote on Friday . Senators proposed expanding the list of reasons for which municipal employees can be fired. New reasons for dismissal for city managers and subordinate mayors include appearing at work while intoxicated, lack of skills in the field of labor protection, and also being subject to investigation by a municipal employee.

Russian defenseman of the Ottawa Senators Anton Volchenkov said that he will not be able to help the national team at the World Hockey Championship, which will be held from May 2 to 18 in Canada. According to the athlete, he must recover from the injury he received in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs against Pittsburgh. Volchenkov said that in the first match of the series, the puck hit him in the face after a throw from one of his opponents.

The famous artist Joseph Solman, one of the leading representatives of American expressionism, died in New York, writes The New York Times. On Wednesday, April 16, he turned 99 years old. Solman was born in Vitebsk. His family immigrated to the United States when he was 12 years old. He graduated from the New York National Academy of Design. Solman's first solo exhibition took place in 1934.

The Russian news agency Interfax announced the signing of a partnership agreement with the American company LexisNexis, one of the world leaders in the field of information systems, Vremya Novostey reports . Now users of the integrated news analysis system (SCAN), created by Interfax in 2007, will have access to LexisNexis resources. This company's databases store about 36 thousand sources, the library contains more than 4 billion documents, 90 percent of which are in English.

Instead of the victory banner at the May 9 parade in Moscow, an exact copy of it will be taken to Red Square, writes Moskovsky Komsomolets on April 18. In May 2007, a law was passed that allows the use of a copy of the rare banner at the Victory Parade. It was adopted specifically in order to preserve the banner, which is located in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces, from deterioration.