Odessa police officers detained an activist of the opposition movement "Zubr" Valentin Doroshenko, who challenged the mayor of the city Eduard Gurvits to a duel, reports the news agency "New Region" . Doroshenko was kept in the department for three hours and his decorative sword was taken away, with which he, on horseback, appeared at the city hall building on Duma Square - the site of the alleged fight with the mayor. However, Gurwitz did not come out for the fight.

In the United States, a native of China was found guilty of stealing classified information related to the American space program. reported this on July 16 The Associated Press . The court found former Boeing and Rockwell International employee Dongfan "Greg" Chung guilty of six counts of commercial espionage for China. In total, according to the prosecution, Dongfan Chung stole 300 thousand pages of secret documents.

The Icelandic Parliament voted to submit an application for the country to join the European Union, reports Agence France Presse . 33 members of parliament voted in favor of starting negotiations on joining the Commonwealth of European countries, 28 were against it and two abstained. Debates on joining the EU continued in the Icelandic parliament for five days. Now an application to join the EU must be approved by representatives of the 27 member countries.

Russia's largest air carrier Aeroflot has agreed to lease a new office in the elite Midland Plaza office center on Arbat, building 10. Renting a space of seven thousand square meters will cost the airline five million dollars a year, writes the RBC Daily newspaper . According to Andrey Petrov, deputy general director of the consulting firm Knight Frank, an agreement between Aeroflot and the development company Midland Development was reached last week.

Some British bankers and traders must reveal their salaries. This is stated in the report of Morgan Stanley senior adviser Sir David Walker, which is dedicated to how to avoid another financial crisis, writes The New York Times. It is known that the UK government has already approved a number of provisions of the report. According to Walker, only the amounts that banks spend on salaries for top managers should become public - who exactly gets what amount will still not be disclosed.

Popular British retro-soul singer Amy Winehouse has divorced her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, BBC News reported on Thursday, July 16. According to reports, the divorce procedure took only a few minutes. Fielder-Civil filed for divorce in mid-January 2009, arguing that his wife had cheated on him. At the same time, it became known that the winner of five Grammy statuettes, Winehouse, was vacationing on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

, a member of the expert council of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation for the Chechen Republic The Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation announced the main version of the murder of Natalya Estemirova .

The Court of Appeal of Chisinau completely acquitted the former Minister of Defense of Moldova Valeriy Pasat , who was accused of fraud in the sale of weapons: MiG-29 aircraft and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems. This was reported by Novosti-Moldova news agency .

The French National Assembly (lower house of parliament) approved a bill allowing the country's large retail chains to work on Sundays, writes The Financial Times . Stores located in Paris, Marseille, Lille, as well as shopping centers located in 500 tourist areas in France will be allowed to work on the seventh day of the week. The bill must now receive Senate approval. A ban on trading on Sundays was introduced in France in 1906.

Former Verkhovna Rada deputy from BYuT Viktor Lozinsky , wanted on suspicion of hunting for a resident of the Kirovograd region Valery Oliynyk, twice escaped from ambushes set up by the SBU and the prosecutor's office, the Segodnya newspaper writes . According to the publication, operatives were waiting for Lozinsky at two addresses in the city of Nikopol, Dnepropetrovsk region, but he did not fall into the network set up by investigators.

Another opposition party has been created in Georgia: “Our Georgia - Free Democrats,” reports GHN . Its leader was the former ambassador of the republic to the UN, Irakli Alasania . The presentation of the political association took place on July 16. Trend news agency, the backbone of the party will be Alasania’s associates from among the former diplomats. Thus, the former Ambassador of Georgia to the OSCE, Viktor Dolidze, will become the executive secretary of this organization.

On July 17, 2009, an exhibition of English sculptor Antony Gormley will open at the Moscow center for contemporary culture "Garage". It is called “Fields of Attraction” and is a space filled with 287 statues, or rather, frames of statues assembled from pieces of steel rods. For each sculpture, Gormley worked with a separate sitter: people aged from 2 to 85 left casts of their bodies for him.

At an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, the Latvian Seimas approved August 23 as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, Interfax reported on July 16 . The new memorial day was approved at the proposal of the right-wing party "Civil Union", whose representatives developed a corresponding bill.

16.07.2009, 14:57:19 version Print | PDA/PDA Photo by Lenta.Ru Most Favorite The ranking of the best brands has undergone significant changes The new ranking of the best British brands has undergone significant changes: Google, firmly established in first place in all such lists, unexpectedly gave first place to one of its main competitors - Microsoft. In addition, the American company did not even get second place: Google supplanted Rolex.

Deputy Chairman of the Board Vadim Levin has resigned from VTB Bank, the second largest financial institution in Russia by assets. newspaper writes about this The Kommersant , citing its own sources close to the Ministry of Finance. The newspaper calls Levin one of the bank's most influential managers, noting that it was he who oversaw the largest projects and dealt with the most important clients.