Representatives of the Spanish Ministry of the Navy have officially stated that the missing Russian cargo ship Arctic Sea did not enter any Spanish port. reports this ITAR-TASS . The authorities also have no information about the vessel’s entry into Spanish territorial waters.

Ukrainian banks Rodovid and Ukrgasbank refused to early repurchase their bonds from investors for 550 million hryvnia (more than 2 billion rubles), despite the fact that such an obligation was stated in the agreement. writes about this Kommersant-Ukraine . The actions of Ukrgasbank could have been considered a technical default, if not for the resolution of the National Bank of Ukraine, which prohibited the country's banks from repaying obligations ahead of schedule.

The record company Universal Motown has announced that it is preparing to release a collection of remixes of Michael Jackson songs , reports MusicRadar. The compilation, which is called "Michael Jackson: The Remix Suite", will include both compositions by the pop singer's family group Jackson 5 and the artist's solo works. As the publication learned, the bassist and one of the vocalists of the Californian pop-punk band Blink-182, Mark Hoppus, will take part in the project.

On Thursday, August 13, an explosion occurred in the west of Moscow. According to the CITY-FM radio station , the explosive device went off at about 9 a.m. in a forest belt, presumably near house No. 4 on Chobotovskaya Alley. There are casualties; according to preliminary data, these are two people. Life.ru clarifies that a tripwire with a grenade exploded. According to the portal, one person, a citizen of Georgian origin, was injured. Interfax also reports that one person was injured.

Iraq will purchase the remaining two C-130J-30 Super Hercules military transport aircraft from the six previously planned. The corresponding statement, as reported by Flight Global , was released by the US military department. The contract, worth about $140 million, was agreed with the US Air Force. The Iraqi government sent a US request to purchase six military transport aircraft under the Foreign Military Sales program in July 2008.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation released two defendants in a corruption case in the Accounts Chamber on bail in the amount of 10 million rubles each. reported this on August 13 RIA Novosti . , were released As the lawyer of one of the accused, Lyudmila Aivar, told reporters, the head of the federal bureau Lord Interprice, Nikolai Serykh , and the owner of the Carven restaurant, Alan Gogichev .

A 400-page study prepared by the German Federal Criminal Police admits that there are about 900 mafiosi or 229 family clans of the Calabrian mafia group "Ndrangheta" operating in the country. writes about this on August 13 The weekly newspaper ZEIT . The police report, which is itself a secret document, talks about the trafficking of weapons, drugs, murders, fraud with waste and recyclables, as well as money laundering - crimes in which the police believe the Italian mafiosi are involved.

A 20-year-old Adelaide resident has been detained on suspicion of stealing bank details, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The programs the young man illegally installed on 3,000 computers in Australia and around the world were designed to steal credit card numbers and bank account passwords, South Australia Police said in a statement. In addition, the arrested hacker is suspected of creating a botnet of 74 thousand infected computers, designed to organize DDoS attacks on websites.

The Okhta Public Business Center (ODC Okhta), controlled by the Gazprom concern, on August 12 submitted an official application for the construction of the Okhta Center, the dominant feature of which will be a skyscraper 396 meters high. As stated in the official press release of the Okhta ODC, the Land Use and Development Commission of St. Petersburg decided to send the project materials to public hearings on deviations from the maximum parameters of permitted construction.

At least 45 people have been killed in a Philippine army offensive against Islamic militants in the island province of Basilan. Reuters reported this on Thursday, citing senior military officials. The battle between the militants and the military lasted at least eight hours, sources in the Philippine army told the agency.

Two attacks on police officers were carried out on the evening of August 13 in the capital of Dagestan, told Interfax . the press service of the Makhachkala Internal Affairs Directorate According to the press service, at about 17:00 local time, an unknown person fired at the Terek-10 traffic police post at the southern exit from Makhachkala. One traffic police officer was wounded in the leg.

The World Trade Organization upheld the US complaint against China regarding restrictions on the import of media products that exist in China. The New York Times writes about this. The WTO demanded that American music, game and film producers be allowed directly into the Chinese market, bypassing the now obligatory intermediaries. However, this decision does not mean that Chinese consumers will have greater access to American media products.

In recent days, the ruble on the MICEX has been behaving very suspiciously: it is either falling sharply against the dollar and the euro, or, on the contrary, strengthening. While the business media speculates about the reasons for these surges, investors are making significant profits (and losses!), and ordinary Russians are increasingly worried: is it time to sell their currency? Or, on the contrary, should I use my last rubles to buy dollars and euros?

The Russian national football team lost in a home match for the first time under the leadership of Guus Hiddink. On August 12, at the Lokomotiv stadium, the Russians lost to the Argentina national team in a friendly match with a score of 2:3. At the beginning of the match, Igor Semshov opened the scoring, but then the Argentines scored three times against Igor Akinfeev. At the end of the match, Roman Pavlyuchenko scored one goal, but the home team could not achieve more.

On August 12, the Russian media had a reason to announce the start of another trade war - this time with Lithuania. A message was published on the Rosselkhoznadzor website about restrictions on the import of dairy products from several Lithuanian enterprises from August 17. Officials of the Baltic republic have already called this decision political.