A trip to the sea How Krasnodar environmentalists are fighting the construction of an elite dacha Environmental activists from the Krasnodar Territory are trying to find out why 8 hectares of coastal land were fenced with barbed wire. Behind the fence, they believe, the dacha of the region's governor, Alexander Tkachev, is being built. Activists are monitored, detained and sentenced to administrative arrest.

All fuel was pumped out of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, which sank on the night of January 14 off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio, on March 24. This was reported by the ANSA news agency. The Dutch company Smit began pumping out fuel on February 12. 20 pieces of equipment and one hundred people of different nationalities and specialties took part in them. More than two thousand cubic meters of fuel and sewage were pumped out from the sunken ship, the ASCA agency notes.

Law enforcement agencies of Kabardino-Balkaria have neutralized a powerful explosive device found 200 meters from the Caucasus federal highway. reported this on Sunday, March 25, Interfax with reference to the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to RIA Novosti , a homemade explosive device with a capacity of 20 kilograms of TNT was planted 16 kilometers from the city of Chegem. The bomb was a metal pipe filled with explosives.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will return to Cuba on Sunday, March 25, to undergo radiation therapy there, reports Reuters . At the end of February, Chavez had already had a tumor removed in Havana, which doctors discovered in approximately the same place where he had a malignant intestinal tumor removed in the summer of 2011. This was the third operation that the Venezuelan president has undergone over the past year. In addition, Chavez underwent several courses of chemotherapy in Cuba.

The command of the US Armed Forces has decided to release from responsibility the military personnel involved in the death of 24 Pakistanis as a result of a NATO airstrike. The New York Times writes about this on March 25. Back in December 2011, a few weeks after the airstrike, the American side came to the conclusion that both sides were to blame for the incident on the border with Afghanistan.

US authorities have paid compensation to the families of 17 Afghans killed by US Sergeant Robert Bales. reported this on March 25 The Associated Press , citing Afghan officials. Those affected by the American's actions received compensation on Saturday, March 24, at the office of the governor of Kandahar province. The families of Bales' victims, according to the AP, received $50,000 each, and the wounded received $11,000 each.

On March 25, the Belarusian opposition celebrated Freedom Day, an unofficial holiday in honor of the founding of the Belarusian People's Republic in 1918, with a mass rally and procession. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, about 700 people gathered near the building of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences, RIA Novosti reports .

Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi died of cancer in Lisbon at the age of 68, reports La Repubblica. Tabucchi is the author of a novel about Portugal during fascism, “Pereira Affirms” (Sostiene Pereira, 1994; published in Russian in 2003 by the Inostranka publishing house), in the film adaptation of which Marcello Mastroianni played the main role. Tabucchi also wrote Indian Nocturne (Notturno Indiano, 1984), Requiem (1991) and other works.

Malaysian Grand Prix Photo © AFP On March 25, the second stage of the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship took place. The race took place in Malaysia, where fans regularly expect rain, but this race has only been truly rainy a few times. Over the 13 years of the Malaysian Grand Prix's existence, Michael Schumacher has won the most victories on this track - three. Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel had two victories each, Jenson Button had one.

Greg Smith, ex-director of the London bureau of Goldman Sachs bank for work with derivatives, intends to write a book about his career in the organization, which resulted in a scandalous resignation, reports Reuters . Smith has already held meetings with a number of publishers, with some of them saying they fear possible lawsuits related to such publication.

Former US Vice President Richard Cheney underwent a heart transplant, reports Reuters . Now 71-year-old Cheney is undergoing rehabilitation in a Virginia clinic. Cheney said back in 2011 on the American television channel NBC that he would have to undergo a heart transplant operation. Cheney needed a transplant due to the inconvenience that a heart pump installed in July 2010 caused him. Cheney's heart problems began in 2001, when he was given a pacemaker.

Declassified archival documents have revealed that Yugoslav spies worked in the BBC's international department in the 1970s. The Sunday Times writes about this. Intelligence officers working for the State Security Service were supposed to inform Yugoslavia about the work of their compatriots and British colleagues, as well as about the lives of dissidents who emigrated from the socialist state. Among the spies was, in particular, the current member of the Slovenian parliament Mitja Mersol.

25.03.2012, 12:31:40 version Print | PDA/PDA The man among the masked police is likely Abdelkader Mera. Photo ©AP Brother of Toulouse terrorist to appear in court The elder brother of Toulouse terrorist Mohammed Mera Abdelkader will appear in court. told Agence France-Presse that he will most likely be charged with complicity in theft. Abdelkader's girlfriend's lawyer, Guy Debuisson, Prosecutors clarified that we are talking about charges of complicity in murder.

During the repeat presidential elections in South Ossetia, cases of voter bribery were recorded, a Lenta.ru correspondent reports. On Sunday, March 25, two buses with voters from Vladikavkaz arrived at polling stations 83 and 84 in the village of Yuzhny Ruk. According to observers, people were instructed to vote for Human Rights Commissioner David Sanakoev. A Lenta.ru correspondent saw voters photographing ballots filled out for Sanakoev, and then receiving a reward of a thousand rubles.

US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who is accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians, managed to return to base between the killings. This was reported by the Associated Press , citing anonymous sources in the US military department. This information confirms the US government's version that all the killings were carried out by one person, which was questioned in Afghanistan due to the long time interval between the killings.