Romanian police involved in the investigation into the robbery of a museum in Rotterdam searched the home of Romanian fashion designer Catalin Botezatu on January 28 and arrested his assistant, reports Agence France-Presse . Petre Condrat was accused of possession of stolen goods. This brings the number of people arrested in the museum theft case to four.

Egyptian Defense Minister Colonel-General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued an official statement on January 29, warning of the possible collapse of the country if the current political crisis continues, reports Reuters . “Continued struggle for power between different political forces could lead to the collapse of the state as such,” the general said. According to him, army units are already deployed at the country's vital installations to prevent them from being captured or damaged.

United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Director General Travis Tygart said the International Cycling Union (UCI) should not be involved in the investigation into Lance Armstrong. Velonews.com reports this. On January 28, the UCI dissolved the independent commission that was investigating the union's links to the doping scheme created by Armstrong.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered positive selection of gene variants associated with survival in cold conditions among indigenous peoples of Siberia. The authors reported the research results at an anthropological conference ; a summary of the report is retold by ScienceNow. During the study, geneticists took DNA samples from two hundred representatives of 10 indigenous Siberian ethnic groups.

“It’s hard to be a scoundrel” Dmitry Gudkov told Lenta.ru why he is not going to leave A Just Russia Russian State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov at a march against the law banning the adoption of Russian children by US citizens. Photo: Ilya Pitalev / RIA Novosti The leadership of A Just Russia decided to punish party members who participated in the “March against Scoundrels” - a January action against the law banning the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans.

A group of State Duma deputies is developing amendments to the legislation that will significantly reduce the requirements for potential adoptive parents, guardians and trustees. The Izvestia newspaper reports this. It is assumed, in particular, that persons with criminal convictions under certain criminal articles, which now make this impossible, will be able to adopt children.

Mexican police recovered the bodies of four musicians from the band Kombo Kolombia from a well in the northeast of the country, The Star reports. According to the initial examination of the bodies, the criminals first tortured their victims and then shot them. In total, 12 corpses were found in the well. Who the rest of the dead were will become known after the identification procedure is carried out.

The owner of a tobacco store from Westchase, Florida, sold a customer a giant cigar, which is about six meters long, writes the Tampa Bay Times. The purchase cost the anonymous collector $185 thousand, and he received the El Gigante cigar at a discount. According to store owner Juan Panesso, he received an order for El Gigante, consisting of enough tobacco to make 25,000 standard-sized cigars, a few weeks ago.

In Scotland, specialists from the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals helped a young seal cub, which was hidden from stormy weather in a truck, writes The Scotsman. Moreover, at first the animal was placed in the trunk, but it probably didn’t like it there very much, and it independently moved to the dashboard.

A new criminal case was opened against Ekaterina Smetanova, a defendant in the theft case at the Ministry of Defense, under Part 3 of Article 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (commercial bribery), the Izvestia newspaper wrote on Tuesday, citing sources close to the investigation.

Nikolaos Dertilis, the last member of the junta that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974, died in prison at the age of 94. reports Associated Press . He died in an Athens hospital, where he was transferred in December after a heart attack. Dertilis took part in the military coup of 1967, after which a group of officers - the so-called “black colonels” - seized power in the country. The junta imposed a curfew and began persecuting political opponents.

A script for the film Macbeth, which Laurence Olivier planned but was never able to direct, has been found in the UK. The Guardian reports this. The film was supposed to be the fourth Shakespearean film adaptation by Olivier, who had previously successfully adapted Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III for cinema. When Olivier abandoned the idea of ​​Macbeth in the late 1950s due to financial difficulties, he tried to surround the failed project with a veil of secrecy.

The Venice City Council on Monday, January 28, approved the initiative to suspend partnerships with St. Petersburg. As RIA Novosti reports with reference to the head of the cultural commission of the Venetian municipality, Camilla Seibezzi, who is one of the authors of the document, the reason was the law adopted in St. Petersburg banning the promotion of homosexuality.

Venice Mayor Giorgio Orsoni said on January 29 that, despite the city council's initiative to suspend cooperation with St. Petersburg, the cities will remain partners. reports this RIA Novosti .

The most authoritative journalists for Russians are Andrei Malakhov, Vladimir Pozner and Vladimir Solovyov. This is evidenced by the results of a survey published on the website of the Public Opinion Foundation on January 29. According to the study, 31 percent of respondents trust Channel One presenter Andrei Malakhov, 28 percent trust his colleague Vladimir Pozner, and 18 percent trust the Rossiya-1 channel presenter Vladimir Solovyov.