The potential introduction of a tax on bank deposits in Cyprus indicates the exhaustion of the neoliberal economic model. This was stated by Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin, ITAR-TASS reports . The manager of the state-owned company explained that the European Union, together with Cyprus, are trying to solve internal problems at the expense of depositors’ money, including from Russia, which in no way corresponds to liberal economic policy.

Writer George R.R. Martin, whose novels formed the basis of the Game of Thrones series, played one of the roles for the third season. This was stated by one of the producers of the series, David Benioff, as reported by Deadline. “You’ll see him,” Benioff said on “An Evening with Game of Thrones.” However, he did not specify what kind of role Martin would have. As the portal notes, the author of “Game of Thrones” has already starred in this series.

In the Brazilian municipality of Balneario Camboriu, an elephant seal emerged from the sea and headed towards populated areas. As a result, he ended up on a busy street, but his appearance blocked the passage of traffic, reports Globo.com. The incident occurred on Saturday, March 16. No one was injured as a result of the incident. The elephant was outside for about an hour and a half.

Geoff Webster, deputy editor-in-chief of the British tabloid The Sun, has been charged with bribing government officials. The Guardian writes about this on March 20. In 2010 and 2011, Webster approved payments totaling £8,000 to two unnamed officials for information on newspaper stories, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. It is reported that one of the bribed civil servants was an employee of the Ministry of Defense.

Nvidia, at the GPU Technology conference, which opened on March 18 in San Jose, presented a development plan for its lines of video cards and Tegra mobile processors, CNET News reports. The Kepler architecture on which modern Nvidia GPUs are based will be replaced by the Maxwell architecture in 2014. It, in turn, will be replaced by the Volta architecture - this will happen around 2016.

NASA's lunar satellite has captured detailed images of the crash sites of the two GRAIL probes that crashed into the lunar surface in December 2012. The discovery of the craters was announced on March 19 at the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) senior project scientist Mark Robinson, Space.com reports.

The Narkotiki group (also known as NRKTK) will cease to exist after the final concert, which will take place in the Moscow Hall on April 24, 2013. Afisha writes about this. According to Evgeny Gorbunov, one of the founders of the group, the project participants “grew up,” which was the reason for the collapse.

The government of the Samara region on Wednesday, March 20, decided to allocate 16.8 billion rubles for the repair, reconstruction and construction of roads in the region. As Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports, compared to 2012, the road budget has increased almost 2.5 times. According to the publication, 11.8 billion rubles of the required amount will be allocated from the regional budget, the remaining five billion will be provided by the federal treasury.

A pensioner from Cyprus saved her savings from deposit taxes by withdrawing funds from her account every Friday and putting them back every Monday. reports this with reference to Cypriot media RIA Novosti . The depositor said that she withdrew money on Fridays on the advice of her son, who lives in Russia. He warned the pensioner that confiscation of funds from accounts occurs on weekends.

Russians annually spend about $30 billion on sorcerers and psychics, Interfax reported on Wednesday, March 20, citing Moscow’s chief cardiologist Yuri Buziashvili. According to him, Russian doctors in the medical services market have to compete not only with their foreign colleagues, but also with psychics.

In April, the Perets TV channel will launch the “Funny Stories from Life” program, which will show stories of users of the social networks VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Facebook. RBC daily reports this. In total, “Funny Stories from Life” will include 800 short episodes. The comedy project will air in the evenings, from 19:30 to 20:30. The exact launch date of the program has not been announced.

The cartoon channel “ The Adventures of Luntik and His Friends ” has become the most popular independent YouTube channel in Russia. The infographic, made by analytics company ChannelMetrics, was published by New Media Rockstars. “Luntik” took eighth place in the top ten most popular channels in the world (excluding the USA). took first place The British channel YOGSCAST Lewis & Simon .

The German Cabinet has decided to abandon an attempt to ban the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NDP) due to a split on this issue in the ruling coalition, reports Reuters . The government decided not to go to the Constitutional Court itself, instead leaving it to individual states to litigate. Doubts about the wisdom of filing a claim with the Constitutional Court were expressed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich.

The Ministry of Economic Development submitted to the Ministry of Finance its proposals to revise the oil price forecast. As Interfax reports , citing First Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko, officials propose increasing the expected average annual cost of a barrel of raw materials from $97 to $105. According to her, on April 4 the Ministry of Economic Development will make an official forecast.

The Kirovles case, in which oppositionist Alexei Navalny is accused, has been transferred to the Kirov court. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported this on Wednesday, March 20. Navalny is accused of organizing a particularly large embezzlement of Kirovles property. In addition to him, is also the director of the Vyatka Forestry Company, Petr Ofitserov, accused in the case. He is charged with aiding and abetting a crime.