Afghan authorities announced the death of the founder of the Taliban movement, Mullah Mohammed Omar. The Taliban leader has been on the run since 2001, when US forces invaded Afghanistan. One of the residences of the leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, near Kandahar. Archive photo (Photo: REUTERS 2015) The fact that the leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has died, is reported by the BBC, citing the Afghan authorities.

Artist and teacher Dmitry Zhilinsky died on July 29 in Moscow at the age of 89, Interfax reports, citing a statement from the Russian Academy of Arts. As noted at the academy, Zhilinsky died after a serious illness. Dmitry Zhilinsky is a famous artist, teacher, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, laureate of the State Prize of the RSFSR named after Repin (1985) and the State Prize of Russia in the field of literature and art (1999). Zhilinsky was born on May 25, 1927 in Sochi.

Turkish authorities reported the detention of 1,302 people in 39 provinces of the country who are suspected of involvement in the terrorist group "Islamic State" (banned in Russia), the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which the United States also recognized as a terrorist organization, and members of illegal left-wing radical groups and movements. This, as reported by Reuters , is stated in a statement by the country's government.

Grishin Robotics, founded by Mail.Ru Group CEO Dmitry Grishin, has become a co-investor in Occipital, a developer of a 3D scanner for mobile devices. Total investment - $13 million Founder of the Grishin Robotics venture fund Dmitry Grishin (Photo: TASS) Investments in the American developer Occipital are the tenth investment of the Grishin Robotics fund created by the CEO of Mail.Ru Group, a representative of the Russian Internet holding told RBC.

The leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party, Selahattin Demirtas, condemned Ankara's plan to create a “safe zone” in Syria. He told the BBC that Turkey's operation against Islamic State militants on the Syrian border was a cover for an operation against Kurdish rebels. He called on the Turkish authorities to return to the peace process. Ankara previously stated that a return to peace was impossible.

The missile brigade of the Central Military District (CMD), alerted as part of a combat readiness check in the Orenburg region, conducted training launches from Iskander-M complexes. This was announced by the official representative of the Central Military District, Colonel Yaroslav Roshchupkin, RIA Novosti reports. According to him, the launches took place at the Totsky training ground.

Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko commented on FIBA's decision to disqualify the Russian Basketball Federation (RFB). “I was shocked by this news. FIBA is waving its sword. This does not threaten anything,” R-Sport quotes the minister . He also called FIBA's decision incorrect and admitted the possibility of appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Microblogging platform Twitter received revenue of $502.4 million in the second quarter of 2015, which is $190.2 million, or 38%, more than a year earlier. about this . writes The Guardian According to the newspaper, such results were announced at a virtual conference between the interim head of the company, Jack Dorsey, and investors. Twitter's revenue was higher than expected. At the same time, the company's loss amounted to $137 million. The company's main problem remains stagnant growth.

Analysts and traders surveyed by Bloomberg predicted the price of gold would fall to below $1,000 an ounce by the end of 2015. For many investors, this precious metal has lost its charisma, the agency believes Gold bars in a Hong Kong jewelry store (Photo: REUTERS 2015) According to the average forecast of 16 analysts and traders, conducted by Bloomberg , by the end of 2015 the price of gold will fall below the psychologically important level of $1,000.

An expensive 65-meter yacht was stolen from Baku Bay, reports the Azerbaijani portal Lent.az. According to the publication, businessman Fizuli Abdullayev contacted the police with a complaint that his yacht disappeared from the yacht club located on Baku Boulevard under unknown circumstances. The ship was his personal property. The vessel has been kept at the yacht club since 2006.

The government agreed to create the Post Bank on the basis of the VTB Leto Bank subsidiary. The head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, Nikolai Nikiforov, became a candidate for the post of chairman of the board of directors of the new structure. This was reported by Kommersant with reference to a source familiar with the situation and another interlocutor close to one of the parties.

Based on the results of inspections carried out in 2015, Rosobrnadzor banned the admission of applicants to 51 Russian universities. This is stated in a statement from the department, RIA Novosti reports. Typical violations included the lack of documents for buildings and land of universities, violations of sanitary and epidemiological conclusions, understaffing of educational institutions with teaching staff, and others, notes Rosobrnadzor.

Photo: EPA Volkswagen overtook Toyota in global vehicle sales in the first half of 2015. The German company has a chance to take away the status of market leader from the Japanese this year, Bloomberg notes . The world's second-largest car maker Volkswagen overtook Toyota in terms of sales in the first half of 2015. According to Bloomberg , from January to June this year, the German company sold 5.04 million cars compared to 5.02 million transactions that Toyota reported on Tuesday.

During the crisis, tobacco companies try to retain the loyalty of smokers by selling cigarettes in larger packs - 25-30 pieces each. Now all five of the largest tobacco companies have such offers.

The film “Francophonie” by Alexander Sokurov will compete for the main prize at the Venice Film Festival, according to the program published on the film forum website. The film festival will take place from September 2 to 12 on Lido Island. In total, 21 films are entered into the competition, among which there is not a single Russian-made film (Sokurov’s film will represent France, Germany and the Netherlands).