Obama Strikes Back 10 Photos The second round of television debates before the US presidential election on October 16 brought victory to the current head of state, Barack Obama: he took revenge for losing two weeks earlier. This time, incited by supporters from the democratic camp, Obama took off right away and began to push Mitt Romney on all fronts.

Bidzina Ivanishvili / M. Mokrushin / RIA Novosti Bidzina Ivanishvili, the leader of the Georgian Dream coalition that won the majority of seats in the parliamentary elections, presented candidates for the majority of ministerial portfolios at a press conference in Tbilisi. Ivanishvili himself is a candidate for prime minister. Ivanishvili intends to appoint Maia Panjikidze as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in his government.

In connection with the explosion on the gas pipeline through which Iranian gas is supplied to Turkey, OAO Gazprom has increased the volume of gas exports to Turkey by 60%, the Russian gas holding company said in a statement. "As a result of the explosion on the gas pipeline through which Iranian gas is supplied to Turkey, the Botash company, until the consequences of the accident are eliminated, asked Gazprom to increase gas supplies through the Blue Stream gas pipeline.

08 October 2012, 13:58 / Lifestyle / Management Stem cell researchers win Nobel Prize in Medicine The age difference between the laureates - Briton Sir John Gurdon and Japanese Shinya Yamanaka - is 29 years, their discoveries were made with an interval of 44 years Natalya Raibman Sir John Gurdon /Matt Dunham /AP The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for discoveries in the field of stem cells.

The memorandum on new lines of the Nord Stream gas pipeline will be signed before the end of 2012, announced Gazprom Chairman of the Board Alexey Miller during the ceremony to put the second line of the gas pipeline into operation.

The sharp fall in the rial's value (down 40 percent since September 24), which sparked mass protests in Tehran, has reinforced the view among American and European officials that sanctions are beginning to undermine Iran's financial position and that economic pressure must be stepped up. The embargo on European oil purchases from Iran, which went into full effect on July 1, has reduced oil exports from more than 2 million barrels a day in January and February 2012 to 1 million in September.

Anna Politkovskaya, a columnist for Novaya Gazeta, was killed six years ago, on October 7, 2006, in the entrance of a building on Lesnaya Street in Moscow. Yesterday, hundreds, perhaps thousands of Muscovites brought flowers to the site of her death. A picket in Politkovskaya's memory in Moscow's Novopushkinsky Square attracted about 200 people.

Furniture group IKEA will never float its shares on the stock exchange, and the company's founder and head, 86-year-old Ingvar Kamprad, is not planning to resign from his post. The head of the world's largest manufacturer of furniture and household items himself stated this in an interview with Bilanz.

Everything is the other way around. 70% Apple accounted for 9.6% of tablet computer shipments worldwide in the second quarter of 2012, while Samsung accounted for only 9.6%, according to IDC statistics The South Korean manufacturer became the leader in tablet sales in Russia in August 2012, according to a report by the analytical company GfK, which was obtained by Vedomosti.

By 2015, the Ministry of Health plans to reduce cigarette sales by 27%. This involves a plan to radically increase excise taxes on tobacco. According to the department, Russia has some of the lowest taxes on tobacco products in the world, and one of the highest rates of consumption.

The Moscow City Court left unchanged the sentence of the former deputy mayor of the city, former chairman of Moskontrol Aleksandr Ryabinin, who in July received a three-year suspended sentence for fraud. The lawyers of the former official sought his acquittal, the prosecutor's office demanded a tougher punishment. On July 27, the Presnensky District Court found Ryabinin guilty of fraud and sentenced him to a suspended sentence and a fine of 1 million rubles.

During the period from August 29 to September 25, 2012, the number of unemployed registered with employment service agencies decreased by 3.5%, or 37,768 people, and as of September 25 amounted to 1,032,803 people, the press service of the Ministry of Labor reports. During the reporting period, the number of unemployed decreased in 77 regions.

The ruble has fallen against a basket of currencies, reflecting negative trends in external markets, which have recovered from the US labor statistics and are now once again concerned about the problems of global economic growth and the situation with the Eurozone debt crisis. Market participants do not expect significant changes in the ruble before the start of the tax period (from October 15) and in the absence of breakthrough news.

Facebook Social network. Main shareholders: Mark Zuckerberg – 28.1% of voting shares (taking into account powers of attorney issued to him – 57.6%), Accel Partners – 1.4%, Dustin Moskovitz – 8.5%, DST Global – 5.2%, Mail.ru Group – 2.3%, Microsoft – 1.7%. Capitalization – $44.8 billion. Financial indicators (US GAAP, 2011): Revenue – $3.71 billion, net profit – $1 billion. Facebook's first commercial begins with a chair floating in the air in the middle of a forest.

Rosneft wants to increase gas production from 26 billion cubic meters per year to 100 billion, the company’s presentation says. Rosneft has already contracted for 34 billion cubic meters of gas per year for 2013 and 2014, and in 2015 these volumes will increase to 37 billion, in 2016 – to 72 billion, and in 2017 – to 77 billion.