Chickens reached America before Columbus Unexpected finds on the coast of southern Chile confirmed the long-standing hypothesis that Polynesians discovered the New World before Europeans. During excavations in the town of El Arenal, chicken bones were discovered. According to radiocarbon dating, these birds were probably alive and eaten no later than 1424. This means that by this time people had already crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached South America.

Vladimir Putin and George Bush broke through the missile defense Vladimir Putin and George Bush still ruined Angela Merkel's holiday. She really wanted the disagreements between Russia and the United States over the deployment of missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic not to overshadow the entire agenda she had prepared for the G8 summit in Heiligendamm. Putin and Bush agreed, contrary to expectations, and this became a sensation at the summit.

Security forces have begun implementing legal reform Over the past two days, not a single representative of any Russian law enforcement agency has dared to officially comment on the changes to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and the Law “On the Prosecutor’s Office” approved by President Vladimir Putin on June 6.

Hyundai Motor CEO could spend six years in prison The head of the Hyundai Motor automobile company, Chong Mong Koo, faces serious punishment. Yesterday, South Korean prosecutors demanded a six-year prison sentence for the accused. Among numerous financial crimes, Mr. Chong is accused of embezzling $74 million from the company's budget. Prosecutors believe that the funds were used for personal purposes and lobbying their own interests in the government.

The Prosecutor General's Office found new witnesses in the YUKOS case, but lost the old one The YUKOS case , which developed after the departure of the former Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, as it seemed from the outside, only by inertia, suddenly received a “new breath” yesterday. Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, speaking to reporters yesterday, reported a number of new details of this investigation, which, as it turned out, is very actively ongoing.

Nazarbayev spoke about his eldest son-in-law Yesterday, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, during an online conference, spoke for the first time about the high-profile scandal that has rocked the country. We are talking about a criminal case initiated by Kazakh law enforcement agencies against the senior son-in-law of the president , ex-ambassador to Austria Rakhat Aliyev.

Yesterday in Moscow, chaired by the Foreign Ministers of Ukraine and Russia, Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Sergei Lavrov, a meeting of the subcommittee on international cooperation took place within the framework of the Yushchenko-Putin interstate commission, created in 2005 to resolve issues of bilateral relations. As Yatsenyuk stated, the presidents themselves will soon meet within the framework of the same commission in Moscow.

UNESCO has calculated the volume of the shadow market for admission to universities Assisting applicants eager to get a higher education after school remains a profitable business not only in Russia and the post-Soviet space, but throughout the world. This is evidenced by a report by UNESCO and the International Institute of Educational Planning, in which experts tried to assess the capacity of this market in 60 countries - developed and developing.

Book festival begins in Moscow Some people may not have realized it yet, but a quiet revolution is taking place in the Russian book world (which includes a growing number of writers, publishers, booksellers, and a dwindling number of readers). The book festival - Moscow, international, open - is moving to the main positions, displacing traditional book fairs. From June 8 to June 12, for the second time, he will freely settle down in the Central House of Artists and on the grass around it.

On Moscow screens the film “Simple Things” Alexey Popogrebsky’s film “Simple Things” was just shown in the Kinotavr competition, and this same week it was released in Moscow. Apparently, producer Roman Borisevich expects that the festival wave will at least slightly help interest in the film, which little corresponds to the expected demands of the current mass audience. The hero of the film, Sergei (played by Sergei Puskepalis), works as an anesthesiologist in a regular clinic.

Next weekend, another round of negotiations will take place in Delhi on the terms of Iranian gas supplies to India. For this purpose, Iranian Minister of Oil and Gas Industry Kazem Vaziri Khamane arrived in the Indian capital. His Indian colleague Murli Deora yesterday announced a softening of his position and a readiness to make some concessions on price issues.

David Beckham helped England to an important victory in Tallinn The next round of the Euro 2008 qualifying tournament turned out to be surprisingly predictable. Only two matches, in which teams of approximately equal levels met, were drawn. The favorites won the rest, and only in two games did they allow their opponents to score.

They want to make Lyudmila Putin an honorary citizen of Kaliningrad A number of groups in Kaliningrad propose to award the title of honorary citizen of the city to the First Lady of Russia, Lyudmila Putina. Vremya Novostei was informed about this by the press service of the Kaliningrad City Hall. “The city commission for awarding the title “Honorary Citizen” received submissions for 12 candidates. Among the contenders is Lyudmila Putina,” said a representative of the press service.

The Deposit Insurance Agency is going to assess the credit risks of banks The Deposit Insurance Agency plans to follow the path of its foreign colleagues and create a differentiated system of mandatory contributions to the insurance fund. DIA General Director Alexander Turbanov spoke about this yesterday. In his opinion, banks with risky lending policies should pay more into the fund than others.

A cyclone centered over the Perm Territory will determine the weather in the eastern part of European Russia. And cooler air will flow to the west with the northern winds that blow in the rear part of this cyclone. In the northwestern regions there is also mostly no precipitation, +21...+26оС, in the Leningrad region +19...+24оС. In the center of European territory the weather is not bad, although the temperature is a couple of degrees below normal.