Islamists take over the Gaza Strip Yesterday, an important part of the Palestinian Authority, already fragmented and dissected by Israeli checkpoints, almost broke away - the Gaza Strip. And not on a territorial basis, but on a political one. While the Fatah movement, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, still controls the situation in the West Bank, the radical Islamist group Hamas rules in the Gaza Strip.

The St. Petersburg Drama Theater brought “Mary Stuart” to the Chekhov Festival “Mary Stuart” by Temur Chkheidze is the only Russian performance in the tour program of the Chekhov Festival. Why they chose him is now difficult to understand. Maybe because of his love for the famous Georgian director, who has headed the BDT in recent years (after the death of Kirill Lavrov, he, while remaining the main director, also became the theater’s artistic director).

The State Duma votes to finance the state’s debts for major repairs The State Duma will consider the mechanism for disposing of the huge sums that the state intends to invest in housing and communal services reform. We are talking about 250 billion rubles, which Vladimir Putin proposed to allocate for the overhaul of the housing stock and the resettlement of Russians from dilapidated housing in his April message to the Federal Assembly.

Special economic zones in Russia started with the production of beer bottles Yesterday's launch of the first plant to operate in a special economic zone in the Lipetsk region took place in the most solemn atmosphere. The head of the Federal Agency for Special Economic Zones, Mikhail Mishustin, and the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Central Federal District, Georgy Poltavchenko, came specially to the opening.

Russia threatens to withdraw from the CFE Treaty Today in Vienna the extraordinary conference of the countries participating in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) ends. It was signed in 1990 by NATO and the Warsaw Pact Organization (WTO) and adapted in 1999 to the realities of a world that had changed with the end of the Cold War.

Czech referendum on US radar possible Czech President Vaclav Klaus suddenly spoke out in favor of holding a national referendum on the possible deployment of a US missile defense system radar near the town of Rozmital pod Tremsinem near Prague. According to Klaus, “to solve such an important problem” a vote of all citizens is necessary.

North Korean millions went to Russia Yesterday, the problem of returning North Korean money frozen at the direction of the United States in a bank in Chinese Macau was resolved. Russia played a key role in this, agreeing to shelter North Korean millions. For almost two years, a dispute between Pyongyang and Washington over the fate of $25 million stuck in accounts at the Delta Asia bank in Macau slowed down the resolution of the Korean nuclear crisis.

The government rejected the main directions of road development As soon as the government got to the problem of Russian roads , it turned out that if it had any creative thought, it had already dried up.

Deputies allowed the creation of a nanotechnology corporation Yesterday, the State Duma adopted in the first reading the bill “On the Russian Nanotechnology Corporation,” introduced by a group of deputies from United Russia. While the party in power in its statements vividly described the future of domestic science, opposition deputies proposed checking the document for corruption and remembered Ostap Bender in vain.

The Russian army began changing Soviet banners The Russian armed forces are parting with the last Soviet symbols - the change of banners of military units to “purely” Russian ones has begun. Recently, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced the imminent introduction of a new uniform for military personnel , but did not even mention the “symbol of military honor, valor and glory” (this is how the battle flag was written in Soviet general military regulations), an event no less significant.

Slavneft is selling the oldest oil refinery in Russia Slavneft decided to sell the oldest Russian oil refinery - the Yaroslavl Oil Refinery named after. Mendeleev. Yesterday, an announcement appeared on the company's website that the sale will take place on July 16 at the office of the auction organizer - Sovlink LLC; applicants will have to submit their proposals in sealed envelopes.

Yuri Luzhkov's wishes to reduce the number of guest workers were accepted City officials are ready to zealously join the fight to cleanse Moscow of illegal migrants and reduce the number of official guest workers. Valery Vinogradov, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Interregional Cooperation, Mass Communications and Sports, said yesterday that Yuri Luzhkov’s wishes to rid the city of external personnel dependence have been accepted as a guide to action.

Real Madrid prepares to celebrate victory over Barcelona This coming weekend, Real intends to take the championship from Barcelona. In order to break the three-year series of failures and win their next title, the “royal” club only needs to beat “Mallorca” in the last round. But this will not be easy either - the Spanish championship retains intrigue to the last because its favorites stumble at the most inopportune moment.

Declassified archives of the Ministry of Defense will make it possible to clarify the number of victims of the Great Patriotic War The Russian Ministry of Defense has removed the classification of secrecy from a huge array of documents from the Great Patriotic War. This was announced yesterday by the head of the archive service of the military department, Colonel Sergei Ilyenkov. The corresponding order No. 181 was signed by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on May 8.

On June 21, the decision to terminate the EU's general system of preferences for Belarus (meaning EU trade benefits for developing countries) comes into force. This decision was made back in December 2006 by the Council of Permanent Representatives of European States. This was the response to the complaint of independent Belarusian trade unions about the violation of their rights.