During his visit to Russia, Albert II saved a sick child, ate with archaeologists, rafted down the river and caught fish. Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin continued to entertain his guest as best he could, Prince Albert II of Monaco, who arrived the day before on another private visit to our country.

The SCO promises not to play anti-NATO for now No summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has attracted as much attention as the one that will take place in two days in Bishkek. If only because its very holding in the capital of Kyrgyzstan was in serious doubt this spring, when the activity of the Kyrgyz opposition threatened another change of power in the republic.

Through the efforts of the anticyclone, predominantly dry and very hot weather has established itself in most of the European territory of Russia. New temperature records were set in the northern capital - on August 12, during the day, the thermometer reached almost +29.6°C. Let us remind you that the previous temperature record for St. Petersburg was +28.5°C. In the center of Russia, the average daily temperature was 6-8 degrees higher than normal.

Italian police did not allow 100 thousand smuggled Kalashnikov assault rifles into Iraq Italian fighters against organized crime stopped the smuggling of over 100 thousand Kalashnikov assault rifles worth more than $40 million to Iraq. Recently, Italian citizens were arrested in the Apennines - 39-year-old Massimo Bettinotti, 39-year-old Gianluca Squarzolo, 55-year-old Ermete Moretti and 64-year-old Serafino Rossi.

The Stavropol election commission had to be formed in Moscow On Monday, after a series of scandals, the chairman of the regional election commission of the Stavropol Territory was finally elected. He became lawyer Boris Dyakonov, proposed by the Central Election Commission. Thus, the formation of all regional election commissions in Russia has been completed.

The second festival of experimental animation Linoleum begins This summer the Linoleum festival will be held for the second time.

Top managers of Neftyanoy prepared for trial The Prosecutor General's Office completed the investigation and transferred to court a criminal case against a number of managers of Neftyanoy Design Bureau LLC, one of the divisions of the concern of the same name, in which the ex-governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region and former first deputy prime minister of the federal government, Boris Nemtsov, once worked.

Chronicle of sporting events Football. English Championship . 1st round. Sunderland - Tottenham - 1:0, Bolton - Newcastle - 1:3, Derby County - Portsmouth - 2:2, Everton - Wigan "- 2:1, Middlesbrough - Blackburn - 1:2, West Ham - Manchester City - 0:2, Aston Villa - Liverpool - 1: 2, Arsenal - Fulham - 2:1, Chelsea - Birmingham - 3:2, Manchester United - Reading - 0:0.

Photo exhibition of Sergei Borisov at the New Manege Prison No. 9 is located on Sovetsky Prospekt in the city of Kaliningrad. Four stops from it, at the intersection of Cosmonaut Leonov Street and Mira Avenue, there is a monument: a Soviet man in a spacesuit joyfully waves his hand, standing on a ray of some sun, curved in such a way that it is comfortable for a person to stand.

Ivanovic and Djokovic distinguished themselves in North America The victory of Serbian tennis players Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic ended major hard-court tournaments in North America, part of the so-called US Open Series. Based on the results of the series, the top three players in men and women are paid increased prize money at the US Open, which starts at the end of August. Ivanovich excelled at the second category BTA competition with a prize fund of 600 thousand dollars in Los Angeles.

FAS joined the fight for cellular licenses The sensational success of the Summa Telecom company, which won licenses to provide cellular communication services in 11 regions of Russia in July, threatens to turn into defeat. Yesterday, the Federal Antimonopoly Service decided that the terms of the competitions at which these licenses were distributed contradict the Law “On Competition”. FAS intends to appeal to the arbitration court with a demand to cancel the results of these competitions.

Only “Putin’s vertical of power” can prevent Putin from becoming president of Russia in 2012. If current Russian President Vladimir Putin, after leaving office in 2008, runs again in the 2012 presidential election, he has a chance to win in the first round. According to a survey conducted in July by the Levada Center, in this case 52% of Russians would vote for Vladimir Putin. Almost the same number as voted for the current president in his first elections in 2000.

Former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has chosen Deutsche Bank as his new job. The 81-year-old financier took the post of senior adviser to the corporate and investment division. Mr. Greenspan was motivated by personal considerations: his friend and Fed colleague Peter Hooper works at Deutsche Bank's American division, and he has great respect for the bank's chief executive, Josef Ackermann.

No, now there is not yet a “cold war” between the West and the East, but there is already an icy freshness. There is an advertisement for one chewing gum: “Thugs in search of icy freshness.” It turned out that this (I mean “scumbags”) is about some politicians, including Russian ones. Two stories of current politics unexpectedly brought us back to the Middle Ages.

Professor of the Higher School of Economics Alexander DOLGIN, author of the monograph “Economics of Symbolic Exchange” (the first book in Russia published under the stamp “copyleft”), is a consistent and constructive critic of copyright. He believes that it is possible to stimulate creativity and protect the results of creative activity not only with the help of traditional methods invented three centuries ago.