A militant Republican headed to the White House Republican Newt Gingrich (pictured) , who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999, emerged from political obscurity earlier this week. In Des Moines, Iowa, he predicted to his party comrades that current Democratic President Barack Obama would not get a second term and that he, Gingrich, did not rule out his participation in the next battle for the White House.

Watch from July 15 on Moscow screens "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (USA, 2010, Jon Turtletaub).

The Ministry of Justice wants to absolve itself of responsibility for the mistakes of prison doctors The scandalous case of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in 2009 in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center, where they could not and did not want to provide him with medical assistance, prompts officials from the Ministry of Justice to search for options for reforming life behind bars.

Having fought off the swindlers, the academician himself went to trial The Nagatinsky District Court of Moscow recently sentenced the general director of Promintel Group LLC (PIG), 40-year-old Dmitry Eidelman, to three years in prison.

The summer season of the American Ballet Theater has become the season of Russian ballerinas, Russian classics and Russian choreographer Every year in June-July, an unspoken competition takes place between the two main American ballet companies, the American Ballet Theater and the New York City Ballet, which conduct their New York season.

The Progresstech group of companies, specializing in the design and construction of airports, is one of the first participants in the Skolkovo project. The president of the group, professor, doctor of technical sciences Vladimir KULCHITSKY, in an interview with our correspondent, spoke about the causes, problems and prospects of Russian modernization, as well as about the Skolkovo project. — The word “modernization” has become recognizable, even fashionable. But what does it mean?

In the USA they have learned to calculate potential centenarians American scientists have learned to determine quite accurately using a person’s genetic code whether he can become a long-liver (live more than 100 years) or whether he will never be able to do so under any circumstances.

The bank reported on investing pension savings Vnesheconombank showed an increase in income from investing pension savings. The net asset value of VEB's expanded portfolio increased in the first half of the year by 50.76% to RUB 723.41 billion. The value of the government securities portfolio assets increased 2.3 times to RUB 1.76 billion. As analysts note, the growth in income for these portfolios amounted to 7.5 and 9%, respectively, which is a very good result.

The deadline for submitting applications for candidates for the election of the head of the International Chess Federation, which will take place in September this year in Khanty-Mansiysk at the 81st FIDE Congress and General Assembly during the World Chess Olympiad in Ugra, has recently expired. Two candidates have been registered, and both of them are Russian.

The Russian-language Georgian channel First Caucasian, whose airing at the end of 2009 sparked fierce debate, lost a case in a Paris commercial court over its disconnection from the satellite by the French provider Eutelsat. The television company broadcast through this satellite for two weeks in early January in test mode, spreading the signal to a large part of Europe and Russia.

Nikolai Fedorov, who is leaving the post of head of Chuvashia, may become the presidential envoy The United Russia party has determined who it would like to see as leaders of two Russian regions - Karelia and Chuvashia. The list of candidates was presented yesterday to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for consideration.

Oleg Deripaska's delegate returns to RUSAL The spiral of conflict between the main shareholders of the largest nickel and palladium producer MMC Norilsk Nickel - Oleg Deripaska's RUSAL and Vladimir Potanin's Interros - continues to unwind. Another element of the once concluded peace agreement was disavowed yesterday. Deputy General Director of MMC Valery Matvienko, delegated to this post by Oleg Deripaska, resigned.

The Customs Union will reduce the share of Russian monopolies in the market The Russian antimonopoly agency, celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, intends to mark it with perhaps the most significant “instant” contribution to the fight against monopolism in the Russian market.

Lithuanians are no longer afraid to sell their oil complex to Russia Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius did not comment on the news circulated in Polish newspapers that the Lithuanian oil holding Mazeikiu Nafta was about to return to Russian hands. Through his assistant, the prime minister announced that he would wait for the official message to appear.

Belarus wants to provide Europe with fuel Minsk intends to make the project for the supply of oil from Venezuela significant for Europe. The events of recent days show that Belarus is seeking to attract an increasing number of partners to its implementation. Today Ukraine and the Baltic countries are involved in the project. Minsk wants to interest other European countries in it, without hiding the fact that it is trying to create competition for Russian oil on the European market.