Анна Пигарёва - Новости из прошлого на английском языке. Выпуск №4

In 1976, Robert De Niro starred in the movie «The Last Tycoon.» Now De Niro is a tycoon himself, one so big that Crain’s New York Business has included him on its list of New York’s 100 most influential businesspeople. Of course, this did not happen because De Niro is a two-time Oscar winner and one of the highest-paid actors of our time. And it didn’t happen even because he is a co-owner of the famous restaurant chain Nobu. In addition to restaurants, De Niro also owns production company Tribeca Productions; Tribeca Enterprises, which conducts the Tribeca Film Festival; and a large real-estate business.

De Niro, a native New Yorker, turned the former port area of Tribeca into one of the most fashionable (and expensive) places in New York City. He got started by buying up and overhauling local real estate. Like any businessperson, De Niro knows both victory and defeat. Vedomosti interviewed the world-famous actor and businessman, and he told of the ups and downs of his long career. 4 4 Фрагмент взят из газеты «The Moscow Times» 2010 год

Reputed crime boss Asian Usoyan, 73, and his bodyguard were hospitalized in stable condition after being shot by an unidentified assailant on Tverskaya Ulitsa late last week, police said.

Usoyan, who is thought to be the most influential crime boss on former Soviet soil and is known as Grandpa Khasan, and his bodyguard Artur Bagramyan were shot by a Kalashnikov assault rifle equipped with a silencer as they entered a building late Thursday, police said, according to national news agencies. Usoyan had been staying in his son’s apartment in the building, Lifenews.ru said. In order to prevent more attempts on Usoyan’s life, police intentionally reported Friday that both men were killed, while in fact they were only hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, Interfax reported. The location was selected because it was one of the few places where Usoyan could be ambushed, Interfax said, citing a law enforcement source.

Usoyan lives in a Moscow region settlement closed to outsiders, avoids public places, travels in armored cars and employs former police officers as bodyguards, the source said. Police believe that the attacker lived in an apartment in a neighboring building and probably had accomplices who tracked Usoyan’s movements, the source said. The apartment cost 100,000 rubles ($3,230) a month and was rented by unidentified people in August, Lifenews.ru reported Sunday. The Interfax source said a search for the attacker was ongoing but he was probably killed by the people who ordered the hit. «First, he failed his task and, second, he knows his employers,» the source said. Usoyan said he did not know who might have ordered the attack, but police linked it to his alleged criminal activity, Interfax said. Kommersant speculated that the attack might have been organized by a rival, Tariel Oniani, who it said unsuccessfully competed with him for a contract to develop the territory vacated by the closed Cherkizovsky Market in eastern Moscow in 2009. 5 5 Фрагмент взят из газеты «The Moscow Times» 2010 год

Court marshals have threatened to take what is most precious from a pensioner who has failed to pay a debt – her three Shar Pei pedigree puppies, they said Friday. The pensioner, whom court marshals did not identify, owes 350,000 rubles ($11,330) to an individual in her hometown in the Kamchatka region in the Far East. «If she does not fulfill her obligations within 10 days, the puppies will be sold by the Federal Agency for State Property Management,» the marshals said in a statement on their site, FSSPrus.ru.

In Kamchatka, Shar Pei puppies fetch 15,000 rubles ($485) each, news reports said. But the marshals said they would try sell them for 5,000 rubles to attract more potential buyers. They said the famously wrinkled Shar Pei puppies have been allowed for the time being to remain with the pensioner, who breeds them as her sole source of income because she has no property. 6 6 Фрагмент взят из газеты «The Moscow Times» 2010 год

A 17-year-old foster child survived a 50-minute flight hidden in a plane’s landing gear in Siberia, investigators said Tuesday.

The stowaway crawled into a space above the wheel of the An-24 turboprop operated by Angara Airlines at an airfield in the town of Kirensk on Saturday, the Investigative Committee said in a statement. Television reports said he survived the 50-minute flight to Irkutsk in just a light coat, despite temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius. Investigators said the stowaway had fled a center for foster children, and the TV reports said he had robbed a nearby store before climbing inside the plane.The teen, identified as Roman Sorokovikov by Komsomolskaya Pravda, was being treated for frostbite.