Tropical storm Irene has strengthened into a hurricane and approached the US coast, Agence France-Presse reports, citing data from the National Hurricane Center. According to the latest data, on August 22, the hurricane was approximately forty kilometers from the capital of Puerto Rico, the city of San Juan, and Irene's wind speed reached 35 meters per second. The hurricane originated on August 15 off the African coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

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The winner of the tournament in the game Defense of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2) was the Ukrainian team Na'Vi, according to the official website of the competition. Na'Vi received the championship's main prize of one million dollars. In the final, the Ukrainians defeated the Chinese team EHOME, which received $250 thousand for second place. Scythe.SG, a team from Singapore, took third place. MYM from Denmark came in fourth. Fifth place was taken by the team from Russia - M5.

In Yekaterinburg, souvenir banknotes from a “joke bank” were found in ATMs, UralPolit.Ru reports, citing the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region. The incident occurred in the Ordzhonikidze district of the city on Monday, August 22, around 11:30 am local time.

A pair of fiberglass cow figures were stolen from the set of the film World War Z, produced and starring Brad Pitt, The Daily Mirror writes. The incident took place in the city of Falkirk in central Scotland, where Pitt and his team are working on creating a zombie film. The cows, which were stolen from the set, were purchased by the production team to work on several episodes of World War Z.

A girl died in Astana after being hit by an American embassy car, Tengrinews reports . The victim, 25-year-old Diana Gevorkyan, died in the hospital. The accident occurred on August 16. As reported, the girl was hit at a pedestrian crossing while crossing the road while driving a bicycle nearby. The car that hit her is used to deliver diplomatic mail. A citizen of Kazakhstan was driving at the time of the accident.

The Moscow Arbitration Court rejected the petition of the Arkhangelskoye state museum-estate, in which the plaintiff asked to prohibit the Ministry of Defense from entering into a purchase and sale agreement with the Gradstroy company, the winner of the auction for the sale of a land plot partially included in the security zone of the museum. reports this RIA Novosti . The administration of Arkhangelskoye filed a petition with the court on August 17, the day after the auction.

During the MAKS-2011 air show, the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft company entered into contracts for the supply of 103 short-haul passenger aircraft Sukhoi Superjet 100 reports , ITAR-TASS . This figure includes both firm contracts and letters of intent and options. The total cost of the announced number of aircraft is $3.497 billion.

Iran has begun moving centrifuges for uranium enrichment to an underground shelter near the village of Fordu in Qom province, the Associated Press reports . The uranium enrichment plant in Ford is located in the rock, thanks to which the centrifuges in the new location will be protected from possible missile attacks. The centrifuges are being moved to Ford from the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, according to Fereydoun Abbasi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.

The Russian budget in the first half of 2011 could have received a shortfall of about 18.5 billion rubles due to the fact that import duties within the Customs Union are distributed among the budgets of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan according to a predetermined formula, and not based on real import data. The Vedomosti newspaper wrote about this with reference to anonymous sources on August 22.

St. Petersburg has finally abandoned the fight for the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. Chairman of the Committee on Physical Education and Sports of St. Petersburg Vyacheslav Chazov noted that the city’s chances of getting the 2020 Olympics are very small. Now St. Petersburg will qualify for the Games in 2024 or 2028, writes the Izvestia newspaper .

Scientists have discovered the oldest fossilized traces of life, dating back 3.4 billion years. The scientists' article appeared in the journal Nature Geoscience , and a summary is given by New Scientist. Fossilized traces of microorganisms have been found in sediments in Western Australia. The remains are systems of spherical and ellipsoidal cavities associated with crystals of unoxidized (mineral deposits from the Oxygen Catastrophe 2.4 billion years ago are all oxidized) pyrite.

The OSMP company, which operates under the Qiwi brand, intends to place its terminals in Western Europe and the USA. writes about this in its issue dated August 22 The newspaper "RBC daily" . According to the publication, negotiations, in particular, are ongoing with mobile operators Orange, Vodafone and Telefonica. How much Qiwi is going to invest in the project and what percentage of payments it will take for itself is not specified.

BioWare has promised to return to Mass Effect 3 the characters with whom the main character interacted in previous parts, a company representative said in an interview with Destructoid. First of all, this applies to those characters who were part of Commander Shepard’s squad. BioWare clarified that not all of them can be taken to the main character’s team. However, Shepard will be able to meet and communicate with everyone.

Bulgaria has again postponed the decision on the project for the construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, which Transneft intends to build. Reuters writes that Sofia gave project participants another month to prepare an environmental feasibility study for the project. Now the companies involved in the project must submit documents to the Bulgarian Ministry of Environmental Protection by the end of September.