Iran will allocate $14 billion for the development of the oil and gas sector in order to overcome the negative consequences of the embargo imposed on it by the countries of the European Union and the United States. This was reported by the local industry agency Shana, citing Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi. The money will be allocated from the Iran National Development Fund.

Belarus celebrates the Independence Day of the Republic on July 3. On this day 68 years ago, Minsk was liberated from the Nazi invaders. The main event of the holiday is a solemn military parade. This year, more than four thousand military personnel took part in it, including Russian paratroopers, as well as about 200 pieces of military equipment. President Alexander Lukashenko led the parade, with his youngest son Kolya next to him on the podium.

Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have proposed using graphene with controlled pore sizes for water desalination. The work was published in the journal Nano Letters ; its summary can be read on the institute’s website. Physicists simulated the penetration of salt ions through graphene pores of different sizes and shapes.

The deadlines for the creation of two groups of nuclear submarines, built according to projects 955 Borei and 885 Yasen, may be shifted to later than 2020. about this . RIA Novosti Vladimir Pospelov, a member of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Russian government, told According to Pospelov, contracts for the construction of submarines were concluded about a year late, already at the launch stage of the program to create nuclear submarine groups.

In Ukraine, a deputy from the ruling Party of Regions, Vadim Kolesnichenko, made insulting comments about the language spoken by residents of western Ukraine. As reported by Ukrayinska Pravda, he made the corresponding statement on Ukrainian TV. “I am against the Lviv-Galician dialects that have clogged the media today. I do not consider what they are offering us to be the Ukrainian language.

United Russia deputy Evgeny Fedorov introduced amendments to the law “On State Civil Service” for consideration by the State Duma, which proposes to prohibit officials from owning foreign real estate and having accounts in foreign banks. The newspaper "RBC daily" writes about this. According to Fedorov, civil servants who do not want to get rid of property they already own outside the Russian Federation are proposed to be fired.

Software maker Microsoft announced late July 2 that it was writing down $6.2 billion to cover costs incurred from its investment in online advertising firm aQuantive. This is stated in the official press release of the company. The write-off will be made from earnings for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 (ended in June). Previously, analysts estimated Microsoft's possible profit for this period at approximately $5.3 billion, the Associated Press indicates .

A couple from Germany, while on vacation on the island of Sardinia, ordered live lobsters from a local restaurant and released them into the wild, reports Agence France-Presse , citing Italian media. According to the chef of a restaurant located in a fashionable Sardinian resort, a German woman, upon arriving at his establishment, immediately drew attention to the lobsters displayed in the hall.

Two of the six people Chinese authorities arrested on charges of trying to hijack a plane in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on Saturday died in hospital, state-run newspaper The Global Times reported, citing local authorities. According to the publication, two Uyghurs died due to injuries received in a fight with passengers who were attacked with a broken crutch. The publication does not specify where exactly and when the detainees died.

The Brazilian Supreme Court building lost its glass after a supersonic fighter flew too low over it, Jornal do Brasil reports. A Brazilian Air Force Mirage 2000 aircraft performed a dangerous maneuver during the national flag changeover ceremony at the Plaza de la Three Powers in Brasilia. The incident occurred on Sunday, July 1, and was captured on video.

The ProfMedia media holding has denied rumors about the impending sale of the TV channels 2x2, MTV-Russia and TV-3 that it owns, which appeared in the Russian business media on July 3. The holding's president, Rafael Akopov, in a commentary to Lente.ru called these publications "journalistic hackwork." The fact that ProfMedia intends to get rid of its television assets was reported by the online publication Gazeta.Ru, citing five anonymous sources at once.

TNK-BP has announced its intention to explore the possibility of participating in the construction of Nord Stream. reported on July 2, The corresponding letters, Interfax citing a source close to the company, were sent to shareholders - BP and AAR, as well as Nord Stream AG, which is laying and operating the gas pipeline. As noted in the letter, the project may be of potential interest to TNK-BP as one of the mechanisms for monetizing gas reserves from Yamal fields.

Publisher Activision has officially presented the shooter Call of Duty Online, reports VG24/7. The company released the first trailer for the game (you can see it here ) and opened the project website. According to the portal, Call of Duty Online will be a shareware MMO, which will include maps and modes from already released games in the CoD series (some of them can be seen in the trailer), as well as new ones that were developed specifically for CoDO.

After the crash of a C-130 Hercules military aircraft, which was participating in fighting fires in the United States, all these aircraft stopped fighting. This is stated in a message posted on July 2 on the website of the Northern Command of the US Armed Forces. According to the Associated Press , seven aircraft were grounded. It is not yet known when the C-130 will take to the air. A C-130 military aircraft crashed in South Dakota on the evening of July 1.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani is considering buying five penthouses on the top floors of the One57 skyscraper under construction in New York. about this . writes The New York Post According to the publication, negotiations on the purchase of one of the apartments are almost completed. We are talking about two-level luxury apartments with an area of ​​over 1000 square meters on the 90th floor.