Main news of December 31

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*A high-ranking Iranian Navy official has denied the country test-launched a wide-range missile during sea exercises in the Persian Gulf and said the launch was postponed, state Iranian news agencies reported.

*An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale stroke on Saturday near the city of Christchurch, which sustained serous damage in a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in February.

*Kim Jong-un, the younger son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, was officially declared the supreme commander of the armed forces, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

 

RUSSIA

*Moscow police detained about 20 people on Triumfalnaya Square on Saturday evening at an opposition protest that began at 6:00 p.m., a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the scene.
*Repairs of the Yekaterinburg nuclear sub, damaged by fire while in dry dock near Murmansk, will take no less than a year, a spokesman for the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk said.

*Mexico bought three Russian Mi-17V-5 tactical transport helicopters, an informed source in the Mexican military circles told RIA Novosti.