Main News of July 11

A roundup of what has happened over the past 24 hours

WORLD

*Russia will not support a draft resolution brokered by the UN Security Council that authorizes sanctions against Syria if it fails to stop violence, the first deputy of the Russian envoy to the UN, Alexander Pankin said on Wednesday

*Astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope on Wednesday announced that they have found a fifth moon circling the dwarf planet Pluto

*The Iranian Army has successfully completed three-day air-defense exercises, downing several mock pilotless aircraft, Press TV reported on Wednesday

*International diplomacy has failed to solve the Syrian crisis, and revolution is the only way to end more than a year of bloodshed in the country, Burhan Ghalioun, a senior member of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), said on Wednesday

*The Yemeni branch of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for an attack on a police academy in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday which killed at least 20 people, Xinhua reported

 

RUSSIA

*Smoke from wildfires in the taiga east of the Urals accounted for some spectacular sunsets in western Canada and the United States in recent days, Msnbc.com said on Wednesday

*Unidentified people shot at an alleged rapist in southeastern Moscow last night, the LifeNews tabloid said on Wednesday