Main News of July 31

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*The United States and Pakistan signed a deal formalizing an agreement on NATO supplies to Afghanistan through Pakistani territory, U.S. media reported.

*A Kharkiv court postponed the review of a second criminal case against imprisoned opposition leader and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, due to her inability to appear at the trial.

 

RUSSIA

*Russian opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny was charged with embezzlement and ordered not to leave Moscow, the Investigative Committee said.

*In December 1917, weeks after coming to power, the Bolsheviks launched a drive to confiscate all firearms from the hands of the Russian populace. They never gave them back.

 

DEFENSE

*In a move to make army service more attractive for citizens and cut the number of conscription dodgers, the Russian government is considering additional benefits for army conscripts, including easier access to higher education in Russia and abroad, as well as to state civil sector jobs, Russian daily Izvestia reported.

 

BUSINESS

*Russia will harvest 10-15 percent less grain this year than in 2011 due to unfavorable weather conditions, Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov said.

*The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) plans to sue Iranian companies which are attempting to obtain illegitimate control of the Astrakhan Port in southern Russia, the service said in a statement.

*Russia should improve legislation to protect citizens against the Ponzi schemes and financial pyramids like those that defrauded millions of Russians of their savings in the early 1990s, President Vladimir Putin said.