Main News of July 31

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* A United Nations helicopter with a Russian crew crash-landed in Ethiopia on Wednesday, a Russian Embassy official said, adding that all four crewmembers were alive but three were in a serious condition

* Iran and Russia have not discussed Moscow’s tentative offer to supply Tehran with Antei-2500 surface-to-air missile systems instead of the S-300, whose sale was previously blocked by the Kremlin, Iran’s envoy to Russia said Wednesday

* Kiev is ready to hold immediate talks with Russia over a ban imposed by Moscow on Ukrainian candy imports, the Ukrainian trade minister said

* The Turkish Foreign Ministry denied earlier media reports that Turkey froze a number of agreements, which were signed with Egypt last year, the ministry said in a statement

RUSSIA

* A senior Russian diplomat denied on Wednesday that Russia had any obligation to return fugitive US former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden to the United States

* Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called for the $28 billion high-speed Moscow-Kazan railway to be extended to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk

* Some 60 percent of Russians think that an average person cannot expect a fair trial in the country, according to a poll released Wednesday