)
A court run by Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday sentenced 44 people to death, including a businessman working with aid groups, on spying charges, a defence lawyer said. The 44 were among 49 people who were detained by the Iran-backed rebels and accused of collaborating with the enemy, a reference to the Saudi-led coalition that has been at war with the Houthis since 2015, lawyer Abdel-Majeed Sabra said. Four were given prison sentences, Sabra said. Sixteen were sentenced to death in absentia, while 28 were brought before the Specialised Criminal Court in the capital Sanaa, Sabra said. Among those sentenced to death was Adnan al-Harazi, CEO of Prodigy Systems, a Sanaa-based company that developed systems to help humanitarian groups register and verify the distribution of aid to those in need in the war-stricken country. The Houthis detained al-Harazi in March last year after throwing stones at his company. Saturday's court ruling included the seizure of al-Harazi's properties, Sabr
A former speaker of Iran's parliament registered on Friday as a possible candidate in the Islamic Republic's June 28 presidential election to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash earlier this month with seven others. Ali Larijani is the first high-profile candidate to register for the contest. He and other serious contenders against Raisi had been barred from running in the 2021 election. Larijani, 66, is viewed as a conservative within Iran's narrow political scene. However, he has increasingly allied himself with former President Hassan Rouhani, whose administration reached a 2015 nuclear deal with a group of world powers. Larijani had positioned himself as a pragmatic candidate in the 2021 vote in which hard-liner Raisi, a protg of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was elected. Larijani had posted online and made comments in recent days all but confirming he would be a candidate. The Larijani family has long been powerful in Iran's Shiite ...
Iran opened a five-day registration period Thursday for hopefuls wanting to run in the June 28 presidential election to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash earlier this month with seven others. The election comes as Iran grapples with the aftermath of the May 19 crash, as well as heightened tensions between Tehran and the United States, and protests including those over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini that have swept the country. While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, maintains final say over all matters of state, presidents in the past have bent the Islamic Republic of Iran toward greater interaction or increased hostility with the West. The five-day period will see those between the ages of 40 to 75 with at least a master's degree register as potential candidates. All candidates ultimately must be approved by Iran's 12-member Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists ultimately overseen by Khamenei. That panel has never accepted a ..
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that the majority of those killed and injured are women and children
The helicopter carrying Iran's late President Ebrahim Raisi caught fire soon after it crashed into a mountain and there was no sign it was attacked, state media reported, citing the military's crash investigators. The statement from the general staff of the armed forces in charge of investigating the crash was read on state television late Thursday. The first statement on the crash did not lay blame but said more details would come after further investigation. The crash Sunday killed Raisi, the country's foreign minister and six other people. The general staff's statement said the communications between the control tower and the crew of the helicopter before the crash contained nothing suspicious. It said the last communication of the crashed helicopter was between it and two helicopters accompanying it some 90 seconds before the crash. There was no sign of anything shot at the helicopter and its flight path did not change, the statement said. The aging Bell helicopter went down i
Sea freight expenses from China are rising due to a shortage of shipping containers resulting from the Iran-Israel conflicts
If Israeli intelligence agency Mossad is to be believed, it is not only able to gather intelligence within Iran but also capture and interrogate enemy operatives on Iranian soil
Among Iranian communities from London to Los Angeles, few tears are being shed over the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a weekend helicopter crash. But there are not always loud cheers, either. While some hope the demise of a powerful figure in Iran's authoritarian Islamic government may bring change, others fear it could result in more repression. It's a better world without him, said Maryam Namazie, a UK-based women's rights campaigner. He is one of the pillars of the Islamic regime of Iran. He has been there since its inception. But, she added: Raisi, however much of a pillar he was, is expendable. There are many others to take his place. Inside Iran, authorities are keeping a tight lid on reaction to the crash that killed Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six others. The government declared five days of mourning, encouraging people into the streets in displays of public grief and support. Prosecutors have warned Iranians against any public ...
Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honouring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East. For Iran's Shiite theocracy, mass demonstrations have been crucial since millions thronged the streets of Tehran to welcome Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 during the Islamic Revolution. An estimated 1 million turned out in 2020 for processions for the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was slain in a US drone strike in Baghdad. Whether President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others draw the same crowd remains in question, particularly as Raisi died in a helicopter crash, won his office in the lowest-turnout election in the country's history and presided over sweeping crackdowns on all dissent. Prosecutors already have warned people over showi
Major equity markets across Europe and Asia were largely stable on Monday. Indian equity markets were shut due to the general election amidst polling in Mumbai as part of the general elections
Iran now has a maximum period of 50 days before a presidential election must be held to choose Raisi's successor
The International Criminal Court's prosecutor faced demands Tuesday for speedy action against Israeli leaders and a blistering Russian attack over the ICC's arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin stemming from Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Karim Khan responded by telling the UN Security Council that he will not be swayed or intimidated as his team investigates possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Gaza and the Palestinian territories as well as in Ukraine. Libya's UN ambassador, Taher El-Sonni, told Khan that if the Libyan cases the ICC is investigating are so complex that they won't be completed until the end of 2025, he should allocate the court's efforts to the war in Gaza. El-Sonni claimed genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are being perpetrated by Israeli forces. The world expects the ICC to be courageous and to issue arrest warrants against officials of the Israeli regime who have repeated again and again that they want to commit genocidal actio
The Israeli tanks that entered the periphery of Rafah early Tuesday stoked global fears that an offensive on Gaza's southernmost city could endanger the more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there. The ground assault dimmed hopes of an immediate cease-fire deal that the US, Egypt and Qatar have spent months pushing for. In the hours before the attack began, Hamas agreed to a cease-fire proposal that the Israeli government swiftly rejected. About 1.3 million Palestinians more than half of Gaza's population are jammed into Rafah and face the prospect of having to evacuate with no good plan for where to find adequate shelter. Here's what we know so far about the operation and evacuation plan. WHERE WILL PALESTINIANS GO? Now that Israel has begun ordering Palestinians to evacuate parts of Rafah, it is sending them to a patch of land whose current inhabitants say is little more than a makeshift tent camp with squalid conditions. On Monday, Israel issued a warning to .
A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian official say Israeli tanks entered the southern Gaza town of Rafah, reaching as close as 200 metres from its crossing with neighbouring Egypt. The Egyptian official said the operation appeared to be limited in scope. He and Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV said Israeli officials informed the Egyptians that the troops would withdraw after completing the operation. The Israeli military declined to comment. On Sunday, Hamas fighters near the Rafah crossing fired mortars into southern Israel, killing four Israeli soldiers. The Egyptian official, located on the Egyptian side of Rafah, and the Palestinian security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press. The Associated Press could not independently verify the scope of the operation. Earlier Monday, Israel's War Cabinet decided to push ahead with a military operation in Rafah, after Hamas announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a .
From Uddhav Thackrey's attacks on BJP, to Air India's decision to resume its flights between Delhi and Tel Aviv, catch all the latest news here
MEA had urged against travelling to the nations on April 12.
Brown University, the liberal Ivy League institution, agreed this week only to hold a board vote this fall on whether its $6.6 billion endowment should divest from any Israeli-connected holdings
The current round of talks appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on one key issue - whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal
For five days, Northwestern University's Deering Meadow rang with the shouts of student protesters and supporters joining demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war on college campuses nationwide. But Tuesday morning the grassy meadow on Northwestern's suburban Chicago campus was silent after student organizers and the school announced an agreement late Monday to curb protest activity in return for a new advisory committee on university investments and other commitments. On campus Tuesday, two unoccupied tents remained, surrounded by abandoned folding chairs, cases of bottled water and other supplies. Some who are protesting the war in Gaza condemned the agreement as a failure to stick to the original demands of student organizers. Some supporters of Israel said the deal represented "cowardly" capitulation to protesters. The harsh response and escalated protests elsewhere Tuesday suggest that the agreement at Northwestern is unlikely to spur similar deals, even if it quickly stal
Officials are trying to resolve the protests as the academic year winds down, but students have dug in at several high-profile universities