Two bombs concealed in separate garbage bins exploded in a downtown shopping mall in the southern Iran city of Ahwaz, leaving at least four people dead and 75 wounded, state-run television reported. This is the first bombing since Iran's presidential elections in June, when a string of explosions went off in Ahwaz and in Tehran. Eight people were killed and 75 wounded in four bombings in Ahwaz.
No arrests were announced in connection with those bombings, but the government blamed the attacks on Arab separatists with links to foreign governments, including British forces based on the other side of the border, in Iraq.
Iran repeated its accusation in recent weeks that British forces were provoking unrest after Britain accused Iran of training and arming insurgents in Iraq.
State-run television showed videotape of cars with smashed windows, and pools of blood on the ground.
The bombs went off three minutes apart at around 5pm, an hour before the fasting time during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan ended and people were busy shopping or rushing home. Most of the wounded were women, and the windows of most shops were shattered.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
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