One person was killed and two wounded when armed men opened fire on a bus in southern Iran, the official IRNA news agency said on Tuesday, the latest incident of violence to rock the region.
“Armed rebels killed a passenger and wounded two others when they fired on a bus traveling from Zahedan to Bam,” Zahedan deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan said.
Zahedan is the capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan and has been the site of deadly violence in the last few days ahead of the June 12 presidential poll.
PHOTO: AFP
Radan said police were searching for the attackers.
Meanwhile, two presidential hopefuls, reformist former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and conservative former Revolutionary Guards head Mohsen Rezai, clashed in a rare face-to-face TV debate series that began on Tuesday.
Karroubi, clad in the traditional Shiite clerical robe, sat facing Rezai who wore a light beige suit, in a studio with the moderator taking the center seat as the state-run TV showed the debate.
The first of six debates came ahead of the election that is being held against the backdrop of a deteriorating economy and rising international pressure on Tehran to abandon its sensitive nuclear activities.
Rezai said his priority, if elected president, would be the economy.
“I am seeking to have an economic revolution. I intend to change the economy from a state-controlled one to one that sees significant private sector participation,” he said.
Karroubi countered with a populist promise, saying he would distribute “the profits of oil earnings to every Iranian above 18 years of age.”
He also said he would focus on “employment generation and protecting citizens’ rights.”
Rezai shot back: “I will personally deal with any infringes on the citizens’ rights the first few times to make sure that everyone understands the gravity of the situation. I am very serious about it.”
“Mr Rezai, you well know that we have good laws but unfortunately they are not followed or executed well due to narrow mindedness or in accordance to the executors’ taste,” Karroubi said without elaborating.
Before the debate began, the moderator warned that any criticism of the other candidates — incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi — would not be permitted as the two were not present.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
RSS