Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is putting his 33-year-old Peugeot up for auction for a charity that funds housing projects for young people.
Ahmadinejad’s move is seen as a bid to appeal to the young and attract attention to housing projects he espoused during his campaigns, promising to put a roof over the head of every poor Iranian.
Ahmadinejad had made a point of being seen in the gleaming white Peugeot 504 sedan when he was Tehran mayor and before becoming president in 2005. He has rarely used the car in the past years, probably because of security measures.
Though hardly a clunker, the 1977-make car will be up for grabs at an international auction next month in the southwestern city of Abadan, according to Asghar Parhizkar, head of the city’s Arvand free trade zone.
Hopes are it will fetch more than the US$2,000 such cars usually go for on the Iranian market.
Parhizkar told the IRNA news agency that the auction will take place on the sidelines of an old-timers exhibition. He said the money raised will be allocated to the Mehr Housing Fund, a charity that funds youth housing.
Yet the auction will hardly distract Iranians from daily woes at a time when Ahmadinejad’s cash-strapped government has slashed energy and food subsidies — a move that sent gasoline prices quadrupling and bed prices tripling almost overnight.
Lack of housing has always been a major concern in Iran, where 25 percent of the 75 million population lives in rented apartments and nearly a third of a family’s income goes to pay the rent.
Official statistics say the government built more than 140,000 housing units in the first half of last year. It has promised to build nearly 1 million units by March.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the