Asia Iran A powerful explosion at Iran’s biggest port of Bandar Abbas caused at least 40 casualties and over 1.000 people injured, state media reported; local firefighters have been joined by Russian specialists, dispatched by plane upon President Putin's order
Asia Iran A 100-million-dollar fund for the development of the artificial intelligence sector in Iran has been launched; the NDF will also grant specific loans to those companies that financially support AI-based projects in universities and scientific centers
Asia Iran Iran increasingly relies on electronic surveillance to inform on women refusing to wear the mandatory headscarf in public; according to latest UN report, state-sponsored vigilantism aims at enlisting businesses and private individuals in hijab compliance
Asia Iran Journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who had been convicted for reporting on Mahsa Amini's case, were pardoned; freed on bail after 17 months' imprisonment last January, their sentences were reduced on appeal in August
Asia Iran A new ballistic missile, capable of travelling 1.700 kilometres, was unveiled at a ceremony in Tehran attended by President Masoud Pezeshkian
Asia Iran An underground labyrinth city and aqueduct were recently unearthed in the ancient city of Abarkuh, Yazd province; further research into the city's interconnected chambers and tunnels is currently underway
Asia Iran Over 900 people have been executed in Iran in 2024, of whom at least 31 women; most of the executions were linked to drug-related offences, but also to the mass protests of 2022 and included political dissidents, the UN human rights office reported
Asia Iran The ban on WhatsApp and Google Play has been lifted; it was imposed over two years ago during the mass protests against the government that began in reaction to the death of Mahsa Amin
Asia Iran President Massoud Pezeshkian, who has a reformist orientation, is explicitly criticising a law that tightens controls and penalties for women who do not wear the veil properly, supported by parliament and the Guardian Council
Asia Iran The country said it intends to keep military advisers in Syria after Aleppo, its ally's second city, was overrun by militants in a surprise offensive
Asia Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for the death sentence for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leader, following recent arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court
Asia Iran Reports of a meeting between Tehran's envoy to the UN and Elon Musk, close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, have been denied by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Saturday
Asia Iran An Iranian student was arrested after she stripped off her clothes remaining in underwear in the courtyard of Department of Science and Research at Tehran's Azad University in protest against the headscarf requirement; she has not been heard from since