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Witness in Netanyahu’s corruption trial killed in plane crash

By
IFP Media Wire
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Haim Geron, the former senior official at Israel’s Ministry of Communications, and his wife were killed off the island of Samos late on Monday. He was one of 300-plus witnesses listed for Netanyahu’s trial.

Greek authorities are investigating the private plane crash that killed Geron.

The former PM is accused of fraud, bribery and breach of trust and the charges centre around his relationships with businessmen, media tycoons and a leading Israeli telecoms firm.

The small Cessna 182 carrying Geron and his wife took off from Haifa in Israel and crashed near Samos airport.

The coastguard and divers recovered the bodies of the two 69-year-old victims a few hours later.

Greece’s air crash investigations unit announced it had started an investigation into the cause of the incident.

“Shortly before landing, communication with the control tower on Samos was lost and the Civil Aviation Authority informed the search and rescue centre about the loss of communication,” said the Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Board.

The Israel’s Foreign Ministry identified the victims and added consular officials were working to repatriate the bodies.

Netanyahu, whose lengthy tenure in power ended earlier this year, has denied the corruption allegations and mocked the size of the witness list.

Source: Sky News

New appointments at Iran’s Foreign Ministry

By
Seyedeh Maryam Hosseini Lahijani
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By virtue of an order from the Iranian foreign minister, Messrs Ali Bagheri, as deputy foreign minister for political affairs; Mohammad Fathali, as  administrative and financial assistant; Mehdi Safari, as deputy foreign minister for economic diplomacy were appointed. The order says: “It is hoped that under God’s auspices and through following the orders of the Leader, you will succeed in realizing the policies and strategies of the diplomatic apparatus, especially balanced, active, dynamic and smart foreign policy, and also in cooperating with the honorable deputies, managers and experts in performing their duties.”

The Iranian foreign minister, in separate rulings, appreciated the services of the former deputies Messrs Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, Ali Abolhassani and Seyyed Rasoul Mohajer, and appointed them as his advisors.

Bagheri served as deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council from 2007 to 2013. Fathali was also former Iranian ambassador to Lebanon. And Mehdi Safari was former Iranian ambassador to Russia, China and Austria.

Iran’s exports to Iraq rises by 31%

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Seyyed Ruhollah Latifi added that Iran’s imports from Iraq also increased by 430 percent in value during this period.

According to Latifi, Iraq is the second largest buyer of Iranian goods in recent years but, due to the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, several border crossings with Iraq were closed for months last year, and like many other countries, trade with Iraq decreased during the period.

In the first five months of the Persian year of 1400 and with Covid’s impact on foreign trade blunting, Iran saw a rise in economic exchanges, and this was also the case with Iraq as Iran’s second largest export partner, Latifi said.

He pointed out that Iran’s exports to Iraq by the end of August was more than 12,024 tons worth more than $3,163,000 which saw a 31% growth in value and a 53% rise in weight.

Regarding imports from Iraq, the Iranian customs spokesman said, “In the first five months of this year, 313,612 tons of goods worth more than $175,989,000 were imported from Iraq, which translates into a 970% rise in weight and a 430% rise in value compared to the same period last year. Figures show Iran’s total foreign trade in the first five months of this year reached 59.3 million tons worth $34 billion, with a positive balance of $1 billion.

World Bank: Climate change could force migration of 216m people

By
IFP Media Wire
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Climate change is a powerful driver of internal migration because of its impacts on people’s livelihoods and loss of livability in highly exposed locations, the report noted, adding that hotspots of internal climate migration could emerge as early as 2030 and “continue to spread and intensify” by 2050.

By 2050, Sub-Saharan Africa could see as many as 86 million internal climate migrants; East Asia and the Pacific, 49 million; South Asia, 40 million; North Africa, 19 million; Latin America, 17 million; and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 5 million, according to the report.

The report is a “stark reminder” of the human toll of climate change, particularly on the world’s poorest, those who are contributing the least to its causes, said Juergen Voegele, vice president of sustainable development at the World Bank.

“It also clearly lays out a path for countries to address some of the key factors that are causing climate-driven migration,” stated Voegele.

The report added immediate and concerted actions to reduce global emissions and to support green, inclusive, and resilient development could reduce the scale of climate migration by as much as 80 percent.

Source: Xinhua news agency

Gunmen raid Nigerian prison, free over 260 inmates

By
IFP Media Wire
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Almost all of the inmates of a prison in south-central Nigeria were broken when armed gunmen breached the perimeter fence of the facility, freeing 266 prisoners.

A soldier and a police officer were killed in the attack and two guards were missing, the interior ministry reported. It was the second major jailbreak in Nigeria this year.

The attackers used explosives to destroy the fence on three sides and fought a gun battle with guards at the medium-security prison at Kabba in Kogi state, southwest of the federal capital Abuja, authorities stated.

Nigeria is struggling with security problems across its vast territory, including armed robberies by criminal gangs, an insurgency in the northeast and a spate of mass school abductions in the northwest.

Twenty-eight out of the 294 inmates at Kabba had not escaped, the interior ministry added, meaning 266 had got away. The prison service had initially put the number of fugitives at 240.

It was the second major jailbreak this year after gunmen attacked a prison in Owerri in southeastern Imo State in April, freeing more than 1,800 inmates.

Police blamed the Owerri jailbreak on a banned separatist movement, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which campaigns for several southeastern states to split from Nigeria. IPOB denied any involvement.

Kogi state is not part of the region IPOB wants to see secede. The authorities said the Kabba attackers had not been identified, and they did not suggest a reason for the raid.

The prison service said the Kabba jail was established in 2008 with a capacity for 200 inmates. At the time of the attack there were 224 pre-trial detainees and 70 convicted offenders in the jail, it added.

Suspects can spend years in pre-trial detention in Nigeria. Human rights groups say prisons are often overcrowded and legal procedures inefficient.

The interior ministry announced there were 15 soldiers, 10 police officers and 10 armed prison guards on duty at the Kabba jail at the time of the raid.

Source: Reuters

US Capitol fence to return ahead of pro-rioters rally

By
IFP Media Wire
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The fence surrounding the US Capitol is set to return ahead of the pro-Trump rally on Sept. 18, the head of the Capitol Police confirmed Monday.

“The fence will go up a day or two before, and if everything goes well it will come down very soon after,” Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told reporters in the Capitol.

The remarks came just moments after Manger, along with the sergeants-at-arms in both chambers, had briefed the top congressional leaders on the intelligence gathered by law enforcement ahead of Saturday’s “Justice for J6” rally at the Capitol, which will protest the treatment of the hundreds of people arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 riot.

Leaving the intelligence briefing, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) declined to comment on the threat level posed on Saturday. But he said he’s confident there won’t be another security debacle like that of Jan. 6.

“They seemed very, very well prepared — much better prepared than before Jan. 6. I think they’re ready for whatever might happen,” he added.

The briefing was held just hours after US Capitol Police officers arrested a 44-year-old California man for allegedly possessing a bayonet and a machete just outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters, which sits just south of the Capitol building. Both items are illegal in Washington.

The man was driving a truck laden with white supremacist slogans, and said he was “on patrol”, according to Capitol Police.

The original Capitol security fence was erected in the days following the deadly rampage at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and quickly became a symbol of both the failure of law enforcement to prepare for violence that day and the ongoing effort by Trump to overturn his election defeat.

It also infuriated Republicans in Congress, who accused Democrats of politicizing Jan. 6 by exaggerating the violent threat posed by Trump’s supporters. Closer to home, neighbors in the vicinity of Capitol Hill also pushed hard to have the fence removed.

Heading into the intelligence briefing, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) agreed with Schumer’s assessment that law enforcement was taking the threat of potential violence more seriously than they did before Jan. 6.

“I think there’s much better preparation and knowledge about what to expect,” she said, adding, “I do observe much better communication.”

Source: The Hill

Iranians mine $1 billion Bitcoins annually

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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In a report, the Parliament’s Economic Commission said 19,500 out of the total 324,000 Bitcoins of the world are mined in the Islamic Republic in an unofficial manner each year.

The report added that 700 Bitcoins are traded each day that are valued at 40 million dollars. It said citizens mine these cyrptocurrencies without official permission.

The Parliament’s Economic Commission also called for developing a national cryptocurrency given the anti-Iran sanctions.

The cryptocurrencies have jumped in value over the past year. Bitcoin hit highest price ever in April when it reached 60 thousand dollars.

Putin, Raeisi seek meeting in near future

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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The phone conversation between Putin and Raisi came after the Russian leader cancelled a trip to Tajikistan where he had been scheduled to meet with the Iranian president on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The Russian president is self-isolating after several members of his inner circle tested positive for COVID-19.

During their phone conversation, Putin called for continued cooperation between the two sides in the battle against the coronavirus and in the joint production of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

The Iranian president said Tehran seeks to expand cooperation with Moscow in all fields.

He also stressed the need for continued cooperation between Iran and Russia in the battle against the coronavirus including the production of vaccines.

Confusion over lifting night-time traffic curfew in Iran

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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It all began on Sunday when the taskforce’s spokesman Alireza Raesi announced an end to the night time traffic restrictions.

Raeisi said the ban has been lifted because the number of coronavirus vaccination centers nationwide has increased and many of these centers work round the clock.

The announcement led to a considerable increase in traffic in Iranian cities after 22:00 p.m.

But traffic police was quick to announce that it has not been officially informed about the decision to end the restrictions, and that it is still issuing traffic tickets for cars that violate the night-time ban.

The deputy head of Iranian Traffic Police said, “Police act based on official communication, we will enforce a communication when we receive it.”

Teymour Hosseini said, however, that fines recorded over the past days will be cancelled if a future communication from the National Task Force Against Coronavirus officially states that the ban was lifted on Sunday.

Iran Covid death toll tops 115 K

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-

Iran’s health ministry officials said on Tuesday 408 more people have died of the disease over the past 24 hours. The total death toll now stands at 115,167.

The total number of cases is approaching five-point-two million. Covid fatalities and infections hit record highs several times in Iran last month. The more contagious Delta variant has been blamed for the latest peak of the Covid pandemic in Iran.
But the daily deaths, infections and hospitalizations have seen a downward trend over the past days. That’s partly due to the vaccination campaign Iran is pursuing nationwide.

The inoculation drive was initially slow in Iran. But now it’s going ahead fast thanks to a rise in vaccine imports and production inside Iran.

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