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An oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire has been struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman amid heightened tensions with Iran, officials said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Greece said Iran freed two Greek oil tankers held by Tehran since May. The drone attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon happened on Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, one Mideast-based defence official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorised to discuss the attack publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Pacific Zircon is operated by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, which is a company ultimately owned by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer. In a statement, Eastern Pacific Shipping said the Pacific Zircon, carrying gas oil, had been hit by a projectile some 150 miles (240 kilometres) off the coast of Oman. We are in communication with the vessel and there is no reports of injuries or pollution. All crew are safe and accounted for, the company
Iranian shops in Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar and elsewhere across the country closed their doors Tuesday amid protests gripping the nation, as two prominent soccer stars also announced they would not be attending the upcoming World Cup over the demonstrations. The shop closures came amid calls for a three-day national strike to mark earlier protests in 2019 against Iran's theocracy that ended in a violent crackdown by authorities. However, this round of demonstrations after the September death of a 22-year-old woman earlier detained by the country's morality police have continued despite activists recording at least 344 deaths and 15,820 arrests so far. The protests have seen prominent former players Ali Daei and Javad Nekounam both say they've declined a FIFA invitation to attend the World Cup in Qatar, where Iran will play. Shuttered storefronts could be seen across Tehran, Iran's capital, on Tuesday. Several shops did remain open, however, as a heavy security presence could be
The aging brick campus of the Sharif University of Technology, Iran's elite technical school, has long been a magnet for the nation's brightest minds, with a record of elevating its students to the highest reaches of society. Thousands of Sharif University alumni power Iran's most sensitive industries, including nuclear energy and aerospace. One of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's closest advisors has taught there for decades. But as demonstrations erupt across Iran first sparked by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country's morality police the scientific powerhouse known as Iran's MIT has emerged as an unexpected hub for protest, fuelling Iran's biggest anti-government movement in over a decade. We've become politically active because there is nothing to lose, said an electrical engineering major and activist in Sharif University's student association who spoke on condition of anonymity. Like others who insisted their identities be .
A huge fire blazed at a notorious prison where political prisoners and anti-government activists are kept in the Iranian capital. Online videos and local media reported gunshots, as nationwide protests entered a fifth week. Iran's state-run IRNA reported that there were clashes between prisoners in one ward and prison personnel, citing a senior security official. The official said prisoners had set fire to a warehouse full of prison uniforms, which caused the blaze. He said the "rioters" were separated from the other prisoners to de-escalate the conflict. The official said the "situation is completely under control" and that firemen were extinguishing the flames. But footage of the blaze continued to circulate online. Videos showed shots ringing out as plumes of smoke engulfed the sky in Tehran amid the sound of an alarm. The US-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran reported that an "armed conflict" broke out within the prison walls. It said shots were first heard in Ward 7 of the .
Iranian police fired tear gas to disperse a protest in the western, mainly Kurdish city of Sanandaj, where hundreds rallied to decry the death of a young woman while in police custody in Tehran last week, reports said. The case of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained last Tuesday after Iran's so-called morality police found fault with her headscarf, or hijab, has set off a public outcry in the country, mainly on social media. Police said she died of a heart attack and have denied any allegations of torture or abuse. The semiofficial Fars news agency reported late Sunday that police also arrested several people from about 500 protesters who had gathered on Sunday at Azadi Square in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran's Kurdistan province. Fars said the protesters smashed car windows and set fire to street garbage cans. The agency's website carried a brief video showing scores of men and women protesting, claiming the police's explanation about Amini's death was not ...