TEHRAN: An Iranian semi-official news agency reported that an explosion had injured several people in a port in the south of the country. The late Saturday report by Ilna did not specify the cause of the blast. It says it also damaged several cars and shattered windows of nearby buildings including a hotel in Imam Khomeini port, some 1,000km southwest of Tehran. The port, one of Iran’s major import and export terminals, is located in oil-rich Khuzestan province, the scene of occasional protests in recent years by members of Iran’s Arabic-speaking minority seeking more rights. Iran in the past has blamed explosions in the province on saboteurs tied to Arab and Western intelligence agencies.
Saudi rethinking method of execution
RIYADH: A Saudi newspaper says a ministerial committee is looking into formally dropping public beheadings as a method of execution in the oil-rich kingdom. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where a death sentence results in beheading in a public square.
The authoritative daily Al Watan says in its yesterday’s edition that the ministerial committee is considering fatal shootings as an alternative. There have been calls in the kingdom for replacing public beheadings with lethal injections carried out in prisons. The kingdom executes anyone convicted of murder, armed robbery, rape and trafficking in drugs. It has executed 15 people so far this year, 76 last year and 79 in 2011.
Gunmen kill protest organiser in north Iraq
KIRKUK, Iraq: Gunmen killed an anti-government protest organiser in north Iraq yesterday, while a city council member and a farmer were shot dead in other attacks, police and doctors said. Unknown gu nmen shot dead protest organiser Bnayan Sabar Al Obeidi in front of his house in the northern city of Kirkuk, they said. Obeidi’s death comes two days after activists said security forces fired on a demonstration in Mosul, another north Iraq city, killing at least one protester and wounding others.
Agencies
