Ben Yedder attempts soccer comeback in Iran after suspended prison sentence
Former France international Wissam Ben Yedder is trying to revive his career in Iran after almost a year on the sidelines and a suspended prison sentence for sexually assaulting a woman.
Ben Yedder, who was out of contract, signed a deal with five-time Iranian champion Sepahan FC, the club said in a statement. Terms of their agreement were not disclosed.
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Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Iran executes man over 2022 anti-government protests
A man has been executed in Iran, three years after he was arrested during the nationwide anti-government protests in 2022, the judiciary says. Mojahed Kourkouri, also known as Abbas Kourkouri, was sentenced to death after being convicted of armed attacks and membership of a "rebellion group", according to the judiciary's Mizan news agency. He was accused of killing seven people, including nine-year-old Kian Pirfalak, during protests in the city of Izeh. Kian's family said he was killed by security forces, but authorities maintained that a "rioter" shot him. Amnesty International said Kourkouri was subjected to torture and that his trial was "grossly unfair". Kourkouri is the 11th person known to have been executed in relation to the protests, which were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police in Tehran in September 2022 for allegedly wearing her hijab "improperly". Hundreds of people were killed and thousands detained in a violent crackdown by security forces, which portrayed the protests as "riots". Kourkouri was accused of opening fire on a car carrying Kian Pirfalak and his family in Izeh, in the south-western province of Khuzestan, at the height of the unrest that November. State authorities blamed "terrorist agents" for Kian's killing, and later arrested Kourkouri during an armed raid the following month, during which Kourkouri was shot and injured in the knee, human rights groups said. Kian's family has repeatedly said it does not think Kourkouri was involved in the boy's killing. At Kian's funeral, the boy's mother was overheard in a video telling mourners: "Hear it from me myself on how the shooting happened, so they can't say it was by terrorists, because they're lying." "Plainclothes forces shot my child. That is it," Zeynab Molaei said. Later that the day, she appeared to recant the remarks in a state TV interview, warning that they should "not be misused". She looked visibly distressed, prompting many on social media to warn that she might have been coerced. The judiciary's announcement that Kourkouri had been executed sparked condemnation among human rights groups. Amnesty International said Kourkouri's trial was unfair because he had been denied access to an independently chosen lawyer and his confessions, which were broadcast on Iranian state media, had been forced. It added that following his arrest, Kourkouri was held in solitary confinement and repeatedly subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including severe beatings. Kourkouri was initially sentenced in April 2023, but a judicial review of his case was filed to the Supreme Court in January 2024, Amnesty said. His conviction was later upheld and his sentence was sent for implementation later that year, it added. The director of the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran's other leaders "must be held accountable for the extrajudicial killing" of Kourkouri, "as well as for the murders of Kian Pirfalak and thousands of other innocent people". "The international community must break its silence in the face of this tsunami of executions carried out by the Islamic Republic," he added. Kurdish human rights group Hengaw said at least 582 prisoners, including 19 political, religious, and security inmates, had been executed in Iranian prisons so far this year. The last person to be executed in connection with the 2022 protests was Reza Rasaei in August last year. The 34-year-old was sentenced to death in 2023 after what Amnesty called a "grossly unfair" trial that relied on forced confessions, which they said were "obtained under torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings, electric shocks, suffocation and sexual violence". Iranian authorities accused him of having a part in the death of a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards during the protests - a charge Rasaei denied. He was executed in secret and his family was not given prior warning, Amnesty said. Iran executes protester with mental health condition 15 minutes to defend yourself against the death penalty Two boys shot dead by Iran security forces - sources
5 hours ago
Russian airstrikes kill 3 in Ukraine as Zelenskyy warns of evolving drone tech
LONDON -- Russian drone strikes and bombs killed at least three people in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv overnight, regional officials there said, even though Moscow's latest drone and missile barrage elsewhere was significantly smaller than preceding nights. The Kharkiv Regional Military Administration said in a post to Telegram that another 60 people were injured by Russian attacks overnight, which included the use of Iranian-designed Shahed attack drones, first-person view commercial-style drones and KAB guided bombs. Kharkiv -- Ukraine's second largest city with a pre-war population of around 1.4 million -- sits just 20 miles from the Russian border. That proximity has seen the city bombarded throughout Russia's full-scale invasion. Kharkiv has also faced intense recent attacks as Moscow expanded its drone and missile campaign, plus as Russian forces reportedly mass along the nearby border and threaten new incursions. Elsewhere on Tuesday night, at least five people were injured by Russian shelling in the southern Kherson region, local officials said in a post to Telegram. One person was also killed and another injured by Russian shelling in the eastern Donetsk region, officials said. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 85 drones and one missile into the country overnight, of which 49 drones were shot down or otherwise neutralized. Impacts were recorded in 14 locations, with drone debris falling in two other locations, the air force said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Tuesday night post to Telegram that he had spoken with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov about "our efforts to counter drones, protect against missiles and reinforce our air defense." The meeting came after Monday night's massive Russian attack on cities including Kyiv. "The Russians have once again used ballistic missiles from North Korea," Zelenskyy said of Monday night's attacks. "We are also tracking evidence that Russian-Iranian drone technologies have spread to North Korea. This is extremely dangerous both for Europe and for East and Southeast Asia." "The longer this war continues on our territory, the more warfare technologies evolve and the greater the threat will be to everyone," Zelenskyy added. "This must be addressed now -- not when thousands of upgraded Shahed drones and ballistic missiles begin to threaten Seoul and Tokyo." Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down 33 Ukrainian drones overnight into Wednesday morning. In Russia's Tambov region -- around 260 miles southeast of Moscow and 230 miles from the closest Ukrainian-controlled territory -- acting governor Evgeny Pervyshov said on Telegram that a fire broke out in the town of Kotovsk due to falling drone debris. "The situation is under control," Pervyshov wrote. But Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said in a Telegram post that an explosives plant in the area was hit by drones. Kovalenko claimed that the Tambov gunpowder plant had been forced to suspend operations by the strike. "It produces gunpowder used for various types of small arms, artillery and rocket systems," he said of the facility. "The enterprise is one of the main suppliers of explosives for the Russian army," Kovalenko added. "With the beginning of a full-scale war in Ukraine, production at the plant has increased significantly." The governor of Russia's western Belgorod region said six people were also injured by a Ukrainian drone strike on a factory in the town of Shebekino. All were hospitalized, the governor said in a post to Telegram.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
Tuesday's Mini-Report, 6.10.25
Today's edition of quick hits. * Californian leaders head to court: 'California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta are asking a judge to bar the Trump administration from using federalized National Guard and active duty Marines for law enforcement purposes on the streets of Los Angeles.' * On a related note, the aforementioned litigation faces an uphill climb: 'One problem for the state's lawsuit is that there is of course no settled definition of what a rebellion is.' * The suspected shooter was among the fatalities in Austria's school shooting: 'At least 11 people were killed and several others injured in a school shooting Tuesday in the southern Austrian city of Graz. A spokesperson for the Graz Regional Hospital told NBC News that 11 people had died following the incident at the BORG Dreierschützengasse school, a secondary school located in the northwest of the city.' * Rulings like these sure have been common lately: 'President Donald Trump acted unlawfully when he issued an executive order applying an 18th century law to alleged Venezuelan gang members to expedite their removal from the United States, an El Paso federal judge ruled Monday.' * A case out of Georgia that we've been keeping an eye on: 'The State Election Board exceeded its authority by passing new voting rules last year, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously ruled Tuesday, limiting the Republican-led board's power. The 96-page decision upholds a lower court decision that invalidated rules that would have required hand counts of ballots and election inquiries.' * Difficult diplomacy: 'Iran said Monday that it will soon hand a counter-proposal for a nuclear deal to the United States in response to a U.S. offer that Tehran deems 'unacceptable,' while U.S. President Donald Trump said talks would continue. Trump made clear that the two sides remained at odds over whether the country would be allowed to continue enriching uranium on Iranian soil.' * Will the CFPB ever be what it once was? 'Cara Petersen, the acting head of enforcement for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, quit on Tuesday after sending a fiery email to her department denouncing the Trump administration's efforts to gut the watchdog agency.' * The fight over forced-reset triggers is a very big deal: 'A coalition of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging the Trump administration's reversal of a Biden-era effort to curb the spread of devices that turn semiautomatic rifles into makeshift machine guns. The lawsuit, filed by 15 states and the District of Columbia in Federal District Court in Maryland, came after the Trump administration abandoned legal efforts to stop distribution of the devices and agreed to return thousands of the devices the government had seized.' See you tomorrow. This article was originally published on
