Iran buries scientist slain by ‘CIA and Mossad’

TEHRAN: Iran on Friday buried a top scientist it said was slain as part of an Israeli-American covert campaign against its nuclear programme, as a US-led drive for crippling sanctions ran into opposition even from allies. Diplomats in Vienna, meanwhile, said the UN nuclear watchdog was to send its chief inspector to Iran at the end of the month. Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a deputy director of Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant, was given a funeral service in north Tehran after noon prayers, state media reported. He and his driver were killed on Wednesday when two men on a motorbike slapped a magnetic bomb on his car while it was stuck in Tehran traffic. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the “abominable” and...

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Myanmar pardons top political prisoners

YANGON: Myanmar pardoned a number of prominent dissidents, journalists and a former premier Friday under a major prisoner amnesty, intensifying a surprising series of reforms by the army-backed regime. The release included members of the “88 Generation Students” group, which is synonymous with the democratic struggle in the country formerly known as Burma and was at the forefront of a failed 1988 uprising in which thousands died. The amnesty, which looked set to be the most significant yet under the nominally civilian government which took office last year, was hailed by democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party as a “positive sign”. Former student activist Min Ko Naing, who has spent most of the years since the...

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Iran sanctions will be seen as bid at regime change: Russia

MOSCOW: New sanctions against Iran will be perceived by the world community as an attempt at changing the regime in the Islamic republic, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gannady Gatilov said on Friday. “Additional sanctions against Iran, as well as potentially any military strikes against it, will unquestionably be perceived by the international community as an attempt at changing the regime in Iran,” Gatilov was quoted as saying by Interfax. The diplomat’s comments came as European governments said they were moving closer to an agreement on an Iranian oil embargo that would give companies six months to phase out contracts with Tehran. Russia has backed four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions against its regional ally...

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