Foreign News
Thousands at Iran president’s funeral procession
Thousands of Iranians have gathered on the streets of Tabriz to mourn President Ebrahim Raisi after he was killed in a helicopter crash.
Mourners followed a funeral procession through the city in north-west Iran while waving Iranian flags and portraits of the late president.
Raisi and seven others were killed when a helicopter they were travelling in crashed in a mountainous area of Iran on Sunday.
Despite the huge crowds, not all Iranians supported the president and many celebrated his death on social media.
On Tuesday crowds of mourners followed a lorry carrying the coffins of Mr Raisi and those who died with him, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in a speech: “We, the members of the government, who had the honour to serve this beloved president, the hardworking president, pledge to our dear people and leader to follow the path of these martyrs.”
From Tabriz, Raisi’s body will be flown to Qom, which is considered the second most sacred city in Iran after Mashhad. His body will then be moved to Iran’s capital Tehran.
Processions will be held in the city on Wednesday morning and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will lead prayers at a farewell ceremony.
Raisi is then expected to be buried in his birthplace, Mashhad, on Thursday.
The helicopter crashed on Sunday, close to the border with Azerbaijan, where Mr Raisi had been meeting the country’s President Ilham Aliyev.
According to local media he was there to open the Qiz Qalasi and Khoda Afarin dams.
State television announced his death in a report early on Monday. The bodies of the president and others who died in the crash had been recovered and search operations had ended, the Iranian Red Crescent also confirmed.
Killed alongside the president and the foreign minister were provincial officials, members of his security team and flight crew.
Raisi, 63, was a hard-line cleric and his election as president in 2021 consolidated the control of conservatives over every part of the Islamic Republic.
State media has said elections will be held on 28 June to choose a new president.
In the meantime, Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber has been appointed to assume interim duties.
(BBC)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a former Navy commander to head the country’s domestic security services, despite the courts having blocked his bid to fire the previous head of Shin Bet.
Netanyahu’s office announced on Monday that he had nominated Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit to lead the agency, which surveils attacks from abroad and at home, including by armed groups based in Palestine and Lebanon. However, a halt to the sacking of Ronen Bar as head of Shin Bet, ordered by the Supreme Court, remains in place.
[Aljazeera]
The Trump administration has deported 17 more alleged gang members to El Salvador, the US state department has said, despite legal battles over removing people to the Central American country’s supermax prison.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the group included members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs.
Salvadoran government officials told the BBC they included a mix of Venezuelans and Salvadorans.
Earlier this month a court ordered a halt to deportations carried out under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law previously used only in wartime. However, US media, citing administration sources, reported that the recent deportations were made under general immigration laws.
In a statement, Rubio said the group included “murderers and rapists”, but did not provide names or details of the alleged crimes or of any convictions.
In a post on X, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele shared a dramatically edited video showing shackled men being loaded off a plane and their heads being shaved before they were put into prison cells.
“All individuals are confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders, including six child rapists,” he wrote. “This operation is another step in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.”
President Trump reposted the message, blamed the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden for allowing the deportees into the US and thanked Bukele for “giving them such a wonderful place to live”.
El Salvador has agreed to take in deportees in exchange for $6m (£4.6m).
Family members of some of those who were previously sent to the maximum security prison have denied they have any gang ties.
After Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to remove more than 100 Venezuelans from the US earlier this month, groups including the American Civil Liberties Union filed a legal challenge alleging the administration had illegally denied the immigrants due process.
In a hearing on 15 March, James Boasberg, the top federal judge in Washington DC, imposed a temporary restraining order on the use of the law and ordered deportation flights that were in the air to be turned around.
But the deportations proceeded. The next hearing in the case will be held on Thursday.
[BBC]
Foreign News
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen barred from running for public office for five years
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been barred from running for public office for five years, meaning she would not be able to run in the 2027 French presidential election
She was found guilty of embezeeling European funds to finance her French far-right National Rally (RN) party.
[BBC]
Showers above 100 mm are likely at some places in Central, North-western and North-central provinces and in Mannar and Vavuniya districts
IPL 2025: Prabhsimran and Iyer see Lucknow Super Giants off with ease
Parliament workers on warpath over allowance reductions
-
Sports3 days agoSri Lanka’s eternal search for the elusive all-rounder
-
News4 days agoGnanasara Thera urged to reveal masterminds behind Easter Sunday terror attacks
-
Business5 days agoAIA Higher Education Scholarships Programme celebrating 30-year journey
-
News2 days agoBid to include genocide allegation against Sri Lanka in Canada’s school curriculum thwarted
-
News3 days agoComBank crowned Global Finance Best SME Bank in Sri Lanka for 3rd successive year
-
Features3 days agoSanctions by The Unpunished
-
Latest News1 day agoIPL 2025: Rookies Ashwani and Rickelton lead Mumbai Indians to first win
-
Features3 days agoMore parliamentary giants I was privileged to know