TEHRAN EYES ECONOMIC REVIVAL AFTER ‘THE CALL’

TEHRAN: Iranians hope international sanctions that have suffocated the economy could be lifted if relations improve between Tehran and Washington after President Hassan Rouhani’s historic phone chat with Barack Obama.

Iran and the US, which have had no diplomatic relations since 1980, “should have done it earlier”, said Morteza, a taxi driver who did not want to be fully identified.

“Because everyone is affected by the sanctions and the economic situation,” he said, complaining that he could not find quality spare parts for his car because of sanctions. Iran, subject to UN sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme, is also struggling with harsh measures imposed by the US and the European Union targeting its vital oil income and access to the global banking system.

Economy minister Ali Tayyebnia warned in August that the official figure of 3.5 million unemployed, or 11.2 percent of the workforce, could rise to 8.5 million with a wave of young people on the verge of entering the job market. Consumer prices have nearly doubled in a year, making common commodities such as staples rice, cooking oil and chicken too expensive for many people, according to the official statistics organisation. Iran’s currency, the rial, has been grossly devalued since late 2011. ROME: A ship carrying African migrants to Europe caught fire and capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday, killing at least 130 people as it spilled hundreds of passengers into the sea, officials said. Over 150 people were rescued but some 200 others were still unaccounted for.

It was one of the deadliest accidents in the notoriously perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Africa for migrants seeking a new life in the European Union.

“It’s an immense tragedy,” said Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini. “We need only caskets, certainly not ambulances,” Pietro Bartolo, chief of health services on the island, told Radio 24. Antonio Candela, the government’s health commissioner for Palermo, said 159 people had been rescued. Only three of the estimated 100 women on the ship have been rescued and no children have been saved so far, Simona Moscarelli, a legal expert for the International Organization for Migration in Rome, said. “Most of (the migrants) can’t swim. Only the strongest survived,” she said

Lampedusa is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland — a mere 113 kilometers off the coast of Tunisia — and is the frequent destination for smugglers’ boats