World news in brief
Children and women shot dead in Iran protests
Two boys were shot dead by security forces during antigovernment protests in Iran on Wednesday. Kian Pirfalak, nine, and Sepehr Maghsoudi, 14, were killed by assailants on motorbikes, their families have said. Kian was one of seven people, including a woman, killed by gunmen in the western city of Izeh. At least 13 people were said to have been killed elsewhere on Wednesday. Authorities blamed the deaths on
“terrorists” who “took advantage of a gathering of protesters in front of the central market of the locality to open fire on people and security officers”, according to a report by the official IRNA news agency. IRNA said eight people were wounded, including three police officers and two members of the Basij paramilitary force, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.
Yesterday the United States imposed sanctions on over a dozen companies based in China, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates that Washington accused of facilitating the sale of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum products to buyers in East Asia. The latest US move against Iranian oil smuggling comes as efforts to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal have stalled and ties between the Islamic Republic and the West are increasingly strained as Iranians keep up anti-government protests.
Chinese human rights activist goes missing in Vietnam
A Chinese human rights defender who was hiding in Vietnam for 31 months has gone missing, his family has said. Dong Guangping, a former police officer turned activist, has been incommunicado since late August, leading to fears of him being deported to China. The 64-year-old has already been jailed three times by Beijing for speaking out against the Chinese government’s human rights violations, including the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Katherine Dong, the daughter of the activist, said that her father was arrested by Vietnamese officials on 24 August in Hanoi. Ms Dong who is now a Canadian citizen has appealed to the Justin Trudeau government to help free her father and has written to the Chinese and the Vietnamese ambassadors' to ensure his release.
North Korea launches another ballistic missile
North Korea launched a ballistic missile yesterday, hours after threatening a “fiercer” response to joint military manoeuvres and a security accord by the US and its allies. South Korea’s
military said the ballistic missile was launched from the North’s east coast Wonsan area at 1048 local time [0148 GMT] and landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Condemnation of the launch came swiftly from the militaries of South Korea, the US and Japan, days after the three countries agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence of the North. It was Pyongyang’s first missile launch in eight days and the latest in a resurgent testing programme that the North claims is in response to joint military drills by the US and South Korea.
Jailed activist’s health has ‘deteriorated severely’
The family of British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who has been unlawfully jailed in Egypt, says his health has “deteriorated severely” after visiting him in prison. The prodemocracy activist has spent much of the last decade behind bars in the Middle Eastern country. He is currently serving a five-year sentence after being convicted on charges of spreading false news after he shared social media posts about dire prison conditions. A tweet from his sister Mona Seif said: “News from the visit are unsettling, deteriorated severely in the past two weeks, but at least they got to see him, and he needed to see the family so much. The family will share the full details later today, please bear with us.”
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