LONDON: Security forces in Iran killed a man in September after he tore down a poster of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the city of Amol, BBC Persian reported on Monday.

Erfan Rezaei, 21, was shot in the shoulder and back by a pistol at close range during protests.

A source said his family was under pressure to say he had been killed by protesters.

Not long after the protest, Rezaei’s mother, Farzaneh Barzekar, was told by officials that he had been admitted to hospital.

LONDON: The UK witnessed a temporary respite from its ongoing political crisis on Monday as Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor of the exchequer, was declared winner of the ruling Conservative Party’s latest leadership contest. 

The new prime minister is already a history maker as the first Asian and Hindu to assume the role, but he enters office with an economy in the doldrums, crumbling infrastructure, war rumbling on in Ukraine and a fractured party. 

BEIRUT: Efforts to resolve a maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Syria appear to have foundered after Damascus rebuffed attempts by President Michel Aoun to set up official talks.

Aoun discussed the dispute with President Bashar Assad in a telephone call at the weekend, before instructing Elias Bou Saab, the deputy speaker of parliament, to head a Lebanese delegation to Damascus.

AMMAN: Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has condemned the ongoing Israeli military incursions into Palestinian towns, including Tuesday’s dawn attacks in Nablus and Ramallah.
Jordan News Agency, or Petra, cited a statement in which the ministry warned that the military escalation would lead to a new spiral of violence for which “everyone will pay a price.”

CAIRO: A maritime demarcation agreement with Cyprus and Greece in the East Mediterranean, as well as an accord signed with Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea has helped Egypt save the country some $120 billion, which is the amount needed to power its electricity plants annually at current prices, according to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

Speaking at an economic conference taking place in the new administrative capital, El-Sisi said the demarcation deals had been critical to secure the energy needed by the nation.