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Iran’s Khamenei Bans Imports of US, British COVID-19 Vaccines

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (Reuters)
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (Reuters)
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Iran’s Khamenei Bans Imports of US, British COVID-19 Vaccines

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (Reuters)
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (Reuters)

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned Iran’s government on Friday from importing COVID-19 vaccines from the United States and Britain.

“Imports of US and British vaccines into the country are banned. I have told this to officials and I’m saying it publicly now,” Khamenei said in a live televised speech.

“If the Americans were able to produce a vaccine, they would not have such a coronavirus fiasco in their own country.”

Iran, the country that has been worst hit by the novel coronavirus in the region, launched human trials of its first domestic COVID-19 vaccine candidate late last month, saying it could help Iran defeat the pandemic despite US sanctions that affect its ability to import vaccines.

Khamenei praised Iran’s efforts to develop domestic vaccines but said Iran could obtain vaccines “from other reliable places”. He gave no details but China and Russia are both allies of Iran.

“I’m not optimistic about France either because of their history of infected blood,” Khamenei said, referring to the country’s contaminated blood scandal of the 1980s and 1990s.

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China Detains Principal Over Lead Poisoning of 200 Children

Kindergarten students draw the Chinese national flag in a classroom in Hong Kong, China, June 30, 2025. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Kindergarten students draw the Chinese national flag in a classroom in Hong Kong, China, June 30, 2025. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
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China Detains Principal Over Lead Poisoning of 200 Children

Kindergarten students draw the Chinese national flag in a classroom in Hong Kong, China, June 30, 2025. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Kindergarten students draw the Chinese national flag in a classroom in Hong Kong, China, June 30, 2025. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

A kindergarten principal was detained after more than 200 children in northwestern China fell ill with potential lead poisoning from date cakes and corn rolls, state media said on Tuesday.

Investigators found "abnormal" levels of lead in the blood of 233 children at Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui city, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Of those, 201 of the children are being treated in hospital.

Food safety scandals were once common in China, where tainted milk formula made hundreds of thousands of babies ill in 2008 and was linked to six deaths.
City authorities investigated the head of the kindergarten last week after receiving reports that children were falling ill.

A parent told state-run Jimu News tabloid last week that children had been experiencing stomach pain and nausea, and that some of their teeth turned black.

Testing revealed that samples of three-color steamed date cakes and corn rolls contained more than 2,000 times the national safety standard for food contaminants.

The cake, served at breakfast, returned a reading of 1,052 milligrams per kilogram and the roll, served at another meal, was found with 1,340 milligrams per kilogram.

The nationwide limit for lead in wheat and starch is 0.5 milligrams per kilogram, according to Chinese government records.

CCTV said security footage shows kitchen staff adding packaged yellow coloring to a flour mix used in both contaminated dishes, AFP reported.

The kindergarten's principal, surnamed Zhu, and an investor surnamed Li have been detained along with six other people, CCTV said. Two others are on "bail pending trial".

Investigators found that Zhu and Li allowed kitchen staff to produce food using paint pigments purchased online that were later found to contain lead and were marked inedible.

Testing among children attending other kindergartens linked with Peixin returned normal results.

Food safety standards have generally improved across China but revelations last year that cooking oil had been transported in containers also used to carry fuel sparked outrage across Chinese social media.