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UN: American Held in Iran Allowed to Leave, Son Freed from Detention

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid
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UN: American Held in Iran Allowed to Leave, Son Freed from Detention

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid

The United Nations said Saturday that an Iranian-American blocked from leaving Iran can now depart and that his son was released from detention.

The United States has been pressing for the release of these two men and two other Americans amid efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major western powers.

After an appeal from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Baquer Namazi, 85, "has been permitted to leave Iran for medical treatment abroad," and his son Siamak Namazi, 50, has been released from detention, AFP quoted UN spokesman Stephan Dujarric as saying.

Baquer Namazi is a former UNICEF official who was detained in February 2016 when he went to Iran to press for the release of his son Siamak, who had been arrested in October of the previous year.

Both were convicted of espionage in October 2016 and sentenced to ten years in prison.

The father was released on medical leave in 2018 and had been serving his sentence under house arrest.

The Namazis' lawyer Jared Genser confirmed the news of the release and said the younger Namazi is now at home with his parents in Tehran for the first time in seven years.

"While these are critical first steps, we will not rest until the Namazis can all return to the United States and their long nightmare has finally come to an end," Genser said in a statement.

In June of this year the younger Namazi published a column in The New York Times in which he called on President Joe Biden to strike a prisoner swap deal with Iran, even though talks on reviving the nuclear deal were at an impasse.

The other two Americans held in Iran that Washington wants released are environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, 66, and businessman Emad Sharqi, 57.

The drive to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal resumed in late November of last year, after talks were suspended in June as Iran elected ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi.

The 2015 deal -- agreed by Iran, the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

But the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump and reimposed biting economic sanctions, prompting Tehran to begin rolling back on its commitments.

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World

Philippines Is Not Concerned Iran War Will Distract US from Region, Defense Secretary Says

Troops from New Zealand, the Philippines, US, and Australia pose for a photo with their national flags after participating in counter-landing live fire exercises during Balikatan, the annual joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines, at Long Point Beach, Brgy. Aporawan, Aborlan, Palawan, Philippines, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
Troops from New Zealand, the Philippines, US, and Australia pose for a photo with their national flags after participating in counter-landing live fire exercises during Balikatan, the annual joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines, at Long Point Beach, Brgy. Aporawan, Aborlan, Palawan, Philippines, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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Philippines Is Not Concerned Iran War Will Distract US from Region, Defense Secretary Says

Troops from New Zealand, the Philippines, US, and Australia pose for a photo with their national flags after participating in counter-landing live fire exercises during Balikatan, the annual joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines, at Long Point Beach, Brgy. Aporawan, Aborlan, Palawan, Philippines, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)
Troops from New Zealand, the Philippines, US, and Australia pose for a photo with their national flags after participating in counter-landing live fire exercises during Balikatan, the annual joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines, at Long Point Beach, Brgy. Aporawan, Aborlan, Palawan, Philippines, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)

The Philippines is not worried about any reduction in US deterrence capabilities in the Indo-Pacific due to the Middle East war, though China would likely try to seize on any perceived opening, the Defense Secretary said ‌on Tuesday.

China's recent ‌actions in the ‌South ⁠China Sea and ⁠the Taiwan Strait were "not surprising", Gilberto Teodoro told Reuters in an interview, saying Beijing looked to take advantage when it thought rival powers were preoccupied ⁠elsewhere.

"It is not surprising ‌that ‌any opportunity they see, perceived opportunity, or ‌with a perceived weakness ‌or a perceived opening, they will take advantage," Teodoro said.

Teodoro said he had full confidence in the ‌Mutual Defense Treaty, the long-standing security pact between Manila ⁠and Washington, ⁠and was not worried by concerns that the Iran war could weaken US strategic bandwidth in Asia.

"I'm not concerned at all about reduced deterrence," he said, pointing to joint military exercises currently underway with the US as a sign of Washington's commitment.

World

Ukrainian Strikes Kill 3 in Russian Border Region

A crater is seen at the site of the Russian strike on a residential area in Odesa, Ukraine, 27 April 2026. (EPA)
A crater is seen at the site of the Russian strike on a residential area in Odesa, Ukraine, 27 April 2026. (EPA)
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Ukrainian Strikes Kill 3 in Russian Border Region

A crater is seen at the site of the Russian strike on a residential area in Odesa, Ukraine, 27 April 2026. (EPA)
A crater is seen at the site of the Russian strike on a residential area in Odesa, Ukraine, 27 April 2026. (EPA)

A Ukrainian drone attack Tuesday killed three people in the Russian border region of Belgorod, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

"Three civilians were killed following drone attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces," he wrote on Telegram, adding that three others were wounded.

The drones targeted a car, killing a man and a vehicle in another area where a man and a woman died, he said.

Since the start of its offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has been regularly bombing Ukraine, especially key infrastructure sites.

In response, Kyiv strikes targets in Russia, insisting it is aiming at military sites as well as energy facilities in order to reduce Moscow's ability to finance its war effort.

A fire broke out on Tuesday at an oil refinery in Tuapse, in southern Russia, after debris from a Ukrainian drone that had targeted the facility fell on it, according to local authorities.

World

Train Collision Kills 14, Injures Dozens Near Jakarta

A drone view shows ambulances standing by at the station following a deadly collision between a commuter line train and a long-distance train, in Bekasi, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, April 28, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view shows ambulances standing by at the station following a deadly collision between a commuter line train and a long-distance train, in Bekasi, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, April 28, 2026. (Reuters)
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Train Collision Kills 14, Injures Dozens Near Jakarta

A drone view shows ambulances standing by at the station following a deadly collision between a commuter line train and a long-distance train, in Bekasi, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, April 28, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view shows ambulances standing by at the station following a deadly collision between a commuter line train and a long-distance train, in Bekasi, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, April 28, 2026. (Reuters)

Indonesia's president ordered an investigation Tuesday after a long-distance train smashed into a stationary commuter train overnight, killing 14 people and injuring dozens.

Officials ended a nearly 12-hour rescue effort near Bekasi Timur station, east of the capital Jakarta, which saw crews prying open mangled carriages following the Monday night collision.

"And this morning... it is all finished," Mohammad Syafii, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) told a news conference Tuesday. "I am certain there are no more victims to be found."

One survivor described the terror of being trapped inside a crushed carriage.

"I thought I was going to die," Sausan Sarifah, 29, said from her bed at the RSUD Bekasi hospital where she was admitted with a broken arm and a deep cut to one thigh.

She was on her way home from work on Monday night, she said, when her train stopped at the Bekasi Timur station some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Jakarta.

"It all happened so fast, in a split second," Sausan recounted.

"There were two announcements from the commuter train. Everyone was ready to get off, and then suddenly there was the sound of the locomotive, really loud," she said.

"There was no time to get out, and everyone ended up piled up inside the train, crushed on top of one another. I don't know how the person underneath me is doing."

She said she had feared suffocating to death in the human pile-up, and worried that some pinned underneath didn't make it.

"Thank God I was on top, so I could be evacuated quickly," said Sausan.

State-owned rail operator KAI said on Tuesday morning that the death toll had risen to 14. Another 84 people required medical treatment, it said, without specifying how many remained hospitalized.

According to Franoto Wibowo, a KAI spokesman, a taxi appears to have clipped the commuter train on a level crossing, causing it to come to a standstill on the tracks, where it was hit.

At the station, chaotic scenes unfolded in the aftermath of the crash, with rescue workers shouting for oxygen tanks as ambulances stood by in a snaking queue, lights flashing.

An AFP reporter at the scene witnessed people being carried out of the wreckage on gurneys and loaded into waiting ambulances as hundreds of bystanders looked on, some seemingly in shock.

The military, fire brigade, the national search and rescue agency, and the Red Cross aided in the massive evacuation effort that followed.

President Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday visited hospital patients in Bekasi, offered his condolences to relatives of the deceased, and said he had ordered an "immediate investigation."

He also ordered the construction of an overpass in Bekasi.

"In general, we do see that many railway crossings are not guarded," the president said.

"I have ordered that we immediately repair all these crossings, either by guard posts or by flyovers."

- Rescue efforts -

Jakarta police chief Asep Edi Suheri said the long-distance train had crashed into the last, women-only, carriage of the commuter train.

All the victims were in the commuter train, and all 240-odd passengers on the other train had been evacuated safely, according to Anne Purba, another KAI spokeswoman.

The agency said it would cover all medical expenses for the injured and funeral costs for the deceased.

The collision had caused "significant damage to several train carriages", the Jakarta search and rescue agency said in a statement.

Several people were trapped in the carriages "due to the force of the impact," it added.

The rescue agency would not say Tuesday whether all had been freed.

Eva Chairista, 39, told AFP she had rushed to the RSUD hospital after hearing that her sister-in-law, who she named only as 27-year-old Fira, had been injured in the crash.

She arrived to a frenetic scene of medical triage.

"The doctor told us to be patient, there are many whose condition is worse than my sister-in-law's," she said.

Transport accidents are not uncommon in Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation where buses, trains and even planes are often old and poorly maintained.

The previous major train crash in the Southeast Asian country killed four crew members and injured about two dozen people elsewhere in West Java province in January 2024.

Sixteen people were killed when a commuter train crashed into a minibus on a level crossing in Jakarta in 2015.