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Iran Grants Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh Temporary Leave From Jail

Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh smiles at her home in Tehran on September 18, 2013, after being freed following three years in prison. (File photo: AFP)
Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh smiles at her home in Tehran on September 18, 2013, after being freed following three years in prison. (File photo: AFP)
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Iran Grants Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh Temporary Leave From Jail

Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh smiles at her home in Tehran on September 18, 2013, after being freed following three years in prison. (File photo: AFP)
Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh smiles at her home in Tehran on September 18, 2013, after being freed following three years in prison. (File photo: AFP)

Jailed Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been granted a temporary leave of absence from prison on the occasion of the Persian New Year, her husband said Wednesday.

“Nasrin came on leave from Qarchak prison,” Reza Khandan wrote on Twitter, posting a photo of the smiling lawyer standing beside him in a car park.

Sotoudeh, 57, was jailed in 2018 after defending a woman arrested for protesting against the requirement for Iranian women to wear the hijab.

A winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov prize, she had returned to prison in December after being granted a leave of absence for less than a month for treatment amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Her new leave of absence was granted on the occasion of the Persian New Year (Nowruz), which Iranians celebrate this year on March 20, AFP reported.

Khandan did not say how long it would last.

In October, Sotoudeh was transferred from Evin prison in northern Tehran to Qarchak, more than 30 kilometers south of the capital, after her husband expressed concern about her health.

She was told in 2018 that she had been sentenced to five years’ jail in absentia for espionage, according to her lawyers.

In 2019, she was sentenced again, to 12 years in prison, “for promoting corruption and debauchery.”

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World

Ukraine's PM Steps Down as Zelenskyy Announces Government Reshuffle

FILED - 12 June 2024, Berlin: FILE PHOTO - Yulia Svyrydenko speaks to journalists at the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference. Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa
FILED - 12 June 2024, Berlin: FILE PHOTO - Yulia Svyrydenko speaks to journalists at the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference. Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa
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Ukraine's PM Steps Down as Zelenskyy Announces Government Reshuffle

FILED - 12 June 2024, Berlin: FILE PHOTO - Yulia Svyrydenko speaks to journalists at the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference. Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa
FILED - 12 June 2024, Berlin: FILE PHOTO - Yulia Svyrydenko speaks to journalists at the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference. Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko stepped down on Sunday as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced fresh changes to Ukraine's government, saying he had offered a new and important position to the former premier.

Zelenskyy, who has remained in office under martial law because wartime elections are prohibited, has periodically reshuffled his government in an effort to bring fresh momentum to his administration.

Svyrydenko, who has served as Ukraine’s economy minister, was named prime minister in July 2025 at the age of 39 after playing a lead role in securing a mineral agreement between Ukraine and the United States, seen as an important way of tying US interests to Ukraine’s security.

In a statement on social media, Svyrydenko said she was “proud to have had the honor of leading the government during one of the most difficult periods in Ukraine’s modern history.”

She also said she had discussed “next steps” with Zelenskyy, but did not provide further details.

“I remain ready to serve the Ukrainian state and carry out every task aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s position, defending our national interests and bringing a just peace closer,” she said.

Zelenskyy announced her resignation in a post saying that Ukraine was “changing its political strategy.”

According to The Associated Press, he also said he had offered Svyrydenko the opportunity to lead “a new, important area” in Ukraine’s relations with a key international partner.

“Each priority area of foreign policy will be assigned to a specific person with substantial experience who is capable of implementing what we agree on at the leaders’ level and what the Ukrainian people expect,” Zelenskyy said, describing the impending reshuffle.

The Ukrainian leader also said there would be changes among the top ranks of Ukraine's law enforcement agencies.

Zelenskyy met with a series of senior officials following the announcement, including Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

The overhaul, which Zelenskyy has yet to explain in detail, would be the fourth major reorganization of his government since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

World

Russian Strikes Kill 4 in Ukraine

A damaged vehicle sits on a road, following a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine, July 11, 2026 in this screengrab obtained from a handout video. State of Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy Region/Handout via REUTERS
A damaged vehicle sits on a road, following a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine, July 11, 2026 in this screengrab obtained from a handout video. State of Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy Region/Handout via REUTERS
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Russian Strikes Kill 4 in Ukraine

A damaged vehicle sits on a road, following a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine, July 11, 2026 in this screengrab obtained from a handout video. State of Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy Region/Handout via REUTERS
A damaged vehicle sits on a road, following a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine, July 11, 2026 in this screengrab obtained from a handout video. State of Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy Region/Handout via REUTERS

Russia fired a wave of drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing at least four people, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.

The strikes came a day before Ukraine's allies were set to meet in Paris for talks on pressuring Russia to end its more than four-year war.

Ukraine's air defenses have come under strain from repeated Russian ballistic missile strikes in recent weeks.

The United States this week gave Ukraine permission to build US-designed Patriot air defense systems capable of downing Russian ballistic missiles, but it may be months before they enter production.

Three people were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, including two in a strike on an "industrial enterprise" in the city of Kryvyi Rig, regional officials said.

A separate drone attack on the southern city of Kherson killed a 48-year-old, mayor Yaroslav Shanko reported.

A Ukrainian drone struck a tanker as it was entering the Azov-Black Sea Canal, Yury Slyusar, governor of Russia's Rostov region, said on Sunday.

A vessel is seen in this screen grab taken from undated drone footage which Ukrainian authorities said showed an attack on a Russian vessel at sea, released by Ukraine's Unmanned Aerial Systems Force on July 12, 2026. Commander of Unmanned Aerial Systems Force/Handout via REUTERS

The fire caused by the attack has been brought under control and ⁠there was no ⁠risk of an oil spill because the vessel was empty, Slyusar said on messaging app Telegram, adding ⁠that there were no casualties.

The Ukrainian military has recently attacked more than 40 Russian tankers in the Sea of Azov as part of what Ukraine describes as a campaign aimed at disrupting fuel supplies ⁠to Russian ⁠forces and isolating Moscow-occupied Crimea.

Ukraine has intensified attacks on logistics and energy infrastructure in Crimea in recent weeks, contributing to fuel shortages and prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency in the peninsula.

World

Hundreds Return Home as Deadly Spain Wildfire Nears Control

Houses stand amongst a burnt landscape after a wildfire that killed at least 12 people, in Bedar, Almeria Province, on July 12, 2026. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)
Houses stand amongst a burnt landscape after a wildfire that killed at least 12 people, in Bedar, Almeria Province, on July 12, 2026. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)
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Hundreds Return Home as Deadly Spain Wildfire Nears Control

Houses stand amongst a burnt landscape after a wildfire that killed at least 12 people, in Bedar, Almeria Province, on July 12, 2026. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)
Houses stand amongst a burnt landscape after a wildfire that killed at least 12 people, in Bedar, Almeria Province, on July 12, 2026. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

A wildfire that has killed at least 12 people in southern Spain was close to being brought under control Sunday, allowing hundreds of evacuated residents to return home as firefighters worked to fully stabilize the blaze, officials said.

Regional emergency chief Antonio Sanz said late Saturday that about 600 of the nearly 1,500 people evacuated from the fire zone in Almería province had been allowed to return after firefighters made significant progress containing the blaze.

"The attack carried out today and the stabilization of much of the perimeter have made it possible to adopt these measures and continue moving, always with the utmost caution, toward a return to normality," AFP quoted Sanz as saying in a statement issued by the regional government of Andalusia.

The improved outlook followed a day of better weather conditions with calmer winds and higher air humidity that allowed firefighters to mount a direct assault on the fire.

Justice Minister Felix Bolanos, said Saturday that crews had taken advantage of favorable wind and humidity conditions to move closer to bringing the wildfire under control.

The burned area remained at about 6,600 hectares (16,300 acres) after the fire made no further advances Saturday, he said.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is scheduled to visit the devastated area on Monday.

Burned-out vehicles still line some roads where people were trapped as the fast-moving fire swept through the area at speeds of up to 100 meters (330 feet) per minute.

Authorities have kept the death toll at 12 and cautioned that the number of missing people remains uncertain until autopsies and the identification of recovered bodies are completed.

Officials have said many of the victims could be foreign nationals.

The identification process has been slowed because collecting DNA samples from relatives has proved difficult, with family members traveling from other countries.

Despite the improving conditions, the Civil Guard police planned another search of the affected area Sunday to ensure no victims remain unaccounted for.

"The Civil Guard has entered more than 250 homes to verify that no one was inside, and it will now carry out one final sweep of the area to make a complete check that no one else remains," Virginia Barcones, secretary-general for Civil Protection, told Spain's public broadcaster Sunday.