Iranian Govt Blames Protest Leaders for 'Poisoning Attacks'

Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among schoolgirls across Iran (AFP)
Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among schoolgirls across Iran (AFP)
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Iranian Govt Blames Protest Leaders for 'Poisoning Attacks'

Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among schoolgirls across Iran (AFP)
Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among schoolgirls across Iran (AFP)

The Iranian government accused the protest leaders of the mystery poisoning incidents in schools, affecting thousands of female students.

Iranian Government Spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi blamed the protesters for creating tensions in girls' schools and a tense atmosphere, but they failed.

Asked about the investigation of the follow-up committee ordered by the Iranian president, the spokesman said that the situation has stabilized in schools, adding that these brutal attacks revealed the truth about some people who claim to support and develop women.

Judiciary Spokesman Masoud Setayeshi criticized the description of the attacks as "poisoning," saying it was better to use a term that describes the deterioration in health. He indicated that poisoning must have determined symptoms identified by the specialized laboratories.

Setayeshi said that the authorities arrested eight people in the southern Fars governorate in connection with the attacks that began at the end of November.

He added that the investigation results would be announced, asserting that those who threaten the security of the people will face the most severe penalties.

Meanwhile, senior officials used the word "poisoning," including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, when referring to the incidents.

Khamenei said on Monday that poisoning schoolgirls are an "unforgivable" crime that should be punished by death if deliberate.

Iranian official sources said that the mysterious cases of poisoning in the country amounted to 13,000 suspected cases, including 100 young schoolgirls, who are now receiving treatment in hospitals, according to Tasnim news agency affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Last Saturday, the Human Rights Committee of the Iranian judiciary said in a report that less than 10 percent of the female students were infected with an irritant of dangerous and non-lethal war gases.

Furthermore, a member of the parliamentary fact-finding committee, Mohammed Hasan Asafari, said that the main culprits in the case had not been arrested, noting that some of the poisonings were due to the use of "naphthalene" and "aluminum phosphide.",

Asafari that some cases were due to the students' attempts to disrupt the school day, noting that 100 persons have been arrested, including students.

He told the state-run ISNA news agency that some detainees were linked to the recent protests that rocked the country after the death of a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, while in the custody of morality police.

The lawmaker said that the involvement of the foreign intelligence services is still not apparent, and the matter is under investigation.

Asfari confirmed the attacks dropped after the Supreme Leader's speech last week.

On Monday, the Interior Ministry said that more than 100 people involved in the recent school incidents had been identified, arrested, and under investigation.



Coastguard Rescue 52 Migrants off Greece, Boy Missing

A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture
A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture
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Coastguard Rescue 52 Migrants off Greece, Boy Missing

A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture
A dinghy transporting dozens of refugees and migrants is pulled towards Greece's Lesbos island after being rescued by a war ship during their sea crossing between Türkiye and Greece on February 29, 2020. Aris Messinis, AFP/File picture

Greek coastguard were searching Thursday for a missing child off the island of Farmakonisi after rescuing 52 migrants in two separate incidents in the Aegean Sea, local media reported.

They found 13 migrants who had arrived on the small, uninhabited island, but one boy was reported missing from the group, said the ANA news agency, AFP reported.

Another 39 migrants were found on board an inflatable boat off the southern island of Crete, according to the same source. They were taken to the village of Kaloi Limenes in Crete. No details about their nationality were provided.

Two coastguard vessels and an airforce helicopter were deployed for the operation off Farmakonisi, opposite the Turkish coast.

Many migrants try to reach the Greek islands from Türkiye or Libya as a way of entering the European Union. But both crossings are perilous.

Earlier this month, 17 people were found dead in a migrant boat drifting off Crete. Another 15 people were reported missing.

The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year -- more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.


Israel Arrests Citizen Suspected of Spying for Iran

Iranians drive past an anti-Israeli billboard carrying a sentence in Persian reading 'We are ready, are you ready?' hanging at Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran, 24 December 2025. (EPA)
Iranians drive past an anti-Israeli billboard carrying a sentence in Persian reading 'We are ready, are you ready?' hanging at Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran, 24 December 2025. (EPA)
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Israel Arrests Citizen Suspected of Spying for Iran

Iranians drive past an anti-Israeli billboard carrying a sentence in Persian reading 'We are ready, are you ready?' hanging at Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran, 24 December 2025. (EPA)
Iranians drive past an anti-Israeli billboard carrying a sentence in Persian reading 'We are ready, are you ready?' hanging at Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran, 24 December 2025. (EPA)

Israeli authorities announced on Thursday the arrest of an Israeli man on suspicion of committing security offences under the direction of Iranian intelligence agents, days after Tehran executed an Iranian accused of spying for Israel.

The arrest is the latest in a series of cases in which Israel has charged its own citizens with spying for its arch-foe since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

The suspect, who is in his 40s and lives in the city of Rishon LeZion, was arrested this month in a joint operation by Israeli police and Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency.

"The suspect was identified as having conducted photography in the vicinity of the home of former prime minister Naftali Bennett," a joint police and Shin Bet statement said.

"As part of his contact with Iranian handlers, he was instructed to purchase a dash camera in order to carry out the task," it added.

According to the statement, the man transferred photographs taken in his city of residence and other locations in exchange for various sums of money.

In May, Israel announced the arrest of an 18-year-old Israeli for spying on Bennett.

Iran and Israel, long-standing adversaries, have regularly accused each other of espionage.

Last week, Iran said it had executed an Iranian citizen convicted of spying for Israel.

In June, Israel launched strikes on Iranian military and nuclear sites as well as residential areas.

Iran responded with drone and missile strikes on Israel, and later on in war, the United States joined Israel in targeting Iranian nuclear facilities.

During the 12-day conflict, Israeli authorities arrested two citizens suspected of working for Iranian intelligence services.

Iran, which does not recognize Israel, has long accused it of conducting sabotage operations against its nuclear facilities and assassinating its scientists.


In First Christmas Sermon, Pope Leo Decries Conditions for Palestinians in Gaza

 Pope Leo XIV arrives looks on as he performs the Christmas mass at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on December 25, 2025. (AFP)
Pope Leo XIV arrives looks on as he performs the Christmas mass at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on December 25, 2025. (AFP)
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In First Christmas Sermon, Pope Leo Decries Conditions for Palestinians in Gaza

 Pope Leo XIV arrives looks on as he performs the Christmas mass at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on December 25, 2025. (AFP)
Pope Leo XIV arrives looks on as he performs the Christmas mass at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on December 25, 2025. (AFP)

Pope Leo decried conditions for Palestinians in Gaza in his Christmas sermon on Thursday, in an unusually direct appeal during what is normally a solemn, spiritual service on the day Christians across the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus. 

Leo, the first US pope, said the story of Jesus being born in a stable showed that God had "pitched his fragile tent" among the people of the world. 

"How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?" he asked. 

Leo, celebrating his first Christmas after being elected in May by the world's cardinals to succeed the late ‌Pope Francis, has a ‌quieter, more diplomatic style than his predecessor and usually refrains from ‌making ⁠political references in ‌his sermons. 

In a later Christmas blessing, the pope, who has made care for immigrants a key theme of his early papacy, also lamented the situation for migrants and refugees who "traverse the American continent". 

Leo, who has in the past criticized US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, did not mention Trump. In a Christmas Eve sermon on Wednesday, the pope said refusing to help the poor and strangers was tantamount to rejecting God himself. 

LEO DECRIES 'RUBBLE AND OPEN WOUNDS' OF WAR 

The new pope has lamented the conditions for Palestinians in Gaza several times recently and told ⁠journalists last month that the only solution in the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict must include a Palestinian state. 

Israel and ‌Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October after two years of ‍intense Israeli bombardment and military operations that followed ‍a deadly attack by Hamas-led fighters on Israeli communities in October 2023. Humanitarian agencies say there ‍is still too little aid getting into Gaza, where nearly the entire population is homeless. 

In Thursday's service with thousands in St Peter's Basilica, Leo also lamented conditions for the homeless across the globe and the destruction caused by war more generally. 

"Fragile is the flesh of defenseless populations, tried by so many wars, ongoing or concluded, leaving behind rubble and open wounds," said the pope. 

"Fragile are the minds and lives of young people forced to take up arms, who on the front lines feel the senselessness ⁠of what is asked of them and the falsehoods that fill the pompous speeches of those who send them to their deaths," he said. 

POPE LAMENTS CONFLICTS IN UKRAINE, THAILAND AND CAMBODIA 

In an appeal on Thursday during the "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message and blessing given by the pope at Christmas and Easter, Leo called for an end to all global wars. 

Speaking from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica to thousands of people in the square below, he lamented conflicts, political, social or military, in Ukraine, Sudan, Mali, Myanmar, and Thailand and Cambodia, among others. 

Leo said people in Ukraine, where Russian troops are threatening cities critical to the country's eastern defenses, have been "tormented" by violence. 

"May the clamor of weapons cease, and may the parties involved, with the support and commitment of the international community, find the courage to engage in sincere, ‌direct and respectful dialogue," said the pope. 

For Thailand and Cambodia, where border fighting is in its third week with at least 80 killed, Leo asked that the nations' "ancient friendship" be restored, "to work towards reconciliation and peace".