Iran Revises Down Blasts Death Toll to 84

The location of the attack that took place in the city of Kerman, southern Iran, yesterday (AFP)
The location of the attack that took place in the city of Kerman, southern Iran, yesterday (AFP)
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Iran Revises Down Blasts Death Toll to 84

The location of the attack that took place in the city of Kerman, southern Iran, yesterday (AFP)
The location of the attack that took place in the city of Kerman, southern Iran, yesterday (AFP)

Iranian authorities on Thursday said twin blasts in the country's south killed 84 people the previous day, revising down an earlier toll from the explosions at a top general's commemoration.

Tehran's official news agency IRNA quoted Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying that "according to forensic statistics, the number of martyrs from this incident has been announced as 84 so far".

The revised death toll was also confirmed by the head of Iran's emergency services, Jafar Miadfar, who said the earlier tally of 95 killed was due to the fact that some bodies had been dismembered and counted "several times".

Miadfar said 284 had been injured in what authorities labelled a "terrorist attack" in the southern city of Kerman. He added that "195 are still hospitalized", AFP reported.

The blasts on Wednesday ripped through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a 2020 US strike in Baghdad.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the blasts came amid high tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Lebanon on Tuesday.

An Iranian official blamed Israel and the United States for the attack. Washington however has rejected suggestions of either nation's involvement.

"The responsibility for this crime lies with the US and Zionist (Israeli) regimes, and terrorism is just a tool," the Iranian president's political deputy, Mohammad Jamshidi, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Tehran regularly accuses its arch-foe Israel and the United States of inciting unrest in the country.

In December, Iran executed five people convicted of collaborating with Israel.

Wednesday's bomb blasts were Iran's deadliest since a 1978 arson attack in the southwestern city of Abadan killed at least 377 people at the Cinema Rex.



Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
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Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday that the man suspected of shooting top Russian military intelligence officer Vladimir Alexeyev in Moscow has been detained in Dubai and handed over to Russia.

Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of the GRU, ⁠Russia's military intelligence arm, was shot several times in an apartment block in Moscow on Friday, investigators said. He underwent surgery after the shooting, Russian media ⁠said.

The FSB said a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, which he said was designed to sabotage peace talks. ⁠Ukraine said it had nothing to do with the shooting.

Alexeyev's boss, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of the GRU, has been leading Russia's delegation in negotiations with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on security-related aspects of a potential peace deal.


Factory Explosion Kills 8 in Northern China

Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
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Factory Explosion Kills 8 in Northern China

Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo

An explosion at a biotech factory in northern China has killed eight people, Chinese state media reported Sunday, increasing the total number of fatalities by one.

State news agency Xinhua had previously reported that seven people died and one person was missing after the Saturday morning explosion at the Jiapeng biotech company in Shanxi province, citing local authorities.

Later, Xinhua said eight were dead, adding that the firm's legal representative had been taken into custody.

The company is located in Shanyin County, about 400 kilometers west of Beijing, AFP reported.

Xinhua said clean-up operations were ongoing, noting that reporters observed dark yellow smoke emanating from the site of the explosion.

Authorities have established a team to investigate the cause of the blast, the report added.

Industrial accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards.
In late January, an explosion at a steel factory in the neighboring province of Inner Mongolia left at least nine people dead.


Iran Warns Will Not Give Up Enrichment Despite US War Threat

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Warns Will Not Give Up Enrichment Despite US War Threat

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran will never surrender the right to enrich uranium, even if war "is imposed on us,” its foreign minister said Sunday, defying pressure from Washington.

"Iran has paid a very heavy price for its peaceful nuclear program and for uranium enrichment," Abbas Araghchi told a forum in Tehran.

"Why do we insist so much on enrichment and refuse to give it up even if a war is imposed on us? Because no one has the right to dictate our behavior," he said, two days after he met US envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman.

The foreign minister also declared that his country was not intimidated by the US naval deployment in the Gulf.

"Their military deployment in the region does not scare us," Araghchi said.