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Mojtaba Khamenei, Seen as Possible Next Supreme Leader, Has Survived Attacks on Iran, Sources Say

Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, visits Hezbollah's office in Tehran, Iran, October 1, 2024. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, visits Hezbollah's office in Tehran, Iran, October 1, 2024. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
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Mojtaba Khamenei, Seen as Possible Next Supreme Leader, Has Survived Attacks on Iran, Sources Say

Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, visits Hezbollah's office in Tehran, Iran, October 1, 2024. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, visits Hezbollah's office in Tehran, Iran, October 1, 2024. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters

Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran's late Supreme Leader, has survived the US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran in which his father Ali Khamenei was killed, two Iranian sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Mojtaba is seen by the ‌establishment as ‌a possible successor to his ‌father, ⁠the sources said.

A ⁠mid-ranking cleric with close ties to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, hardliner Mojtaba is one of the most influential figures in the Iranian clerical establishment. He has for years ⁠been seen as one of ‌the top ‌candidates to succeed his father.

"He (Mojtaba) is alive ... ‌he was not in Tehran ‌when the Supreme Leader was killed," one of the sources said.

His father was killed on Saturday after the United ‌States and Israel attacked targets across Iran - one of a ⁠number ⁠of military and other influential figures killed.

Iranian state media announced Khamenei's death early on Sunday. A senior Israeli official told Reuters that the Iranian leader's body had been found, and US President Donald Trump said the United States had worked closely with Israel to target the man who led Iran since 1989.

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Syrian Man Handed 13-year Sentence for Berlin Holocaust Memorial Stabbing

(FILES) Members of the emergency services use a crane as they work at the scene where a person was stabbed near the memorial of the murdered jews of Europe in Berlin on February 21, 2025. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)
(FILES) Members of the emergency services use a crane as they work at the scene where a person was stabbed near the memorial of the murdered jews of Europe in Berlin on February 21, 2025. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)
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Syrian Man Handed 13-year Sentence for Berlin Holocaust Memorial Stabbing

(FILES) Members of the emergency services use a crane as they work at the scene where a person was stabbed near the memorial of the murdered jews of Europe in Berlin on February 21, 2025. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)
(FILES) Members of the emergency services use a crane as they work at the scene where a person was stabbed near the memorial of the murdered jews of Europe in Berlin on February 21, 2025. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)

A Syrian refugee who stabbed a tourist at Berlin's Holocaust memorial last year has been sentenced to 13 years in prison on charges of attempted murder, among others, said a Berlin court spokesperson on Thursday.

The now 20-year-old ⁠ISIS supporter ⁠used a knife to stab a 30-year-old Spanish tourist in the neck at the memorial in the heart of ⁠the German capital.

He inflicted life-threatening injuries that required the man to undergo emergency surgery and be placed in an induced coma.

Prosecutors said at the time that the Syrian national appeared to have been planning to ⁠kill ⁠Jews for several weeks, apparently motivated by the Middle Eastern conflict, which is why he chose the location.

The memorial commemorates the murder of 6 million Jews by Adolf Hitler's Nazis during World War Two.

World

UK Says Ties with Cyprus Strong as Iran Threat Grows

FILED - 22 May 2025, United Kingdom, London: UK Defense Secretary John Healey listens to questions during a press conference at Strategic Command Headquarters, in Northwood, Greater London. Photo: Thomas Krych/PA Wire/dpa
FILED - 22 May 2025, United Kingdom, London: UK Defense Secretary John Healey listens to questions during a press conference at Strategic Command Headquarters, in Northwood, Greater London. Photo: Thomas Krych/PA Wire/dpa
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UK Says Ties with Cyprus Strong as Iran Threat Grows

FILED - 22 May 2025, United Kingdom, London: UK Defense Secretary John Healey listens to questions during a press conference at Strategic Command Headquarters, in Northwood, Greater London. Photo: Thomas Krych/PA Wire/dpa
FILED - 22 May 2025, United Kingdom, London: UK Defense Secretary John Healey listens to questions during a press conference at Strategic Command Headquarters, in Northwood, Greater London. Photo: Thomas Krych/PA Wire/dpa

British defense minister John Healey said on Thursday that the friendship ‌between ‌his country and ‌Cyprus ⁠remained strong in the ⁠face of Iranian threats.

Healey said in ⁠a post ‌on X ‌that he ‌met ‌with his Cypriot counterpart, Vasilis Palmas, earlier ‌on Thursday and discussed how ⁠Britain ⁠was further reinforcing air defenses to support their shared security.

Healey has headed to Cyprus on Thursday after a drone strike on a UK air base on the Mediterranean island.

The visit comes after the runway of the Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Akrotiri came under attack by an Iranian-made unmanned drone on Monday.

Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said Tuesday the UK was sending "helicopters with counter drone capabilities" and a warship, HMS Dragon, to Cyprus as Britain continued "defensive operations" in the region.

World

Somali Parliament Approves Constitution Change to Extend President's Term, Delay Election

Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on February 14, 2016. Thomas Kienzle, AFP
Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on February 14, 2016. Thomas Kienzle, AFP
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Somali Parliament Approves Constitution Change to Extend President's Term, Delay Election

Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on February 14, 2016. Thomas Kienzle, AFP
Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on February 14, 2016. Thomas Kienzle, AFP

Somalia's parliament voted ‌to change its constitution and extend the term in office for lawmakers and the president, the president and the parliament's speaker said, pushing back planned elections by a year.

Somalia has endured conflict and clan battles with no strong central government since the fall of ruler Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

While ‌an African ‌Union peacekeeping mission has pushed ‌back the ⁠al Qaeda-linked al ⁠Shabaab group, it still controls vast areas of the countryside and has the ability to conduct regular strikes on major population centers.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had reached a deal last August ⁠with some opposition leaders stipulating ‌that, while lawmakers would ‌be directly elected in 2026, the ‌president would still be chosen by parliament. ‌A 2024 law restored universal suffrage ahead of the vote.

On Wednesday, 222 lawmakers from the parliament and senate out of a total ‌of 329 voted by acclamation to change the law, extending their ⁠term ⁠and that of the president to five years, from four years previously.

"Today is a historic day for it is the official completion of the constitution which had dragged for a long period," the president told a press conference on Wednesday.

Opposition party leaders, including former presidents and former prime ministers, rejected the amendment and called for elections in May as planned.