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Iran's President Nominates Abbas Araqchi as FM

A man flashes the victory sign as he rides a bike past a huge billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and slain leader of the Palestinian Hamas group Ismail Haniyeh at Tehran's Valiasr square on August 8, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
A man flashes the victory sign as he rides a bike past a huge billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and slain leader of the Palestinian Hamas group Ismail Haniyeh at Tehran's Valiasr square on August 8, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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Iran's President Nominates Abbas Araqchi as FM

A man flashes the victory sign as he rides a bike past a huge billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and slain leader of the Palestinian Hamas group Ismail Haniyeh at Tehran's Valiasr square on August 8, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
A man flashes the victory sign as he rides a bike past a huge billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and slain leader of the Palestinian Hamas group Ismail Haniyeh at Tehran's Valiasr square on August 8, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Abbas Araqchi was nominated on Sunday as Iran's foreign minister by President Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran's parliament speaker announced live on the Student News Network.

"From tomorrow morning, parliamentary commissions will start reviewing the plans of proposed ministers until the end of next week," parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said as Iran's parliament still needs to approve Pezeshkian's nominated cabinet.

Araqchi is a seasoned pragmatist diplomat who acted as chief negotiator in nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers from 2013 to 2021.

He has served as Iran's ambassador to Japan and Finland, and held the role of deputy foreign minister for Asia-Pacific for two years before becoming spokesperson of the ministry in 2013 for a short period.

When Mohammad Javad Zarif was foreign minister, Araqchi was the second most influential official at the foreign ministry and held roles like deputy for legal and international affairs and deputy for political affairs.

He holds a PhD in Political Thought from the University of Kent.

Mohsen Paknezhad has also been nominated as Iran's oil minister by Pezeshkian, Baqer Qalibaf announced.

Paknezhad served as Deputy Minister of Oil for the supervision of hydrocarbon resources from 2018 to 2021.

From 2000 to 2007, Paknezhad was also a member of the board of directors of the Iranian Central Oil Fields Company. From 2005 to 2007, he was the Planning Manager of the Iranian Central Oil Fields Company, and from then until 2013, he served as the Deputy Director of Integrated Planning at the National Iranian Oil Company, according to the Ministry of Oil's Shana news network.

Paknezhad holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tehran and a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology.

Pezeshkian named Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh, an F-14 Tomcat pilot, as defense minister. He was chief of the Iranian Air Force in 2018-2021. This would be the first time that a member of Iran's air force headed the defense ministry.
Pezeshkian proposed Farzaneh Sadegh as roads and housing minister. Sadegh, 53, is currently a director in the ministry. She would become only the second female minister in Iran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. 

Pezeshkian also proposed to retain current Intelligence Minister Ismail Khatib and current Justice Minister Amin Hossein Rahimi. Pezeshkian also named the current minister of industries, Abbas Aliabadi, as energy minister. On Saturday the president also reappointed Mohammad Eslami as chief of Iran’s civilian nuclear program and one of several vice presidents. They all held their posts under President Ebrahim Raisi, who died alongside Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahain in a May helicopter crash.

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World

Strong Earthquake Kills at Least 126 People in Tibet

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescue workers search for survivors in the aftermath of an earthquake in Changsuo Township of Dingri in Xigaze, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescue workers search for survivors in the aftermath of an earthquake in Changsuo Township of Dingri in Xigaze, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Xinhua via AP)
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Strong Earthquake Kills at Least 126 People in Tibet

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescue workers search for survivors in the aftermath of an earthquake in Changsuo Township of Dingri in Xigaze, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Xinhua via AP)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescue workers search for survivors in the aftermath of an earthquake in Changsuo Township of Dingri in Xigaze, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Xinhua via AP)

 A strong earthquake shook a high-altitude region of western China and areas of Nepal on Tuesday, damaging hundreds of houses, littering streets with rubble and killing at least 126 people in Tibet. Many others were trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the remote region.
Rescue workers climbed mounds of broken bricks, some using ladders in heavily damaged villages, as they searched for survivors. Videos posted by China's Ministry of Emergency Management showed two people being carried on stretchers by workers treading over the debris from collapsed homes.
At least 188 people were injured in Tibet on the Chinese side of the border, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
More than 1,000 homes were damaged in the barren and sparsely populated region, state broadcaster CCTV reported. In video posted by the broadcaster, building debris littered streets and crushed cars.
According to The AP, people in northeastern Nepal strongly felt the earthquake, but there were no initial reports of injuries or damage, according to the country's National Emergency Operation Center. The area around Mount Everest, about 75 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of the epicenter, was empty in the depth of winter when even some residents move away to escape the cold.
The quake woke up residents in Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu — about 230 kilometers (140 miles) from the epicenter — and sent them running into the streets.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake measured magnitude 7.1 and was relatively shallow at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6 miles). China's Earthquake Networks Center recorded the magnitude as 6.8. Shallow earthquakes often cause more damage.
The epicenter was in Tibet's Tingri county, where the India and Eurasia plates grind against each other and can cause earthquakes strong enough to change the heights of some of the world’s tallest peaks in the Himalayan mountains.
There have been 10 earthquakes of at least magnitude 6 in the area where Tuesday’s quake hit over the past century, the USGS said.
About 150 aftershocks were recorded in the nine hours after the earthquake, and the Mount Everest scenic area on the Chinese side was closed.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to rescue people, minimize casualties and resettle those whose homes were damaged. More than 3,000 rescuers were deployed, CCTV said.
Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing was dispatched to the area to guide the work, and the government announced the allocation of 100 million yuan ($13.6 million) for disaster relief.
About 6,900 people live in three townships and 27 villages within 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) of the epicenter on the Chinese side, state media said. The average altitude in the area is about 4,200 meters (13,800 feet), the Chinese earthquake center said in a social media post.
On the southwest edge of Kathmandu, a video showed water spilling out into the street from a pond in a courtyard with a small temple.
“It is a big earthquake," a woman can be heard saying. "People are all shaking.”