A round-up of today's other stories in brief
21 killed and 100 wounded in Iranian blasts
TEHRAN – At least 21 people, including members of the elite Revolutionary Guards, were killed and 100 wounded in a suicide attacks at a Shia mosque in the southeast Iranian city of Zahedan yesterday, Iranian media reported.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings in front of Zahedan’s Grand Mosque, although a lawmaker said he believed Sunni rebel group Jundollah was behind the attack.
Meanwhile in Iraq, a car bomb targeting police in Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein north of Baghdad, and two other bombs in a cafe and a market in Haswa, south of Baghdad killed 14 people yesterday, security sources said. – (Reuters)
French air strike called for July 21st
PARIS – French air traffic controllers have called a one-day strike for July 21st to protest at plans to create a unified system for controlling flights in Europe, union officials said yesterday.
A spokesman for the CGT, France’s leading union confederation, said negotiations set for early next week with civil aviation authorities were not expected to yield results. Unions, who fear that the European plan will lead to the dismantling of France’s DGAC civil aviation authority, held strikes in January and February, which disrupted flights at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports.
The framework deal, signed two years ago, is part of broader plans to gradually unify air traffic control in the whole of Europe. – (Reuters)
Millionaire MP's expenses queried
LONDON – The British Electoral Commission yesterday received a dossier raising questions about campaign spending by multimillionaire Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith in the May general election.
An investigation by Channel 4 News and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism highlighted Mr Goldsmith’s spending on items such as signs, jackets and leaflets in his successful bid to become MP for Richmond Park in south London.
The report claimed that sums on invoices for the items did not match the amounts Mr Goldsmith submitted in his declaration to the returning officer as evidence that he had not breached spending limit. A commission spokeswoman said an initial assessment would be carried out over the next few days. – (PA)