AFP, Najaf
Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr on Tuesday warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he risked suffering the same fate as slain Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi if he did not step down.
The maverick cleric had last week condemned the suspected deadly use of chemical weapons by Assad’s forces against civilians, becoming a rare Shiite leader to openly challenge the Syrian president’s legitimacy.
Ahmadinejad registers to run for President
AFP, Tehran
Iran’s former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the shock move on Wednesday of registering for next month’s presidential election, going against the advice of the supreme leader.
Ahmadinejad had previously insisted he would not stand after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last year that his candidacy would have a “polarising” effect on the nation, and instead backed his ex-deputy Hamid Baghaie.
Woman, child die as migrant boat capsizes in Spain
AP, Madrid
Spain’s maritime rescue service says a woman and a child died after the boat in which they and 30 other migrants were trying to reach Europe capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.
A service spokeswoman says a Spanish Navy unit stationed on Alboran island, halfway between Spain and Morocco, rescued 29 migrants after the boat overturned Tuesday afternoon.
Freight train begins journey from Britain to China
Reuters, Stanford-Le-Hope
The first freight train to run from Britain to China departed on Monday, carrying goods like vitamins, baby products and pharmaceuticals as Britain seeks to burnish its global trading credentials for when it leaves the European Union.
The 7,500-mile (12,000 km) journey from eastern England to eastern China will take three weeks, around half the time needed for the equivalent journey by boat. The first freight train from China arrived in Britain in January.
Scientists to drill world’s highest glacier
PTI, Nepal
Climate change scientists are heading to the Himalayas in a bid to become the first team to successfully drill through the world’s highest glacier located in the foothills of Mount Everest.
An international research team will spend up to six weeks working at an altitude of more than 5,000 metres on the Khumbu glacier in Nepal and will be using a specially adapted car wash unit to drill up to 200 metres into the ice.
Five Sudanese soldiers killed in Yemen
Reuters, Khartoum
Five Sudanese soldiers have been killed while fighting for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition against Houthi forces in Yemen, a spokesman for Sudan’s armed forces said on Wednesday.
