U.S. sanctions Iranians in protest fallout
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government on Thursday imposed sanctions on Iran's morality police and leaders of other government agencies after the death of a woman who'd been detained over an accusation she violated the country's dress code by wearing her Islamic headgear too loosely.
The sanctions come after at least nine protesters have been killed in clashes with Iranian security forces since violence erupted over the weekend because of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control also designated the leaders of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the Army's Ground Forces, the Basij Resistance Forces and other law enforcement agencies for the sanctions, which deny them access of their properties and bank accounts held in the U.S.
"These officials oversee organizations that routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters and members of Iranian civil society, political dissidents, women's rights activists, and members of the Iranian Baha'i community," the Treasury said in a news release.
The morality police detained Amini last week, saying she didn't properly cover her hair with the Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab, which is mandatory for Iranian women. Amini collapsed at a police station and died three days later.
2 stabbed by Palestinian, Israel reports
A Palestinian man was shot and killed Thursday by an off-duty policeman after stabbing a pair of Israeli motorists at an intersection in central Israel, Israeli officials and media said.
The incident came at a time of heightened Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Israel has been conducting nightly military raids in the occupied West Bank following a series of deadly attacks inside Israel last spring.
Thursday's incident occurred near the Israeli city of Modiin on a major highway that passes through the West Bank just a few miles away.
Israeli police and rescuers said the attacker approached a number of vehicles, spraying tear gas at people and trying to open car doors. The MADA rescue service said two people suffered light wounds to their hands, while five people were hurt by pepper spray and the off-duty policeman suffered mild injuries to his face.
There was no way to independently verify the account.
Earlier Thursday, the Palestinian militant group Hamas threatened hostile actions against Israel over what it called "violations against Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque" ahead of the upcoming Jewish High Holidays.
Hamas' threats came just ahead of Sunday's Jewish new year, and a day after a group of Jewish religious extremists visited a contested holy site revered by both Jews and Muslims and blew the shofar -- a ram's horn that's trumpeted in the run-up to and during the Jewish High Holidays.
Cholera spreads to displaced Syrians
BEIRUT -- A deadly cholera outbreak has been spreading in northern Syria over the past two weeks in areas where millions of people displaced by the country's long civil war are suffering from a lack of clean water and health care, according to aid organizations that have warned of another potential humanitarian crisis.
Save the Children said data provided by the Syrian government indicated there had been 23 cholera-related deaths this week. Health authorities in the autonomous region of northeast Syria, which broke away from Syrian government control in 2013, reported 16 additional deaths. Aid officials said thousands of others are believed to have contracted cholera in the country's first major outbreak in years.
"The outbreak of cholera threatens more misery for hundreds of thousands of Syrians already at risk from hunger, conflict and the coming winter," said Tanya Evans, Syria director for the International Rescue Committee.
The humanitarian aid department of the European Commission warned this week of a high risk that the disease could spread further through displaced persons camps in northern Syria.
Uganda confirms 7 Ebola infections
KAMPALA, Uganda -- Uganda confirmed seven Ebola infections Thursday as authorities try to track down 43 contacts of known Ebola patients two days after authorities in the East African country announced an outbreak of the disease.
A total of eight deaths, including one confirmed, are "attributable to the virus," said Dr. Henry Kyobe, a Ugandan military officer who is tracking Ebola cases. He spoke of a "rapidly evolving" situation where "we think cases may rise in a few days."
The epicenter of the outbreak is the central Ugandan district of Mubende, whose main town lies along a highway into the capital, Kampala. That travel link and several crowded artisanal gold mines there are concerning, Kyobe told the World Health Organization.
Ugandan authorities have not yet found the source of the outbreak, and neither have they discovered the key first case. But they were able to confirm an Ebola outbreak of the Sudan type earlier this week after testing a sample from a 24-year-old man who had been initially treated for other illnesses, including malaria and pneumonia, when he sought care in his home town. Six others in the same area, including three children, died earlier in September after suffering what local officials called a strange illness.
FILE - In this photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, protesters chant slogans during a protest over the death of a woman who was detained by the morality police, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sept. 21, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Exile Iranians of the National Council of Resistance of Iran gather in front of the embassy of Iran in Berlin, Germany, Sept. 20, 2022 after the death of an Iranian woman held by the country's morality police. The U.S. government has imposed sanctions on Iran’s morality police after the death in custody of a woman who'd been accused of wearing her Islamic headgear too loosely. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)
FILE - Kurdish women activists hold headscarfs and a portrait of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, with Arabic that reads, "The woman is life, don't kill the life," during a protest against her death in Iran, at Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut, Sept. 21, 2022. The U.S. government has imposed sanctions on Iran’s morality police after the death in custody of a woman who'd been accused of wearing her Islamic headgear too loosely. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)