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Junior Iranian boxer Mobin Abbasi has refused to take on his Israeli opponent at the 2017 edition of the Agalarov Cup Youth Boxing Tournament in Azerbaijan. On Friday, Abbasi did not show up for a scheduled encounter against a representative from Israel in the first round of men’s 52-kilogram weight class, and was subsequently excluded from the rest of the tournament. The Islamic Republic of Iran refuses to recognize the Tel Aviv regime and has long refused to engage in sports competitions against Israel. The 2017 edition of the Agalarov Cup Youth Boxing Tournament kicked off in Baku, Azerbaijan, on December 20, and will wrap up on December 25. Iranian freestyle wrestler Alireza Karimi Machiani  was beating Russian Alikhan Zhabrailov in a match on November 26 and was leading 3-2, but he purposefully threw his bout to avoid competing against Israel’s Uri Kalashnikov as his second-round opponent. In a ceremony on November 29, the Islamic Republ...

Four giant new container vessels will join Iran’s shipping fleet next year, bringing the country closer to its target of scraping out a place among the world’s 10 mega shippers. “With the arrival of these vessels, the rank of the national shipping fleet in the work will rise to 16 from 20 at present,” chairman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping (IRISL) Mohammad Saeedi was quoted Saturday as saying. The report by the Fars news agency did not specify the type of the vessels but they are most likely Triple E ships which Iran has already ordered as part of a plan to expand its shipping fleet. Triple Es are very large container ships of more than 18,000 TEU. Saeedi said the new ships will help Iran’s container capacity expand 50% and the first of the four vessels will be delivered in the Persian month of Farvardin which begins on March 21, 2018. “With these vessels, the capacity of Iran’s shipping fleet will increase to 150,000 TEU,” he added. IRISL is Iran...

The Football Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) has strongly condemned Iranian professional footballers Masoud Shojaei and Ehsan Haji Safi, who play for the Greek association football club Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis, commonly known as Panionios GSS FC, for participating in a match against an Israeli team.  “Despite numerous negotiations with the two soccer players and all the pressure that the Greek club had placed on them, the pair refused to appear in the first-leg match held in the occupied Palestinian lands. “Nevertheless, the Football Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran censures their participation in last night’s second-leg match (against Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv), and all aspects of the issue are under investigation,” the FFIRI said in a statement released on Friday. Iran’s Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, in a separate statement, also announced that support for the long-trodden Palestinian nation, Pal...

At least three militants have been killed in a gunfight with Indian forces in the disputed Himalayan region, triggering new protests against the Indian rule. India’s Police Inspector-General Muneer Ahmed Khan announced on Saturday that the gun battle broke out after government troops raided a cluster of homes in the northwestern Sopore district, acting on a tip that the militants were hiding in the area, AP reported. According to Khan, one police official was wounded after the militants returned fire. A new wave of protest rallies and clashes with police forces erupted in several parts of the region as the news of the killings by Indian soldiers spread. The government troops began targeting rock-throwing protesters in the Bandipora neighborhood with live fire, leaving at least three civilians wounded. The latest fighting came two days after Indian officials reported the killing of two government soldiers as well as two Kashmiri militants in armed clashes across the India...

Female ambulance staff at the National Health Service (NHS) face widespread bullying and sexual harassment, a new report has revealed, the latest in a string of institutional sex abuse accusations in the UK.   Women at South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (Secamb) told investigators they were asked for sexual favors in return for promotion, according to a report by researchers led by Professor Duncan Lewis from Plymouth University. The independent report, which was commissioned by Secamb, found that female staff suffer from groping and “highly sexualized gazing” by their male colleagues and managers “The researchers heard from several sources about "overt and covert sexualized behavior" within Secamb,” the report said. The report said  the perpetrators include former senior leaders to frontline managers and the general workforce. “For example, female staff talked about sexual favors being sought in return for career progression whilst others ...

Turkey seeks to establish a land route via Iran for trade with Qatar which has relied on both countries for sourcing food since a diplomatic crisis broke out with Saudi Arabia. Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci on Saturday was in Tehran where he was expected to discuss using Iran’s land route to facilitate trade with Qatar, Anadolu quoted him as saying. "We're thinking about alternatives for land trade routes with Qatar but the easiest way is passing through Iran," Zeybekci said, according to the news agency.  He traveled to Tehran to attend the swearing-in of President Hassan Rouhani along with delegates from around the world. It was not immediately clear who was representing Qatar in the ceremony.  Turkey has used a land, air and sea blockade imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to flood the tiny peninsula in the Persian Gulf with its goods but Zeybekci said using cargo planes to carry products was no...