Economic protests in Tehran challenge Iran’s government

Economic protests in Tehran challenge Iran’s government

TEHRAN, Iran

A wave of spontaneous protests over Iran’s weak economy swept into Tehran on Saturday, with college students and others chanting against the government just hours after hard-liners held their own rally in support of the Islamic Republic’s clerical establishment.

The demonstrations appear to be the largest to strike the Islamic Republic since the protests that followed the country’s disputed 2009 presidential election.

Thousands already have taken to the streets of cities across Iran, beginning at first Thursday in Mashhad, the country’s second-largest city and a holy site for Shiite pilgrims.

The protests in the Iranian capital, as well as U.S. President Donald Trump tweeting about them, raised the stakes. It also apparently forced state television to break its silence, acknowledging it hadn’t reported on them on orders from security officials.

Calif. man arrested after fatal Kansas police shooting

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

Police in Los Angeles have arrested a man they suspect made a hoax emergency call that resulted in a SWAT police officer fatally shooting a man at the door of his own home in Kansas, law enforcement officials said Saturday.

Wichita Deputy Police Chief Troy Livingston on Friday characterized the hoax call as “swatting” in which a “prankster” called 911 with a fake story about a shooting and kidnapping to draw a SWAT team to the victim’s address. Authorities haven’t released the name of the man who was killed Thursday, but relatives have identified him as 28-year-old Andrew Finch.

Tyler Barriss, 25, is suspected of making that call and was arrested in Los Angeles on Friday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Wichita Police Department in statements emailed Saturday afternoon.

Texting ban may soon be enforced on Fla.’s deadly roads

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Wysocky says it is hard to separate texting drivers from drunken drivers as he cruises down a suburban interstate highway. Both weave. They speed up and slow down for no obvious reason and get too close to other cars. They endanger their lives and others.

Florida, with some of the nation’s deadliest roads, is one of the last states to not fully ban texting while driving, but the Legislature will soon consider a bill that would. However, studies conflict over whether such bans have any effect.

Currently, Florida law says texting by noncommercial drivers is a secondary offense. The bill would make texting a primary offense.

State Department releases emails from Clinton aide

WASHINGTON

The State Department has released emails from Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, that were found by the FBI on her husband’s laptop.

Some of the emails found on former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s laptop were marked classified. It was unclear whether they were deemed classified at the time they were sent or when the State Department was preparing them for release.

The emails were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Associated Press