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Iran says it has executed a former defence ministry employee convicted of selling information to the US.

The execution of Reza Asgari took place last week, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters. Mr Esmaili said that Asgari had passed on details about Iran’s missile programme to the Central Intelligence Agency after retiring from the defence ministry’s aerospace division in 2016. He did not mention when Asgari was arrested, put on trial or sentenced.

Mr Esmaili made the announcement while responding to a question about another man convicted of spying, Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd.
He has been sentenced to death for providing intelligence to the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency on the movements of Iranian forces in Syria.

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The ex-head of the Islamic police in Timbuktu was part of a “reign of terror” in the Malian city in 2012, prosecutors in The Hague say.

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoude refused to enter a plea to the International Criminal Court (ICC) charges, which include torture and sexual slavery. He was a member of an Islamist militant group that imposed strict Islamic law. He is also charged with directing attacks against historic monuments.

These include ancient manuscripts and buildings dedicated to Islam, which the militants considered idolatrous.

Mr Al Hassan was handed over to the ICC in 2018 by the Malian authorities – five years after French troops helped liberate Timbuktu from the jihadists. He is accused of being a key member of Ansar Dine, the militants who occupied Timbuktu in May 2012 – one of several Islamist groups to exploit an ethnic Tuareg uprising at the time to take over cities in northern Mali.

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A flight from Krakow to Dublin was forced to land after a note was discovered in a toilet claiming there were explosives on board.

The Ryanair flight was diverted to Stansted Airport to allow Essex Police officers to carry out checks. Two RAF jets escorted the plane which landed at about 18:40 BST on Monday.

Police said nothing suspicious was found and two men have been arrested on suspicion of making threats to endanger an aircraft. The men, aged 26 and 47, remain in custody and the plane has been handed back to Stansted Airport and the operator.

A spokeswoman for the airline said: “The plane landed normally, but was taxied to a remote stand where passengers disembarked safely.” Footage of the RAF jets scrambling was shared on Twitter.

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German police backed by helicopters are hunting a homeless man in the Black Forest, who is reportedly armed with pistols and a bow and arrows.

The manhunt was launched on Sunday in Oppenau, south-west Germany, about 25km (16 miles) from the French border. Media reports say Yves Rausch, 31, wearing camouflage gear, disarmed four police officers on Sunday after threatening them with a pistol.

Police have warned the public and aircraft to avoid the area. The police warning says “Beware!… The wanted man has several guns!” Local drivers have been warned against picking up hitch-hikers.

Earlier a police spokesman said the suspect had appeared co-operative on Sunday, after police tracked him down, but then “suddenly he pulled out his pistol and aimed at the officers”. “They were totally stunned,” he said, and “they had no chance to react to the dangerous situation.” The suspect is known to the police for previous offences, including illegal possession of firearms, AFP news agency reports.
Some reports have nicknamed him “Rambo” after the fictional, violent Vietnam war veteran who goes on the run from US police.

The first federal execution in the United States for more than 17 years is set to go ahead in Indiana on Monday following a ruling by an appeal court.

Daniel Lewis Lee and an accomplice were convicted of killing three members of the same family in 1996. Some of the victims’ relatives oppose his execution and sought to have it delayed, saying attending it could expose them to coronavirus. But the ruling means the execution by lethal injection will now proceed.

The appeal court overturned a decision by a lower court that put the execution of 47-year-old Lee on hold, saying no federal statute or regulation gave the victims the right to attend the execution. In its ruling, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said the family’s claim “lacks any arguable legal basis and is therefore frivolous”. The relatives are going to appeal to the Supreme Court. It will have to act before 16:00 Monday local time (20:00 GMT) to stop the execution, the New York Times reports.

Lee, who tortured and killed a family of three before dumping their bodies in a lake, had originally been scheduled for execution in December. His case was delayed after the courts blocked the death sentence from being carried out.

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