Top Iran cleric says British Embassy staff to go on trial

Brushing aside British and European efforts to seek the release of local British Embassy staff members held in Tehran, the Iranian authorities indicated on Friday that they planned to put some of them on trial — a move that could deepen a crisis in diplomatic relations with the European Union and provoke withdrawal of ambassadors.

In London, the Foreign Office said it was urgently checking reports that the Iranian authorities planned to put two of its local employees on trial.

Nine staff members were seized after the unrest sparked by Iran’s disputed presidential elections on June 12, and as many as eight of them were subsequently reported to have been released. But the precise number still detained was not clear.

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Railways reaches higher, sets world record

At the onset, it was viewed as a move essentially aimed at ensuring the smooth flow of a multi-crore loan from Japan for the western section of its ambitious Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC). It has instead made Indian Railways set an unexpected world record, one which it is now planning to get certified by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The Railway Ministry’s decision to conduct field trials to ascertain whether double-stack container trains can run under Over Head Equipment (OHE) has made it the only railway in the world to run a train under a 7.45-metre-high contact wire.

The successful trial has already made Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announce a Rs 10-lakh award for the electrical directorate officials. The trial has also led the ministry to seriously consider the move to electrify the 1,483-km-long Western DFC, which in turn, will ensure faster and smoother processing of the Japanese loan.

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