Iran prepares for dayslong funeral for late supreme leader

TEHRAN, Iran • Iran prepared Friday for the dayslong funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with banners across Tehran urging the public to rise up in support of the Islamic Republic after the devastating war that killed the 86-year-old cleric.

The country’s theocracy expects to see millions flood the streets of the capital beginning Saturday in scenes reminiscent of the burial of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.

That could provide a boost for Iran’s government, particularly as it tries to leverage its hold on the Strait of Hormuz in negotiations with the United States over a permanent end to the war, and as concern still lingers that Israel could attack yet again.

Despite that, a powerful general who leads Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard emerged publicly for the first time in months for the funeral. Other top government officials will also likely will be on hand alongside foreign dignitaries in a show of strength by Iran.

Fujimori declared winner of Peru presidential race

LIMA • After weeks of protests, fraud accusations and review of contested ballots in a razor-thin race, conservative Keiko Fujimori was officially declared the winner of Peru’s presidential race by the country’s electoral office on Friday. 

Fujimori won 50.135% of the vote in the June 7 runoff to clinch the nation’s top office in her fourth run for the presidency, just ahead of leftist congressman Roberto Sanchez’s 49.865%, a difference of just about 50,000 votes out of 18 million. 

“This is the beginning of a new phase. We assume it with responsibility, humility and profound sense of duty,” Fujimori said in a post on X after the announcement. “Every day of this transition is an opportunity to listen, dialogue and come prepared to start the new government.”

The slim margin is a reversal from the narrow loss Fujimori suffered in 2021, when she fell short by about 45,000 votes to former leftist President Pedro Castillo. Castillo was impeached and jailed for trying to dissolve Congress in 2022.

Interpol names suspect in Monaco bombing

PARIS • Interpol on Friday identified a 39-year-old woman from Ukraine as the main suspect in a bombing in Monaco that reportedly targeted a Ukrainian tycoon with links to Russia.

The police organization named Anastasiia Berezovska, who remains at large, in a Red Notice seeking her arrest on charges of attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy.

Monaco authorities haven’t identified any of the three people wounded in Monday’s explosion at an apartment building entrance but said they are a family and that they appear to have been specifically targeted.

Media reports named Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev as being among the wounded. He has said he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship nearly a decade ago, and he was targeted by Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 for ties to Russia.

NEWS SERVICES