PARK CITY, Utah: A Utah woman was convicted Monday (Mar 16) of aggravated murder after poisoning her husband with fentanyl and self-publishing a children’s book about coping with grief.

Prosecutors say Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that Eric Richins drank in March 2022 at their home outside the ski town of Park City. 

They say Richins was US$4.5 million in debt and falsely believed that when her husband died, she would inherit his estate worth more than US$4 million. 

They also say she was planning a future with another man she was seeing on the side.

Richins stared at the floor and took deep breaths as the judge read the verdict.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours. Afterward, family members on both sides of the case left the courtroom hugging and crying.

She was also convicted of other felony charges, including an attempted murder charge in what authorities alleged was another effort to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him break out in hives and black out. 

Jurors also found Richins guilty of fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after his death.

Sentencing was scheduled for May 13, the day her husband would have turned 44.

“Honestly I feel like we’re all in shock. It’s been a long time coming,” said Eric Richins' sister, Amy Richin, adding that the family can now focus on honouring her brother and supporting his sons. “So just very happy that we got justice for my brother.”

Richins’ defence attorney said Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers and had asked his wife to procure opioids for him. Kouri Richins, however, told police earlier in a video that her husband had no history of illicit drug use.

“She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money,” said Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth.

The most serious charge - aggravated murder - carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

What was scheduled to be a five-week trial was cut short last week when Richins waived her right to testify, and her legal team abruptly rested its case without calling any witnesses. Richins’ attorneys said they were confident that prosecutors did not produce enough evidence over the past three weeks to convict her of murder.

“They haven't done their job, and now they want you to make inferences based on paper-thin evidence,” defence attorney Wendy Lewis told the jury on Monday.

"A WIFE BECOMING A BLACK WIDOW"

Prosecutors said Richins, a real estate agent focused on flipping houses, was deep in debt and planning a future with another man. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge, with benefits totalling about US$2 million, prosecutors alleged.

They showed the jury text messages between Richins and Robert Josh Grossman, the man with whom she was allegedly having an affair, in which she fantasised about leaving her husband, gaining millions in a divorce and marrying Grossman.

The internet search history from Richins’ phone included “what is a lethal.dose.of.fetanayl (sic)”, “luxury prisons for the rich America” and “if someone is poisned (sic) what does it go down on the death certificate as”, a digital forensic analyst testified.

Bloodworth replayed for the jury a clip of Richins’ 911 call from the night of her husband’s death. That’s “not ‘the sound of a wife becoming a widow,’” he said, quoting the defence’s opening statement. “It’s the sound of a wife becoming a black widow.”

Lewis responded that the prosecution “looks at facts one way and sees a witch, but if you look at those facts another way, you see a widow”.

"GIVE US THE DETAILS THAT WILL ENSURE KOURI GETS CONVICTED"

The defence focused on trying to discredit the prosecution's star witness, Carmen Lauber, a housekeeper for the family who claimed to have sold Richins fentanyl on multiple occasions.

Lewis argued Lauber did not deal fentanyl and was motivated to lie for legal protection. Lauber said in early interviews that she never dealt the synthetic opioid, but later said she did after investigators informed her that Eric Richins died of a fentanyl overdose, the defence noted.

Richins had asked Lauber for “the Michael Jackson stuff", which Bloodworth said likely refers to the drug combination that killed the singer.

“She knows she wants it because it is lethal,” he argued.

The housekeeper was already in a drug court program as an alternative to incarceration on other charges when authorities arrested her in connection with the Richins case, investigators said. She had also violated some conditions of drug court.

The defence showed a video of law enforcement warning Lauber that they could pull her drug court deal and that she could face a lengthy prison sentence.

“Give us the details that will ensure Kouri gets convicted of murder,” a man in the video said.

Lauber was granted immunity for her cooperation in the case. She testified that she felt a need to “step up and take accountability of my part in this".

CHILDREN'S BOOK BECOMES A TOOL FOR PROSECUTORS

Shortly before her arrest in May 2023, Richins self-published the book Are You with Me?. 

She promoted it on local TV and radio stations, which prosecutors pointed to in arguing that Richins planned the killing and tried to cover it up.

Summit County Sheriff’s detective Jeff O’Driscoll, the lead investigator on the case, testified that Richins paid a ghostwriting company to write the book for her.

JURY HEARS LETTER FOUND IN JAIL CELL

Prosecutors showed the jury excerpts of a letter found in Richins’ jail cell that they said appeared to outline testimony for her mother and brother. 

In the six-page letter, Richins instructed her brother to tell her former attorney that Eric Richins confided in him about getting fentanyl from Mexico and “gets high every night”.

Defence attorneys said the letter contains a fictional story Richins was working on. They argued that Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers and asked his wife to procure opioids for him.

However, Richins told police on the night of her husband's death that he had no history of illicit drug use, according to body camera footage shown in court.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump vowed on Monday (Mar 16) to "take" Cuba as the communist island plunged into darkness under a total power blackout linked to a crippling oil embargo imposed by Washington.

After nearly seven decades defying the United States, Havana's communist authorities are under massive pressure from a Trump administration determined to make history.

"You know, all my life I've been hearing about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it?" Trump told reporters at the White House.

"I do believe I'll be ... having the honour of taking Cuba," Trump said.

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"Whether I free it, take it - think I could do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth. They're a very weakened nation right now."

It was one of Trump's most explicit threats and came as the Caribbean island of 9.6 million people grappled with yet another major power cut.

The blackout resulted from a "complete shutdown of the national grid," Union Nacional Electrica de Cuba (UNE) said in a statement, adding that work had begun to restore electricity flow.

Cuba's ageing electricity generation system is in shambles, with daily power outages of up to 20 hours the norm in parts of the island.

But since the US ouster of Cuba's top ally, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, on Jan 3, the island's economy has been hammered further as Trump maintains a de facto oil blockade.

No oil has been imported to the island since Jan 9, hitting the power sector while also forcing airlines to curtail flights to the island, a blow to the all-important tourism sector.

In a bid to relieve economic pressure - and meet US demands - a senior economic official in Cuba announced Monday that Cuban exiles would now be able to invest and own businesses there.

"Cuba is open to having a fluid commercial relationship with US companies" and "also with Cubans residing in the United States and their descendants," Oscar Perez-Oliva, who is foreign trade minister and also deputy prime minister, told NBC News.

The New York Times reported on Monday, relying on anonymous sources, that Trump administration officials have signalled to Cuban officials that the US wants President Miguel Diaz-Canel to be removed from power.

POPULAR UNREST

The blackouts, as well as regular shortages of food, medicine and other basics, are spurring frustrations. In a rare moment of violence, demonstrators vandalised a provincial office of the Cuban Communist Party last weekend.

It was part of a new trend of protests in which people bang pots and pans at night, at times yelling "Libertad", or freedom.

Fourteen people have been arrested after the office assault in Moron, a town of around 70,000 people east of Havana, the regional party chief told state-run newspaper Invasor.

The violence prompted President Miguel Diaz-Canel to acknowledge in an X post "the discontent our people feel because of the prolonged blackouts", including a major outage in early March.

"What will never be comprehensible, justified or admitted is violence," Diaz-Canel said.

The government has also rationed gasoline sales and some hospital services due to the fuel shortages.

Diaz-Canel confirmed last week that his government had held talks with the United States.

Trump has alleged the fuel blockade is a response to an "extraordinary threat" posed by Cuba to the United States.

Trump said Sunday that Cuba "wants to make a "deal", which could come quickly after his administration has finished the war against Iran.

"I think we will pretty soon either make a deal or do whatever we have to do," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday (Mar 16) said he is seeking to delay a highly anticipated trip to China in early April by about a month because of the Iran war.

"Because of the war I want to be here, I have to be here, I feel. And so we've requested that we delay it a month or so," Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the China trip.

The US leader insisted that he had a "very good relationship" with China and was not trying to play games by postponing the highly anticipated trip to the rival superpower.

"There's no tricks to it either, it's not like 'oh gee, I'm waiting.' It's very simple. We got a war going on. I think it's important that I be here," added Trump.

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China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump's requested delay in his scheduled Mar 31 to Apr 2 trip to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping underscores how the Iran war has upended his foreign policy agenda.

It also risks magnifying tensions between Washington and Beijing, as the Mideast crisis has joined trade and Taiwan among the spectrum of issues separating the world's two biggest economies.

TRUMP'S REQUESTS FOR ASSISTANCE WITH IRAN 

Iran has responded to joint US-Israeli attacks by threatening to fire on vessels moving through the strait, through which its own ships continue to transit at near-normal rates. Trump has called on numerous nations, including China, to help ships safely transit the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world's oil transits on a daily basis. 

Trump's request for assistance so far has largely been rebuffed. China, which imported around 12 million barrels of oil daily in the first two months of 2026, the most in the world, has not directly responded to his request.

"The president looks forward to visiting China," spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters. "The dates may be moved. As commander-in-chief, it's his number-one priority right now to ensure the continued success of this operation, Epic Fury. So we'll keep you posted on the dates as soon as we can."

On Sunday, Trump told the Financial Times he might postpone the meeting if China did not help unblock the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian crude oil has kept flowing through the Strait of Hormuz at a near-normal pace, a Reuters review of shipping data shows, though overall exports from the Middle East have dropped more than 60 per cent since the war started. Most of Iran's oil exports go to China, according to US Energy Department data.

TRAVELING ABROAD 'MAY NOT BE OPTIMAL' AMID WAR

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that Trump may need to delay the trip due to coordinating the war effort - not because of the request that China help police the strait or because of any trade disagreements.

"The president wants to remain in DC to coordinate the war effort," Bessent said. "Travelling abroad at a time like this may not be optimal."

Beijing has not specified dates for Trump's visit and normally does not detail Xi's schedule far in advance.

PREPARATIONS FOR TRUMP-XI MEETING MOVE AHEAD 

Preparations for the meeting on its originally scheduled date are ongoing. On Monday, Bessent was in Paris for talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng aimed at teeing up trade and other agreements for Trump and Xi in Beijing.

Both countries had earlier on Monday hailed what they called "constructive" discussions in Paris over the weekend that were widely seen as setting the stage for the summit.

In those talks, which began on Sunday, the Chinese showed openness to potential additional purchases of US agricultural goods, including poultry, beef and non-soybean row crops, one source said before the second day of meetings. They also discussed the flow of rare earth minerals largely controlled by China and new approaches to managing trade and investment between the countries.

Spokespersons for the US Treasury and the US Trade Representative's office declined to characterise the talks. "Head of state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance to China-US relations," said Lin Jian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, when asked about Trump's remarks over the weekend during a regular press conference. Both sides are communicating ⁠about the trip, Lin added.

HOBART, Australia: As the US-Israeli war with Iran enters its third week, reports are emerging that Israel is potentially running out of air defence interceptors due to Iran’s retaliatory attacks.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Israeli foreign minister have denied the reports. The government did reportedly approve around US$826 million for “urgent and essential defence procurement” over the weekend, however.

It’s difficult to gauge just how many interceptors are remaining, as the IDF does not disclose this type of information. But the possibility of this occurring was not entirely unexpected before Israel and the US began bombing Iran more than two weeks ago.

ISRAEL’S AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM

Israel has a sophisticated and layered air defence system, capable of repelling attacks from ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft, drones and artillery shells at multiple altitudes, both inside and outside the atmosphere.

The famous Iron Dome makes up just one of these layers – it intercepts short-range artillery shells and rockets.

While there are technological differences between all of these systems, they are comprised of three basic elements: the IDF personnel to operate them, the radar systems to detect incoming attacks and the interceptors themselves.

Israel has a new Iron Beam laser system that can be used to destroy missiles and drones, but the most common interceptors are surface-to-air missiles.

Ballistic missile defence interceptors, in particular, are incredibly complex and expensive weapons. The more capable they are, the more expensive they are to build. They are also limited in number. A sustained attack can quickly deplete even Israel’s stockpile.

WHY ISRAEL MIGHT BE RUNNING LOW

The 12-day war that Israel fought with Iran last year significantly depleted both its stockpile of anti-ballistic missiles, as well as that of its ally, the United States.

One Washington-based research centre calculated that Israel and the US intercepted 273 of 322 Iranian missiles they attempted to stop in the war, an 85 per cent success rate.

Given a large number of these interceptors were used so recently, Israel and the US are unlikely to have fully replenished their stockpiles before launching the current war.

Another sign this is the case: The US is reportedly moving parts of its THAAD missile defence system from South Korea to the Middle East. This means the US will need to carry more of the defensive burden in the region, which could quickly deplete its own assets.

Ballistic missiles are also very difficult to intercept due to the speed and altitude they attain. Several interceptors are usually required to ensure each incoming missile is stopped. Iran is also using cluster munitions on some of its ballistic missiles, which further compounds the problem.

Iran has cheap, easy-to-replace drones, which it is using to try to overwhelm Israeli and American air defence systems, as well. These can also be launched from dispersed locations that are difficult to detect, making them harder to destroy on the ground than ballistic missiles.

Iran has so far launched more than 500 missiles and 2,000 drones since the war began.

Jet fighters can help defend against these drone attacks and have done so with great success, but the missiles they fire are also more expensive than the drones themselves. And other weapons platforms (such as the Iron Beam) are currently in limited supply.

The US and Israel are not the only ones reportedly running low on interceptors. The Persian Gulf states have also come under Iranian attack, and are burning through what defensive assets they have.

The Iranians have specifically targeted missile defence radars across the region, with reports they have successfully destroyed or damaged several systems.

All of this, of course, raises the question of why Israel and the US would start another conflict in the first place if their stockpiles were not fully replenished. There could be several potential reasons.

First, they had managed to rebuild their stockpiles faster than anyone anticipated, though this is unlikely.

Second, they were confident they could destroy a sufficient amount of Iran’s offensive weapons before they ran out of defensive munitions.

Third, they believed Iran would want to end the war sooner than it has.

IRAN’S STRATEGY

There’s no way of knowing what Iran’s strategy is, besides extending the war as long as possible and creating chaos in the region and with global energy markets.

Some have speculated Iran may be deliberately holding back its more advanced missile technologies to use after the US and Israeli interceptors are depleted. But other analysts say there is no evidence this is the case. This would also be a risky strategy on Iran’s part.

One thing is certain, though: The US and Israel do have finite numbers of interceptors at their disposal. Iran, too, will not be able to keep up the same level of attacks indefinitely.

While the economic impacts of the war are placing significant pressure on all parties – and the world more widely – Iran seems to be in a better position for a longer conflict, given the costs involved for the US and Israel and their reluctance to commit to a potentially even more disastrous ground invasion.

James Dwyer is Lecturer at School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.

SYDNEY: In the past few months, a wave of tech corporations has announced significant staff cuts and attributed them to efficiency gains driven by artificial intelligence.

Companies such as Atlassian, Block and Amazon have announced they would lay off thousands of employees due to increased reliance on AI. The narrative these companies offer is consistent: AI is making human labour replaceable, and responsible management demands adjustment.

The evidence, however, tells a more nuanced story.

THE AUTOMATION STORY IS PARTLY TRUE

Genuine disruption is visible in specific corners of the labour market, though the scale of that disruption is commonly overstated. Research from Anthropic published earlier this month shows that although many work tasks are susceptible to automation, the vast majority are still performed primarily by humans rather than AI tools.

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Moreover, some occupations are more exposed to displacement than others: Computer programmers sit at the top of the list, followed by customer service representatives and data entry workers. Yet even within the most exposed occupations, AI use is still limited.

The aggregate economic data reflects this reality. A 2025 Goldman Sachs report estimated that if AI were used across the economy for all the things it could currently do, roughly 2.5 per cent of US employment would be at risk of job loss.

That’s not a trivial number. However, the report notes that workers in AI-exposed occupations are currently no more likely to lose their jobs, face reduced hours, or earn lower wages than anyone else.

The report does note early signs of strain in specific industries. Goldman Sachs identifies sectors where employment growth has slowed that align with AI-related efficiency gains. Examples include marketing consulting, graphic design, office administration and call centres.

In the tech sector, US workers in their 20s in AI-exposed occupations saw unemployment rise by almost 3 per cent in the first half of 2025. Anthropic’s research also found that job-finding rates (the chance of an unemployed person finding a job in a one-month period) for workers aged 22 to 25 entering AI-exposed occupations have fallen by around 14 per cent since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. This is a tentative but telling signal about where the pressure is being felt first.

These are meaningful signals, but they are sector-specific and concentrated – not the evidence of sweeping displacement that corporate announcements often imply. That gap between the evidence and the rhetoric raises an obvious question: What else might be driving these decisions?

WHAT IS THE MOTIVE?

The timing and framing of the layoffs attributed to AI layoffs warrants closer examination. Corporate restructuring, over-hiring during the post-pandemic boom as demand for online services soared, and pressure from investors to demonstrate improved profit margins are all forces operating at the same time as genuine advances in AI.

While these are not mutually exclusive explanations, they are rarely acknowledged alongside one another in corporate communications.

There is a powerful financial incentive for companies to be seen to be embracing AI aggressively. Since the launch of ChatGPT, AI-related stocks have accounted for about 75 per cent of S&P 500 returns.

A workforce reduction framed around AI adoption sends a signal to investors that a straightforward cost-cutting announcement does not. A company making AI-related innovations looks a lot better than one sacking staff due to declining revenues or poor strategic decisions.

It is also worth distinguishing between two kinds of workforce reduction. In the first, AI genuinely increases productivity to the point where fewer workers are needed to produce the same output. In the second, staff reductions are not a consequence of AI, but a way to fund it.

Meta illustrates this distinction. The social media giant is reportedly planning to lay off as much as 20 per cent of its workforce, while simultaneously committing US$600 billion to build data centres and recruit top AI researchers.

In this case, the workers being let go are not being replaced by AI today; they are subsidising the AI bet their employer is making on the future.

THE MORE PLAUSIBLE FUTURE

The big picture is likely one of transformation rather than elimination. According to a recent PwC report, employment is still growing in most industries exposed to AI, although growth tends to be slower than in less exposed sectors.

At the same time, wages in AI-exposed industries are rising roughly twice as fast as in those least touched by the technology. Workers with AI skills command an average wage premium of about 56 per cent across the industries analysed.

Together, the data points toward a flattening of the traditional workplace pyramid rather than mass displacement. Firms require fewer junior employees for routine analytical and administrative work, while experienced professionals who deploy AI tools effectively become more productive and command greater value.

AI is a consequential technology and will have a significant impact in the long term. What is in doubt is whether the dramatic, AI-attributed workforce reductions announced by individual companies accurately reflect that trajectory, or whether they conflate genuine technological change with decisions that would have been made regardless.

Making this distinction is not merely an academic exercise. It shapes how policymakers, educators and workers themselves understand the nature of the disruption they are navigating.

Uri Gal is Professor in Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.

"UNIQUE" AMMONIA FINDING

PRESSURE MOUNTS

VIENTIANE, Laos: Long queues formed at petrol stations across the Laotian capital Vientiane on Monday (Mar 16) as fuel shortages deepened, with the ripples of the Middle East conflict reverberating across landlocked Laos.

The Southeast Asian nation is dependent on neighbouring Thailand for fuel supplies, which initially announced it was suspending exports to conserve its holdings, but has assured Vientiane that fuel is on its way.

More than 40 per cent of the 2,538 filling stations in Laos were closed last week, according to the most recent government data.

AFP saw more than 15 petrol stations shuttered in Vientiane on Monday, with signs saying they had run out of fuel.

Others were rationing what little remained.

Vetthavixay Phaengvixay, a 29-year-old teacher living in the city, said three gas stations within five kilometres (three miles) of his home had all run dry.

"Sometimes, we have money but there's no gas to buy," he told AFP.

"We teachers usually have extra jobs apart from our main ones at school, which makes us need fuel more than ever."

The handful of stations that stayed open were surrounded by long, messy queues of motorbikes and cars, with wait times of up to two hours to fill a motorcycle tank.

"Last time I could fill up my bike was Friday and now I'm running out," one moto taxi driver told AFP, requesting anonymity.

"If I can't find any open stations near my house, I'll have to stop working for a few days."

Since strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran, the Islamic republic has launched its own attacks against its oil-exporting neighbours.

The strikes have threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz - through which about a fifth of global oil supplies usually pass - and have plunged the global energy economy into crisis.

"WHATEVER IT TAKES"

Government-set prices in Laos have soared, with diesel up by nearly 50 per cent to 31,560 kip (US$1.47) per litre.

According to Global Petrol Prices, in the early days of the conflict Laos saw the world's second-biggest increase in premium petrol prices.

The country imports almost all its fuel from Thailand, whose suspension of exports in late February triggered panic buying that emptied Vientiane stations within hours.

Bangkok granted Laos an exemption and a 12-million-litre emergency import helped ease immediate pressure, but when fuel does arrive, it vanishes almost immediately.

"From what I've seen, when a new batch comes in, it takes a day for the fuel to go empty, sometimes not even a day," Vetthavixay said. 

"The moment people find out fuel is available, they rush to the station and do whatever it takes to get their hands on it."

Laotian authorities have imposed measures to prevent hoarding, and filling containers such as water bottles has been banned.

On Monday, the government ordered ministries to limit in-person meetings and strongly encouraged people to switch to electric vehicles.

"I have to travel less," said Boua Ketsana, a 37-year-old babysitter from Naxay village. "Still, I have to travel every day for groceries."

TEHRAN: Iran's new supreme leader has appointed the former chief of the Revolutionary Guards as a military adviser, local media reported on Monday (Mar 16). 

"General Mohsen Rezaei was appointed as military adviser by the order of commander-in-chief Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei," Mehr news agency reported. 

Other media also reported the appointment. 

Rezaei, 71, previously headed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological arm of Iran's military. He has since held several senior positions within Iran's political system.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was named Iran's supreme leader earlier this month, succeeding his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US and Israeli strikes on Feb 28. 

Iran has since been at war with the United States and Israel in a conflict that has spread across the Middle East. 

Under the late supreme leader, Yahya Rahim Safavi held the position of military adviser. 

It was not immediately clear whether he holds the same position under Mojtaba Khamenei. 

On Monday, the new supreme leader issued a statement saying officials and heads of state institutions appointed under his father should "continue to carry on with their work".

TEL AVIV: Israel said on Monday (Mar 16) it had detailed plans for at least three more weeks of war as it pounded sites across Iran overnight, while Iranian drone attacks temporarily shut Dubai airport and hit a key oil facility in the United Arab Emirates.

The US-Israeli war on Iran is now entering its third week with no clear end in sight, largely shutting the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas flow, pushing up energy prices and raising fears of a spike in global inflation.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday called for a coalition of nations to help reopen the strait and said the US-led NATO defence alliance faced a "very bad" future if its members failed to help.

But while allies voiced support for diplomatic efforts to reopen the route, they were cautious about joining any military action.

ISRAEL STILL HAS 'THOUSANDS' OF TARGETS IN IRAN

Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters there were detailed operational plans for the war with Iran for the next three weeks, and other plans extending further ahead.

Israel has said it wants to weaken Iran's capacity to threaten it, striking ballistic missile infrastructure, nuclear facilities and the security apparatus, and that it still has thousands of targets to hit.

"We want to make sure that they are as weak as possible, this regime, and that we degrade all their capabilities, all parts and all wings of their security establishment," Shoshani said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi for his part said Tehran had not asked for a ceasefire or exchanged messages with the US, according to Iran's semi-official Student News Network.

In a post on X, Araqchi also said that some "neighbouring states" that host US forces and permit attacks on Iran were also actively encouraging the killing of Iranians.

"Stances should be promptly clarified," he said.

He said 200 children were among the hundreds of Iranian civilians killed in US or Israeli bombings.

Iran’s Mehr news agency said five people had been killed and seven wounded in overnight strikes on Markazi province in central Iran. It said that in Khomein city, in the same province, a boys' school had been targeted, causing some damage to the surrounding area. No casualties were reported.

Fars News Agency reported that several civilians had been killed in a strike near Tehran's Martyrs' Square, without giving figures.

Rescue workers in Tehran worked to pull people from the wreckage of a building in what an Iranian Red Crescent aid worker said was an entirely residential alleyway.

"Rescue teams are currently pulling people out from under the rubble," he said without giving his name.

ISRAEL CLAIMS STRIKES ON IRAN'S SPACE PROGRAMME

The Israeli military said on Monday it was carrying out air strikes on Tehran, Shiraz and Tabriz.

It said its Air Force had also struck sites linked to Iran’s space program, including destroying a research facility in Tehran involved in developing a satellite launched in 2024.

One Tehran resident told Reuters that there had been no internet overnight and Iranians felt isolated from the world.

"People are being killed," Shahnaz, 62, said via WhatsApp. "Just days before Nowruz (Iranian New Year, on March 20), but people are not in the mood to celebrate. When will this end?”

Asked if she supported the Islamic Republic, Shahnaz said: “No, I don’t. How can I? They killed my granddaughter in (January's) protests. We want this regime to go. We want this misery to end.”

In Israel, air raid sirens warned of Iranian missiles. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Tehran had launched attacks on areas In Tel Aviv, the US al-Dhafra air base in Abu Dhabi, the US naval base in Bahrain, and Bahrain's Sheikh Issa air base.

Furthermore, oil loading operations at the UAE port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman were suspended following an Iranian drone strike.

Fujairah is a key exit point for the UAE's Murban crude - a volume equivalent to roughly 1 per cent of global demand.

Flights at Dubai International Airport, one of the world's busiest, were suspended for several hours after a drone strike on a nearby fuel storage facility sent plumes of black smoke into the sky. Saudi Arabia intercepted 34 drones in its eastern region in one hour, state media said. No injuries were reported in either incident.

Later on, Reuters reporters also heard booms in the Qatari capital, Doha.

OIL SLIPS ON BESSENT SHIPPING COMMENTS

Despite the turbulence, oil prices, which had been above US$100 a barrel, fell sharply and stocks rallied after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC the US was "fine" to let some Iranian fuel vessels sail through the strait, and believed Indian and Chinese tankers had also passed through. 

Ship-tracking data showed a Pakistan-bound oil tanker had passed through the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, indicating that some countries are able to negotiate safe passage for their vessels.

On Sunday, Trump had demanded that countries relying heavily on oil from the Gulf should help protect the strait, and said he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would participate.

However, many - including Germany, Italy, Greece, Japan and Australia - said they would not send warships.

Israel continued to strike Lebanon and Gaza, attacking Iran-backed Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas militants. The Israeli military said its troops had begun limited ground operations against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.

SINGAPORE: Singapore and nine other economies on Monday (Mar 16) backed the creation of a permanent World Trade Organization (WTO) moratorium that prevents countries from imposing tariffs on electronic transmissions such as software downloads, streaming content and other digital products.

They expressed support for such a measure in a ministerial declaration issued after a virtual meeting of the Future of Investment and Trade (FIT) Partnership, chaired by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong.

According to the International Chamber of Commerce, the WTO e-commerce moratorium currently in place “keeps digital trade tariff-free, cutting costs and barriers for small businesses, creators and entrepreneurs worldwide”. The moratorium is a temporary one, which will expire unless it is renewed.

The declaration, titled the Declaration on Strengthening the Rules-Based Trading System, comes ahead of the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference in Yaounde, Cameroon, from Mar 26 to 29, where the moratorium is due to be renewed. If WTO members fail to agree to renew the moratorium, it will expire at the close of the conference.

In the virtual meeting, members of the FIT Partnership committed to “advance a broader and longer-term agenda ... to strengthen the rules-based trading system”.

They also pledged to incorporate two agreements – the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA) and the E-Commerce Agreement (ECA) – into the WTO’s legal framework.

The IFDA aims to help WTO members attract and retain more and higher-quality investment, while the ECA aims to ensure an open environment for digital trade and promote trust in e-commerce.

Additionally, FIT Partnership members committed to improving the WTO dispute settlement system by using the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA).

The MPIA, which is a temporary appeal arrangement based on arbitration, prevents parties from filing an appeal that would prevent the dispute from reaching a final resolution.

The declaration was endorsed by representatives and ministers from Costa Rica, Iceland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Rwanda, Singapore, Switzerland and Uruguay.

The FIT Partnership – which also includes Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Morocco, Panama, and the United Arab Emirates – was formed in September 2025.

Singapore is serving as the coordinating chair of the partnership in its inaugural year.

The partnership of small, medium and trade-dependent countries aims to support fair and open trade as global markets face increasing fragmentation.

Following the group’s unveiling at a virtual ministerial meeting attended by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Investment (MTI) described the partnership as “agile and informal”.

Despite being non-binding, members use the partnership as a platform for collaboration on a range of trade topics and supporting the rules-based trading system.