Iran will commence with the cutting of subsidies for basic commodities including fuel and food. Iranians, at present, can purchase fuel more cheaply than bottled water. The government will increase the prices of refined gasoline, water, electricity, wheat, sugar and rice to international market levels over the next five years.Gasoline subsidies alone cost the iranian government over $100b a year.
The move will vastly improve the solvency of the state treasury, the rising prices may tip the volatile iranian populous past the boiling point. Opposition leader Mousavi has urged supporters to consider economic grievances with the regime, rather than politics or religion, to woo rural and less affluent constituencies.
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Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Leiberman said to Syrian President Assad that "in the next war [with Israel], not only will you lose, but you and your family will lose the regime".
President Assad responded today saying that "Israel is driving the region towards war, not peace." Several Israeli politicians called for Lieberman's removal, calling him a "war instigator".
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President Obama today condemned the proposed anti-homosexual legislation in Uganda as "odious". Ironically, the president's pointed words came at the National Prayer Breakfast, hosted by "the family", a religious/political organization that has sent multiple representatives to Uganda in promotion of anti-LGBT ideals.
The Ugandan legislation would sentence those guilty of "aggravated homosexuality" to death.
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