Churches Iran

A bomb blew up in a crowded mausoleum in Iran's holy city of Mashhad on Monday, killing 25 people and wounding 70 gathered for prayer, Iran's official news agency said. Police arrested a number of people in connection with the blast, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said in reports monitored in Nicosia. It gave no further details. The government blamed the opposition Moujahedeen Khalq for the bombing.

A bomb blew up in a crowded mausoleum in Iran's holy city of Mashhad on Monday, killing 25 people and wounding 70 gathered for prayer, Iran's official news agency said. Police arrested a number of people in connection with the blast, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said in reports monitored in Nicosia. It gave no further details. The government blamed the opposition Moujahedeen Khalq for the bombing.

The United States released a report on religious freedom worldwide Thursday, concluding that much of the world's population lives in countries in which religious freedoms are restricted. Many of the countries faulted, including China, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, regularly show up on the annual U.S. list of overall human rights abusers. But the report also criticized some U.S. allies, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for intolerance.