Iran suffering ‘severe distress’ from US sanctions, says IMF

Iran seems to be constantly in the news. First, it was bloody protests last November against a hike in petroleum prices. Next, it was the assassination of a hugely popular warlord, whose killing was mourned by 1.5 million Iranians, with crowds so enormous that 56 were trampled to death in a stampede at his funeral. Then, it was the possibility of a hot war between the United States and Iran in one of the most sensitive regions in the world. Yet another day, a civilian plane was shot down by the country’s own air defense system. If you follow events more closely, you may have heard of a couple of major floods, a train derailment, and two buses crashing and killing mo