Iran reports more than 100 arrests related to poisonings at schools.

Iran has announced more than 100 arrests nationwide over the mystery poisonings of thousands of schoolgirls, charging that the unidentified alleged perpetrators may have links with "hostile" groups. In the wave of cases since late November, schoolgirls have suffered fainting, nausea, shortness of breath and other symptoms after reporting "unpleasant" odours on school premises. The poisonings started two months into the protests that gripped Iran following the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an ethnic Kurd who had been arrested over an alleged violation of strict dress rules for women. The ministry said arrests were made in the provinces of Tehran, Qom and Gilan in the north, Razavi Khorasan in the northeast, West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan and Zanjan in the northwest, Kurdistan and Hamadan in the west, Khuzestan in the southwest and Fars in the south. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had last Monday called for the perpetrators of the "unforgivable crime" to be punished.