Iran leader appears in public after nearly two weeks

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has spoken to students in person after being out of the public eye for nearly two weeks. His website says that Khamenei, 83, gave a seven-minute speech Saturday at the Imam Khomeini Hosseinieh, or congregation hall, in Tehran while standing. It reported that Khamenei called the pilgrimage of some 2 million Iranians to the Iraqi city of Karbala for the Arbaeen religious observance a “miraculous move.” Arbaeen comes 40 days after Ashura, the anniversary of Imam Hussein’s 7th-century death at the hands of Muslim Umayyad forces in the Battle of Karbala.