Iran confirms death of top security official Ali Larijani in attack

Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed the death of its secretary Ali Larijani in a statement, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported early Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed deep condolences over the death of Larijani in a statement, describing it as a major loss to the nation.

Born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1958, Larijani has held prominent positions in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian government agencies, and the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

In 2005, Larijani was appointed Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, stepping down in 2007. He entered parliament in 2008 and served as speaker for three consecutive terms.

In August 2025, Larijani returned to the post of Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, once again becoming a central figure in Iran's leadership.

Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Tuesday confirmed the death of Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij volunteer force, in a U.S.-Israeli strike.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel had killed Larijani in ongoing strikes on Iran.

The Israel Defense Forces said earlier on Tuesday that it had launched wide-scale strikes on Iranian government infrastructure in Tehran. It later said the attacks had killed Larijani and Soleimani.

The deaths came amid heightened regional tensions following joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran starting Feb. 28, to which Iran and its regional allies responded with attacks on Israel and U.S. interests across the Middle East.

Iran confirms death of top security official Ali Larijani in attack

Iran confirms death of top security official Ali Larijani in attack

Iran confirms death of top security official Ali Larijani in attack

Iran confirms death of top security official Ali Larijani in attack

China's fiscal operations remained stable and orderly in 2025, with satisfactory budget execution, according to a fiscal policy execution report released by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday.

China's general public budget revenue hit 21.6 trillion yuan (about 3.14 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, with tax revenue registering positive growth, said the report.

Expenditure in the national general public budget totaled 28.7 trillion yuan, ensuring spending in key areas such as social security and employment, education, and healthcare.

In compliance with the requirement for Party and government offices to tighten their belts, budgets for spending on official overseas visits, official vehicles, and official hospitality decreased by 5 percent compared to that in 2024, ensuring more effective use of government funds.

In terms of measures to boost consumption, efforts were made to expand the scope of consumer goods trade-in program, and provide interest subsidies for consumer loans, according to the report.

Data showed that by the end of 2025, the balance of personal consumption loans from 23 lending institutions approached nearly 6 trillion yuan, an increase of over 500 billion yuan, or 10.2 percent, compared to that in 2024.

The institutions issued more than 2 trillion yuan in loans to over 1.4 million entities in the service sector, supporting them in upgrading consumer infrastructure, and enhancing their service supply.

In terms of efforts to increase investment, the ceiling for new local government special-purpose bonds was set at 4.4 trillion yuan in 2025, an increase of 500 billion yuan from the previous year, the report said.

These funds were primarily channeled into sectors such as transportation infrastructure, government-subsidized housing projects and urban renewal projects, and infrastructure for forward-looking, strategic emerging industries.

In total, more than 48,000 projects were supported and over 300 billion yuan was used as project capital.

Furthermore, the proactive fiscal policy in 2025 played a vital role in fostering the deep integration of sci-tech and industrial innovation, advancing urban-rural integration and regional coordination, and ensuring and improving people's livelihoods, according to the report.

China's fiscal operations remain stable, orderly in 2025: report