Ahmadinejad survives a scare

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was unhurt after an explosive device, officially described as a firecracker, went off near his motorcade.
Ahmadinejad was on his way to a sports arena to make a speech in Hamedan, south of the capital, when the explosion occurred.
Conservative website Khabaronline, the first source to report the incident initially said yesterday a hand grenade was thrown at the hardliner's motorcade but later in the day dropped "grenade" in its report and used the word "firecracker" instead.
"This morning a hand grenade exploded next to a vehicle carrying reporters accompanying the president" the website, close to parliament speaker Ali Larijani, said first.
"Ahmadinejad's car was 100 metres (yards) away and he was not hurt," it said, adding that the alleged attacker was detained.
Iran's Mehr news agency quoting witnesses as saying a "hand-made noise bomb exploded a far distance from the president's car."
Ahmadinejad later delivered his speech and made no reference to the incident.
An official in the president's media office told AFP the explosion was from a "firecracker."
The incident came only two days after Ahmadinejad repeated his claim that Iran's arch foe Israel wants him dead.
"Stupid Zionists have hired mercenaries to assassinate me," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech to expatriate Iranians on Monday.
On Tuesday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman also insisted that the hardliner is on Israel's hit list.
"It is quite evident that the Zionist forces are under state orders to assassinate different figures in the Islamic world," Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.
The animosity between Iran and Israel has steadily worsened under the presidency of Ahmadinejad who has infuriated the world powers by dismissing the Holocaust as a "myth."
Israel too has never ruled out a military strike against Iran to stop its nuclear programme. On its part, Iran does not acknowledge Israel.