The Iranian Times

Monday, March 8, 1999/ Esfand 17, 1377, No. 681


Sehaty Foreign Exchange

Shahin & Sepehr


    Rumi


    Cover story

    Common sense
    No one has chronicled Iranian events quite like Masoud Behnoud

    Masoud Behnoud was born in 1947. He has been writing articles for various journals since 1964. In all he has 300 interviews and more than 1,000 articles to his credit, as well as at least eight documentaries, 50 TV programs and seven books.

    What's so impressive about Behnoud's body of work is his uncommon common sense and ability to grasp and convey current events in a balanced way. He reflects the mood of a nation; a true journalist, an endangered species in a country that badly needs the likes of him to quench the thirst for reliable and balanced news ... GO TO FEATURE


Outlook

Khatami visit to Italy marks new credibility for Iran

TEHRAN, March 8 (AFP) - President Mohammad Khatami's visit to Italy this week, the first by an Iranian leader to a western European nation since the 1979 revolution, marks a major triumph on the road to international credibility for the Islamic regime.

Khatami's visit, which begins Tuesday and will include talks with Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro and a Vatican meeting with Pope John Paul II, is the clearest sign yet that his bid to increase Iran's standing in the eyes of the international community is succeeding.

Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini on Sunday welcomed the trip and said Italy wanted to help Iran "out of isolation."

"If Europe wants to be a model for others, it must understand and respect others," he told an Italian newspaper.

"Isolation cannot promote a more open and tolerant society," Dini said ... FULL TEXT


    Anyway

Sex-starved camel kills master's son

RIYADH, March 7 (AFP) - A camel killed his master's five-year-old son in anger at being tied down alone during the mating season, a Saudi newspaper reported on Sunday.

The camel bit the child by the waist and shook him violently to death. The father could only look on in shock before shooting dead the animal, the daily Okaz said.

It said camel owners in the Dibaa area of northern Saudi Arabia had been warned not to tie down their animals during the breeding season.

Thanks to Payman Arabshahi

More Letters

* No visa, no tourist

Ben Moores writes: I have just returned from Iran after a months holiday in the country and thus your article ["Waking the friendly giant"] was of great interest to me. As a first-time British visitor I believe I have an interesting angle on the debate. I have a few points, beyond the obvious, as to why tourism in Iran is so limited.

1) Getting a visa is all but impossible in the UK unless you are prepared to pay £150 + to an agency. Being continually accused of being a spy doesn't help either! In fact, unless you have relations in Iran or you pay an agency you cannot get a visa ... FULL TEXT

* Noruz: Persian Center's Noruz party in, SF Bay

Persian Center in San Francisco's Bay Area is proud to present the ONE & ONLY major party in March spanning TWO years!

Join the Community as ONE extended family at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 20, 1999, to gather around a wonderful "Haft-seen" table and begin our countdown towards the Persian New Year of 1378, at 5:45 p.m.

There will be dance and musical performances to warm your heart, theater and poetry performances to invigorate your mind, and a Persian Dinner to entice your senses...as well as DJ Dancing to help you start the New Year IN SHAPE! ... DETAILS HERE


Book of the Week

A Taste of Persia
An Introduction to Persian Cooking

By Najmieh Batmanglij

A Taste of Persia is a collection of authentic recipes from one of the world's oldest cuisines, chosen and adapted for today's lifestyle and kitchen. Here are light appetizers and kababs, hearty stews and rich, golden-crusted rices, among many other dishes, all fragrant with the distinctive herbs, spices, or fruits of Iran. Each recipe offers clear, easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions. Most take less than an hour to prepare; many require only a few moments; many others can be made in advance. Besides its 100 recipes and 60 photographs, the book includes a useful dictionary of Persian cooking techniques and ingredients.

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More news

Reformers score another big win, sweep Tehran elections

TEHRAN, March 8 (AFP) - Reformist supporters of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami swept all 15 seats on the Tehran municipal council Monday in another stunning defeat over the Islamic regime's conservatives. The victory is a powerful endorsement of the president's reform agenda on the eve of his historic trip to Italy, the first to a western European nation by an Iranian head of state since the 1979 Islamic revolution ... FULL TEXT

Iran police torture case heightens political tensions

TEHRAN, March 7 (AFP) - The head of security affairs for the Iranian police is to be tried for torture in a case that has further heightened simmering political tensions between reformers and hardliners in the Islamic republic. General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi and 10 other officers will be tried in a military court on May 3 on charges of beating and torturing top officials in the Tehran municipal government, it was announced last week ... FULL TEXT

Criticism mounting against powerful Iranian religious court

TEHRAN, March 8 (AFP) - Reformers stepped up the pressure on Iran's special religious court Monday amid growing public anger at one of the Islamic regime's most hardline institutions. A reformist MP lashed out at Iran's all-powerful Special Court for Clergy (SCC) over its arrest of liberal cleric Mohsen Kadivar, who is increasingly being seen here as a political prisoner in a case that has sparked public demonstrations and widespread outrage ... FULL TEXT

Hundreds of Iranian students rally in Tehran

TEHRAN, March 7 (AFP) - Several hundred Iranian students demonstrated at Tehran university Sunday over the arrest of leading liberal cleric Mohsen Kadivar, defying calls to postpone the rally over fears of violence. Anti-riot police stationed around the campus put a quick end to a shoving match that erupted between protesters and Islamic fundamentalists but otherwise there was no violence ... FULL TEXT

Iran says its oil market open to US, calls for end to embargo

TEHRAN, March 7 (AFP) - Iran stepped up the pressure to end the US embargo with the surprise announcement Sunday that US oil companies face "no obstacle" to doing business in the Iranian oil industry. "There is no obstacle to US oil companies participating in oil development projects in Iran," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said, clearly referring to Washington's unilateral trade embargo which prohibits US companies from doing business here. He underscored the point by stressing that the embargo served only to hamper US business interests ... FULL TEXT

Iran begins new express train service in Tehran

TEHRAN, March 7 (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami inaugurated a new electric train link on Sunday between Tehran and the city of Karaj in the western Tehran province ... FULL TEXT

Iran facing off against Japan

Tehran, (IRNA) - Iran and Japan will face-off Tuesday to determine one of the finalists of the Asian indoor soccer championsips ... FULL PERSIAN IMAGE TEXT

Women chess champions

Tehran, (Hamshahri) - Winners of Iran's women's open chess championship ... FULL PERSIAN IMAGE TEXT


Obituary

Stanley Kubrick, film director with a bleak vision, dies at 70

Stanley Kubrick, the famously reclusive director of such classic films as "Dr. Strangelove," "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "A Clockwork Orange," died Sunday at his home in England, his family said. He was 70. The police were summoned to Kubrick's rural home in Hertfordshire, north of London, Sunday afternoon, when he was pronounced dead ... FULL TEXT


$ Rate

Updated March 8

The dollar now offered at up to 820-825 tomans

Source: Sehaty Exchange (U.S.) Tel: 602-595-0777

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Quote Unquote

End isolation

Isolation cannot promote a more open and tolerant society.

Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini on the need to end Iran's isolation
"Khatami visit to Italy marks new credibility for Iran"
AFP
March 7, 1999


Photo of the Day

Karaj-Tehran train

More photos


Music

Musician of the Week

Sohrab Sepehri

Poetry recited by Khosro Shakibaie

Music artists index