PUNISHMENT
U.S. federal court threatens Iranian-American heritage
by Arash Hadjialiloo
Tempers between the United States and Iran have flared over Iran’s nuclear program and its alleged intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many have wondered if the two countries would ever find common ground. However, several controversial rulings in the United States federal court have resulted in just that: the United States’ Justice and State Departments have momentarily put aside their differences with Iran in order to protect several thousand Iranian cultural artifacts. The current situation that has Iran and the United States temporarily burying the hatchet is a delicate and controversial issue
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LEADING MAN
Darius Danesh succeeds Clark Gable as Rhett Butler
British Iranian Darius Danesh has been cast as Rhett Butler in Trevor Nunn’s musical production of Margaret Mitchell’s classic novel, Gone With The Wind, which opens at the New London Theatre 22 April 2008, following previews from 4 April – booking (*) to 27 Sep 2008. He joins Jill Paice (Scarlett O'Hara), Madeleine Worrall (Melanie), and Edward Baker-Duly (Ashley Wilkes). Danesh was born in Glasgow and educated at Glasgow Academy. He then went on to study English and Philosophy at Edinburgh University. His father, Dr. Booth Danesh, is Iranian and his mother, Dr. Avril Danesh, is Scottish. He has two younger brothers; all three were named after Persian Kings.
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STORY
[The writer is 10-years old]
by Jina Falahati
Long, long ago, before time began, before you or I were in the world yet, before your parent’s, parent’s parents were born, in the deep forest Foofoo, in the heart of New Zealand, there was quarrel between the lion, the zebra, the kangaroo, the elephant, and all the other animals in the deep forest Foofoo. It was all about the sun, they didn’t have on. Mind you, they didn’t even know what it was, until the lion declared: “Why can’t I see my beautiful feathers, it’s no good having no light.”
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AIRPORT
کاری که آمریکا و انگلیس و اسراییل و فرانسه دارند با کشور من و شما امروز میکنند.
قرار است سوار هواپیما شوید. در نتیجه باید از قسمت بازدید بدنی امنیتی و دستگاههای بمبیاب و فلزیاب فرودگاه رد شوید. همهچیزتان را درمیآورید و در دستگاه اشعه ایکس میگذارید و از زیر دروازهی آهنی فلزیاب رد میشوید. موفقیت آمیز است و چراغ سبز به شما میدهد. ولی یک مامور لباسشخصی از دور یک دفعه میآید و نمیگذارد ماموران عادی امنیت فرودگاه به شما اجازه بدهند بروید به طرف گیتتان. میگوید که این کافی نیست و شما باید ثابت کنید که اسلحه با خودتان ندارید. میگویید: بابا، دستگاه خودتان چک کرد و گفت من هیچ فلزی با خودم ندارم. تو دیگر چه میگویی؟ او اصرار دارد که شما باید لخت شوید و تنها با شورت دوباره از زیر دروازهی فلزیاب رد شوید.
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VIEW
A silent majority exists in Iran and beneath that silence lies a deep hatred for this regime
Voting for the Majlis was a pointless exercise and by participating one has cast a vote for this farce, this hoax, this kolah bardaari. The act of voting means that one's vote could contribute to change. The fact that whichever way Iranians vote will have no effect on the situation in Iran means there is no point in voting. There is no such thing as democracy in Iran as the form of political Islam practiced in Iran is inherently a totalitarian belief structure created to control a society through superstition, violence, and brainwashing
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WORDS
اگر از جمعیت ایرن جاهلان، جلادان و جاسوسان را کم کنید چندتا جنازه باقی خواهد ماند؟.
جهنم : محلی در آن دنیا خیلی گرم که آدم را شکنجه میدهند و بر گفته ادیان همه آدمهای گناهکار به آنجا میروند. مشکل این است که در این دنیا هم همچنین محلها وجود دارد ولی برای آدمهای
بیگناه و اگر برگفته ادیان هر کس که میرقصد و آواز میخواند گناهکار است و
به جهنم میروند . من ترجیح میدهم برم آنجا که همه آدمهای با حال هستند. جمهوری: حکومتی که در آن همه مردم حق و حقوق برابری دارند. معمولآ بهترین
رژیم است ولی اگر به آن یک صفت اضافه کنند مثل جمهوری اسلامی منظور این
است که همه با هم برابرند ولی مسلمانان برابر ترند و اینجاست که خراب
میشود.
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IRAN-US
Cheney's Middle East trip
by Simon Henderson
On March 16, Vice President Cheney departs on a Middle East trip that will take him to Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Turkey. Coming less than two months after President Bush's trip to the region, the vice president's itinerary is intriguing. His undisclosed agenda with "key partners," in the words of the White House announcement, is likely to include the peace process, the price of oil, Iraq, and Iran. And among those issues, Iran will likely be the most mentioned, especially given this week's controversial resignation of Adm. William Fallon as the top U.S. commander in the Middle East -- a move attributed in part to differences on Iran between him and the White House
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MUSICMAN
A Conversation with Kourosh Taghavi
There once was one; and then there were none. Under the blue dome of the evening sky, apart from the presence of God, there was absolutely no one…. Nestled between the Caspian Sea and the Alborz Mountains, in the city of wolves, lived a little boy with his grandfather. The little boy loved to hear stories and his grandfather had many to tell, and so they spent most of their days together. Years passed; the boy grew up and left home to live adventures of his own; chasing legends and dreaming of giants. Along his journey, he spent many nights under the blue dome of foreign skies, far from his city and far from anyone to guide him.
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STORY
Tired of playing by the rules, of being good and decent, honest and pure
Sharif always left the Imam Reza shrine with regret. It was the most grandiose homage to God that man had ever built. Sharif was sure of it, although he had scarcely ventured out of his native city except to serve at the front during the war. The enormous domes of the two mosques, one gold and one turquoise, stood proudly over the city, which squirmed beneath their shadows. In between, a gargantuan web of hallways and corridors, fountains and courtyards, not to mention the many buildings housed in the complex, the religious schools, the museum, the library…
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ECONOMY
What fuels the current inflationary expectations is the increasing commodity prices
If you keep track of economic news these days, you notice that the word stagflation is frequently uttered by newscasters and economic analysts. This term was coined by economists to describe an unconventional phenomenon that took place in late 1970s: the simultaneous occurrence of high unemployment and high inflation. The combined unemployment rate and inflation rate, properly called the misery index, averaged over 17% from 1974 to 1981. It has been nearly 8% since 1993.
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ANALYSIS
The Perils and Costs of a Grand Bargain with the Islamic Republic of Iran
Among other factors, the American failure to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan has fueled Iran's attempt at regional supremacy to the consternation of many in the region and beyond. The failure of the containment policy, fear that the Islamic Republic will develop nuclear weapons, and the bellicose rhetoric and policies of Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have given rise to urgent discussions about how best to counter the threat of the fundamentalist regime. The main policies under discussion are regime change; surgical strikes; reconfigured containment; limited, issue-based dialogue; and a "grand bargain."
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MY LIFE
Chapter 1: Childhood in Ahvaz
No one has ever been sentenced to a sever punishment called education as young as I was. “I don’t know how to punish him anymore, I ran out of ideas, I’ve tried everything.” I heard my mother saying this with tears in her eyes to my father the night before my sentence was carried out. I was three years old then. The next morning I was trailing my father with a gloomy face to the Mactab (Those days in our town, house-wives who had some education thought neighboring children under school age for a small fee in their homes. The curriculum was learning alphabets and listening to the teacher reciting Koran)
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