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Tuesday, January 28, 1997

News

* Smile before the serious stuff
* Khatami is a candidate
* Bazargan memorial prevented
* Maaroufi speaks of fear
* Hamshahri news
* Sobh-e Emrooz: New URL &....
* Turkish conviction for alleged agent
* Iranain arrested in Oregon
* Row over carpet exports
* Looking for foreign investment
* Saudi Ambassador not happy...
* AOL under pressure

An attempt will be made to put a smile on your face every time you read the news edition of THE IRANIAN Bulletin.

With all the harsh political news, we all need a break. Our top item from now on will be a cartoon from "Gol Aqa" satirical magazine (in Persian). Enjoy.

-- Why did the U.S. Navy shoot down the TWA plane with a missile last year?
//194.126.32.30/golagha/wv7n39/ca00921.htm

-- The relationship between traffic rules and politics:
//194.126.32.30/golagha/wv7n40/ca00929.htm

-- What goes higher? A plane or a missile?
//194.126.32.30/golagha/wv7n39/ca00925.htm

-- Oil Minister Aqazadeh sings for more sunshine:
//194.126.32.30/golagha/wv7n40/ca00936.htm

-- Majlis votes to calculate women's dowery based on current prices. Notice that the Majlis deputies in the cartoon don't resemble actual Majlis deputies:
//194.126.32.30/golagha/wv7n40/ca00945.htm

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Former minister is moderates' candidate for presidency

Wire services
01/26/97

TEHRAN, Jan 26 - Former culture and Islamic guidance minister Mohammad Khatami will be the moderates' candidate in July presidential elections in Iran, the Salam newspaper reported Sunday.

The paper said that Khatami would be the choice of the radical left and moderate factions within the ruling Shiite Moslem fundamentalist regime.

The paper said the moderate Servants of Construction group, the Islamist Coalition of Groups in the Path of the Imam and the radical Association of Militant Clergymen had all backed 59-year-old Khatami's candidacy.

Khatami held the ministerial portfolio between 1982 and 1992, but was forced to resign after repeatedly coming under fire from the conservative clergy over his softer line towards the West on cultural issues.

The conservative candidate for the presidency is 53-year-old parliament speaker Ali Akbar Nategh-Nuri, who has the support of the influential clergy in the holy city of Qom in central Iran.

The only other politician to have officially declared his candidacy is former intelligence minister Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, who is considered a hardliner.

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Memorial services for Bazargan stopped

From wire services

TEHRAN, Jan 24 - Iranian authorities have prevented a main liberal opposition group here from holding memorial services for the death anniversary of one of its leaders, the dissident group charged Friday.

The Liberation Movement of Iran (LMI) said several people belonging to government-sanctioned "pressure groups" disrupted ceremonies in Tehran on Thursday for the second anniversary of the death of former prime minister Mehdi Bazargan.

Bazargan, former LMI leader who died in January 1995, headed the first government after the 1979 Islamic revolution, but was forced to resign after nine months in office because of his liberal policies.

The group dumped ammonia on the floor of the auditorium where the service was being held as Bazargan's successor, Ebrahim Yazdi, delivered a speech demanding democracy in Iran.

The LMI, which is illegal but tolerated here, said the authorities prevented the group from holding similar services in other provinces.

The movement repeatedly complains of harassment from the authorities or Islamic fundamentalist "pressure groups" and its gatherings are often banned or disrupted.

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

"Atmosphere of Fear"
Hamburg "Der Spiegel" magazine
30 Dec 96 pp 104-107

[Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Translated Text]

The revenge of the religious fanatics struck Abase Maarufi on his way home. The publisher of the Tehran cultural magazine Gardun had spent the evening at a friend's house. As often before, the writers and artists gathered there had discussed the intensified censorship of their work and the iron fist of the mullahs -- but this time the henchmen were waiting outside.

In the person of Maarufi, fanatical members of the "Ansar Hisb Allah" (Helpers of the Party of God) were attacking one of the best known Iranian writers and one of the most courageous critics of the theocracy; his first work published in German, "Symphony of the Dead," was celebrated by western literary critics as a "masterful novel" (Weltwoche), a Cain-and-Abel story, which, at the same time, is "a pure indictment of the government."

The fanatics attacked at a street corner near the writer's apartment in the smart Niawaran district in the north of the capital: Half a dozen bearded men beat and kicked Maarufi, shouting "traitor to the fatherland" and "damned American agent."

With torn clothes, a bloody face, and semi-conscious, Maarufi was dragged into a secret house for interrogation. "Stop writing your articles," the party activists threatened, demonstratively putting a gun to their victim's temple. "At that moment I knew that my life was no longer worth anything in my homeland," Maarufi says, recalling the attack in the summer of 1995..."

***

To get the full text, you need to subscribe to the FBIS service. Here's where you can find some information about FBIS:

//www.hexanet.com.br:80/yp/pages/wwwfedwx.gov/ntis/fbis.htm

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==============
Hamshahri news
==============

You need Persian fonts to see these news items in Persian. If you have not installed it, go to these sites for free download and installation instructions: //www.neda.net/hamshahri or //www.payvand.com/persian

Politics

-- Rafsannjani: Haven't decided what I'm going to do after persidential term ends; won't support any candidate:
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751106/siasi15.htm

-- Iran's submarines are for defensive purposes, military official says. The names of the submarines, by the way. are: "Tareq", "Nuh" (Noah) and "Yunes" (Joseph):
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751107/siasi58.htm

-- Former woman member of the Majlis from Tabriz, Fatemeh Moqaddam, dies in car crash: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751108/havad25.htm

-- If women have religious questions they can go call the President Rafsanjani's office for women's affairs at:
//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751103/gungn17.htm

Economy

-- Central Bank says inflation stands at 25 percent: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751106/eqtes45.htm

-- Government wants to use extra oil-income to pay its own debts to the Central Bank: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751108/siasi46.htm

-- Ninty billion rials raised for investments in Kerman //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751104/shahr67.htm

-- Figures on trade between Iran and the United Arab Emirates: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751106/eqtes11.htm

Society

-- Crisis committee formed in Tehran to deal with water shortage: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751107/eqtes23.htm

-- Population: Tehran province 10.9 million; Tehran city 6.6 million; Karaj doubled in ten years; average annual population growth in Tehran province during 1365-1375 (1986-1996) was 4.7 percent: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751108/eqtes30.htm

-- Journalists die earlier than the average professional -- for health reasons: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751106/gozar14.htm

-- Married women: 42 percent work because they need the money, 17 percent because of personal satisfaction...: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751106/gozar14.htm

-- Protest against giving away Sorkheh Hesar National Park lands for housing: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751108/shahr15.htm

-- 126-year-old map of Rasht: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751108/shahr54.htm

-- BBC report on the discovery of Aristotle's teaching grounds in Athens: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751108/elmfa6.htm

Arts

-- So far, 24,000 have seen "Les Miserables" performed at Theran's Bahman Cultural Center: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751107/adabh1.htm

-- List of Iranian directors and their new films in Tehran's Fajr Film Festival which starts in a few days. List includes Daryoush Mehrjouie's "Laila", Jafar Panahi's "Ayneh" (Mirror), Masoud Kimiaie's "Sultan", Daryoush Farhang's "Diplomat" and Iraj Qaderi's "Nabakhshoudeh" (Unforgiven). No mention of Kiarostami or Makhmalbaf: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751107/shahr18.htm

-- Who's showing what at Tehran art gallaries: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751106/adabh5.htm

Sports

-- Iran turns down invitation to play friendly soccer match in Iraq; accepts invitations from Kuwait and Armenia: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751107/varze70.htm

-- Ski slope/resort planned for Sahand Mountain near Tabriz: //www.neda.net/hamshahri/751103/shahr58.htm

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Sobh-e Emrooz is a newspaper published in Los Angeles. They scan their pages and post them on the Web. Their Web address has recently changed to:

//www.m2web.com/sobhiran/emrooz.htm

Here are a few pages from this newspaper. The image files are a bit large:

LOCAL L.A. NEWS

-- Abbas Hojat Panah will make book-signing appearance in Westwood, Los Angeles:
//www.m2web.com/sobhiran/page20.htm

-- Songwriter "Souren" in hospital:
//www.m2web.com/sobhiran/page20.htm

LITERATURE

-- Serialized story from Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi:

First page: //www.m2web.com/sobhiran/page17.htm
Continued on this page: //www.m2web.com/sobhiran/page19.htm

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Alleged Iranian agent convicted for killing opposition leaders

ISTANBUL, Jan 24 - An Istanbul court on Friday sentenced an alleged Iranian agent to 33 years and four months in jail for killing two Iranian opposition leaders here last year, the Anatolia news agency said.

Reza Massoumi was found guilty of shooting Zahra Rajabi and Ali Moradi in an Istanbul apartment last February, it said.

A Turkish national accused of helping Massoumi was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The two victims were leading members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Sunday, January 26 1997; Page A10 The Washington Post

Iran Conspiracy Alleged

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Two men [including Abdol Hamid Rashidian] were arrested Friday on charges of conspiring to ship chemicals that could be used to make nerve gas to Iran, in violation of the U.S. trade embargo...

***

To see the story, go to:

//wp1.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WParch/1997-01/26/175F-012697-idx.html

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Iranian government, parliament in row over carpet exports

From wire services 01/22/97

TEHRAN, Jan 22 - Iran's parliament has eased restrictions on carpet exports in a bid to rescue the ailing industry, prompting a row with the government which fears it will set the stage for a fresh collapse of the national currency.

The conservative-dominated assembly passed a law on Tuesday allowing carpet exporters to keep their foreign earnings on condition they use them to import raw materials for making carpets for export.

The move was contrary to government regulations imposed in May 1995 requiring exporters to repatriate their hard currency from foreign sales and exchange it at the official rate, which is two-thirds of the market price.

The measures, aimed at preventing the flight of hard currency and stemming the collapse of the rial, provoked a crisis in the carpet industry, which was the main source of hard currency for Iran after oil.

Earnings from carpet exports have plummeted from 1.7 billion dollars in 1994 to around 400 million dollars last year, causing widespread unemployment in an industry which once provided jobs for around seven million people.

Central bank governor Mohsen Nurbakhsh sharply criticized the parliament's move on Wednesday, saying it would "lead to uncertainty rather than encouraging carpet exports."

Nurbakhsh said the ruling contradicted other laws governing non-oil exports and was likely to be vetoed by the Council of the Guardians, which oversees legislation in Iran.

He added that the government would take steps to prevent a new collapse of the rial against major currencies -- a phenomenon which occurred here two years ago leading to the introduction of the new import and export regulations.

***

More on this in Thursday's Hamshahri (in Persian):

//www.neda.net/hamshahri/751104/siasi32.htm

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From: Reza F. Bourghani <davood@ix.netcom.com>

Seeking foreign investment in petrochemicals

From wire services 01/22/9

TEHRAN, Jan 22 - The Iranian parliament authorized the government on Wednesday to seek foreign investment of 2.8 billion dollars this year to develop the country's petrochemical sector.

The move came during debate in the assembly of a budget proposal submitted by the government for the year starting on March 21 and is "aimed at boosting petrochemical output capacity and exports."

The parliament set a ceiling of 400 million dollars in foreign investment in the copper industry and 500 million dollars to develop other industrial sectors.

The government is obliged to put up for tender any such projects costing more than one million dollars, the parliament said.

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Saudi Ambassador Criticizes Public Comments on Bombing Investigation

By Thomas W. Lippman
Washington Post Staff Writer; page A22

The signs of strain between the United States and Saudi Arabia over the investigation into a terrorist bombing of a U.S. military residence have increased with the distribution of a statement by the Saudi ambassador here criticizing FBI Director Louis J. Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno for their comments to reporters last week about the sensitive case...

***

To see full text, go to:

//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-01/26/108L-012697-idx.html

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AOL Under Siege, Faces Dilemma

From wire services

NEW YORK, Jan 27 - America Online Inc., which is under siege by an onslaught of consumer complaints and scrutiny by 20 state attorneys general, is facing a major dilemma as it continues its negotiations with the states.

On Friday, New York threatened to sue the world's largest online service for allegedly deceptive business practices and false advertising if its negotiations with America Online seeking relief for consumers break down.

Other states could follow and at least one, Washington, said it is considering its options.

The Dulles, Va.-based online service has been besieged with complaints by subscribers who began encountering repeated busy signals when they tried to log on after the company switched to a pricing plan offering unlimited access for $19.95 a month.

New York state Attorney General Dennis Vacco said his priority is getting refunds or free time for frustrated consumers, something America Online Chairman Steve Case said he is not willing to do.

Amid the storm of bad publicity and busy signals, AOL is losing the new subscribers it has been spending millions of dollars to gain. It said it was cutting back on its television advertising campaign and mailings of floppy disks to curtail interest in its service while it upgrades its network with more modems, spending $350 million.

Already, both Prodigy Services Co. and AT&T Corp.'s WorldNet Internet service have said they gained new subscribers this month, at a faster pace than normal. Both attribute the upsurge in their memberships to frustrated AOL subscribers.

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