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Crackdown in Iran puts Mousavi in tight spot (LAT-WP) The emerging power dynamics leave Mousavi with tough choices. He can either acknowledge his defeat and be embraced by his enemies or continue to fight over the election result and face imprisonment. By Thomas Erdbrink With the opposition visibly weakening in Iran amid a government crackdown, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his supporters have begun to use his disputed victory in this month’s election to toughen the nation’s stance internationally and to consolidate control internally. In recent days, they have vilified President Obama for what they call his “interventionist policies,” have said they are ready to put opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi’s advisers on trial and have threatened to execute some of the Mousavi supporters who took to the streets to protest the election result. On Sunday, news agencies reported that the police broke up another opposition gathering — witnesses said it numbered about 2,000 — and detained eight British Embassy staff members, accusing them of a role in organizing the demonstrations. The actions reflect the growing power of a small coterie of hard-line clerics and Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, Iranian analysts say. Revolutionary Guard members, in particular, have proved instrumental to the authorities since the June 12 election, and analysts say their clout is bound to increase as the conflict drags on. The emerging power dynamics leave Mousavi with tough choices. Confronted with increasing political pressure over what supporters of the government say is his leading role in orchestrating riots, he can either acknowledge his defeat and be embraced by his enemies or continue to fight over the election result and face imprisonment. “Everything now depends on Mousavi,” said Amir Mohebbian, a political analyst. “If he decreases the tension, politicians can manage this. If he increases pressure, the influence of the military and security forces will grow.” Should he continue to fight, other analysts say, Mousavi and many of his advisers could be jailed, which would mean the end of their political influence within Iran’s ruling system. The exclusion of such a large group would end Iran’s traditional power-sharing system. Authority would rest in the hands of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ahmadinejad, and his supporters, leaving the parliament as the lone outpost of opposition voices. On the other hand, accepting defeat might allow Mousavi to create a political party that, although unable to challenge the rule of Khamenei, could give him an opposition role during Ahmadinejad’s second term. Mousavi’s supporters, who are still enraged over post-election violence that they blame on the government, would be extremely disappointed by such a move. The one possible wild card in Mousavi’s favor seems to be coming from the holy city of Qom, one of the most influential centers of Shiite learning. There, several powerful grand ayatollahs have issued statements calling for a compromise and, most tellingly, have not joined Khamenei in his unequivocal support of Ahmadinejad. “Events that happened have weakened the system,” Grand Ayatollah Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardabili said during a meeting with members of the Guardian Council, the semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency reported Saturday. “You must hear the objections that the protesters have to the elections. We must let the people speak.” Another grand ayatollah issued two fatwas, or religious edicts, on Saturday, saying Islam forbids security forces from hitting unarmed people. Grand Ayatollah Asadollah Bayat Zanjani said the protests were Islamic. “These gatherings are the lawful right of the people and their only method for informing the rulers of their requests,” he said. Mousavi and another opposition candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, have vehemently refused to recognize the election results, which officially gave Ahmadinejad a landslide victory. They have also declined to participate in recount efforts by the Guardian Council, which must certify the final results Monday but which the opposition insists is biased. Their refusal plays into the hands of the president’s camp, which, strongly supported by state media, has launched a campaign against Mousavi, the protesters and his advisers. According to the official narrative of this campaign, opposition unrest was fomented by Iran’s foreign enemies — including the United States, Great Britain and Saudi Arabia — in an attempt to overthrow the regime. The Iranian government and its allies are gearing up to use those accusations to bring to court some political opponents, a move aimed at silencing the opposition for a longer period, analysts here say. The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights said Sunday that more than 2,000 people are in detention and that hundreds more have gone missing since the election. “We are very worried about my husband’s fate,” said Mahdieh Mohammadi, wife of journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi, a government critic. He was arrested the day after the election. “When you know nothing at all for the past two weeks, naturally you start to worry about everything.” State media have rolled out a daily serving of alleged plots and conspiracies involving Mousavi supporters. They refer to the protesters as “rioters” and “hooligans.” Mousavi’s aides are linked to plans for “a velvet revolution” meant to overthrow Iran’s complex system of religious and democratic governance. Some demonstrators have been forced to make televised statements in which they admit to being the pawns of foreigners. The head of the parliament’s judicial commission has said that Mousavi could be put on trial. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a staunch ally of Iran’s supreme leader, called Friday for “severe and ruthless” punishments for the “leaders of the agitations,” asking the judiciary to try them as those who “wage war against god.” Such crimes are punishable by death under Iran’s Shiite Islamic law. Khamenei has said that those organizing the “riots” will be held responsible for the “violence and bloodshed.” He has openly supported Ahmadinejad, breaking with the Islamic republic’s tradition of the supreme leader being above the fray. The Revolutionary Guard Corps, whose power mushroomed after the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, respectively, is in position to gain even more sway in the government. The 120,000-member corps acts as a praetorian guard, protecting Iran’s Islamic ruling system, and its commanders are close to top Iranian leaders. In recent years, the corps has added divisions, expanded its intelligence operations, helped professionalize the voluntary militia known as the Basij and taken greater control of the borders. “We are now in a security situation. That is increasing their influence,” said Mohebbian, the analyst, who is critical of both main presidential candidates. “Mousavi’s extremist actions have made it easy for military people to get involved in politics, which is always bad for democracy.” Former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an Ahmadinejad rival who supported Mousavi, on Sunday broke his post-election silence and called for an investigation into complaints of election irregularities. “I hope those who are involved in this issue thoroughly and fairly review and study the legal complaints,” Rafsanjani said. |
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North Korea’s heir is weak and vulnerable (REUTERS) By Jon Herskovitz The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will be weak, vulnerable and at the mercy of the old guard for years to come under a stage-managed succession taking place in the hermit state. In fact, it is the youth and inexperience of Kim Jong-un, 25, that makes him the most appealing candidate to next wear the crown for the Kim family dynasty that has ruled the country since it was founded more than 60 years ago. “The youngest child is seen as the most manageable,” said Suh Jae-jean, president of the Korea Institute for National Unification, the South’s top think tank for inter-Korean affairs. “For a period of time, he will be used as a puppet leader.” The Swiss-educated Jong-un is regarded as the most capable of Kim’s three known sons, but analysts believe the untested heir will not be in a position to challenge the close circle of senior leaders near Kim Jong-il as he is being groomed, or if he has to take over in the event his father dies suddenly. The succession process is in its early stages, with orders ... |
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Women, West Brom, the burqa and me (The Times) I was once asked if I’d like to be the mascot at a West Bromwich Albion football match. It involved me having to wear a large thrush costume. I mean, of course, the bird. It wasn’t some tasteless promotional event where I was dressed as an irritating rash and then seized upon by a man dressed as a tube of Canesten. I agreed to be the thrush but only if no one knew that it was me inside. I’m world-famous in West Bromwich so I thought that it would be novel to stroll around in front of 20-odd thousand people and not be recognised. The outfit was quite heavy and hot, with just a small slit at eye level to stop me walking into things. Before the game, I wandered around, waving to the crowd and having my photo taken with small children. Such is the role of the mascot. For these photos, I adopted my regulation warm-hearted grin but after I’d posed for about 20 such shots, it occurred to me that this was completely unnecessary because I couldn’t be seen. I was getting a bit bored and hot by now and it was a real treat to not have to look happy and enthusiastic. Come photograph No50 I was actually scowling but no one could tell. This was a truly liberating experience and it suddenly made me realise why many Muslim women are reluctant to give up th... |
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Students without borders (LAT-WP) A team of very smart teenagers has set out to discover ways that maggots might make the world a better place. Two are from suburban Washington. Two live more than 9,000 miles away in Singapore. To many US politicians, educators and business leaders, Singapore’s students have become a symbol of the fierce competition the nation faces from high achievers in Asia. But these four students call themselves “international collaborators” and friends. Even as globalization has fed worries about whether US students can keep up with the rest of the world, it also has spawned classroom connections across oceans. Teachers, driven by a desire to help students navigate a world made smaller by e-mail, wikis and teleconferences, say lessons once pulled mainly from textbooks can come to life through real-world interactions. “When we talk on Facebook,” Joanne Guidry, 17, one of the researchers at the Academy of Science in suburban Loudoun County, Virginia, said of her Singaporean peers, “you can’t tell they are halfway around the world.” Ballou High School students in Washington made a dance video to go-go music, and an Israeli school sent back a folk dance video. A New York class talked to French students about Barack Obama’s July visit to France as a presidential candidate. Students in suburban Montgomery County, Maryland, and Romania last fall shared ideas on whether cyberbullies should be punished. Harford County students — including many who had never visited nearby Baltimore — debated the merits of chocolate milk with p... |
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‘Universal human renaissance needed’ (QNA) H H Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned has been inducted as a permanent member of the French Arts Academy. Following is a text of the speech of Sheikha Mozah at the inauguration ceremony in Paris. Thank you very much for attending this ceremony. It gives me great pleasure to extend on your behalf, my gratitude to Mr Taillibert and his team for all their efforts, and to thank the members of the Academie des Beaux –Arts. I am very honoured today for becoming one of them. When I received in 2007 an invitation to become a member of the academy, I must say in all honesty that I did some serious thinking prior to granting my approval. My attitude at the time was not, however, the result of a preconceived idea about the system of the academy as I am absolutely aware of the high stature and special value of the Institut de France as a human heritage representing eras of human efforts dating back to the Enlightenment era until our time. Rather, it was the result of objective considerations essentially pertaining to the principle of commitment and the regulation of efforts for the purpose of serving principles I believe in. I am most certain that you agree with me that any person in such a position has a duty of trust towards himself, towards his society and towards humanity. As a result, upholding this trust requires choosing the best paths leading to the achievement of the objectives and priorities which to me, are: Achieving understanding among human beings and reconciliation between civilisations. This is what convinced me that this honour of becoming a member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts will pave the way for yet another path which I can follow in order to achieve this goal. I am pleased to be with you today, and thrilled to address this elite group sharing a high interest in politics, economy, art and culture. With your permission, I would like on this occasion to commemorate the composer Gyorgi Ligeti who passed away three years ago, and who was selected to be a member of this academy. Gyorgi Ligeti is not here with us now, his circumstances did not help him become a member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts, in all the creativity and challenge which he represents. His biography confirms Eugene Ionesco’s words and I quote: “An artwork is not a reflection or a... |
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Iranian cleric’s son at work in the wings (LAT-WP) By Jeffrey Fleishman There are few anecdotes about him, and pictures, at least ones that have appeared public, are scarce. But Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s supreme leader, wields considerable power and is a key figure in orchestrating the crackdown against anti-government protesters, analysts say. The younger Khamenei operates tucked behind an elaborate security structure, an overlapping world that stretches from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to the motorcycle-riding Basiji militiamen. Analysts and former dissidents describe him as the gatekeeper for his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a reclusive son whose political instincts were sharpened in a post-revolutionary Iran where affiliations with security and intelligence services were just as important as Islamic ideology. The anxiety in the streets of Tehran goes deeper than the outrage over the June 12 elections that authorities claim were won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — it is the newest round in a struggle between hardliners and reformists that began more than 20 years ago over the legacy of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. And at the centre, or at least very close to it, is Mojtaba Khamenei, an ultraconservative cleric who, analysts say, is being positioned to succeed his father. The younger Khamenei, who is believed to be in his 40s or early 50s, has emerged as a force in a bureaucracy gradually created by his father to consolidate the supreme leader’s p... |
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