BRIEF ON IRAN, No. 278 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran Monday, October 23, 1995 3421 M Street NW #1032, Washington, DC 20007 S. African, Iranian Oil Deal in Jeopardy, United Press International, October 20 JOHANNESBURG - A controversial deal between South Africa and Iran to store Iranian oil in South Africa and then trade the oil on the world market is in jeopardy after negotiations over profit sharing floundered, a financial newspaper reported Friday. The South African Business Day newspaper said the deal had run into serious problems over what share the South African government would receive from profits derived from the sale of the oil. Although negotiations to rescue the deal were continuing, the newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying the deal, which has been on the negotiating table for the last two years, was "dead in the water."... Iranian Diplomat Shot by Argentine Biker, Reuters, October 22 BUENOS AIRES - Iran's top diplomat in Argentina was shot and wounded by a motorcyclist as he drove through Buenos Aires with his family, Argentine media reported on Sunday.... Interior Minister Carlos Corach repudiated the attack and said it was a "worrying development." Police said it wasn't clear yet whether political motives were involved in the attack. Iran and Argentina have maintained minimal relations since the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 86 people. The judge investigating the bombing said he had proof of Iranian involvement but has not presented sufficient evidence to enable the Supreme Court to start international legal proceedings. Cruel Punishment by Mullahs, Government-controlled Kayhan Daily, October 16 The boy who had killed all members of a girl's family ... was condemned to four death sentences.... For being an accomplice in the deaths, the girl was sentenced to two life terms in prison and gouging of both her eyes. Babies' Names Must Be "Islamic", Reuters, October 19 TEHRAN - About one in every 100 Iranians have changed their names deemed unIslamic or otherwise unfitting, newspapers reported on Thursday. Over 589,000 people had changed their family names and 77,500 taken new first names since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the daily Abrar quoted a top official of Iran's Civil Status Registration Organization, identified only as Pouryahya, as saying. This was to avoid unIslamic, aristocratic, foreign and otherwise "inappropriate" names, he added... Residents said people were not forced to change their names but that officials refused to register newborn babies with names deemed unfitting. Algiers Battles Islamist Shadow Over Mediterranean, Reuters, October 22 NICOSIA - Algerian authorities on Sunday embarked on a high-risk gamble to try to end a "holy war" whose disciples have brought fear across North Africa and Europe and driven the United States to rethink regional strategy.... One Middle Eastern diplomat said recently that if Algeria fell to fundamentalists, Egypt could easily follow, bringing with it several other countries.... Egypt, like Algiers, blames Sudan and Iran for training, arming and financing what to many looks like a coordinated campaign to spread Moslem fundamentalism through terror, recruiting those with little to lose from among the poverty- stricken, marginalized young.... The shadow cast by the banner of militant Islam has fallen across the White House. U.S. officials say Washington, still economically and politically battling Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, is now trying to build a regional bulwark against Algeria's radical insurgency.