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TEHRAN - Riot police swinging clubs dispersed 4,000 people demonstrating Tuesday in support of Tehran's mayor, whose jailing has turned into a showdown between hard-liners and moderates in Iran's Islamic government.
About 300 riot police broke up the rally outside Tehran University near the center of the capital. Witnesses said about 30 protesters were arrested, but police refused to comment.
Fistfights also erupted between supporters and opponents of the mayor, Gholamhossein Karbaschi.
[A statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, confirming the news, reported: ""Rival factions also clashed, broke the windows and tore off posters at a pro-Karbastchi exhibition at the Ministry of the Interior, where Fa'ezeh Rafsanjani was addressing the crowd. She was forced to cut short her speech and escape the scene.
"Abdollah Nouri, the Interior Minister
and one of the main supporters of Karbastchi, has been summoned to answer
questions at Majlis, tomorrow. A state-controlled daily wrote that instead
of trying to calm the situation, the Interior Ministry has become a center
for organizing unrest."]
Iran's Non-Oil Trade Gap Widens, Reuter, April 14
TEHRAN - Iran's exports of non-oil goods and services amounted to $3 billion and its imports $15.9 billion in the year ending March 20, the customs administration was quoted as saying.
Exports registered a drop of 3.1 percent compared with the previous year, while imports were 17.5 percent higher, the daily Iran newspaper, in its Monday edition, quoted the customs as saying.
Exports of agricultural products dropped by 40.7 percent to $555 million as a result of last year's drought and a European Union ban on imports of Iranian pistachio nuts.
Superficial Measures to Recover Fall of Iran's Currency,
Reuter, April 13
TEHRAN - The Iranian rial recovered slightly on Monday after police arrested illegal currency traders in Tehran following a 17 percent fall in the past few days.
The fall of the currency from 5,250 rials to the dollar on Saturday to a low of 6,300 rials late on Sunday followed a government decision last week to raise the exchange rate at which state banks sell dollars to travelers going abroad.
The rial has also come under pressure from weak oil prices, which are some $4 below Iran's budgeted price for oil. The oil price decline threatens to undermine Iran's economy which relies on petroleum exports for more than 80 percent of its hard currency earnings.
Before last week's decision, widely seen by economists as a result of falling oil revenues, travelers could buy up to $1,000 at an official rate of about 3,000 rials to the dollar.
Under the new directive, the rate would
be the equivalent of a floating exchange rate quoted on the Tehran stock
exchange which stands at about 4,800 rials to the dollar.
Iranian Girl Commits Suicide In Detention, Reuter, April 11
TEHRAN - An Iranian girl, detained by authorities in the southwest Iranian city of Abadan on suspicion that she was having a relationship with a young man, committed suicide while in detention, the daily Farda newspaper reported on Saturday.
Iran's morals police, who enforce Iran's strict version of an Islamic code of conduct, occasionally break up mixed parties or question couples walking in the street together.
The morals police reportedly took in the girl and her alleged companion for questioning eight days ago, the newspaper said.
The girl hanged herself with her scarf in a detention center after denying having an affair with the man.
Iran Submarines Use Live Ammunition in War-Games,
Reuter, April 14
TEHRAN - Iranian navy submarines fired live ammunition at mock enemy targets at sea and on shore during war-games in the Gulf, an Iranian military official said on Tuesday.
Captain Abdollah Manavi, spokesman for the "Ettehad" (Unity) exercises, said the three Russian-built diesel submarines also practiced avoiding detection and countering threats by hypothetical enemy forces.
It is the first exercise in which Iran has operated its three Kilo class submarines together.