Iran: Inflation rises further to 10.6 percent
Inflation in Iran continued its upward trend for the second consecutive year, going up to 10.6 percent in a year to Azar, the ninth month of the Iranian year, with fish, vegetables, fresh fruits, cotton, aluminum and imported medicine becoming costlier, IRNA reported from Tehran.
Reflecting the increased cost of living, the general price line, measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), rose by 10.1 percent in Azar compared to the figure for the corresponding month last year and rose by 2.1 percent in the month to 214.2 points compared to the previous month of Aban as prices of certain goods continued upward compared to those in the previous year's level.
In Iran, inflation is mainly caused by banking mismanagement, staggering loan and borrowing, mostly by the state organizations, government's domination of key economic sectors, indiscriminate allocation of subsidy both to the poor and the rich, and government's expansionary policies.
The fixed income group, which includes employees and workers, suffer the most from inflation.
Government has been trying to follow deflationary policies, including raising taxes, issuing participation bonds, and revising banking policies.
http://www.payvand.com/news/04/feb/1075.htmlKazemi's court file finally given to Nobel laureate
Monday, February 09, 2004 - ©2003 IranMania.com
TEHRAN, Feb 9 (AFP) -- Iranian court officials have submitted files on slain Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, three months after she took the case, a reformist paper said Monday.
The Yas-e-No daily reported that despite attempts by Ebadi, a qualified lawyer, and her associates to retrieve the 1,000-page dossier following the opening of the case on October 7, court officials said the file was unavailable.
The dossier was apparently given to a committee set up by Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi, to pursue Kazemi's case, the paper added.
Ebadi announced in November that she had agreed to represent Kazemi's family in the trial of an intelligence agent charged with her killing, but said three of her colleagues would take care of the bulk of the in-court work.
Kazemi, 56, was arrested in June for taking photographs outside Tehran's notorious Evin prison. She died in hospital on July 10 from a brain hemorrhage caused by a blow to the head.
Intelligence ministry agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, 42, has been charged with "participation in a quasi-intentional murder", in a trial that has sparked a political feud between the courts and the intelligence service.
The trial opened in October, but the judiciary has not fixed a new date for a resumption of the hearings.
When the accused allegedly began questioning Kazemi, the photographer was in good health, but following an interrogation she was admitted to hospital, the prosecution noted.
The intelligence service, seen as closer to Iran's governing reformist camp after a major shake-up in 2000, argues that Kazemi was fatally hurt while in the hands of the judiciary, which is controlled by the rival conservative camp.
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