Iran Praises U.S. for Action on Dissidents
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
8.17.2003
NYTimes
TEHRAN, Iran, Aug. 16 (AP) — Iran conferred rare praise on the United States today when its foreign minister said the State Department's closing of the offices of Iranian dissidents was a "positive" act.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on Friday shut down the Washington offices of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the Mujahedeen Khalq. The council says it is an umbrella organization for dissident groups, including the Mujahedeen Khalq, but American officials say the two are virtually interchangeable.
Mujahedeen Khalq is on the State Department's list of terrorist groups, but the United States allowed the council to operate with little interference. Following Mr. Powell's order, the Treasury Department froze the council's nearly $100,000 worth of financial assets in the United States.
The Iranian foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, called the U.S. action "a positive step that conforms to its international responsibilities," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/17/international/middleeast/17IRAN.html1.25 million young Iranian women may not marry
Via Iranmania
Aug 16, 2003
TEHRAN - Some 1.25 million Iranian women in their 20s are unlikely to marry because of a shortage of men, according to a survey published Saturday.
The survey, carried out by the national centre for youth and carried in the reformist daily Nassim Saba, claims there are 6.2 million women aged between 20 and 29 in Iran, compared with only 4.8 million men in the 25-34 age bracket.
Given the trend for Iranian men to marry younger women, the report concluded that up to 1.25 young women may become spinsters.
Experts say increased migration by men, as well the death of hundreds of thousands of Iranans during the 1980-88 war with Iraq war are the main reasons for the population imbalance.
http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_1766.shtmlIs this the group that was arrested in France (Mujahedeen Khalq)? Can you explain who they are? (I don't think the AP did a very good job explaining them.)