The next round of Majlis elections has been slated for March 14, 2008.

TEHRAN, June 10--Registration, voting and ballot counting in the upcoming parliament elections will be computerized, an Interior Ministry official said.
Mohammad Hossein Mousapour, deputy interior minister for legal and parliamentary affairs, told reporters on the sidelines of an open Majlis session on Sunday that the next parliament elections would be computerized.
The next round of Majlis elections has been slated for March 14, 2008.
“Preliminary measures have been taken in cooperation with the Guardians Council,“ IRNA quote the official as saying.
He stressed that the Interior Ministry has guaranteed the health of the upcoming elections.
“Political groups are entitled to discuss the date of elections, as we respect their concerns. However, we should also take current limitations into account,“ he said.
Mousapour noted that the budget for the next Iranian year (to start March 20, 2008) will be discussed by the MPs by February 19, 2008, so that parliamentarians will have sufficient time for the next Majlis elections.

SOUMEH-SARA, Gilan, June 10--Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi said on Saturday a soft war is on the superpowers’ agenda and this war is being waged in cultural fields.
Speaking in the inauguration ceremony of “Farabi Cultural Complex“ here, Harandi, referring to the repeated failures of superpowers in the military arena said, “Superpowers’ experiences in the recent decades have led them to extend their influence in countries where the military conflict is not the only choice,“ IRNA reported.
The minister underlined that the soldiers of such a war are intellectuals and the media.
“In the current situation, places like this (a cultural complex) are our barracks to fight the enemies,“ he said.
Soumeh-Sara city is located 25 kilometers west of Rasht, capital of Gilan province, and has a population of 140,000.

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf

TEHRAN, June 10--Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Sunday the mayor’s involvement in cabinet meetings is to the advantage of the capital city.
Speaking on IRIB’s TV Channel 1, Qalibaf added that the mayor’s presence in the cabinet is not stipulated in the law but it was implemented in the past, IRIB’s website reported.
“Since President Ahmadinejad earlier served as Tehran’s mayor, he knows many of the city’s problems. In case he wants the presence of mayor in the cabinet meetings, he can order it,“ he said.
Qalibaf noted that the capital is facing many problems and the government should explain how it wants to help eliminate them.
“The mayor’s presence in the cabinet meetings is to the advantage of a major city like Tehran,“ he said.

VIENNA, Austria, June 10--The UN nuclear agency opens a meeting on Monday in Vienna with Russia saying a proposed US missile defense shield could complicate the resolution of Iran’s nuclear case.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday in Moscow that US missile defense plans could “seriously complicate“ efforts by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, AFP reported.
“Work is underway within the framework of the IAEA. We want this to fully clarify all aspects. The deployment of the missile shield in Europe may complicate these efforts and question Iran’s willingness to openly cooperate,“ Lavrov said.
The Group of Eight powers, which include both the United States and Russia, at the end of a summit in Germany on Friday threatened to take new measures against Iran if it continues to ignore UN demands to halt its uranium enrichment program.
The IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors will be hearing next week a report from agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei which states that Iran is expanding enrichment work.
Iran insists its program is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity to which it has a right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

TEHRAN, June 10--A parliamentarian notified the ministers of foreign affairs and science over the dismissal of an Iranian citizen from New York’s Rockefeller University.
In a written notification read by Majlis Vice Speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar in an open parliament session on Sunday, Seyyed Jalal Yahyazadeh called on ministers of foreign affairs and science, Manouchehr Mottaki and Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi respectively, to respond to the queries of MPs, IRNA reposted.
One of the notifications pertains to the case of Iranian researcher Effat Emamian who is suing the university, alleging she lost her position at the faculty because of her gender.
In another notification, Yahyazadeh notified Health Minister Kamran Bageri Lankarani and Mottaki over the US government’s delay in issuing visa for Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Hossein Malek-Afzali who was awarded by the United Nations Population Fund.

WASHINGTON,
June 10--Five Iranian diplomats imprisoned by US forces in Iraq since January will probably be released in the next few weeks, according to some US and Iraqi officials.
The Iranians, who were seized during a raid on Iran’s consulate in Irbil, in northern Iraq, are up for a six-month review of their cases at the end of June, the officials said, Los Angeles Times reported.
The officials emphasized that no decision had been made, but said the review offered an opportunity to resolve an issue that has been a point of contention between the Bush administration and the government in Tehran, and also a source of tension with US allies in the Iraqi government.
The Iranians’ release would make it more likely that the recently started US-Iranian dialogue on Iraq would continue. It could also encourage Iran to release four Iranian Americans, who hold citizenship in both countries, being held in Tehran on allegations of spying, Middle East experts said.
One senior Iraqi official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said in an interview that he expected the review of the men’s status would be completed by the end of the month and that he was hopeful they would be released.
A senior Bush administration official said the Iranians “could well“ be released, but added that it wasn’t a “foregone conclusion“. The official was cautious in assessing whether the move would improve US-Iranian relations, saying that Tehran’s reactions were hard to predict.
Another US official said that though a decision hadn’t been made yet, “it looks now like we’re heading“ toward release.
The captivity of the five Iranians “has really been a sore point in the relationship, and I think ending it could have a significant impact,“ said Gary Sick, a Columbia University expert on Iran who was a longtime US official.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari have called for the Iranians’ release, arguing that the United States needs to patch up relations with Iran.