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A change in opinion from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his inner circle? The Guardian Council, which implements the supreme leader’s decrees, has admitted that the number of votes tallied after the June 12 presidential election in 50 Iranian cities surpasses the number of eligible voters, indicating widespread fraud. (And Press TV, Iran’s semi-official news agency, is actually reporting the admission.) Still, the council is downplaying the revelation, saying it “it has yet to be determined whether the possible change in the tally is decisive in the election results.” The reexamination of votes was carried out in response to a request by Mohsen Rezaie, a conservative candidate defeated in the controversial election. A spokesman for the council is pointing to the fact that fraud was found in just 50 cities, instead of 170, as originally thought, as a sign that the elections may not have been all that corrupt.
By throwing himself headfirst into the turmoil racking his country, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, may have irreparably damaged his image as a spiritual arbiter of Iranian political and cultural life, The New York Times reports. The brief arrest of relatives of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani only reinforces this point, reports The Times, and serves as a public indicator of a schism at the top of the Iranian hierarchy. Rafsanjani, an influential figure in Iran and an outspoken supporter of Mir Hossein Mousavi, insists the June 12 presidential election was rigged. Rafsanjani leads a council with a great deal of influence over the ayatollah, and the arrest of Rafsanjani’s relatives signals that tensions are reaching a boiling point among the conservative and reformist sects in Iranian politics.
The deaths of protestors and surprising arrest of the daughter of one of Iran’s most high profile men, former Iranian president Ayatollah Rafsanjani, have caused religious leaders in Iran to consider alternative leadership. According to an anonymous source in the city of Qom, religious clerks and members of the Assembly of Experts met today to discuss forming a collective ruling body to replace the current role of Ayatollah Khamenei. Last Friday Khamenei praised the reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, however, following the intense protests this weekend, replacing him could stall more civil unrest.
As violence raged in the streets of Tehran on Saturday, President Obama released a short statement asking the government "to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people." Why is Obama remaining guarded in his comments about Iran even as its demonstrations turned bloody? U.S. officials say the President is trying to protect the possibility of negotiating directly with Iran about its nuclear program and links to terrorism, and is also trying to prevent demonstrators from being labeled as American stooges. Obama has also avoided saying whether he thinks the election was rigged, despite strongly-worded resolutions passed in both the House and Senate on Friday and Republican pressure to take a stand. Obama's been praised for his seeming neutrality by foreign policy experts, except for a slip-up last week when he told CNBC that the difference in Mousavi and Ahmadinejad's policies was not so great as "advertised."
The Iranian government crackdown on the media appears harsher than initially believed: 24 journalists and bloggers have been jailed in the country, including an Iranian-Canadian journalist working for Newsweek. Maziar Bahari was detained without charges by the authorities on Sunday and he has not been heard from since. "Newsweek strongly condemns this unwarranted detention, and calls upon the Iranian government to release him immediately," said the magazine in a statement. Newsweek reports that several security officers arrived at Bahari’s Tehran apartment, did not identify themselves, and then left with the journalist after taking his laptop and videos. According to Reporters Without Borders, the head of the Association of Iranian Journalists has also been detained, and Life magazine reports an Iranian photojournalist who shot photos on their Web site is also missing.
You know the economy is bad when a film studio backs off a Steven Soderbergh/Brad Pitt vehicle this late in the game. Production was set to begin on Monday for Soderbergh’s latest, Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt and based on the Michael Lewis book, when Columbia Pictures pulled the plug. The surprising decision came in response to Soderbergh’s extensive rewrite of the script, which is based on the innovative low-cost philosophy one former player used while managing major league teams. Although Pitt—a sure fire moneymaker—is starring in the film, aspects of it were apparently too avant-garde for a big-budget blockbuster. Soderbergh had planned to weave in actual interview with former baseball players, and also had cast well known former sluggers like David Justice as actors. Now, it seem, the project is being shopped to other studios.
Portugal is on track to become the next country to receive Guantanamo detainees, as officials work to resettle the 200 prisoners Washington has chosen not to prosecute. The Iberian nation is currently taking the necessary internal steps to welcome “two or three” prisoners; Spain and Italy have offered to take detainees from the prison as well. Last year, Portugal became the first country to insist publicly that the European Union embark on a coordinated resettlement plan for the prison camp’s detainees.
It appears The New York Times was prepared to dip into its diminishing budget and pay $5 million to Taliban kidnappers to free its reporter David S. Rohde before he made a surprising escape on Friday. After using a third party to contact his captors during Rohde’s seventh month ordeal in captivity, a source with “direct knowledge of the case” says the newspaper organization considered paying the ransom. Reached via email, Executive Editor Bill Keller said, “We paid no ransom...We’re just not going to talk about who did what, or who advised what.” A stunning media silence of 40 news organizations surrounded the story to protect the safety of the reporters. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Rohde and a local reporter escaped from Pakistan by scaling a wall on Friday night after being captured last November while en route to an interview.
President Obama heralded a “turning point” in health care on Saturday, as Senator Max Baucus and the White House announced that the pharmaceutical industry agreed to spend $80 billion over the next decade on health care reform. According to the agreement, the industry will pay for half of the cost of brand-name drugs for seniors in the so-called donut rule—a gap in coverage in many of the prescription-drug coverage plans. "The agreement by pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the health reform effort comes on the heels of the landmark pledge many health industry leaders made to me last month, when they offered to do their part to reduce health spending $2 trillion over the next decade," Obama said. "We are at a turning point in America's journey toward health care reform."
Simon Cowell, the snarky judge and creator of Britain's Got Talent, recently struck an unexpectedly contrite note about his handling of the show's star Susan Boyle. The Scottish singing sensation was hospitalized for exhaustion (dubbed a mental breakdown by the media) after the show, which she lost by a hair to a dance troupe. She's since missed several appearances on the show's live tour. "Looking back on it all, it has become clear to me that we didn't handle the situation with Susan as well as we could have," he wrote in The Daily Mail. "I certainly didn't think, 'Here comes a phenomenon who is going to become the most famous woman in the world, I wonder if she can mentally cope with it?'" He realized how unprepared for fame she was when she lost the show. "I looked over at her face and thought, 'Christ, she doesn't know how to deal with not winning.'"
The presidential motorcade made a beeline for Virginia on Saturday afternoon. Jake Tapper at ABC News reports that, as a Father’s Day treat, President Obama and his daughters visited The Dairy Godmother, an ice-cream parlor in Alexandria. Obama enjoyed vanilla custard with hot fudge and toasted almonds, while Sasha ate a brownie sundae and Malia had vanilla custard. The president also left with frozen pumpkin, peanut butter, and yogurt goodies—treats, apparently, for Bo.
Italians are used to hearing of their eccentric prime minister's escapades with young women in the media, but the testimony of 23-year-old Barbara Montereale might tip his actions from the arena of the ridiculous to the despicable in the eyes of his constituents. Montereale testified about traveling to Silvio Berlusconi's vacation villa in Sardinia with Patrizia D'Addario, a prostitute. She was paid €1,000 by a third party to make the trip, and Berlusconi gave her rings and necklaces and a CD of love songs, as well as a bag full of money. Montereale said she never had sex with Berlusconi, but that D'Addario did, but didn't ask for money because she wanted his help in building a hotel. It appears Berlusconi is losing support in the face of his indiscretions. The Catholic Church is distancing itself from him, and he was booed at a political rally in Milan. "You disgust and repel me. But you communists without dignity will never bring me down," he shouted to the crowd.
Sandra Bullock pulled off her best opening weekend yet with green card romantic comedy The Proposal. The movie, which co-stars Ryan Reynolds, is expected to rake in $30 million at the box office this weekend, topping the comedy Year One with Michael Cera and Jack Black. The Proposal knocked out buddy comedy The Hangover from the top spot, which it held the last two weekends.
No roars from Tiger Woods this weekend: The defending U.S. Open champ—and favorite to win this year's tourney—isn't working the same magic on the greens this time around, calling his standing as the world's No. 1 into question. And he can't blame it on the course: Woods won his second of four U.S. Opens at the renowned Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. back in 2002. But alas, Woods shot a shocking 74 in his first round, and a (slightly improved) 69 his second day—placing him 11 strokes behind the tournament's current leader, former American amateur champion Ricky Barnes. Woods' early performance calls to mind his slump back in 2006—the only time he missed the cut as a pro in the U.S. Open—when he shot successive rounds of 76 following the death of his father, Earl. But Woods is staying hopeful. “My score doesn’t reflect how I’ve been playing,” he argued. “But it is what it is. There are still another 36 holes to play and I have to keep plugging away. I’m hitting the ball well enough—I just need to make a few more putts."
Who needs a father on Father’s Day? According to the Associated Press, Madonna and her newly adopted daughter, Mercy, left Malawi for London this weekend. The pair bolted by private jet on Friday afternoon, according to an airport employee, and Mercy was well taken care of: Also on the flight were a nanny, a child nurse, and a third aide. Madonna gained custody of Mercy on June 12.
In front on a massive crowd of supporters in Tehran on Saturday, supposedly defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi said, "These irritating measures (election rigging) were planned months ahead of the vote...considering all the violations...the election should be annulled” and an ally says Mousavi is “ready for martyrdom” in leading the opposition cause. During his speech, which was planned despite Iran’s Security Council warning Mousavi he would be held responsible for illegal demonstrations, he also called for a national strike if he was arrested. Also in Iran, in a symbolic move, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and two people were injured.
After a (relatively speaking) calm two months in Iraq, a suicide bomber killed 67 people and wounded 200 on Saturday afternoon in the deadliest attack this year. The attack raises fears that insurgents will soon take over urban centers after U.S. soldiers, scheduled to leave by June 30, depart under the security pact signed last year. The incident involving a truck filled with explosives took place hours after Iraq prime minister Nuri al-Maliki told leaders of the community, “Don’t lose heart if a breach of security occurs here or there.”
During the massive protests that rocked Tehran yesterday, the daughter and four other relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani were reportedly arrested, which, if true, means an escalation of the Iranian government's crackdown. Iran's state press are reporting between 13 and 19 deaths and over 100 injuries from Saturday's protests after police used guns, tear gas, and water cannons to stifle thousands of demonstrators. Meanwhile, BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne has been kicked out of Iran for filing "false news and reports, ignoring impartiality, supporting the insurgents, trampling the rights of the Iranian nation, fanning the unrest and also provoking public opinion," according to Fars News, a government mouthpiece. Sunday so far has been calm, but protests are expected to begin again around 5 p.m. Opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavi told supporters on Saturday to strike if he is arrested, saying, "I am ready for martyrdom."
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