AFP, Jan. 10 - The National Council of Resistance of Iran called for boycott of the parliamentary elections in Iran in March. The NCR President Massoud Rajavi said that "any form of assistance to this theatrics runs counter to the highest interests of the Iranian people."

Massoud Rajavi, the former leader of the Mojahedin (the main armed opposition, based in Baghdad) announced that he is convinced that "the election farce will meet the Iranian nation's full-fledged boycott." He said, "this election is used only for sett ling the accounts among the government factions." Rajavi emphasized that "Iranians had already demonstrated within and without Iran their tremendous support for Maryam Rajavi," the President elected by the exiled NCR. According to Rajavi, the National Cou ncil of Resistance is the only democratic alternative to the mullahs' religious terrorist dictatorship." He also challenged the mullahs to "hold a free parliamentary elections under the supervision of the United Nations" if they really mean it.

Reuters, Jan. 12 - A freak snowstorm wreaked havoc in usually warm areas in central and southern Iran, causing power failures and closing airports and roads, Iranian media and residents said on Friday. A half meter (20 inches) of snow, the heaviest in 50 years, left the usually warm southern city of Shiraz nearly paralyzed, without power and running water in some areas, residents said. Snow continued to fall in central Yazd province, where 400 villages were cut off by up to 50 cm (20 inches) of snow with some areas getting their first snow in 30 years.

Voice of Mojahed, Jan. 9 - Kerosene (Iran's main heating fuel) is scarce in Bouyeen Zahra, west of Tehran. It is not sold at petrol stations and is hardly found on the open market. In Kashan, central Iran, too, kerosene has not been distributed for a m onth.

Voice of Mojahed, Jan. 9 - Each one-litter bottle of milk, found only in the black market, is sold between 1,200 to 1,400 rials while the official price stands at 200 rials. Potatoes, a main daily staple, are sold at 2,000 rials per kilo. A large group of people in Omidieh, south Tehran, protested in front of the Friday prayer against the shortage and high price of potatoes.

Jomhouri Islami, Jan. 11 - President of the Payam-e Nour University announced in a press interview that 27% of the students quit school because they could not afford a 10% increase in the tuition.

Voice of Mojahed, Jan. 12 - Thousands of contract teachers of Mazandaran's rural schools were laid off. This is while the 1,500 elementary schools in this northern province have no teachers.

Tehran radio, Jan. 9 - Some 210 billion rials of smuggled goods were discovered and confiscated in the past 9 months, a 70% increase compared to the same period last year. In a two-day gathering in the southern port city of Bandar-Abbas, the intelligen ce deputy for the Security Forces announced that 3.50 billion rials were paid as commission to the security forces in charge of such discoveries.

Tehran radio, Jan. 9 - The Majlis ratified a bill banning any raise in the New Year bonuses for government employees. The mullahs' parliament emphasized that the credit allocated for New Year bonuses is equal to that of last year's, forbidding any othe r payment under any other pretext.

Jomhouri Islami, Jan. 9 - Brigadier General Golchin, the Guards Corps commander in Khuzistan, southern Iran, announced that 43 (anti-riot) Ashura battalions and 9 battalions of Az-zahrah launched a maneuver "to preserve their capability and pre pare them for countering any form of activities against the national security." According to recent ratifications, he added, members of the Ashura and Azzahra battalions will enjoy salary raises and special benefits in college admission.

Kayhan, Jan. 10 - Ilam's Guards Corps launched a maneuver, code-named Ashura, in the western border region of Salehabad. The exercise aimed to improve the troops' combat and defense readiness in countering anti-government actions.

State-run press, Jan. 9 - Three prisoners were shot while trying to escape from Adelabad prison, Shiraz. One prisoner was killed and the other two wounded. [Adelabad is said to lodge mostly political prisoners.]

Kayhan, Jan. 8 - Police raided 110 houses in Tehran and confiscated satellite dishes used to watch "corrupt western programs." [The regime banned satellite dishes last April.]

Salam, Jan. 4 - The Council of Guardians addressed a letter to the Majlis [the Iranian parliament] listing 25 items in the Bill of Islamic Punishments which contradict religious laws and two items that violate the constitution.

Voice of Mojahed, Jan. 12 - The roof of an elementary school in western Tehran collapsed, seriously wounding a number of students. The teacher suffered a blow to his head and fell into comma.

IRNA, Jan. 10 - Explosives left over from the war blew up in a border village near Khorramshahr in southwest Iran killing three boys, aged six and seven and a 16.

BBC radio, Jan. 11 - The Khomeini regime prevented the holding of a press conference by members of the Freedom Movement, including Ibrahim Yazdi and Hashem Sabbaghian. Yazdi planned to announce their movement's nominees for the elections. Having served as interior Minister under Mehdi Bazargan's post-revolutionary transitional government, Sabbaghian told the BBC that they intended to test the waters and see if the regime is ready to give such an opportunity to a dissident group. In a separate interview , Ibrahim Yazdi said their group could not meet the United Nations special envoy on the freedom of speech because of his tight schedule, they were told.

NCR statement, Jan. 14, Paris - The Germany daily, Frankfurter Allgemeine has reported that Klaus Kinkel, that country's Foreign Minister, is planning to visit Iran. The NCR condemns this trip which runs counter to the highest interests of the Iranian people. Such a visit to Iran demonstrates a blatant disregard for the will of German people and their representatives who called for a decisive policy against the Khomeini regime in a Bundestag vote two months ago.

Jomhouri Islami, Jan. 8 - In a speech in Tehran, Ali Fallahian, the Minister of Intelligence and Security, warned the United States that his agents had reconnoitered the U.S installations and bases in the region.

AFP, Jan. 11, Tehran - A parliamentary deputy announced that the Majlis allocated 25 billion rials ($16 million) in next years' budget to defuse and uncover U.S. plots against Iran.

AP, Jan. 9, Beijing -- China indicated that plans to sell Iran two nuclear reactors have been shelved. Asked at a media briefing about the reactors, Foreign Ministry spokesman Chen Jian said, "On these specific cases, the implementation of the agreemen ts between China and Iran on nuclear cooperation has ceased."

BBC radio, Jan. 10 - According to a report by MEED, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official announced that his country will not grant Iran the loans it expects in March.

UPI, Jan. 9, UAE, Dubai -- Police has arrested three men accused of detonating concussion bombs in a Manama shopping center last month, Bahrain's government said. According to Bahrain's official Gulf News Agency, an Interior Ministry official said the three suspects had confessed to receiving training from "terrorist elements abroad. The official did not name a particular country, but this phrase is usually interpr eted to mean Iran.

Frankfurter Rundshau, Jan. 12, Berlin - Iran's Ministry of Intelligence must have been involved in the assassination of the Kurdish leaders on September 17, 1992, in the Mykonos Restaurant in Berlin. The BFV read out this information in the cour t on Jan. 11. The BFV report continues that the working group from the Ministry of Intelligence arrived in Berlin in early September 1992 and made the necessary arrangements with the ministry's agents based in Berlin, finalizing the plans and the latest i nformation on the place of assassination. Germany's General Prosecutor's office has considered issuing an arrest warrant for Ali Fallahian, Iran's Minister of Intelligence, since some time ago.

Der Tagesspiegel, Jan. 11 - The government of Germany has warned the Federal Prosecutor's Office against issuing an arrest warrant for Ali Fallahian. To halt Fallahian's case, Bonn's government cites the second part of Paragraph C153, in the pen al code in which it is emphasized that should a procedure constitute grave harm to the interests of the Federal Republic of Germany, the procedure can be stopped.

Reuters, Jan. 11, Berlin - The Iranian secret service was directly involved in the murder of Kurdish opposition politicians from Iran and not contract killers, a German lawyer told a Berlin court on Thursday.

A lawyer for the victims' families Hans-Joachim Ehrig said that, according to documents from the Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution (BfV), agents had been ordered by Tehran to carry out the gangland-style killings.

Three leaders of the Iranian Democratic Party of Kurdistan (DPK-I) and their translator were shot dead in a hail of gunfire in a Berlin restaurant in September 1992. An Iranian and four Lebanese are accused of carrying out the attack. The killing had b een "carried out directly by agents of the Iranian secret service, we are therefore dealing with an act of state terrorism," Ehrig said.

In the trial the four accused have admitted in part to charges they were working for Iranian intelligence and that they were involved in the shooting. Ehrig said that the German BfV counter-espionage agency's documents show that a team from the Iranian Intelligence Ministry had been visiting Berlin at the time of the crime and were liaising with Berlin-based Iranian agents.

One member of the hit-squad was in contact with the Kurdish politicians. "The traitor was actually sitting with them at the table," said Ehrig, adding that after the killing the assassins were spirited back to Iran.

According to Ehrig one Iranian agent under the cover name of "Sharif" fired 24 bullets at the Kurds with an automatic pistol in the attack which also critically injured the owner of the restaurant. The trial has been going on for over two years.

Tehran denies any involvement and says that the killing were a result of Kurdish infighting.

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