Summary of Iran Stories in Today&apos;s BroadcastsBehnam NateghiTuesday, December 30, 2003 <b>Bush Considers Dialogue with Iran</b> • President Bush is considering opening dialogue with Iran, but would like to see some gesture from the Islamic Republic toward the US, a senior US official said on Tuesday. “This is a chance for Iran to step forward,” the official said. “The burden is on the Iranians,” he added, according to a report by the Reuters. (Amir Armin) • Thirty-Two of the 74-member Virginia Task Force One search and rescue team, who were on route to Iran via Spain, were flown back home. The other 42 members of the team will build a base for US humanitarian efforts in Bam before returning to the US in two days. Only 11 will stay behind for another two weeks. The team was informed of the change in their mission, when they stopped in Madrid for refueling, team&apos;s Virginia-based spokesman <b>Don Schmidt</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Leyli Sadr) • “There are things happening and therefore we should keep open the possibility of dialogue at an appropriate point in the future,” US Secretary of State Collin Powell said yesterday in Washington. “All of those things taken together show, it seems to me, a new attitude in Iran in dealing with these issues - not one of total, open generosity. But they realize that the world is watching, and the world is prepared to take action,” Mr. Powell said. (Ardavan Niknam) • Iran&apos;s envoy to the UN has been informed that of US plans to provide more assistance to the Bam earthquake victims, the US Department of State said. (Jean Khakzad) • Foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi thanked the US for sending 80 doctors and relief workers to Bam. (Maryam Ahmadi) • In an atmosphere of lack of mutual respect and threat, one cannot talk about improving relations, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said on Tuesday in response to Collin Powell comments about the possibility of US-Iran dialogue. (Maryam Ahmadi) • “Powell&apos;s public assessment comes as the administration is reviewing its policy on Iran for the third time since President Bush took office, other US officials said. Iran has been one of the thorniest issues for the administration. US officials have been deeply divided over whether to engage Iran, as they have attempted with North Korea, or to support regime change, as with Iraq. An original policy review on Iran drifted into an impasse and was revived twice -- before the military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which border Iran. But Iran&apos;s agreement to international inspections and the US success in getting Libya to surrender its deadliest weapons programs have fostered new interest in seeing whether diplomacy will work, writes Robin Wright in today&apos;s issue of the <i>Washington Post</i>. (Ali Sajjadi) • Donations provided by the American Jewish community will be given to the US-based Direct Relief International, spokeswoman of the New York-based international charity organization American Jewish World Service <b>Ronni Strongnin</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Behnam Nateghi, New York) <b>Rescue Teams Prepare to Leave, Death Toll Mounts to 40,000; Theft and Disorder Slow Relief Work</b> • Due to the lack of security in the city, the 150 domestic newsmen and 100 foreign reporters cannot go out at night to talk to the people of Bam, Tabrizi independent journalist <b>Ensafali Hedayat</b> who is in Bam, tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. More than 80 percent of the Bam population were either killed or injured in the earthquake, but the city is filled with out-of-town people, who appear to have come here out of poverty and joblessness; they have no skills, and were totally unsuccessful in pulling people out of the rubble, dead or alive, he adds. The reporters were told to get vaccinated against infectious diseases or stay four days in the quarantine before being allowed to leave the city, he says. (Jamshid Zand) • Thirty foreign teams are carrying out the search and rescue operations, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said today. Crowds of onlookers around the ruins hinder the rescue and relief work, he added. With the distribution of 20,000 tents and 120,000 blankets, the job of providing shelter for the earthquake stricken people of Bam has finished, he added. However, eyewitnesses report that many people are still without shelter. (Keyvan Hosseini) • Within two years, a new safer Bam will be built in the place of the ruined city, President Khatami said today in a press conference in Kerman, after meeting with his cabinet. (Keyvan Hosseini) • An international coalition is forming to help the victims of Bam earthquake, wrote Moscow daily the <i>Kommersant</i>. Russian doctors have already helped more than 386 injured, and the Russian team pulled 65 bodies out of the rubble, reported the Russian ministry for emergency. (Mani Kasravi, Moscow) • At least two out of every ten trucks of UN and foreign aid are being robbed by bandits; the sleeping bags sent by the UN are being sold on the streets of Zahedan and Bandar Abbas, a caller to <b>Radio Farda</b> earthquake hotline says. (Keyvan Hossini) • Management of the rescue and relief efforts has been very weak, there is chaos and lack of organization in distribution of aid and providing service to the afflicted; out-of-town people take away most of the donated goods, a student of Tehran&apos;s Sharif University, who is in Bam as a relief volunteer, tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Jamshid Zand) • The two German relief teams in Bam focus on health and sanitation problems, including providing drinking water. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne) • Bam needs no more relief workers; donations of goods too have been sufficient, head of the emergency relief organization Abbas Jazayeri said. He asked the international and domestic charities to focus on the need stage, which requires materials and tools to build temporary shelters and construction aid to rebuild the city. (Fereydoun Zarnegar) • People from out-of-town take most of the aid being distributed in Bam, because the local people are too busy burying their kin, a 24-year-old man, who has lost 40 family members and relatives in the earthquake, tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Jamshid Zand) • The widowed women and orphaned children who are now on the streets of Bam are the most vulnerable, and need immediate assistance, a journalist active in women&apos;s causes tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Mahmonir Rahimi) • Power was restored to the entire city, a caller to <b>Radio Farda</b>&apos;s earthquake hotline, who introduced himself as an electrician working in Bam, says. (Mahmonir Rahimi) • A caller to <b>Radio Farda</b> earthquake hotline asks the UN to supervise the distribution of aid. A university student suggests that people deliver their donations directly to the people of Bam through non-governmental charity organizations. Little of he donated aid reaches the true needy, says another caller. (Shireen Famili) • Most respondents to a poll in Los Angeles chose the International Red Cross as the recipient of the community&apos;s donations for earthquake victims. On their checks, people should write “Iran Earthquake,” spokesman of the Los Angeles office of the Red Cross <b>Douglas Allen</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Firouzeh Khatibi, Los Angeles) • UN has so far given $500,000 in emergency aid. Yesterday, representatives of 20 members of the cooperation and development organization, which includes the US, EU members and Norway, met in Geneva with UN officials to coordinate the international assistance. Members of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council donated $400 million. Egypt doubled its pledged aid. A humanitarian group in Israel said donations will be sent to Iran via a third country. (Siavash Ardalan) • A Paris man tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that in contacts with Shiraz he has learned that 30 of his relatives died in the earthquake. A family with two children was pulled out of the rubble alive yesterday, he adds. (Mir-Ali Hosseini) • Search and rescue teams from 28 countries, including the US, have begun packing their gear and preparing to leave, after hopes to find survivors under the rubble diminished five days after the earthquake that killed more than 30,000. (Farin Asemi) • Movie actor Akbar Abdi, who has been to Bam for a visit, called on the authorities to step up their relief efforts, in an interview on state-run TV monopoly, in which he appeared shaken, and crying. (Ashkan Pazouki, Tehran) • Search and rescue ended in the town of Baravat, near Bam, where 2000 reportedly died in the earthquake. (Keyvan Hosseini) • A Bam woman who has lost her husband, her three children and at least one hundred of her relatives in the quake tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that she survived because she was standing in a doorway. (Fereydoun Zarnegar) • The association of Iranian physicians and dentists in Germany will deliver donated funds and medicine directly to the people or charity organizations through a representative who will go to Iran for this purpose, spokesman <b>Dr. Alireza Ranjbar</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. The association plans to build a childcare center and a clinic in Bam. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne) • The prisons organization announced that it plans to petition for the pardon of prisoners who have lost relatives in the Bam earthquake, judiciary spokesman Gholanhossein Elham said. (Mahmonir Rahimi) • Three-Thousand were rescued, an official of the Kerman provincial government announced; 13,000 injured are being treated in the country&apos;s hospitals, the health ministry announced. (Mahmonir Rahimi) • More than 6,600 orphaned girls and widowed women were transferred to temporary shelters in Kerman, head of Kerman welfare organization Mohammad Setayesh said. Nearly 2.200 children were under care, most of whom have been delivered to their parents, he added. Eighty percent of Bam families have been affected by the earthquake, he added. (Arash Qavidel, Bam) • People of Urumieh donated goods and cash to donation centers, a caller to <b>Radio Farda</b> hotline says. • Italian daily <i>Corriere della Sera</i> criticized disorder and chaos in relief work at Bam quake site. (Ahmad Ra&apos;fat, Rome) • Azerbaijan ambassador to Tehran <b>Abbasali Hasanov</b>, who is personally overseeing the operations of 16 doctors and 25 relief workers who arrived from Azerbaijan, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that Azeri&apos;s arrived on a charter plane five days ago, by direct orders from Azerbaijan president Elham Aliev. (Fereydoun Zarnegar) • President Khatami&apos;s cabinet held a meeting in Kerman to review the needs of the quake stricken areas, Kermani journalist <b>Mohammad-Sadeq Taheri</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Fereydoun Zarnegar) • The first plane of food aid from the UN World Food Program was dispatched to the affected area, carrying 40 tons of nutritious biscuits good for feeding 120,000 in 12 days, spokeswoman <b>Caroline Harford</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Ahmad Ra&apos;fat, Rome) • Fearing another earthquake, people of Kerman and Zahedan spent the past two nights in the streets. Kerman&apos;s Kosar circle, the largest in the city, was filled with people last night, Kermani journalist <b>Abbas Dabestani</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. The rumor of another earthquake was so strong that some mosques urged people to leave their houses, Zahedani journalist <b>Mohammad Barahouinezhad</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Keyvan Hosseini) • Head of the German search and rescue team in Bam <b>Frilter Wulem</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that casualties would reach to 25,000. More then 8,000 bodies are estimated to still be under the rubble, he adds. (Fereydoun Zarnegar) • Iranian writers union held a general meeting at Tehran&apos;s Rex movie house to discuss ways to help the afflicted people, a union member <b>Javad Mojabi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Mahmonir Rahimi) • Of 5,000 Bam teachers, at least 1000 lost their lives in the earthquake, education minister Morteza Hajji said, adding that classes for surviving students will soon begin, and Bam schools will be rebuilt with an emergency budget of 10 billion rials. (Maryam Ahmadi)) • 121 planeloads of aid from 44 countries has landed in Iran since the earthquake. World Food Program sent 45 tons of medicine. Turkey&apos;s aid arrived loaded on six trucks. Turkey&apos;s Red Crescent said it will airlift the injured to hospitals in Turkey. (Maryam Ahmadi) • In his press conference today in Kerman, President Khatami said he has charged the housing minister to find a good location away from the earthquake fault lines on which to rebuild the city of Bam, Kermani journalist <b>Shahram Parsa-Motlaq</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Khatami said 3,410 billion rials was set aside for rebuilding Bam (Maryam Ahmadi) • The Iranian Red Crescent society displayed digital images of thousands of buried victims of the Bam earthquake on a laptop computer near the mass graves, so that their kin may identify them. (Mahdieh Javid) • Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi was asked to open an account to receive donations for Bam victims, Paris-based human rights advocate <b>Abdolkarim Lahiji</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Mir-Ali Hosseini) • the California-based Iranian Children Organization spokesman <b>Dr. Bijan Pirzadeh</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that through arrangements with Ms. Shirin Ebadi&apos;s child welfare foundation, two of the organization&apos;s board members are in Tehran and Bam to assist in providing relief for the orphaned children. (Firouzeh Khatibi, Los Angeles) • Most of the journalist who were in Bam during the past few days have returned to Kerman, Kermani journalist <b>Ali Parham</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. US doctors had set up to receive patients today. The rotting bodies which are still under the rubble continue to threaten the survivors and relief workers with serious health problems. As of tomorrow, survivors will receive warm food, he adds. (Maryam Ahmadi) • Bam&apos;s jewelry stores, banks and many trucks carrying aid and relief supplies have been robbed, Karmani journalist <b>Shahram Parsa-Motlaq</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. • Kermani journalist <b>Payman</b> denies reports about sanitation problems and heavy stench of rotting bodies in an interview with <b>Radio Farda</b>. Of the 40 Azad Islamic University&apos;s students in Bam only three have survived, he says. All students of the Payam-e Nour Islamic university&apos;s Bam campus died, he adds. (Maryam Ahmadi) • A 22-year-old Austrian man was heavily injured when his Bam hotel collapsed in the earthquake, Vienna&apos;s <i>Der Standard</i> reported. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne) • NGOs should monitor the compliance with building codes, in order to prevent the repeat of the Bam disaster, Washington-based activist <b>Mohammad Borqei</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Ali Sajjadi) <b>Factions Use Earthquake for Political Gain</b> • The conservative rivals of President Khatami&apos;s reformist faction delayed permission for the Khatami and Majles MPs to travel to earthquake stricken city of Bam for three days, so that the Supreme Leader&apos;s three-hour trip to Bam yesterday could be arranged. President Khatami&apos;s plane took off only after the Supreme Leader&apos;s plane returned from Bam. On the third day since the disaster, images of the prominent clerics are being shown, who are visiting earthquake victims and relief workers. (Ardavan Niknam) <b>Tehran Islamic Students Demonstrate against France&apos;s Hejab Rule</b> • A group of Islamic students staged a demonstration in front of the French Embassy in Tehran to protest against the French government&apos;s rule against wearing Islamic head gear and other religious symbols in French schools. (Siavash Ardalan) <b>Funds Shift to General Expenses, Away from Development</b> • In the fiscal year ending on March 22, 2004, the government faces with 20,000 billion rials of deficit. As in previous years, the Islamic government shifted funds to the general budget, away from development projects, to make up for the deficit. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris) <b>Interior Ministry Disqualifies Nationalist Party Members Election Candidacy Applicants</b> • The interior ministry&apos;s election executive council disqualified the election candidacy applicants from the nationalist opposition party the Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI). In their applications forms, FMI members had crossed out loyalty to the Supreme Leader, which is one of the qualifications of candidates. (Maryam Ahmadi) . جرج بوش، رئيس جمهوري آمريکا، در حال بررسي گشايش باب گفتگو با ايران است. يک مقام آمريکايي روز سه شنبه با اعلام اين مطلب افزود که آقاي بوش منتظر مشاهده حرکتي از سوي تهران است. به گفته اين مقام، اکنون فرصتي به وجود آمده است که ايران پا پيش بگذارد. توپ حالا در زمين ايراني ها است.