NEWS)))))
Reuters reported: the head of oil group Total SA, France's biggest listed company, is being questioned by police in a probe into alleged corruption in Iran, a spokesman for the company said on Wednesday.Christophe de Margerie, who became chief executive at Total last month, has been under investigation for several months by French judges probing corruption allegations linked to the Iraqi oil-for-food program and a gas project in Iran.The Total spokesman said questioning of de Margerie -- and two other employees which the group declined to name -- related to a probe opened in December 2006 into the South Pars natural gas project in Iran.The Paris prosecutors' office opened an investigation into the contract, signed in 1997, following the discovery of 95 million Swiss francs ($78.32 million) in the Swiss bank accounts of an intermediary, a judicial source said in December. The probe comes just as Total is mulling taking part in a project worth nearly $10 billion to build Iran's first liquefied natural gas export terminal.De Margerie said last week Total's decision depended on technical and geopolitical issues. Washington is urging its allies not to invest in Iran as part of a campaign to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.
******
The Guardina reported on Sat. that the authorities in Iran have arrested up to 1,000 teachers in a brutal crackdown that signals their determination to break a pay revolt.Riot police beat demonstrators with batons as they tried to gather outside Iran's parliament and education ministry and herded them into police vans and buses before transporting them to detention centres across Tehran.Around 150 of those arrested in Wednesday's protest are still in custody, with the ringleaders believed to be in the capital's notorious Evin prison. Others were released after signing a commitment not to participate in "illegal" demonstrations.The clampdown follows recent rallies outside parliament, which drew up to 10,000 demonstrators, many of whom displayed banners criticising President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government as part of their campaign for higher pay. An average university-educated secondary-school teacher earns £160-180 a month, below the poverty line and much less than workers in other government sectors.Last week, police arrested six teachers' union leaders in an unsuccessful attempt to stop a gathering that coincided with a planned women's rights demonstration.
******
A prominent international media rights watchdog on Wednesday called on the Iranian government to release four journalists who were arrested in Iran’s north-western Kurdish region.“The situation of journalists in the Kurdish part of Iran has become even worse”, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement.“With increasing frequency, they are being arrested arbitrarily and held incommunicado without the authorities feeling it necessary to inform their families or provide them with a lawyer. We call for their immediate release as no evidence of any guilt has been produced”, the press freedom organization said. “The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to be the Middle East’s biggest prison for journalists, with a total of seven detained”, RSF said.
******
The European Union called for the release of 15 British sailors and Marines seized by Iranian regime yesterday in Iraqi waters, according to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "In the name of the EU, we want to make clear that we expect Iran to release them without delay," Steinmeier said today before an EU summit meeting in Berlin. Germany currently holds the EU's rotating presidency. Tensions have been rising between Western nations and Iran over its nuclear program, and the Islamic Republic has also been accused by the administrations of U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush of meddling in Iraq. After the Britons were seized, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called off a planned visit to the United Nations in New York. The UN Security Council is poised to vote on a draft resolution that would freeze the assets of a state-owned Iranian bank and bar some exports from the country in an effort to persuade Iran to suspend its nuclear program. "I'm confident that we will succeed over the weekend and we will have a resolution in a few days," Steinmeier said today. "It was necessary to convince three non-permanent members (of the Security Council) to agree on the text. Those talks are still going on." A vote had been expected as soon as today. Iran's foreign ministry said the British sailors and Marines were taken "for investigation and questioning" because they illegally entered Iranian territorial waters "a number of times," Agence France-Presse reported yesterday, citing Iranian State television. EU leaders are meeting in Berlin today and tomorrow to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the first international agreement that gave birth to the union that now includes 27 nations. Greater unity on foreign policy matters is one of the issues that will be discussed at the two-day summit. Britain demanded the immediate return of the military personnel and equipment in a meeting yesterday between Peter Ricketts, the permanent under-secretary at the U.K. Foreign Office, and Rasoul Movahedian, the Iranian ambassador in London, the Foreign Office said. It's not the first time U.K. naval forces have been involved in a dispute with Iran in the region. In June 2004, Iran held eight British servicemen for three days after capturing them and their three vessels in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which runs along the border between Iran and Iraq.
