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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2000)
I jft\ (©ne JVrttxu AWIY Texas A<n|jsE®en United Texas Aggie Men United Men’s Leadership Organization Founded Texas A&M University, November 4, 1999 One Army would like to present and recognize it’s Candidate Elect Class for Spring 2000. These men have joined a new drive to learn leadership and improve the school they love. Ben Jackson Josh Fitzgerald Blake Windlow Lent Rice Brian Johnson Louis Simmons Carlton Holm Mark Thomas Chris Schrock Mark Ferrell Chris Park Matt Blackwell Dan Conoley Matt Janes David Brown Michael Lloyd Davyd Read Mike Parker DJ Pendleton Nick Luton Eric Ferguson Scott Vickers Jason Chaka Seth Barron ♦ Jason Burke Taylor O’Brien Jim Scott Travis Walla Josh Rosinski Tyler O’Brien Zacy May One School, One Spirit, ^ ONE ARMY. TRAVEL EUROPE BY RAIL LEARN ALL ABOUT THE i/EAtl PASS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23 6:00-7:30 PM Rudder 308 Sponsored by: Texas A&M Study Abroad Programs and ITS Tours & Travel Study Abroad Programs Offloe 161 Blzreli Hall Wrst 84S-Q544 This Week Wednesday: Jazz open mike night no cover Thursday: The Black Birds $ 5 cover Friday: Rob Roy Parnell blues $ 5 cover Saturday: The Fire Ants $ 5.00 cover Sunday: Aggie Swing Dance w/ Jeremy Mitchell $ 3 cover Where real musicians play! 201 W. 26tk Street, Downtown Bryan 775-7735 WORLD Page 12 THE BATTALION Wednesday, February!: Iran elections may help U.S. relations TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s top parliamentary candidate said Tuesday that the country needs concrete action from the United States to lower the wall of mistrust between the two nations. “We are waiting for practical steps from the United States more than nice words,” Mohammadreza Khatami said Tuesday in his first comment on the is sue since Friday’s legislative elections. Khatami, the younger brother of President Mohammad Khatami, heads the country’s largest and most influen tial reformist group, the Islamic Iran Participation Front. The election results are seen as a na tional endorsement of President Khata mi’s program for cultural, social and political reforms. The results also are a clear rejection of international isolation and the restrictive rules imposed by the clergy in the name of Islam. Mohammadreza Khatami said in the new Parliament the reformists will work toward a freer press, more free dom of information and the lifting of a ban on satellite dishes to allow people more access to information. He also criticized the United States for maintaining U.S. sanctions against Iran. “The United States supported the totalitar ian regime of the shah,” he told re porters at a press con ference. “And now that Iran has become one of the most free nations, it continues its policy of sanctions and continues its baseless claims against Iran.” U.S. relations with Iran broke off during the 1979 revolution, when demonstrators seized the U.S. Em bassy and held 52 Americans captive until January 1981. A U.S. law allows Early results of Iran’s election Moderates are poised to wrest the legislature from hard-line control for the first time since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution ousted the shah and brought the Shiite Muslim clergy to power. Total seats in parliament: 290 Reformers: 141 Conservatives: 44 | Independents: 10 mL i Results still outstanding: 30 Source: Comoiled from AP wire reoorts for sanctions on any company that in vests more than $20 million in Iran’s oil industry. Washington accuses Tehran of trying to procure nuclear weapons and of opposing the Middle East peace process. Khatami and other reformists have called for detente between Iran and the United States. The president also has called for people-to-people exchanges with the United States, but has stopped short of calling for talks. The conservative clergy considers the United States Iran’s archenemy, making the opening of contacts with Washington among the most sensitive of issues. Most hard-liners have been silent about their stunning upset, but a top hard-line ideologue has accepted defeat in the parliamentary elections, saying in a report Tuesday that his camp will have to reconsider its policies. “We will not change our principles and positions, but it is natural that we should reconsider our policies and methods,” Mohammadreza Bahonar, a conservative lawmaker in the outgoing Parliament, was quoted as saying. The independent Iran Bij dai/y quot ed him Tuesday as saying that the re formist coalition was “more orga nized” in the elections. Bahonar’s comments marked the hard-liners’ first acknowledgment of defeat. Their officials have refused to talk to reporters. The hard-liners still wield power through key institutions such as the Guardians Council, which must ap prove all legislation. It is not clear if they will use those powers to block the reformists and risk angering a majority of Iranians. Vote-counting in the capital, Tehran, was finished Tues day, but results will not be announced for another two days, the official Islamic Re public News Agency said. Mohammadreza Khatami said formal announcement is be ing delayed due to bureaucratic glitches and to study com plaints. In Tehran, more than 55 percent of votes announced so far were for Khata- To be decided in runoffs: 65 mi, who was likely to win. The Islam ic Iran Participation Front has 109 seats out of the 195 decided so far. Re formists have 141 seats nationwide, only five short of a simple majority in the 290-member house. Conservatives have won 44 seats and independents 10. Another 65 seats are to be decided in run-offs. Only the results for 30 seats in Tehran are outstanding, and reformers are leading the vote count in nearly all of them, state television said. News in Brief Henson’s Muppets sold to Germans FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — It’s not easy bein’ gruen. Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are becoming the latest American icons to go German, following in the footsteps of Chrysler Corp. and Random House. Munich-based media company EM.TV and Merchandising is buy ing the Jim Henson Co. for $680 million in cash and stock, giving it exclusive rights to such fuzzy crit ters as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Bert and Ernie, and the scraggly green furball, Oscar the Grouch. “We are a strong believer in brands," deputy chairman of EM.TV Florian Haffa said Monday. “With the Jim Henson Company, you don’t get bigger internationally recognized brands than Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.” The deal, in the works for sev eral months, also seals owner ship of some of the world’s best loved children’s shows including “The Muppet Show,” “Jim Hen son’s Muppet Babies” and “Frag- gle Rock,” not to mention a string of Muppet films. The sale does not include the program “Sesame Street," only the rights to the characters deve- oped for the show, first broadcas in 1969 and now seen in 14° countries. Pillars of Islam Discussion includes concept of worship, fasting, pilgrimage and other issues. Thursday Feb. 24 th MSC 228 @ 7PM Sponsored by Muslim Students’ Association Email: islaml01@tamu.edu I wanna be a millionaire Wednesday, F :ome! lerways i BRIAN SMITH/TheBati Brittany Stevener, an senior at Bryan High School, throws a chicken at the Educaid booth during Tuesday’s Money Gras ev in Rudder Tower. emrr Meted envi ient protect 'orts was the :ral Water ollution Cc .ct of 1972, ionly know ie Clean W to the in tl mtroversy. ’rotection A lave been pi [years. This t that the exec forestry Ass cording to 11 than 3 percei involvement there seems i who would I clean enviroi The EPA timber comp eas where w: this idea isji still have tirr the EPA imp The mair ways but the the economy Sandlin, the opposing thi thought one 70s and ’80 dlin is not c< Cell phones help 3rd world farmers THE f JOLARPAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Sitting outside her mud-walled hut, Jamirunnesa dials her Nokia cell phone to inquire about the latest poul try prices. Monir Chowdhury, a neighbor, ar rives panting to take a long distance call from his brother working in Malaysia. Later, village doctor Tofazzal Hossain comes to use the phone to arrange an appointment with a specialist in the city' for one of his patients. Jamirunnesa runs a mobile phone service, the only phone for the 5,000 people in the fanning village of Jolarpar, 20 miles north of Dhaka, the capital. She bought it a year ago with help from a bank that makes small loans to poor women to start home-based busi nesses — an example of the “microcre dit” projects discussed at a conference last week in Washington. Besides serving her neighbors for a fee, the phone helps the 38-year-old mother of four earn a profit from the poultry fann she runs. “There are buyers who want to cheat me. But they can’t because I’ve got the phone, which comes in handy to know at what rate the chickens are sell ing in the markets,” Jamirunnesa said, waving her handset. In Bangladesh, even ordinary tele phones are still a luxury. Less than 1 percent of the 125 million people have a phone of any kind. The country’s 100,000 mobile phones are usually for the urban rich. Jamirunnesa, who lit man] Bangladeshis uses only one name, bought the phone with a takas ($360) from C Editoria reflect t 1 board it reflect t staff ITK w hich speuahze.s in helpjng uymQOCiy, rt get a start in business. or Staff Grameen Bank, established in If cartOOfl by Muhammad Yunus, then a univec opinion; ty economics teacher, is the pioneer' microcredit as a way of building economies of developing nations. Sis its founding, it has lent $2 billion to million Bangladeshis, most of tin poor rural women. (irameenPhone. the bank’s telec® munications subsidiary, is one commercial cellular phone compaiii in Bangladesh, but the only one tot! tend its service to the mostly illiteiK formation available tc countryside. It draws the operators of its p# statement phone service from borrowers workers re ready have established good credit® have helpe demonstrated business talent. “A telephone is no longer a for villagers," said MehbubCW fortunately, bury, who heads the marketing ofi speak very mobile phones. “It’s a tool fort' 1 nomic growth.” Jamirunnesa, who has had ali ersof bonfi no formal education, averages monthly profit of $50 from thepM liave consi service — twice Bangladesh's capita income. When she took her first loaf years ago, her family could not aft three meals a day, a situation faced about half of all Bangladeshis. Much Ado About Shakespeare the MSC Literary Arts Shakespeare Festival February 20th through 26th [* positive asi seemingly neglect for event safe. The trage campus cor tional reacti might be too sponsibility death of 12 Sonnet Contest Awards & Open-Mic at Barnes and Noble on Texas Ave., Sunday Feb. 20 at 2pm with prizes provided by Barnes and Noble. Cushing Library Tour Monday, Feb. 21 at Noon & Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 1pm. Open-Mic in Rumours on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at Noon. You can share your favorite Shakespeare passages. Shakespeare Abridged Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 8pm in MSC 201. A comedic live performance of all of Shakespeare’s works condensed into two hours. Film on Video Much Ado About Nothing (1 995) at 7pm Thursday, Feb. 24 in the Visual Arts Gallery with introduction by Dr. Paul Parrish. Dr. David Scott Kastan Friday, Feb. 25 on Shakespeare and Print in Cushing Library at 5pm. Masquerade Ball Saturday, Feb. 26 at 8pm in the Forsyth Galleries. Tickets are available at the MSC Cashiers desk. Sponsored in part by Norton Publishing LAC & Persons with disablltles please call 845-1515 (o inform us of your special needs. We request notification three (3) working days prior to the event to enablous to assist you to the best of our abilities. Bonfi In the thi 1999 Aggie students wi Since th tradition vi