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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.
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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