Word: mayors
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...Being mayor of Tehran may not be the summit of Qalibaf's political ambitions. Iran is buzzing with speculation that he will mount a challenge to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in next year's elections. The hard-line incumbent looks vulnerable because of domestic woes, including high inflation and unemployment, and an international environment in which Iran's relations with the West are at their most strained since the 1979 revolution. Qalibaf won't be the only challenger - others may include Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani, a former national security chief, and ex-Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel - but Qalibaf, a conservative...
Mohammed-Baqer Qalibaf, mayor of Tehran, likes to be hands-on. On a recent morning, he strode into the citizens' complaint center he set up at city hall and took some calls. Qalibaf handled a bureaucratic delay in the issuing of a building permit, displaying the commitment to accountability that has many of the capital's residents praising him. "We had the worst snow this year, and Qalibaf had it cleared in one day," says Mohsen Rejai, a company clerk. "That's the kind of mayor we need...
...mayor is known for being critical of Ahmadinejad. The government, Qalibaf says, has missed a "golden opportunity" to leverage skyrocketing oil prices into reform of the heavily state-controlled economy. He defends Iran's nuclear program, denying that it is designed for military purposes, but hints that Ahmadinejad's provocative foreign-policy pronouncements have not furthered Iran's aims. "One can talk to the world in much better ways," he says. In June, President Bush won consideration from European leaders for tougher sanctions on Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium-enrichment activities. Ahmadinejad scoffed, "The enemy cannot do anything...
...absolutely brilliant at the big set pieces" like the London bombings of July 7, 2005, says Brian Paddick, a former senior police officer who ran for London mayor earlier this year and is known for his sharp criticism of his former employers. But the police are less successful at securing public trust - the basis of policing by consent. Londoners feel that nobody has been held properly to account, says Paddick: "If you can't trust the police in times of crisis, then who can you turn...
...Bullfighting aficionados, though, are mobilizing to ensure that Lagravère and other student-toreadors can partake in the fighting demonstrations planned for them. The mayor of the southwestern town of Hegetmau vows to push ahead with a youth performance featuring Lagravère this Wednesday. Arles mayor Hervé Schiavetti, meanwhile, says he's rescheduling events cancelled at local schools over the weekend. He says bullfighting is too important to regional tradition to relinquish. "The raising and selling of bulls has played a large role in our economic, social and cultural past, and they still figure large in this...