In contrast to previous years, Iran has not been invited to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the Iranian Labor News Agency, or ILNA, reported, citing no named source. 

ILNA says that no Iranian diplomats or officials will take part at the four-day high-power gab fest, which began Wednesday.

This year’s agenda is “shared norms for a new reality” and will be discussed by about 30 heads of state and government and more than 1,000 executives at big companies. 

ILNA added that there was no clear explanation for the absence of Iranian officials in Davos and speculated that it may be due to the standoff with the West over its nuclear program.

Iran has participated in the forum for the last five years, including in 2007, when former President Mohammad Khatami spoke.

-- Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: President Mohammad Khatami speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2007. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Tehran zoo remained closed Tuesday as a mystery surrounds the killing of several big cats, stunning the city and leaving angry mourners demanding answers from authorities amid accusations of politics and environmental bungling.

Between eight and 14 lions and tigers were reportedly shot in the head over the weekend amid conflicting reports regarding an outbreak of glanders, a potentially lethal disease that normally affects equine species but can spread to humans and other mammals.

After animal-rights activists and horrified zoo patrons expressed outrage at the killings, authorities later claimed that the animals were euthanized by injection, and they revised the number of big cats killed from 14 to 10 and then eight.

But the tragedy may reveal an even darker truth: Critics now claim the animals were victims of an irresponsible and politicized publicity stunt by government and zoo officials who claimed the cats were part of a program to revive the wild tiger population surrounding the Caspian Sea, where the animals have not been seen in over 50 years.

"[Bringing the tigers] from the very beginning was a just an empty and unscientific measure, because the Siberian tiger is not the same as the Mazandaran [Caspian Sea] tiger, which is extinct, and secondly, to revive a species we need at least a hundred animals and over 4,000 square kilometers of habitat," environmental science professor Nizar Karami told Babylon & Beyond.

"They brought the tigers here and imprisoned them in a very poorly maintained zoo where I would not dare take my son, who is in love with animals, because the zoo in Tehran is so unhygienic and inhumane for keeping animals," he added.

Emboldened Arab citizens are taking on their own leaderships as the region watches with anticipation to see whether Tunisia's recent uprising will successfully replace the oppressive regime of Zine Abidine Ben Ali that ruled for 23 years.

Most regional leaders have stayed silent on Ben Ali's flight into exile amid national riots, a reticence that many observers have interpreted as fear. But even staunch supporters of the Tunisian protest movement are cautious to call "revolution" too early.

"Right now the Arab regimes are annoyed, but they aren't afraid," said Munsif Ben Ali, a Tunisian expatriate in Beirut and the head of the local solidarity movement in Lebanon (he shares a last name but no relation to the ousted president).

Ben Ali spoke to Babylon & Beyond on the sidelines of a demonstration on Sunday as several hundred activists gathered in front of the United Nations headquarters in downtown Beirut to express support for the Tunisian protesters.

"Many of the symbols of Ben Ali's regime are still in place," he said. "When real change is completed, then [the Arab leaders] will be terrified."

While the official reactions have been muted, reactions to any perceived support for Ben Ali and his government have been swift and angry, and not just from secular reformists like the ones who made up most of the rally in Beirut.

Police descended on a Tehran theater earlier this week and halted performances of the play "Hedda Gabler" by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen after an Iranian news agency blasted the classic drama in a review.

Coincinding with the incident, media reports surfaced about the creation of a new body to regulate cultural affairs in the Islamic Republic, signaling that a wider crackdown on artists might be underway.   

Theatergoers had flocked to Tehran's City Theater on Tuesday night to watch the drama, which had been playing since Jan 5. But when they arrived they were met by a crowd of police officers and informed that the play had been suspended.

As the deadlock between Iran and Afghanistan over fuel imports enters its second month, pressure is mounting in Kabul to sever economic relations with Iran unless it eases its clampdown on fuel tankers attempting to cross into the country.

Iran claims it is holding up the shipments as it investigates reports that the fuel crossing its border is used by North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops fighting in Afghanistan, a claim Kabul denies.

Afghanistan is upset over the blocked shipments, which has led to skyrocketing energy prices across Afghanistan.

Some have pointed out that the clampdown coincided with the Afghan president signing the agreement to build the American-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, otherwise known as TAPI, of which Iran was left out.

[Updated, Jan. 11, 2:09 a.m. PDT: The United States has now spoken out against the sentencing of human-rights lawyer Nasrine Sotoudeh to 11 years in prison. In a press statement. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley called the sentence "unjust and harsh" and called for her release. "Ms. Sotoudeh is a strong voice for rule of law and justice in Iran," the statement said. "Her conviction is part of a systematic attempt on the part of Iranian authorities to silence the defense of democracy and human rights in Iran."]

France on Monday joined a chorus of international condemnation over the sentencing of Iranian human-rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to 11 years in prison.

She was also banned on Sunday from practicing law or traveling for 20 years.

A representative of France's foreign ministry said the punishment was "deeply shocking" and called for the release of Sotoudeh along with another activist, Shiva Nazar-Ahari, who was sentenced to four years in prison and 74 lashes.

"The only known fault of Nasrin Soutoudeh is of specializing in the defense of human rights, particularly those of women, minors and journalists," foriegn ministry spokesman Barnard Valero was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.

Sotoudeh was convicted of acting against national security, propaganda against the regime and failing to wear the hijab, the Islamic headscarf, in a videotaped message, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and Sotoudeh's family. The campaign said that the mother of two, 46 or 47 years old, was tortured and in poor health when her family was finally allowed to see her, adding that her children burst into tears.

[Updated, Jan. 6, 10:56 a.m.: Iran's state-controlled Al-Alam television channel is quoting an "informed source" as denying reports by other news outlets that an American woman had been arrested at the Armenian border. According to Iran's Arabic language channel, the woman arrived at the border requesting entry but was denied entrance because she did not have a visa.]

A woman referred to by authorities as American, who is of possible Armenian Christian descent, has been arrested on espionage charges, an Iranian newspaper reported Thursday, as officials launched a major crackdown on the country's Christian minority for alleged proselytizing.

According to the Iranian daily newspaper Iran, a mouthpiece of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the 55-year-old "American" was detained in the Iranian-Armenian border city of Nordouz.

Customs officials allegedly discovered she was carrying hidden "spy equipment" and microphones on her body.

According to the privately owned conservative Iranian news website Tabnak, the woman -- identified in media reports as Hal Talayan -- had spy equipment in her teeth at the time of arrest and feared she'd be killed by Armenian security forces if she were returned to Armenia.

"If sent back to Armenia by the Islamic Republic of Iran, then the security forces of that country will kill her," Tabnak quoted her as saying.

The semiofficial Fars News Agency, quoting a "well-informed source," reported that the woman was detained by customs officials a week ago.

Meanwhile, Iran appears to be ratcheting up pressure on the country's mostly Armenian Christian minority, reportedly arresting Christian leaders and missionaries on accusations of promoting "hard-line" religious views with foreign backing. Morteza Tamadon, the governor of Tehran province, where the Christians reportedly were detained, said more arrests would be carried out soon.

Christianity is recognized as a religion in Iran, but Christians there are not allowed to proselytize.

Since their exile following the 1978-79 Islamic Revolution and the death of their patriarch that same year, the family of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi has captured the public's imagination as only fallen royalty can.

On Wednesday, Iranians mourned the loss of another member of the royal family, Alireza Pahlavi, the youngest son of the former monarch.

The 44-year-old former prince apparently killed himself Tuesday night after a long bout with depression.

Exiles who either supported the shah or at least thought fondly of the freewheeling period before the revolution have been the most vocal in their mourning. But even some inside Iran have expressed sympathy for the family, despite the shah's brutal legacy of cracking down on his political opponents.

It was the former ruling family's second loss in recent years. Alireza's sister, Leila, died of a drug overdose in a London hotel room a decade ago.

"We have experienced the past 32 years and realized that former regime was much better than this Islamic regime," said 56-year-old Ali, who lives in Tehran. "I also feel sympathy for [former Empress Farah Pahlavi] as a mother who has lost her two children. I lost the future of my country and she lost her children, country and dynasty."

Good news for a tense region, if you believe in psychic predictions, that is.

Michel Hayek, the Arab world's most celebrated clairvoyant, foresees a Middle Eastern "war for peace" in 2011, assuring the audience that tuned in for his annual televised New Year's Eve predictions that calm will prevail despite threats of war.

"The region is moving slowly toward peace, despite indications of threats and war," the Lebanese soothsayer predicted (Arabic link). "Lebanon, specifically, will be negotiating" on its own behalf, he said, "rather than being negotiated over."

Although Hayek did not speak at length about the United States or U.S. policy in the region as he has in the past, he did predict that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would suffer an on-camera breakdown.

One of his more tragic predictions already seems to have come true.

On Jan. 1, just hours after Hayek predicted a "darkness" would fall over some leaders of the Coptic church in Egypt, at least 21 Coptic worshippers were killed and dozens more injured in a bomb attack on a church in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria.

The grim theater of the Sakineh Ashtiani case gets stranger by the day as rumors of a commuted sentence coincided with a press conference at which Ashtiani lashed out at the Western press and her own lawyers for attempting to "politicize" her case.

Ashtiani's position is precarious. Not only does she face death by hanging for adultery and conspiracy to commit murder, but her son is also now in the hands of the judiciary after he was arrested for giving an interview to two unaccredited German journalists.

"I have come in front of the cameras at my own will to talk to the world," Ashtiani reportedly said during Saturday's press conference, which was organized by Iranian judiciary officials in Tabriz, where Ashtiani is being held.

"I am willing to talk because many people exploited (the case) and said I have been tortured, which is a lie," she added. "Leave my case alone. Why do you disgrace me?"

After making startling advances in expanding public education and increasing literacy over the last three decades, Iran appears to be facing a major setback in education.

The number of students dropping out of school is more than 25%, says the secretary of the Assn. of Iranian Social Workers, according to news website Aftabnews.

The official, Mostafa Eghlimi, added that the figure is especially worrisome because kids who drop out of school are at greater risk of getting involved in crime or drugs, already an epidemic in Iran.

Eghlimi blamed the educational establishment for the high dropout rates. 

He cited outdated textbooks, overworked teaching staff, lack of specialized care for different students and kids' personal problems outside the classroom as the reasons for the  dropout problem. 

Officials are saying that females are faring better than males:  The number of illiterate girls is decreasing, while more and more boys aren't learning to read, according to Mohammad Mehdizadeh, an official for the nation's anti-literacy campaign cited by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

In fact, he said, for the first time in the history of Iran, the number of illiterate men is higher than that of women in Iran.

-- Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: Iranian students hold an anti-American placard during an annual state-backed rally in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, marking the anniversary of takeover of the embassy in 1979 by militant students. Credit: Vahid Salemi / Associated Press

Does being a proponent of the kind of puritanical strain of Islam touted by Osama bin Laden automatically make you a member of Al Qaeda?

Iran seems to think so. 

Iranian security forces arrested seven alleged Al Qaeda operatives in the northwestern city of Sardasht, the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted an unnamed official as saying Wednesday.

The operatives had been identified nearly a month ago and were arrested after judiciary authorities gave a green light, the official said.

Were they caught with bombs or suicide vests?

According to the Iranians, they are accused so far only of using books and leaflets to promote "Wahabbi" or Salafist Sunni Islam in predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran.

"The suspects were nabbed with an appreciable number of books, leaflets and documents about Wahhabism and other depraved cults,” the official said. "They sought to sow sectarian discord, but they were finally arrested by security forces and handed over to the judiciary."

-- Los Angeles Times

Photo: English-language translation of a book about Salafist Islam. Credit: Salafibookstore.com