The Latest from Iran (18 August): So How Big Was Quds Day?
Saturday, August 18, 2012 at 10:07
The Quds Day rally in Isfahan
See also Iran Feature: An Introduction to the Currency Problems
Iran Snap Analysis: The Real Danger of "Ahmadinejad and Israel"
Iran Snapshot: 3 "Iranian Citizens" Arrested for Bombing in Afghanistan That Killed 36
The Latest from Iran (17 August): Ahmadinejad Introduces Tehran Friday Prayer
1920 GMT: Religion Watch. International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports that Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, accused of apostasy because of his conversion to Christianity, will face a new trial on 27 August on charges of “banditry and extortion".
An Iranian court has condemned Nadarkhani to death for apostasy but has offered to commute the sentence if he repents. So far he has refused to do so.
1745 GMT: Currency Watch. With the Iranian Rial losing almost half its value since last autumn, The New York Times reports on Iranians crossing the border to get better rates or to trade before the currency slides farther:
Afghan traders have proved more than willing to trade dollars for rials, usable as a currency in many parts of western Afghanistan, at advantageous exchange rates.
Hajji Najeeb Ullah Akhtary, the president of Afghanistan’s Money Exchange Union, an association of traditional money transfer and exchange businesses that are known as hawalas, said he and his members had seen a steady increase in Iranians bringing cash into Afghanistan over the past year. That comes on top of routine transfers made by Afghans living and working in Iran, including more than one million impoverished refugees, and the regular supply of rials that circulates in Afghanistan.
The cash “comes across in trucks,” he said, with transfers arranged by Afghan middlemen who take a 5 to 7 percent commission.