Exile

"Tehran is online," the director's wife announces. For the third time in less than an hour, Mohsen Makhmalbaf politely excuses himself. He ambles off to the other end of a sparsely furnished salon-turned-makeshift war room: a desktop computer, two laptops perched on end tables and a giant television screen. He fits on a headset and begins speaking to an aide of one of Iran's opposition figures. One of his country's most highly regarded filmmakers, Makhmalbaf has lived abroad for five years, moving his family first to Afghanistan and then to Paris.

WASHINGTON - The State Department's decade-long effort to find a new home for a controversial Iranian opposition group has ground to a near halt only days after the announcement that the exiles had begun moving from Iraq to permanent homes in Europe. Fourteen members of the Mujahedin Khalq militant group, or MEK, were flown from the outskirts of Baghdad to Albania on May 15, in what was expected to be the first step in the departure of 3,100 members of the group that has long opposed the government of clerics in Tehran and is also at odds with the government of Iraq.

I was sitting in a show-business bar with friends recently, discussing the article your magazine printed on Roman Polanski's possible return. The consensus was that if Stacy Keach could do nine months in an English slammer and Sean Penn could do 30 days in Los Angeles County Jail, then Roman should certainly do time as well. He engaged in unlawful sexual activity with a minor, then jumped bail and spent the past several years in Paris. Such an "exile" is hardly a hardship. Jon Erik Beckjord Malibu

When Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek died Monday, he left behind a musical legacy that included 15 singles that made Billboard's hot 100 list, including the songs "Light My Fire," "Waiting for the Sun," "Touch Me," "Riders on the Storm," and "People Are Strange. " Less well known is his literary legacy, which included a memoir and two novels. The memoir was "Light My Fire: My Life With the Doors. " Manzarek was uniquely positioned to tell the story of the Doors, having begun the band with Jim Morrison after they met in Venice, Calif., in 1965.

Though I have been an Angeleno in exile in the Bay Area for six years, I have remained a daily reader of The Times and an admirer of its real estate, housing, and urban affairs coverage. It was especially nice to read an article by Bradley Inman (March 30) in the real estate section. Being involved with housing, I have become familiar with Inman's work with the Bay Area Council and his writing in local publications. I have come to respect and enjoy his well-balanced and insightful commentary on problematic real estate issues and the wide range of topics and perspective that he uncovers.

Napoleon Bonaparte met his second Waterloo on ABC last week as the miniseries "Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story" ended up in the Nielsen ratings' version of St. Helena. The three-part series, despite its beautiful French background and the tempestuous love story re-enacted by Armand Assante and Jacqueline Bisset, failed to arouse much interest from the viewers. The first chapter Tuesday was in 15th place. The next night it dropped to 26th place. The third night it fell to 30th place.

"I played music in high school, I worked in record stores, music was my No. 1 fix," says Stephen Kijak, adding it all up. "I don't know why I'm making films, I should have been in a band." As a filmmaker, director Kijak has done the next best thing. He's made "Stones in Exile," a gorgeously entertaining documentary premiering at the Cannes Film Festival that provides a fascinating window into the Rolling Stones experience via a detailed look at the making of one of their albums.

Keith Richards remembers the period in the early 1970s when the Rolling Stones were working on "Exile on Main St." as a fairly down time. The parts he remembers at all, that is. That's partly due to the fact that the recording sessions took place as the Stones guitarist and songwriter's heroin habit took hold in a big way, a habit that took him nearly a decade to shake. But it wasn't strictly the drugs he was referring to when he spoke recently about that fabled phase in his and the group's life.

Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras ousted in a military-led coup nearly two years ago, returned home from exile Saturday, greeted by a large, heated crowd and a nation still bitterly divided by tension and violence. With Zelaya's return, Honduras hopes to end its political and diplomatic isolation and overcome one of the ugliest periods of recent Central American history. Zelaya pledged to immediately reengage in politics and will probably lead a new party. "This is the moment to declare victory for the democratic process in Latin America," Zelaya proclaimed.

Xu Jiatun, a former high-ranking Chinese Communist Party official living in exile in Orange County, has joined an appeal to the party congress meeting in Beijing to reverse the government report condemning the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square. Another letter, purportedly written by ex-official Zhao Ziyang, called for a "reassessment" of the Tiananmen incident, in which hundreds, if not thousands, were killed by the army.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was arrested and placed in police custody Friday, a day after commandos whisked him away from an Islamabad courthouse where he faces charges of illegally detaining dozens of judges while in power. Musharraf, who only a few weeks ago presented himself as a patriotic savior returning to his homeland from self-imposed exile, was being held at police headquarters at least until his next court appearance, which was expected within 48 hours.

"Why don't you guys move home to the States?" my friends ask. "Because," I say, "although I am American, my partner is not, and because of DOMA, I can't sponsor him for a green card. " "But you're married. " TIMELINE: Gay marriage chronology "Technically, we're civil partnered, but immigration is a federal issue. It doesn't matter that individual states recognize my relationship with my husband or partner, or whatever I choose to call him. " "But that's unfair.

MOSCOW - Boris Berezovsky, 67, an exiled Russian ex-tycoon who played a key role in bringing Vladimir Putin to power, only to have a bitter falling out, has died in Britain, according to his family and Russian news reports. Berezovsky had claimed to be the subject of assassination attempts, and there were conflicting reports Saturday about the circumstances of his death. Rossiya 24, a Russian television news channel, reported that he was found dead in the bathroom of his London home.

BEIRUT - Fledgling efforts to promote peace talks in the Syrian conflict appear to have stalled, even as the death toll rises daily and the rebellion nears its second anniversary. The major exile opposition group, irate over what it calls a "shameful" global silence about the bloodshed, has announced that it will not attend several planned international gatherings on Syria, spurning invitations to visit Russia and the United States. Both nations have said that they favor negotiations as a means to end the violence in Syria.

Khanh Nguyen, 86, a South Vietnamese general who briefly gained control of the government in a coup and went on to lead a "government in exile" in California, died Jan. 11 at a San Jose hospital after struggling with diabetes-related health problems. His death was announced by Chanh Nguyen Huu, who succeeded Nguyen as head of the Garden Grove-based Government of Free Vietnam in Exile. In November 1960, Nguyen helped thwart a coup against South Vietnam's U.S.-backed president, Ngo Dinh Diem, when he mistook the rebels for Viet Cong soldiers and rushed to the president's defense.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal set foot in the Gaza Strip for the first time Friday, emerging from the Egyptian border with his hand over his heart and telling jubilant supporters that his visit marked a new era in the pursuit of Palestinian independence. Though Meshaal has led the Islamist militant group since 2004, traveling to its Gaza-based home was unthinkable just a month ago because of fear that Israel might assassinate him as it did his two predecessors.

Khanh Nguyen, 86, a South Vietnamese general who briefly gained control of the government in a coup and went on to lead a "government in exile" in California, died Jan. 11 at a San Jose hospital after struggling with diabetes-related health problems. His death was announced by Chanh Nguyen Huu, who succeeded Nguyen as head of the Garden Grove-based Government of Free Vietnam in Exile. In November 1960, Nguyen helped thwart a coup against South Vietnam's U.S.-backed president, Ngo Dinh Diem, when he mistook the rebels for Viet Cong soldiers and rushed to the president's defense.

YANGON, Myanmar - Maung Thura, a comedian known as Zarganar, is a barrel of a man, stocky with a shaved head and a deep, forceful voice that seems out of place among the fluorescent lights and office furniture of the Home media group he recently helped found. Zarganar's biting wit and open criticism of repression in recent decades often irked Myanmar's government, which jailed him for 11 years on such charges as "public order offenses," including five spent in solitary confinement.

WASHINGTON - President Obama on Wednesday praised a new Syrian opposition coalition as "a legitimate representative of the Syrian people" but pointedly said Washington was not yet prepared to recognize the group as a government in exile or provide arms to antigovernment rebels. The president, drawing a tight boundary around the U.S. role in Syria, also repeated warnings about the presence of "extremist elements" within the fragmented ranks of Syrian armed rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad.