Khomeini

On the Black Hill A Novel Bruce Chatwin Penguin: 256 pp., $16 paper Bruce Chatwin, the brilliant English writer and stylish nomad, died from AIDS-related complications in early 1989. His memorial service, held in a Greek Orthodox church in London on the day that Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the death of Chatwin's friend Salman Rushdie, was a legendary event, mobbed by fans, celebrities and hundreds of journalists. Chatwin was by then a cult ?

BAGHDAD - Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the geopolitical winner of the war appears to be their common enemy: Iran. American military forces are long gone, and Iraqi officials say Washington's political influence in Baghdad is now virtually nonexistent. Hussein is dead. But Iran has become an indispensable broker among Baghdad's new Shiite elite, and its influence continues to grow. The signs are evident in the prominence of pro-Iran militias on the streets, at public celebrations and in the faces of some of those now in the halls of power, men such as Abu Mehdi Mohandis, an Iraqi with a long history of anti-American activity and deep ties to Iran.

The tragic and unexpected death of Ayatollah Khomeini is a very big loss to the Muslim world, and it has created a big vacuum that cannot be filled. May God bless his soul and rest him in heaven. K. HASSAN Hemet

Ahmad Khomeini, 50, son of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. A cleric and politician, the younger Khomeini lived for years in his father's shadow but had been expected to seize power after the ayatollah's death in 1989. Instead, he kept a low profile, apparently seeking to act as a powerbroker. In Tehran on Thursday six days after suffering a massive heart attack.

Whispering like conspirators, the two cousins hook their thumbs in their belt loops, skim cocky eyes over the women and swivel, stiff-legged from their hips, like the men they have become. Across the room, and a few steps away on the gender spectrum, a man with shaggy hair wrinkles a pug nose in the mirror and struggles to drape a silky scarf over his head in the style of Islamic womanhood.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is making satisfactory progress from surgery 10 days ago to stem bleeding in his stomach, his doctors said Friday.

President Saddam Hussein met Sunday with Massoud Rajavi, leader of the Iranian opposition to the Islamic regime of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to discuss the situation in the region, the official Iraqi News Agency said.