World IN BRIEF : IRAN : Government Names New Shiite Leader
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From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Iran tried to intervene in the selection of the supreme head of the world’s 100 million Shiite Muslims by naming its own spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 55, to the post. The announcement was a break with the tradition of letting theologians choose the Shiite leader and an attempt by Iran’s theocratic government to promote its militant version of Islam abroad.
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