Iran's Supreme Leader Orders Sacking of Vice-President
THE TELEGRAPH: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caved into pressure from hardline clerics and the country's supreme leader Friday and allowed the resignation of his top deputy after a week-long standoff.

For days, the president had resisted pressure from hardliners, including a direct order from the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to dismiss his choice for the key post of first vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, who last year angered conservatives when he made friendly comments toward Israel.

The final blow, however, appeared to be the public reading on state television of the order issued earlier by Khamenei to dismiss Mashai because he is "contrary to the interest of you and the government".

The issue created a rare rift between Ahmadinejad and the hardliners that form the bedrock of his support and comes at a particular [sic] sensitive time as he is battling opposition reformists who accuse him of winning the June 12 presidential elections through fraud.

"After the announcement of the exalted supreme leader's order, Mashai doesn't consider himself first vice president," IRNA quoted presidential aide Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi as saying late Friday.

The resignation capped a day of renewed pressure that featured conservative student street demonstrations and Friday sermons railing against Mashai's appointment. >>> | Friday, July 24, 2009

Austrian Parliament Elects Extreme-Rightist as Its Vice-President
EUROPEAN JEWISH PRESS: VIENNA---The Austrian Jewish community has criticized the election Tuesday by the new Austrian Parliament of an extreme-rightist MP known to be a nostalgic of the Third Reich, as its vice-president, [sic]

Martin Graf, a 48-year-old lawyer, is a member of a student fraternity union called “Olympia” that has contacts with neo-nazis [sic] and Holocaust deniers. He is also an MP from the extreme-right Freedom Party (FPO) [FPÖ] which has made important gains in general elections last month.

70 percent of the members of the Austrian parliament supported Graf’s candidacy, including the mainstream conservative People’s Party (OVP) [ÖVP].

In the last two weeks, former concentration camp inmates, Vienna's Jewish community, artists and other members of the civil society had written several open letters to MPs, asking them not to vote for Graf.

Austrian MPs "made a symbolic decision which can lead to a further strengthening of the right-wing extremist camp and which shows little sensibility for Austrian history and the tragic results of German nationalism," the Vienna Jewish community said.

“The fact that he could be elected vice-president of the Austrian Parliament should light warning signals not only in Austria but all over Europe,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem said. >>> Joseph Rottenmeier | October 30, 2008

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Barack Hussein Obama ‘Won’t Be Vice-President’
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama yesterday rejected Hillary Clinton's suggestion that he stand as her vice-president on a Democratic "dream ticket".

After bouncing back from defeats last week to claim an easy victory in Wyoming at the weekend, Mr Obama said: "You won't see me as a vice presidential candidate. I'm running for president. We have won twice as many states as Senator Clinton, and have a higher popular vote, and I think we can maintain our delegate count."

In an interview with KTVQ television he added: "What I'm really focused on right now, because all that stuff is premature, is winning this nomination and changing the country," he said.

Mrs Clinton has repeatedly hinted that Mr Obama could join her on her ticket as a way of ending the current impasse over the nomination. Barack Obama 'won't be Hillary Clinton's vice president on dream ticket' >>> By Toby Harnden in Washington

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