This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com.

Iran’s Ahmadinejad acquiesces to Khamenei

The winner — Khamenei meets with members of the High Council of Mayors (leader.ir)

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahamadinejad has acquiesced in his bitter dispute with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ( “7-May-11 News — Resignation of Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be imminent”), and will keep his job for the time being. However, Ahmadinejad has angered a lot of conservatives for his disobeying Khamenei, so the bitter fighting is going to continue. Reuters

Experts skeptical of Iran’s new ‘cyber attack’ claim

Last week, Iran claimed to be the target of a new “cyber attack,” following the Stuxnet attack last year that attacked and damaged Iran’s nuclear capabilities. However, experts are skeptical of the new claims, and suspect that Iran is making the claim for domestic political purposes. As I’ve described many times (see details in my 2007 report, “Iran’s President Ahmadinejad facing a growing ‘generation gap'”), many of Iran’s policies represent a desperate attempt to restore national unity by mimicking the claims of Iran’s last crisis war, the Great Islamic Revolution followed by the Iran/Iraq war of the 1980s. Iran is particularly concerned about domestic unrest, in view of recent violence and the general unrest in the region. Reuters

Hamas security forces break up pro-bin Laden rally in Gaza

Hamas on Saturday broke up a Salafist protest in Gaza against the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Hamas forces have clashed with Salafists numerous times in recent weeks, as talk of a reconciliation with the Fatah gathered momentum. The Salafists have advocated much more violent action against Israel. Jerusalem Post

I’ve noticed that the word “Salafist” is appearing much more often in news stories in the last 2-3 weeks, as another way of distinguishing terrorists from ordinary Muslims. In this context, “Salafists” refers to hardline groups with links to al-Qaeda. This word is in contrast to “Islamist,” which is a more general term for hardline Muslim terrorist groups. Now journalists seems to be using the world “Salafist” to distinguish between different kinds of Islamists. Hamas is not linked to al-Qaeda, and while it (sometimes) promotes violence against Israel, it does not sponsor international terror as al-Qaeda and Hizbollah have done.

Russian firefighters battling dozens of wildfires in Siberia

Firefighters are battling 34 wildfires in Siberia on an area of over 1,300 hectares (3200 acres), with the fires spreading rapidly over larger areas. In the summer of 2010, an enormous heat wave in Central Russia caused massive wildfires across the country, which killed 62 people and left thousands homeless. This was one of the principal causes of Russia’s wheat shortage last year, and caused Russia to ban wheat exports. Ria Novosti

Russia plans to deploy new warships in the Caspian Sea

Russia plans to deploy new coastal missiles and warships in the Caspian , over the next few years. (See “25-Jun-10 News — A naval arms race is growing on the Caspian Sea.”) The Caspian Sea is surrounded by Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan and tensions have been growing for some years. Xinhua

Xenophobia returns to South Africa

It’s been three years since violence in Zimbabwe caused millions of refugees to flee to South Africa, where they were subjected to violent, gruesome attacks. (See “South Africa will create ‘temporary shelters’ for migrants, not ‘refugee camps.'”) Now flareups of anti-immigrant xenophobia are flaring up again, though perpetrators claim that it’s not xenophobia because it’s really just business related. Times (S. Africa)