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prototypes for some things thatit won’t ever sell. Any car wouldtake several years to completeand obtain safety certifications.
But the size of the projectteam and the senior people in-volved indicate that the companyis serious, these people said. Ap-ple executives have flown to Aus-tria to meet with contract manu-facturers for high-end carsincluding the Magna Steyr unitof Canadian auto supplier MagnaInternational Inc. A Magna
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a vehicle that resembles a mini-van, one of the people said.
An Apple spokesman declinedto comment.
Apple ultimately could decidenot to proceed with a car. In ad-dition, many technologies usedin an electric car, such as ad-vanced batteries and in-car elec-tronics, could be useful to otherApple products, including theiPhone and iPad.
Apple often investigates tech-nologies and potential products,going as far as building multiple
Apple Inc. has revolutionizedmusic and phones. Now it is aim-ing at a much bigger target: au-tomobiles.
The Cupertino, Calif., com-pany has several hundred em-ployees working secretly towardcreating an Apple-branded elec-tric vehicle, according to peoplefamiliar with the matter. Theproject, code-named “Titan,” ini-tially is working on the design of
BUENOS AIRES—A federalprosecutor here asked a judge onFriday to charge Argentine Presi-dent Cristina Kirchner and otherofficials with conspiring with Iranto obstruct a probe into a 1994bombing, reviving an explosivecase that has gripped this nation.
The judge must now decidewhether to start a full investiga-tion and pursue an indictment inthe case, which was first broughtby another prosecutor, who wasfound dead the day before he wasto present evidence in the Argen-tine Congress last month.
“This conspiracy [to obstructthe investigation] would havebeen orchestrated and set up byhigh-ranking government offi-cials,” wrote federal prosecutorGerardo Pollicita, supporting theallegations made by his late col-league Alberto Nisman.
Mrs. Kirchner’s government re-newed its denials of the coverupallegations.
“I never, ever received an or-der from the president, CristinaKirchner, to sabotage the investi-gation,” Foreign Minister HectorTimerman, who the prosecutorscited as another alleged partici-pant in the obstruction, told TheWall Street Journal.
Constitutional experts say thenew move against Mrs. Kirchner,whose presidency ends in 10months, is unlikely to lead to herimpeachment. Her allies controlthe Senate and complex cases ofthis kind take years to completein Argentina.
But the latest twist to the mys-terious case is a political blow toMrs. Kirchner’s Peronist move-ment and the leader herself, whois struggling with a stagnant
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BY TAOS TURNERAND RYAN DUBE
ArgentinePresidentAccusedOf Coverup
WASHINGTON—Iran’s para-mount political figure, SupremeLeader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,has responded to overtures fromPresident Barack Obama seekingbetter relations by sending se-cret communications of his ownto the White House.
The Iranian cleric wrote to Mr.Obama in recent weeks in re-
sponse to an October presiden-tial letter that raised the possi-bility of U.S.-Iranian cooperationin fighting Islamic State if a nu-clear deal is secured, accordingto an Iranian diplomat. The su-preme leader’s response was “re-spectful” but noncommittal, thediplomat said.
A senior White House officialdeclined to confirm the existenceof that letter. But it comes as thefirst details emerge about an-
other letter Mr. Khamenei sentto the president early in his firstterm.
That letter outlined a string ofabuses that in the supremeleader’s view the U.S. had com-mitted against the Iranian peopleover the past 60 years, accordingto current and former U.S. offi-cials who viewed the correspon-dence.
The White House official con-firmed that the president re-
ceived that letter in 2009, butdeclined to comment on the con-tent of any presidential corre-spondence.
Neither the White House northe Iranian government has offi-cially confirmed any correspon-dence between the two. Iranianofficials, in recent months,though, have told Tehran’s statemedia that some of Mr. Obama’sletters were answered, withoutspecifying by whom.
“The letters of the Americanpresident have a history of someyears, and in some instances,there have been responses tothese letters,” said Ali Sham-khani, secretary of Iran’s Su-preme National Security Council,in November. He added thatthere were “contradictions” be-tween policies laid out in the let-ters and U.S. actions, accordingto a translation of Mr. Sham-
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BY JAY SOLOMONAND CAROL E. LEE
Ayatollah Sent Messages to ObamaIran’s Leader Secretly Communicated With White House Amid Nuclear Talks, but Significance Unclear
DJERBA, Tunisia—By the hundreds, theygathered for a pre-wedding party on a resortisland in Tunisia. Here, in the heart of theMuslim world, the crowds were speaking Ara-bic. The band was Arab too, playing boisterousArabic melodies.
But the revelers were Orthodox Jews—asdevout as they come.
Per custom, the bride-to-be, Oshrit Uzan,had quit her job running her own beauty salonto prepare for her new life. She might returnto work, she mused, but her husband must ap-
prove: “I will need permission,” she said.Isolated on a small niche of North Africa’s
largest island, the Jews of Djerba have beencalled the last Arab Jews—and it is hardly anexaggeration. Across the rest of the MiddleEast, Jewish communities have been vanishingover the past half century, since the creationof Israel. Before then, there were more than850,000 Jews living in the Arab world. Today,there are between 4,000 to 4,500, accordingto Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, anonprofit advocacy group.
Some countries, such as Algeria and Libya,which once had sizable Jewish populations,
have virtually no Jews within their borders.Egypt, which through the late 1940s had75,000 Jews active in the country’s economicand social life, is down to a few dozen. OnlyMorocco, once home to 265,000 Jews, has acommunity of 2,500 left. Many are elderly ormiddle-aged.
As other Tunisian Jews moved away to Is-rael and France for fear of persecution, theJews of Djerba stubbornly clung to the prom-ise of their own future. A community that haddwindled to fewer than 700 Jews by themid-1990s—from a high of about 5,000 in
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BY LUCETTE LAGNADO
THE LAST OF THE ARAB JEWS
Jewish EnclaveWeathers Revolt, Terror,But Can It Survive Girls’ Education?
BY DAISUKE WAKABAYASHIAND MIKE RAMSEY
Apple Secretly Gears Up to Create Car
STINSON BEACH, Calif.—Timehas always been elastic for Grate-ful Dead fans in thrall to tunesthat last more than 45 minutesand shows that go on for hours.
So when the group announcedit would mark its 50th anniver-sary in the summer of 2015 withthree final performances, Dead-heads took the old-school route,flooding the band’s ticket servicehere with handcrafted requestsrather than clicking online.
Since the shows were an-
nounced a month ago more than60,000 envelopes—many pains-takingly adorned with the Dead’stypical psychedelic skulls andskeletons—have poured into apost office box in this picturesqueMarin County spot a half-hourfrom the Golden Gate Bridge. Thepost office usually receives 7,000letters a week. “It was a big shockto us,” Jim Harvey, the StinsonBeach postmaster, said of thevivid No. 10 envelopes festoonedwith Magic Marker sketches andfanciful lettering. “It indicatedthat the Grateful Dead culture isalive and well.”
The response to the threeshows at Soldier Field in Chicagoover the July Fourth weekend alsoblindsided the Dead’s ticket Sven-gali, Frankie Accardi-Peri. Formore than 30 years, Ms. Accardi-Peri has fulfilled the band’s mail-order ticket requests. In January,when envelopes started pouringin, she stored the mail trays in her24-year-old son’s bedroom. (“Ihad to use quite a bit of acrobaticsin order to get to my bed,” JessePeri said.) With more than 100
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BY MIKE AYERS AND JARRARD COLE
The Dead’s Letter Office:Long, Strange Trip Ends in Sea ofMail
i i i
For Band’s Final Shows, Grateful Fans GoRetro to Snag Tickets; Psychedelic Envelopes
The late Jerry Garcia
Oshrit Uzan, a member of the Orthodox Jewish community in Djerba, Tunisia, returns home after a ritual bath on the eve of her wedding.
OregonGovernorTo ResignOregon Gov. JohnKitzhaber said hewould resign, amid aprobe stemmingfrom alleged ethicalbreaches involvinghis fiancée. She hadallegedly been paidto represent interestgroups while helpingcraft administrationpolicies affectingthose groups.Secretary of StateKate Brown is set toreplace him. A4
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IN TODAY’S PAPERWSJ. MAGAZINE
SprING fAShIoN ISSuE
The TruthAbout
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n Apple has several hundredemployees working secretlytoward creating an electricvehicle, with an initial designthat resembles a minivan. A1n CEO Tim Cook defendedprivacy at a White House sum-mit amid concerns over gov-ernment data collection. A4n A pickup in Germanyboosted eurozone growth, butparts of the area were close tostagnation or contraction. A6n U.S. stocks rose, with theDow gaining 46.97 points to18019.35, the S&P 500 settinga record and the Nasdaq ad-vancing to a 15-year high. B1n Oil prices rose, withBrent jumping above $60 forthe first time this year. B5n Import prices postedtheir biggest drop in sixyears, pushed down by cheapoil and a stronger dollar. A2n Visa and MasterCard areramping up security of cus-tomer data as cyberattack con-cerns continue to mount. B2n Talks on a labor disputeat West Coast ports faced an-other setback, fueling fears ofa complete port shutdown. B3n Sotheby’s said it won’tpay a special dividend whileit searches for a CEO. B1
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InsideNOONAN A13
An HonestReporter, andHis Antithesis
Iran’s Ayatollah Khameneihas responded to over-
tures from Obama seekingbetter relations with his ownsecret communications. A1n A prosecutor wants Ar-gentina’s president chargedwith conspiring with Iran toobstruct a bombing probe. A1n Affordable Care Act sup-porters are urging young peo-ple to sign up for insuranceahead of a Sunday deadline. A3n The USDA approved thefirst genetically modified ap-ple for sale in the U.S., reignit-ing a food-safety debate. A3n Oregon Gov. Kitzhaberresigned after alleged ethicalbreaches involving his fiancéeprompted an investigation. A4n Islamic State militantsattacked an Iraqi air basewhere U.S. advisers aretraining security forces. A7n Suicide bombers attackeda Shiite mosque in Peshawar,Pakistan, killing at least 19and wounding over 41. A8n Kiev and separatistsclashed in eastern Ukrainebefore a cease-fire was dueto come into effect. A6n Nigeria’s president saidhe has asked the U.S. to dis-patch troops to the nation’snorth to fight Boko Haram. A8
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