"The mobile birth-registration project has been very useful," says the head of birth registration in Hormozgan Province, Mahmoud Alipour.
A former head of vehicle registration for Kabul during the Taliban regime of the late 1990s, he said he only joined the insurgency to "protect myself and my country against foreign troops".
When he registered at the University of Minnesota, in 1933, his father went with him and announced, at the head of the registration line, "He's going to be a civil engineer".
Despite the frenzy to enroll children in these classes, with mothers and fathers sometimes getting up before dawn to secure a place at the head of the registration line, parents are not always happy with the results.
In a curious twist, Portugal's security services also revealed that they had previously swept the office of the detained head of the registration institute for listening devices, at his own request.No government members are suspected of any involvement, the attorney general's office said in a statement.
African Ministers responsible for Civil Registration, Ministers of Health, Heads of Civil Registration Offices (CROs) and National Statistics Offices (NSOs), representatives of regional and international organizations, concerned UN agencies, and representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations participated.
"Individual Electoral Registration has replaced the outdated head of household voter registration system and is both increasing the accuracy of the register and giving people more control and ownership over the process," a spokesman said.
Cao Wenzhuang, head of the drug registration division, accepted at least $300,000 in gifts and bribes.
But that's not a full picture, says Joseph E. Clarkson, head of the Justice Department registration unit.
