World Notes

IRAN The Shoes of the Ayatullah

The choice came as no surprise: a longtime supporter and former student of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, 85, he has long been considered the aging Iranian leader's heir apparent. Khomeini's son Ahmed has occasionally referred to him that way, and his picture has been displayed prominently alongside that of Khomeini throughout Iran. Now Ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, 62, has formally been designated by the 83-member Assembly of Experts, or senior theologians, to succeed Khomeini.

Montazeri's appointment caused some unease in Tehran's ruling circles, where there are sharp divisions on how to manage the country's stagnant economy. Montazeri is the youngest of Iran's handful of Grand Ayatullahs and has an undistinguished reputation as a religious scholar. Considered more of a pragmatist than Khomeini, Montazeri is also said to lack his mentor's charisma and oratorical skills. The timing of the announcement did not appear to coincide with any worsening of Khomeini's health. Last Saturday the Ayatullah stood in public for 30 minutes to deliver a speech marking the Prophet Muhammad's birthday. Khomeini walked comfortably and unaided. WEST GERMANY Twice Bought, Twice Bombed

The American post exchange in Frankfurt is reserved for U.S. servicemen and their dependents, and patrons must pass through a military-police checkpoint to enter. No such restrictions apply to the vicinity around the PX, however, and it was there last week that terrorists struck. As customers went about their pre-Thanksgiving shopping, a bomb hidden in a car parked about 250 yards from the PX exploded, injuring 35 people, most of them Americans. The attack was the 19th this year against U.S. military posts in West Germany. On Aug. 8, two Americans were killed and 20 injured at the Rhein-Main Air Base in a car bombing claimed by the terrorist Red Army Faction.

The booby-trapped 1975 silver BMW used in the most recent bombing came from the same used-car lot as the vehicle involved in the Rhein-Main attack. It was purchased for cash one day before the explosion by two men, one of whom had a Moroccan passport and may fit the description of a suspect in the August bombing. The second man mentioned planning to drive to Morocco. Some West German authorities speculated that the RAF was working with terrorists from the Middle East. CHINA No More Comrade Nice Guy

Despite Peking's tough anticorruption campaign in recent months, cases have been few in which harsh justice actually has been meted out to Communist Party bigwigs, rather than to "common criminals." In a startling departure from this double standard, a Peking criminal court last week sentenced 23 government officials to as long as ten years in prison for crimes "involving bribery, fraud, illegal speculation and tax evasion." To make sure the Chinese public got the message, the sentencing hearing was broadcast on national television and the culprits were shown with their heads bowed and shaved. Most prominent among them was Yin Zhinong, a retired deputy manager of a steel mill and longtime Communist Party member. Yin got a six-year prison term for speculation and was stripped of his party membership. Said a Western diplomat: "Clearly a message was being sent." The general thrust: that government officials and ordinary Chinese citizens may finally get equal justice. Noted an elderly Communist intellectual: "At least our leaders seem to recognize that this problem exists. We cannot modernize unless everyone is more or less subject to the same legal system." SOUTH AFRICA Going on the Offensive

Gerrie de Villiers, a white farmer, was driving along a dirt road that borders Zimbabwe when he set off the first Czech-made antitank land mine. He escaped unhurt. About half a mile away, Elijah Makagamatha, a black truck driver, triggered a similar device. He too was unharmed, but the blast shattered the legs of a passenger. The next day another mine explosion killed a 25-year-old black driving a tractor. As security officials combed the area, rocket attacks narrowly missed two coal-to-oil refineries at Secunda, near Johannesburg. The outlawed African National Congress called the attacks a "generalized escalation" of its struggle against apartheid.

South African Foreign Minister Roelof Botha denounced the A.N.C.'s unprecedented deployment of mines on roads. He said investigators had discovered "tracks" leading to the Zimbabwe border and warned that South African troops would pursue the saboteurs into Zimbabwe if the attacks continued. The Foreign Ministers of Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, denied that A.N.C. guerrillas maintained bases in their countries and protested Botha's threat "in the strongest possible terms." NORTHERN IRELAND Anger in Parliament

There was a feeling of history in the making last week as the British House of Commons voted 473 to 47 in favor of the accord giving the Irish Republic a formal consulting voice in the governing of Northern Ireland. After the tally was announced, the Rev. Ian Paisley, a militant Protestant leader, shouted, "Ulster forever!" The next day, Paisley and fellow Democratic Unionist M.P. Peter Robinson tendered their resignations in the Commons' traditional fashion by applying for nominal Crown jobs, which would bar them from House membership. Their 13 Ulster Unionist colleagues vowed to follow suit.

The resignations were calculated to force multiple by-elections that will be seen as referendums on the Anglo-Irish agreement. If Paisley and his Protestant colleagues are re-elected in balloting that could come early next year, they hope to return to Westminster with a new mandate to oppose the accord. The Irish Senate also approved the accord, clearing the way for the first Irish-British meeting, scheduled to take place later this month in Belfast. Security will be the major topic. Last week a soldier in the Ulster Defense Regiment became the 51st victim of terrorism in Northern Ireland this year.