As part of a national plan, Iranian researchers have managed to develop a new generation of nanofilters capable of absorbing diesel soot, IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

The process of obtaining international standards for manufacturing the product is currently underway.

Currently, car manufacturers are using ceramic filters that do not meet the requirements of Euro 2 diesel engines, while they are being imported at a price three times above the Iranian product.

According to Rasoul Norouzian, the product designer, the filter is capable of absorbing particulate matter (PM 2.5), which can be efficient in curbing air pollution.

According to a study conducted by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), about 75-85 percent of Tehran’s air pollution is related to cars and motorcycles.

Air pollution haunting Iranian capital

Tehran air quality index (AQI) reached an unhealthy level of pollution for 59 days since the beginning of this year (March 21), according to a report published by the Tehran Air Quality Control Company.

An AQI is used to communicate to the public how polluted the air currently is or how polluted it is forecast to become.

The index categorizes conditions according to a measure of polluting matters into excellent (0-50), good (51-100), lightly polluted or unhealthy for sensitive groups (101-150), moderately polluted (151-200), heavily polluted (201-300) and severely polluted (301-500).

During the aforementioned period, heavily polluted air haunted the capital for 5 days which was almost dangerous for all the residents.

This is while, last year over the same period 44 days were unhealthy for sensitive groups, and Tehraners did not breathe a single day of heavily polluted air.

Some of the air control stations in the capital exceeded the 210 level, including the southern city of Shar-e-Rey and the southwestern city of Shadabad.

Polluted air also resulted in the closure of schools and universities for five days.

The leading cause of air pollution in the capital is PM 2.5, PM 10 and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2). /T.T/

The 40 best films of the millennium list released by The San Francisco Chronicle includes Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s ‘The Past’ (2013).

Mick LaSalle, The San Francisco Chronicle’s film critic, has released a list of 40 best films of the millennium, with Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s ‘The Past’ (2013) making the cut at the 11th place.

The critic considered science fiction as the dominant genre for 20 years, adding however that the best films of the millennium have not been science fiction films.

He has published two best-of the-millennium lists, one for English-language films and the other for foreign-language films that is limited to foreign films released in the United States.

French–Italian–Iranian drama film ‘The Past’, by the director of Oscar-winning film ‘A Separation’, was named as the 11th best film of the millennium on the foreign-language film list.

The critic described Farhadi’s ‘The Past’ as a methodical, naturalistic film about love, marriage and infidelity, in which everyone is ripped apart emotionally.

The film was nominated for the Palme d’Or award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the festival’s Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. Bérénice Bejo also won the festival’s Best Actress Award. ‘The Past’ was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Golden Globe Awards.

Top on LaSalle’s list of English-language films are ’25th Hour’ (2002), ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009), and ‘The New World’ (2005). /MNA/

Iran’s Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development for Construction and Development of Railways, Ports and Airports said that Iran’s rail network will be connected to Afghanistan soon.

Abbas Khatibi made the remarks on Sat. and pointed to the quantitative increase of rail network towards neighboring countries and revealed the connection of railway network of the country to neighboring Afghanistan.

He also referred to the prioritized projects of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and added, “up to the present time, five rail projects have been put into operation in the country.”

Efforts are underway to put Bostanabad-Khavaran Road in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan province, into operation before termination of the next year (to start March 21, 2020), he emphasized.

He went on to say that Khaf-Herat railway project, as long as 139 km, which connects the rail network of the country of Afghanistan, will come on stream by the end of the next Iranian year (to start March 21, 2020).

Connection of rail network of the country to neighboring countries is one of the main policies of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, the issue of which has been put atop agenda of the ministry, Khatibi added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the deputy minister of roads pointed to Rasht-Astara Railway project and said, “effective and constructive talks have been made in this regard in line with completing construction operation of this giant project.”

He also revealed the development of rail lines of the country towards Eurasia and added, “in construction of railway projects, technical specifications are taken into consideration, so that the trains are transited and exited from the country in appropriate time.”/MNA/

Pakistan’s Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation Sania Nishtar said that Iran’s health system is pioneer in the Islamic world.

She made the remarks in an interview with IRNA on Sat. and added, “salient achievements gained by Iran in the field of healthcare are on par with the developed countries, and Pakistan is ready to take advantage of high potentials and capabilities of Iran in this field.”

Iran is a friend and neighboring country to Pakistan and the two countries have established amicable and intimate relations with each other for a very long time period.

She termed activity of higher education centers, medical universities and other health services organizations in Iran as ‘significant’, adding, “we can make use of the capacities and potentials of Iran in the fields of research and training.”

Pakistan has taken remarkable measures in line with supporting the low-income families such as alleviation of poverty among women in the society, she emphasized.

Pakistan’s Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation Sania Nishtar also appreciated policies taken by the Islamic Republic of Iran with regards to empowering women in the country./MNA/

Head of Iran’s Budget and Planning Organization (BPO) said the government has paid 395 trillion rials (over $9.4 billion) for financing development projects across the country in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-December 22).

Speaking in a ceremony for inauguration of a housing project in the northeastern province of South Khorasan, Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht said: “Based on the statistics for the last nine months, we have paid 35 trillion tomans [350 trillion rials] for various development projects throughout the country and thousands of billions more will be paid in the coming months”, ILNA reported.

“In spite of all the difficulties, we are still paying all our dues including government employees’ wages, retirees’ pensions, and the payments to all the groups covered by support agencies, just like before,” he said.

Back in October, Nobakht announced that the government is going to allocate all revenues from oil sales to the development projects following structural reforms in the next Iranian calendar year’s (March 2020-March 2021) budget bill.

According to the official, 430 trillion rials (about $10.2 billion) is allocated for development projects in the next year’s budget plan, up 53 percent from the figure for the current year.

“We intend to invest as much as we can in the development sector in the next [Iranian calendar] year (starts on March 19, 2020), so we have increased the budget for this sector by 53 percent to achieve significant growth,” Nobakht said.

President Hassan Rouhani submitted the administration’s draft of the national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year 1399, which starts on March 20, 2020, to the Majlis in early December.

The main characteristic of the next year’s budget bill which makes it different from previous years’ budget bills, is the impact of the U.S. sanctions on the country’s economy and the consequent considerations which have been taken into account in preparing it.

The next year’s budget bill has been modified in terms of resources, expenditures, policies, and objectives, considering the resistance against the U.S. sanctions. /T.T/

Iranian documentary ‘Beloved’, directed by Yaser Talebi, has snatched awards from three international film festivals in Spain, France, and China.

‘Beloved’ follows the life of an 80-year-old mother named Firouzeh who is fond of her isolated lifestyle in nature with her cows. The film shows her kind and loving character and demonstrates her bravery and strength tackling the hardship of life in the Alborz Mountains without the modern comforts of technology. She believes happiness lies in the simplicity of life.

The Iranian documentary won the Best Film about Mountain Culture award at Torello’s International Festival of Mountain and Adventure Films in Spain.

It also grabbed the Remarkable Film Award at China International Green Film Week.

The grand prix of the International Mountain Film Festival of Autrans in France also went to ‘Beloved’.

The successful Iranian documentary will next take part at the 18th Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh. /MNA/

Deputy Head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) for Foreign Markets Masoud Kamali Ardakani put Iran’s total foreign trade value in the first eight months of the current year (March 21 – Nov. 22) at $55 billion.

He made the remarks on Sat. in the ceremony of honoring exemplary exporters of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province and emphasized, “of total $55 billion imports-exports value, $27 billion of which is related to exports which showed a 16 percent hike in weight as compared to the same period of last year.”

Turning to the export of Iranian products to seven target markets in the world, he said, “it is estimated that Iran’s export share of products to 15 neighboring countries by 2021 will hit two to four percent at large.”

Kamali Ardakani pointed out that $24 billion worth of products are exported from Iran to neighboring countries annually, adding, “presently, Iran enjoys high potentials to increase its exports value of products to neighboring countries by $100 billion at large.”

About $300 billion worth of products are exported to Eurasian markets annually in a way that Iran accounts for less than $1 billion export share in this lucrative market, he stressed.

For this purpose, a permanent office has been set up at Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) in order to increase export volume to the Eurasian market, he said. /MNA/

Head of Iran Space Agency (ISA) Morteza Barari and Deputy ICT minister said that progress of “Pars 1” Remote Sensing Satellite is ‘satisfactory’.

He made the remarks on Sun. in his meeting with the Head of Iran Space Research Center (ISRC) Hossein Samimi and was briefed on the latest situation of Pars 1” satellite.

The deputy minister of Communications and Information Technology (ICT) seized this opportunity to express his thanks on the round-the-clock and unflinching efforts of specialists and exports of space field for the completion and delivery of “Pars 1” satellite and called on responsible authorities to throw their weights behind expert engineers in materializing objectives of the agency in relevant field.

It is hoped that cooperation and collaboration of Iran Space Agency (ISA) and Iran Space Research Center (ISRC) will lead to the successful launch of satellites in the Orbit, Barari added./MNA/

The 22nd International Storytelling Festival will open in Tehran on Tuesday at the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) with narrators from Iran and several other countries.

Eight Iranian storytellers along with narrators from Turkey, Lebanon, Japan and Spain will perform in the international section category, the director of the festival, Mohammad Zomorrodian, said during a press conference on Saturday.

“The festival is comprised of different sections with participants ranging from children to grandmothers and grandfathers,” he added.

“Like the previous edition, those individuals who could not take part in the festival recorded their stories and will be competing in the 90-second section of the festival,” he added.

“Writer Mostafa Rahmandust, children’s TV programmers Majid Qannad and Giti Khameneh, and actor Reza Kianian will be telling stories in the guest section during the event,” he added.

The artistic director of the festival, Sorush Sehat, also praised the IIDCYA for its efforts to promote reading among children.

The festival, which aims to promote storytelling traditions among the younger generation, will be running until December 21. /T.T/