Some eight million people paid visit to heritage museums and historical sites across Iran during the two-week New Year (Noruz) holidays, which ended on April 2.

A total of 7.825 million people toured museums and other sites which have entry fees and are affiliated with the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Mehr quoted Mohammadreza Kargar, the director of CHHTO museums and historical properties, as saying on Saturday.

The figure shows a 15 percent growth year on year, he said, adding that Fars province came first for having the highest number of museumgoers.

The Louvre exhibit in Tehran also made a record high as it hosted some 15,600 visitors in a single day, the official added.

The Louvre show will be running through June 8 at the National Museum of Iran. It’s the first large-scale exhibition by a major Western museum in the country.

“A total of 104,047 people explored the exhibit from March 5 to April 2, which is a stunning figure ….. we had estimated to have some 100,000 visitors over the course of three months, while some 60 days is still remained,” Jebreil Nokandeh, the museum’s director, said last week / Tehran times /

A discussion and celebration program on ‘The Traditions and Signs of Nowruz’ will be held at the National Music and Dance Centre auditorium of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on April 6.

Iran Cultural Centre, Dhaka and BSA will jointly organize the program on the occasion of Nowruz (Iranian New Year) and Bangla Noboborsho at 3.45 p.m.

Adviser (International Affairs) to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Dr Gowher Rizvi will be present as chief guest on the occasion.

Former director general of Bangladesh Television Mo Hamid and chairman of department of Persian Language and Literature of the University of Dhaka Professor Dr. Abul Kalam Sarker will be present as Special Guests.

Director of Research and Publication Department of BSA Dr. Gazi Md. Saifuzzaman will preside over the programme.

Nowruz (new day) is the name of the Iranian New Year, also known as the Persian New Year. It has been celebrated for over 3,000 years in Western Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Basin, and the Balkans.

Head of Iranian-Made Laboratory Materials and Equipment Exhibition Dr. Mahmoud Sheikh Zeynaddin revealed the upgrade of Iranian laboratory equipment technology and said, “use of these laboratory equipment will save significant currency in the field of importing pertinent equipment into the country.”

In an interview with MNA correspondent, he stated, “this prestigious exhibition, which has become a platform for interaction of buyers and suppliers of these products, is perhaps the only example of activities done in the country in the field of knowledge-based economy that deals with the stimulation of demand for knowledge-based products.”

Creation of a marketplace is the most important problem facing knowledge-based companies, he said, adding, “this prestigious exhibition has had a significant impact in stimulation of demand for knowledge-based products as well.”

The exhibition started its activity in 2013, so that 1,425 corporate models participated in this exhibition, he maintained.

Technology Innovation and Commercialization Deputy for Science and Technology Affairs went on to say that 4,000 billion rials worth of laboratory equipment was sold to universities and scientific centers in the country.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointed to the salient advantages of organizing the exhibition in selling domestically-produced laboratory equipment and added, “all laboratory parts and equipment showcased in this exhibition have been manufactured by researchers of knowledge-based companies, so that universities and scientific centers are equipped with domestically-manufactured products with fair and reasonable prices.”

In conclusion, Head of Iranian-Made Laboratory Materials and Equipment Exhibition Dr. Mahmoud Sheikh Zeynaddin said, “knowledge-based companies always try to promote their products in a way that the number of domestically-produced laboratory equipment technology has been increased considerably in the recent years.” / Mehr news /

The Iran women’s national futsal team is scheduled to play four friendly fixtures against China and Ukraine as it is gearing up for the 2018 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Futsal Championship in Thailand.

The Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) announced on Tuesday that the China women’s national futsal team will travel to Tehran within the next few days, and will face the Iranian outfit at Iran’s National Football Center in western Tehran on March 28 and 30.

The Ukraine women’s futsal team will also travel to Tehran on April 13 to have two exhibition games against the Iranian team.

During the draw ceremony at the AFC House in the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur on March 4, the Iran women’s national futsal team joined squads from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the preliminary round of the continental sports event.

Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau and Thailand form Group A in the forthcoming tournament.

Group B consists of Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Bahrain, China, Japan and Lebanon are drawn in Group C.

The 2018 AFC Women’s Futsal Championship, which will be the second edition of the international event, will take place between May 2 and 12, 2018. / Iran daily /

Ankara, March 23, IRNA – Iranian tourists who visit Turkey are the third big group of foreign visitors who go to the country each year only after the German and Russian tourists and stay there more than Western visitors.

Iranian tourists 3rd big group of foreign visitors in Turkey

The number of Iranian tourists in Turkey, compared to the previous year, experienced a 50 percent growth in 2017 to stand at 2.5 million people, the Karar Daily reported on Friday.

Development of bilateral ties between Iran and Turkey and an increasing familiarity of Iranians with the cultural commonalities possessed by the two neighboring nations have contributed to the rise in the number of Iranian tourists in Turkey, Karar quoted Turkish tourism officials as saying.

Antalya, Istanbul and Van have been referred in the report as the most important destination for Iranian tourists.

Iranian tourists stay 35-40 percent more than Western tourists in Turkey.

Cities of Istanbul, Antalya, Marmas and Ankara are the most important destinations for Iranian air travel to Turkey, and those traveling through the borderlands of the Bazargan, Razi and Sarv to Turkey, often go to the cities of Van, Yuksek Ewa, Ağrı, Eğadir, Erzurum and Trabzon.

Iranian National Men’s and Women’s Kurash Teams by bagging three gold, three silver and two bronze medals took the second place in the Asian kurash wrestling championships held in India.

Iran finishes runner up in Asian kurash championships

According to a report by Iran’s Judo, Jujitsu and Kurash Federation, Uzbekistan won the championship while the host country India took the third place.

Gold medal winners for Iran were Elias Ali Akbari, Mohammad Malek Mohammadi and Jafar Pahlevani while Omid Tiztak, Qasem Ahadi and Mohammad Ali Zakeri snatched silver medals. Ms. Mahtab Baghcheqi and Ms. Zahra Baqeri bagged two bronze medals in women’s competitions.

Kurash is one of the Turkic terms for ‘wrestling’ and specifically refers to a number of folk wrestling styles practiced in Central Asia. / Irna/

To renovate police cars in Iran ahead of Norouz (Iranian New Year), when the police have a busy time monitoring the roads, Toyota’s Land Cruisers 2018 have been added to Iran’s law-enforcement fleet.

Land Cruiser, the Japanese manufacturer’s longest running series, has joined the country’s police car fleet, Tasnim News Agency reported.

Experts have questioned the choice of police cars in Iran for years. Many models, including Mazda 3, Kia Cerato, Suzuki’s Grand Vitara, the locally designed Samand and Peugeot 206, have served the police at one point or another.

Ultimately, the authorities seem to have come to terms with inducting better foreign cars in the law enforcement fleet. / Financial tribune /

A total of 818,000 jobs were created in Iran during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (March 21-Dec. 21, 2017), indicating a 3.6% rise compared with last year’s similar period, the head of Statistical Center of Iran said.

“The number of unemployed people grew by 16,000 during the nine-month period to reach 3.2 million out of 25.8 million economically active population in the country,” Omid Ali Parsa was also quoted as saying by IRNA.

“The government is planning to create 1.33 million jobs in the upcoming fiscal year (starting March 21), of which 846,000 will be offered to university graduates,” Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the head of Iran’s Management and Planning Organization, said.

SCI’s latest report on Iran’s unemployment shows the jobless rate stood at 11.9% in the third quarter of the current fiscal year (Sept. 23-Dec. 21, 2017), registering a 0.4% drop compared with the same period of last year and a 0.2% increase compared with the previous quarter (summer).

According to the report, 3.14 million Iranians were unemployed this autumn–10.1% of men (or 2.14 million) and 19.1% of women (or 999,145) of ages 10 and above were jobless during the third quarter. / Financial tribune /

Tehran is among the least expensive cities in the world to live in, according to the latest findings of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2018 by The Economist Intelligence Unit.

The survey, which compares the price of over 150 items in 133 cities, found the cost of living in Tehran is nearly half that of the benchmark city of New York.

The capital city fell by two places in this year’s ranking to 121st most expensive city in the world, narrowly avoiding the bottom 10.

Singapore remains the most expensive city in the world for the fifth year running, 16% more expensive than New York. / Financial tribune /