TEHRAN, Oct. 3--Following the establishment of Naples-Tehran House here, World Italians Association has decided to set up a representative office in Iran with the aim of expanding cultural ties between the two countries.
According to Fars news agency, head of the Naples-Tehran House, Serjou d'Gregorio who is currently in Iran along with a delegation from the Italian government told reporters that the World Italians Association, which has branches in most countries, believes that cultural exchanges can help forge closer ties between countries.
"We believe that Middle East countries enjoy a series of potentials which should be studied and we will begin this task from Iran," he noted.
D'Gregorio further said that the association has had successful experience in Russia and France.
Two months ago, an Italian cultural group visited Russia to perform programs and later a cultural group from Russia returned the visit, he added.
Culture and traditions of each nation, he said, contribute to the success of any task, noting, "Iran has an ancient history, which can place it in a foremost position among other countries."
However, the Italians do not have enough information about the country and they even want to launch their oriental studies from Iran, he noted.
Describing the publicity given to Iranian tourist sites in Italy as weak, d'Gregorio, who is also the representative of the Italians worldwide, said that the Italian travel agencies cannot provide helpful information about Iran. "If anybody wants to travel Iran, he/she will have no guide," he said.
Another Italian, Rozario Pouya attributed Iran's success in the tourism sector to facilities which conform to international standards.
If a country wants to attract tourists from all over the world, it should provide the facilities needed by the tourists, he concluded.

Abbas Kiarostami

Tehran, Oct. 3--Selected films by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami will be screened in Tokyo.
According to the Persian daily Aftab, 10 films by Kiarostami will be screened in Tokyo's Euro Space Movie Theater for one month.
The screening of the films will take place prior to a ceremony in which Kiarostami will receive a special award from the Japanese royal family.
The Japanese Arts Foundation, which is under the patronage of the royal family, announced last June that it will present Kiarostami the 'Royal Premium 2004 Award'. The award includes a cash prize of $135,000 and will be bestowed upon Kiarostami for his services to the theater and cinema industries. This is the first time that the award has been granted to an artist from an Islamic nation.
The Takamatsu Noumia award ceremony for Kiarostami will be held in Tokyo on October 21.
Meanwhile, the Japanese Arts Foundation will also award a painter from Germany, a sculptor from the US, and architect from Brazil and a musician from Poland.

TEHRAN, Oct. 3--Anthropologists have come across a 3,000-year-old skeleton of a pregnant woman with a fully developed fetus while conducting research studies on the findings unearthed during the third round of excavations in Talesh archeological site.
The archeological site of Talesh, which is located in the northwest of Gilan province, is significant because of the influence of the Iron Age civilization on the Iranian plateau, Cultural Heritage News agency reported.
The archeological team, which began its activities in Talesh earlier in August.
An anthropologist working at the Talesh site, Farzad Forouzanfar, said that anthropological studies on the skeleton reveal that the young woman, believed to be aged under 20, died during childbirth due to a deformation of the pelvis. The child remained in her womb, he added.
Earlier, anthropologists discovered the remains of a mother with a fetus in her womb, dating back to 5,000 years ago from the ancient site of Shahr-e Soukhteh (Burnt City), near Sistan, southeastern Iran.

TEHRAN, Oct. 3--Mir Emad Congress will begin in the northeastern city of Qazvin on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by Vice President and Head of Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) Hossein Marashi.
Announcing this, Director General of the ICHTO's office in Qazvin province Mohammad Nader Mohammadzadeh told ISNA that renowned calligraphers and artists will take part in the two-day event.
Participants will deliver lectures in the congress while the panel of jury will select the three top works for the 'Mir Emad Award'.
Mohammadzadeh said that the ceremony to present the Mir Emad Award, which is given once every two years, will be held at the tomb of the great Iranian calligrapher and painter Mir Emad on October 7.
He said that the Calligraphy Museum and the Museum of Archeology have been inaugurated in Qazvin adding that the museum is displaying 200 works by calligraphers including great artists such as Mir Emad, Mir Hossein, Emad Al-Ketab, Taleqani, Alaeddin, Abdolrashid, and Malek Deilam.
Qazvin Museum of Archeology holds artifacts and cultural heritage dating back from 6,000 B.C. and the Islamic era to the contemporary period.
The museum has been set up in an area of 800 square meters at Chehel-Sotoun Palace in Qazvin.
Meanwhile, an exhibit of calligraphy by 25 artists--150 pieces of works by Mirkhani, 50 pieces by Mir Emad and 100 by Qazvini calligraphers--will be inaugurated at Saad Al-Saltaneh compound of Qazvin.
The statue of Mir Emad will be unveiled on a boulevard in Qazvin which is named after the renowned calligrapher.
Sculptor Zia-eddini created the statue, which is five-times bigger than life-size, depicting Mir Emad in a sitting posture to do calligraphy.

TEHRAN, Oct. 3--The delay in opening letter of credits (L/Cs) for import of paper has created a shortage in the market forcing some publishing houses to curtail operations.
The Persian daily Jam-e Jam quoted the director of Ofouq Publishing House, Reza Hashemi-nejad as saying that government's intervention could prevent the price from going up dramatically. The price of every ream of paper was far below 150,000 rials, but it has now shot up to 250,000 rials, he said.
Publishers have complained that 6,000 tons of paper were distributed last month but this was not enough. Currently Ofouq Publishing House
has fallen behind its schedule and can publish only nine titles of books out of 23 titles due to be published for the current Iranian month of Mehr (September 22-October 21), he said.
Meanwhile, the director of Rouzbeh Publishing House said that the publishers do not have paper to publish books. "We should buy paper from the open market. The quality of the paper in the market is poor and not suitable for printing books," he said.
Head of the Tehran Publishers Cooperative, Mahmoud Hosseini said that lack of coordination between 'supply and demand' is responsible for the shortage. "The publishers have not been provided with enough paper in the first half of the year which the consumption for paper is high and they were forced to wait for the second half of the year. The cooperative could not provide the publishers with paper last month and it was delayed by one month, he said.
Hosseini said that publishers need 100,000 tons of papers per year whereas only 35 percent of their needs is supplied.

TEHRAN, Oct. 3--For the first time in Iran, Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport has drawn up a plan to welcome incoming passengers, particularly foreign guests.
According to Fars news agency, under the plan, the visitors will be identified by men and women guides at the airport. These guides will have a good command of the world's living languages and dressed in special uniforms.
After completing airport procedures including visa formalities and currency exchange, the passengers will be transferred to the places of their own choice by well-trained drivers.
Based on the plan, secondary services such as providing maps and useful information about the cities, hotels, reputable travel agencies and banks, will also be offered.

TEHRAN, Oct. 3--The first Kyrgyz-Persian dictionary has been compiled by instructors and students of Bishkek University of Human Science.
IRNA quoted the Kyrgyz daily Vecherny Bishkek as saying that the dictionary contains 35,000 words.
Head of the Faculty of Eastern Studies Talas Bek Mashrabov said that given the growing number of Kyrgyz students studying Persian language, the need emerged for a Kyrgyz-Persian dictionary and the faculty planned to compile a dictionary as an educational aid for the students.
He said that the Humanities Faculty has coordinated with Iranian academy of Persian language in compiling the dictionary.
The Faculty of the Eastern Studies has a Persian language department and Iranian cultural attachŽ has set up a center for Islamic studies at the faculty.

TEHRAN, Oct. 3--An artist can guide human beings to reality through his/her artistic works and prevent one from becoming engrossed in selfishness, observed the deputy head of Islamic Artists Association for artistic affairs.
Speaking at a ceremony to celebrate Milad-Nour Festivity and the 10th anniversary of establishment of Artists Islamic Board, Javad Shamqadri noted that Iranians have always believed in brighter future.
Noting the lack of support for popular groups by certain state institutions, Shamqadri asserted that the Islamic Artists Association is the first and most enduring popular artistic movement in the post-revolution era.
Referring to support for public groups by certain governmental institutions, he pointed out that some state bodies whose main duty is to support this NGO have even weakened it in several cases. "For example, Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry has not extended any support in the past eight years. It even refrained from providing tickets for Fajr theater and film festivals," he lamented.