Chairman of Tehran City Council Mehdi Chamran said a foreign immigrant residing in the capital city Tehran will have to pay 75,000 rials annually in taxes for using urban facilities and services.
“Other members of the same immigrant family will be subject to 40,000 rial municipal tolls each,“ he added.
Chamran explained that foreign residents of Tehran had been legally obliged to pay municipal tolls as per a 2004 endorsement. “The enactment, however, did not take effect due to the absence of executive mechanisms.“
It is recent session, the City Council reviewed the amendment to the bill on receiving urban tolls from non-Iranian residents, the Persian newspaper Hamshahri wrote.
“It was decided that taxes would be collected in cooperation with Tehran Governor General’s Office while issuing annual residence cards for foreign nationals,“ Chamran stated.

Medical Emergency Organization plans to employ about 1,200 people during February-September.

Medical Emergency Organization is facing a shortage of 16,000 personnel, head of the organization said.
Talking to ILNA, Farzad Panahi stated that the number of the entity’s staff should increase to 23,000 from only 7,000 at present.
He cited the Fourth Five-Year Development Plan (2005-2010) which envisages the organization’s workforce should reach 23,000 by 2010.
Pointing to a rise in the number of students admitted into the emergency medicine field in the current academic year (started Sept. 24), Panahi expressed hope that the university graduates would help fill the gap.
The official noted that an average 2,000 personnel should be recruited by the organization annually in order to meet targets set by the Fourth Development Plan.
“The organization plans to employ about 1,200 new staff during February and September,“ he mentioned.
“We also hope to be able to narrow the gap by employing graduates of related medical fields particularly male nurses and anesthesia technicians.“

Approximately 6,000 people are suffering from hemophilia across the country, deputy health minister was quoted by ISNA as saying.
Moayyed Alavian, who was speaking on the sidelines of an international conference on Feb. 5-6 in Tehran dealing with challenges to treatment of hemophiliac patients, stated that precautionary measures are adopted in the country to cut by 20 percent the rate of children born with the genetic problem within two years.
Alavian underlined that implementation of pre-natal diagnosis (PND) programs is on the ministry’s agenda as well.
The official cited unconfirmed figures based on which between 200 and 300 kids are born with hemophilia in the country each year.
He noted that the first official statistics in this regard will be released in September.
Highlighting the important role of non-governmental organizations in the healthcare system, Alavian stated that presently NGOs are helping supply hemophiliac patients around the country with blood-clotting factors.
The official further stated that within the next 10 days, 400 hepatitis C-positive hemophiliacs will be provided free medical treatment.
He put the prevalence of hepatitis C among the country’s hemophiliac population at 6 percent.

Operations for demining 400,000 hectares of territories infested with mines and unexploded ordnance got underway in the western border province of Ilam.
Director general of Ilam Governor General’s Office for political and law enforcement affairs, Jafar Kheital, told IRNA that the mine clearance operations had been delegated to state-run and private sectors under 10 contracts.
He estimated the total infested area in Ilam at 1.7 million hectares.
“Mines and explosives have been removed from one million hectares of these lands since the end of the 1980-88 war with Iraq,“ he said, noting that the largest number of landmines have been planted in the border towns of Mehran and Dehloran, with lands most suitable for farming.
“Removing mines from the infested areas is expected to give a boost to farming and livestock breeding in the region,“ he added.
As per official statistics, more than 2,000 people have been either maimed or killed by mine explosions in Ilam in recent years.

Illiteracy shall be uprooted in Jolfa within eight months, making it Iran’s first fully literate city, thanks to an agreement to be signed between Education Department and Aras Free Zone Organization.
Deputy head of AFZO for cultural and educational affairs, Ali Reza Lotf-Khodaei, told the Persian daily Javan in Tabriz, “In a recent session, the local Literacy Campaign Department was obliged to provide information on the precise number of illiterate individuals in the northern city as well as present a comprehensive program for eradication of illiteracy by Sept. 2007. AFZO will also have to help execute and fund the program and partake in the advertising campaign.“
According to the deputy, presently 97 percent of Jolfa people are literate owing to the activities of the Literacy Campaign Department. “The remaining 3 percent are above 40 years old.“
Jolfa, in East Azarbaijan, is one of the best educated and cultured cities in the province and the country, he stated.
“AFZO also plans to build high-standard kindergartens, publish a magazine specific to children and youngsters, establish the Aras radio station and organize English language courses,“ Lotf-Khodaei noted.
Aras Free Zone, with Jolfa as its center, is situated 137 km northwest of Tabriz, and on the bank of Aras River.

Of the 35 species of scorpions identified across the country, 14 are found in Khuzestan.

Scorpion stings are a major public health problem in southern Khuzestan province, with 40,000 bites reported annually, some of them claiming the lives of victims due to lack of specialized medical treatment.
Of the total 35 species of scorpions identified across the country, 14 are found in Khuzestan. Nevertheless, the province is deprived of a specialized hospital to treat scorpion bites and the victims are mainly hospitalized in unrelated wards, according to the Persian daily Tehran Emrooz .
Six of the highly-venomous potentially lethal species namely Androctonus crassicauda, Buthotus saulcyi, Odontobuthus doriae, Buthotus schach, Mesobuthus eupeus and Hemiscorpius lepturus exist in Khuzestan.
The situation prompted the Razi Institute of Ahvaz to establish the Arthropoda and the Scorpion Reference Laboratory.
Deputy head of the institute for research and education, Shahrokh Navidpour, explained, “Extensive studies have been conducted on the existence of various scorpion species with their habitats marked on a map.“
He elaborated that the laboratory’s activities are focused on the three categories of scorpions, humans and livestock.
“Khuzestan’s hot and dry climatic conditions have led to multiplication of scorpions there, with the result that a large number of people are bitten each year,“ he added.
“Unawareness of the dangers involved and delay in seeking medical help are the reasons behind most scorpion-related deaths.“
He highlighted the necessity of educating public as the most efficient means of preventing mortalities.

A grave of an unknown martyr in Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, Tehran

Some 1.2 million booklets containing helpful information about citizenship rights and ethics were distributed among residents of the capital by Tehran Municipality’s Cultural and Artistic Organization.
Director of the organization’s Educational Center was quoted by CHN as saying that above 1.2 million educational booklets aiming to provide the denizens, especially the youth, with guidance on Iranian cultural patterns and to help rectify ethical problems dominating the society have been published by the center during 10 months.
Seyyed Mehdi Tabatabaei added that the booklets contained information about citizenship ethics, Persian luminaries and national and religious events in easy-to-understand language.
He noted that Tehrani citizens have welcomed the initiative.

Japan is one of the few nations, including Indonesia and Brazil, that have seen notable increases in prison populations over the last few years, according to a report released by experts in Britain, The Japan Times said.
The latest edition of the World Prison Population List, compiled by prison expert Roy Walmslay with the help of colleagues at London University, says at least 9.25 million people are held in prisons throughout the world. The global total, comprising both sentenced prisoners and those under pretrial detention, has increased by 250,000 since the figures were last published in 2005, the report says.
The report notes the last five years have seen huge prison population surges in Indonesia, at 87 percent, Brazil, at 55 percent, and Japan and Mexico, both at 30 percent.
According to the list, Japan’s prison population, which includes pretrial detainees, stood at 79,055 in December 2005, or 62 per 100,000 of the general population.
The data, mainly from national governments, were compiled between January 2004 and last October.
According to the report, the United States has the largest prison population, at 2.19 million, or 738 per 100,000 of the national population.
This is followed by China with 1.55 million, which includes sentenced prisoners only and those in “administrative detention,“ and Russia at 870,000.
Commenting on the findings, Rob Allen, director of the International Center for Prison Studies at London University, said, “Given the high costs and disputed efficacy of imprisonment, the data should prompt policymakers in every country to consider what they can do to limit the size of their prison population. Excessive use of imprisonment does nothing to improve public safety.“
Japan’s figures compared well with the rest of East Asia.

Opposing views reflect the divide over the latest push to wean France off cigarettes, a change that may alter the image of a country defined in part by its smoky cafes.
France’s 15 million smokers have been banned from lighting up in workplaces, schools, airports, hospitals and other “closed and covered“ public places.
More than 175,000 agents are to enforce the ban, handing out fines of $88 to smokers and $174 to employers who look the other way.
In a year, the ban will extend to cafes and restaurants--sure to be the moment of truth for a certain idea of France, where writers like Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre are remembered with cigarettes dangling from their mouths.
“A world is collapsing,“ writer Philippe Delerm wrote in a front-page ode to the cigarette in Le Monde newspaper, referring to the alluring image of the chain-smoking intellectual.
“Those were good times. But nobody thought about the collateral damage.“
Statistics--like 66,000 smoker deaths per year in France--and changing norms are snuffing out the romance along with the cigarette. Italy, Spain, Belgium, Britain and Ireland are all ahead of France in enacting broad smoking bans.
Despite staggered anti-smoking initiatives over more than a decade, French smokers have, so far, held sway as officialdom turned a blind eye to rule-bending.