Participants are free in the choice of technique and should create their works during the six-day event using canvas, oil color and acrylic.

International Symposium of Painting focusing on justice and altruism will be held in Imam Ali (AS) Museum from July 28 to August 3.
According to Fars, some 11 foreign artists from eight countries as well as seven Iranian artists will participate in the event.
The event’s Selection Board chose the artists from among 40 foreign painters with 29 works and 36 Iranian artists with 15 works. The board included Manouchehr Motabar, a veteran painter, Pouneh Jafarnejad, a participant at nine painting symposiums and Seyyed Mohsen Hashemi, director for Visual Arts Affairs of Tehran Municipality’s Cultural and Artistic Organization.
The participants are free in the choice of technique and they should create their works during the six-day event using canvas, oil color and acrylic.
Two Iranian painters Aneh Mohammad Tatari and Ahmad Vakili and artists from Croatia, Saudi Arabia, France, Russia, Turkey, Switzerland and Peru will create works during the symposium.
The inaugural ceremony of the symposium will be held late Friday in Imam Ali Museum.
Two newly-published books titled ’Ali in the Mirror of Calligraphy’ and ’An Introduction to Islamic Art’ will also be unveiled during the ceremony.
Works created during the six-day symposium will be displayed for two weeks from August 3.
The symposium will be open to the public everyday from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Deputy Minister of Science, Research and Technology for international affairs announced the establishment of Iranian Farabi University in Syria.
In an interview with Mehr, Arsalan Baqeri said, “Minister of Science, Research and Technology Mohammad Zahedi, during a recent visit to Syria, finalized the establishment of Farabi University, which is an international branch of Tarbiat Modarres University (Instructor Training University).“
He added that the two countries also pledged to set up a 16-member committee to conduct research in biotechnology and laser.
Commenting on scholarship for Iranian students in Syria, the official said, “Syria agreed to provide dorm facilities for some 150 Iranian students equal to the facilities offered to Syrian students in Iran.“ The establishment of a $500,000 fund for undertaking joint projects was among the other outcome of Zahedi’s visit.

First volume of a ten-volume encyclopedia on the Sacred Defense Era (1980-88 Iraq-imposed war) will be published in limited copies within two months to obtain feedback before the work is printed in large numbers for the general public.
According to IRNA, legal and political secretary of compiling the encyclopedia Yekta said that the first volume of the encyclopedia includes 394 entries classified in seven categories of military martyrs, government, law, politics, geography, economy and social and culture.
Commenting on the start of the project, he said that the process of gathering information began in 1996 while the compilation of entries was undertaken two years ago.
The first volume will be released within two months, he noted.
Describing the presentation of data in a comprehensive and organized manner as one of the objectives of the project, he further said that the reason for this is to weed out misleading information and provide researchers with the facts.
In addition to these, Iraq-imposed war is part of history and there are many ambiguities which should be clarified from authentic sources, he said, adding, “We are seeking to fill such a vacuum in the field.“
Yekta further stated that the encyclopedia is being compiled under the supervision of the Foundation for Safeguarding the Works and Publishing the Values of Sacred Defense. It will take ten years to complete, he noted.
Compilation each volume of the encyclopedia will cost 15 billion rials, he concluded.

Education Minister Mahmoud Farshidi has said that following the approval of the Majlis to allocate $4 billion for reinforcing school buildings, the campaign ’Iranian School, Iranian Architecture’ will be actively pursued by the ministry.
Addressing the 24th meeting of heads of education departments nationwide on its second day on Tuesday, he appreciated the Majlis for supporting the ministry and said that the Seventh Majlis has greatly assisted the ministry in solving its financial problems, reported IRNA.
Revitalizing the Religious Instruction Department within the ministry, which is the most effective step of the Seventh Majlis, indicates the special attention paid by the legislature to religious beliefs and the significant role of education in nurturing future generations, he observed.
The Majlis has also approved to exempt the ministry from paying for construction permits and this will bring a total of four billion dollars for the ministry in the long run, the minister said.
Reconstruction and development of schools has always been the focus of Majlis attention, he concluded.

Karim Khan Church in Tehran.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has announced that it has reviewed the case submitted by Iran for registering Iranian churches and an expert with the UN body will visit the country in late summer to corroborate the contents of the case with the monuments.
Announcing this, head of the Research Center for Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization Seyyed Taha Hashemi told Mehr that the case for registering Iranian churches will be discussed in World Committee Meeting in 2008.
Iran has submitted the case of 12 churches to UNESCO for global registration.
Referring to the trend of global registration of historical monuments, he pointed out that each country sends the case of a candidate for global registration after nominating it for the purpose.
If the entity finds flaws with the case, it will give time to remove the defects, he noted, adding that it will be referred to Global Registration Council once the procedure is complete.
Following this stage, UNESCO dispatches its experts to inspect the site. Finally, the case is discussed in the General Assembly of UNESCO’s executive members.
Unfortunately, in 2005, UNESCO approved that each country can register only one case each year, he said, adding, “Due to war and a number of problems, we did not manage to register a considerable number of relics with the entity.“

Production of a computer game ’Special Operations 85’ which focuses on nuclear energy has received extensive coverage in the western media and worldwide.
Experts believe that the move to design and market an Iranian game featuring nuclear energy is directed against arrogant powers who are opposing Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, IRNA reported.
The same source said that Ria Novosti wrote that Iran has for the first time produced a computer game on nuclear energy. The game, which has eight sections, was designed by the Islamic Students’ Association.
In this game, the user goes to war with US forces as an Iranian soldier seeking to rescue nuclear scientists who have been abducted.
Commenting on the game, Ibrahim Bioumi, an instructor at Cairo’s National Center for Social and Criminal Researches, told Al-Jazeera that the only reason for producing such a game was that Iran wants to achieve some of its objectives in the media war with the US on its peaceful nuclear efforts. He added, “All of us are aware of the unbelievable impact which computer games have on children and young adults and it is completely obvious that the Iranian game seeks to prepare children’s minds to counter the US and the Zionist regime of Israel.“
AFP also said that the game will soon be installed in all game nets in Tehran and most of the children and youth will be influenced by the story.
Almenar News Network noted that the theme of the game is to rescue kidnapped Iranian nuclear scientists from the clutches of US occupying forces.
Meanwhile, German weekly Spiegel said that Iran wants to promote the values such as martyrdom and sacrifice through computer games.

Over 1.5 million Mexicans have visited the ’Iran, Symbol of Paradise’ exhibition, which was held at Anthropology Museum in Mexico City.
According to CHN, after Mexico city, the exhibit moved to the country’s cultural capital of Puebla.
Commenting on the issue, curator of Iran’s National Museum, Mohammad Reza Kargar said that the number of visitors was unprecedented in the history of Iranian exhibits.
Based on official statistics, which was made available to the museum, some four to five thousand people visited the event each day, he said, adding that the number even reached 15,000 on certain days.
Such a reception signifies an interest in learning about Iran, he said, noting that the exhibit catered for the needs of visitors.
“I think, we will witness a series of cultural events between Iran and Latin America,“ he said, adding that Mexicans have called for holding the same event in two other cities.
Describing the reason for such an enthusiasm towards the exhibit as a sign of cultural development among the Mexicans, Kargar said that they welcome cultural events, especially those held in the capital, which is one of the five populous cities in the world.
The other reason is their interest in Iranian culture and civilization, he said, adding that Mexican textbooks have touched on the history of the Achaemenid dynasty.
An educational museum has also been named after this Persian dynasty, Kargar concluded.