There are over two million volunteers cooperating with IRCS.

Secretary- General of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) Ahmad Mousavi said Sunday that the IRCS is one of the relatively better equipped relief and rescue organizations among RCS countries with 300 strategic logistic warehouses and two million volunteers. But he admitted the relief and rescue organization is short of helicopters and airplanes.
“Currently, over 300 strategic relief warehouses nationwide are equipped and can help meet people’s basic needs in times of crises. Furthermore, there are over two million volunteers cooperating with IRCS who participate in relief operations and consider serving the masses their national and religious duty,“ he told Fars News Agecny.
Mousavi went on to observe: “One of the distinct features of the IRCS is that the both the government and parliament support it. Last year the Majlis approved a bill for purchasing 15 relief helicopters. The first phase of the plan was implemented and five choppers were bought. By the end of the current year (March 2009) 10 more will be purchased.“
He emphasized that the IRCS priority is to upgrade its organizational structure.
“The key problem the Society is facing is shortage of relief helicopters. It is our belief that we need 80 more helicopters to be able to perform better and carry out our
operations nationwide, especially in the mountainous and remote rugged areas. If we can buy 15 helicopters every year in the same way that we have planned this year, then we will reach our target by the end of the Fifth Development Plan (2010-15).
The official referred to the absence of rapid response rescue teams as another drawback of the IRCS.
“In many parts of the country we cannot show up as expected for help within the internationally designated period of three minutes. However, with the assistance of the Health Ministry’s emergency system we are now close to responding within 15 minutes. This year 10 rapid response rescue teams will be deployed in 10 provinces. However, for relief work under special climatic conditions, especially cold weather, we definitely need relief helicopters,“ he said.
He concluded by saying that IRCS is short also of aircraft for dispatching emergency aid to crisis-stricken foreign countries.
Over the past several years the non-governmental organization has extended help to foreign countries hit be natural disasters including earthquakes and floods. Given the limited resources at its disposal, which indeed far from what would be desired, at home it has performed relatively well.

Archeologists have uncovered ancient wooden coffins in what appears to be a royal burial ground near the necropolis of Abydos in southern Egypt, the state-run MENA news agency reported.
The agency said that the discovery, made by a team from the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities, could be dated back to the Old Kingdom (3,000 B.C.) -- the golden age of pyramid building in ancient times.
The team “has found what could be a royal complex of 13 tombs of different shapes and sizes that could have belonged to high officials from that period or people who contributed to building these tombs,“ MENA said.
The agency said that human bones were found inside the coffins, although it did not specify how many coffins were discovered.
Objects made out of ivory similar to pieces used for playing chess were also found. MENA said only one other similar board game has been found in Egypt and that was among the fabled treasures of the legendary boy king Tutankhamun.
The discovery of Tutankhamun’s intact tomb by British archeologist Howard Carter in 1922 near Luxor in southern Egypt caused an international sensation because of the value and quality of its contents.