President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated two new national television channels, ‘Salmat’ and ‘Tamasha’ on Saturday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated two new national television channels, ‘Salmat’ and ‘Tamasha’ on Saturday.

‘Eagle-Beaked Turtle’ Helps Safeguard Human Life

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They want to save humans. They hope that humans will not lose the opportunity to survive.
Naeemaei, a graduate of sculpture for the Arts University and a member of the Iranian Association of Sculptors, said her painting was earlier displayed in US and Russia.
“My paintings are inspired by animal extinction and environmental degradation which are my main concerns,” she said.
Naeemaei also said that the painting is part of her five-part collection--‘Asiatic Cheetah’, ‘Acipenseridae’, ‘The Eastern Imperial Eagle’ and ‘Caspian Tiger’--dealing with extinct animals. The artist said that creating such works serves as a reminder for humans to prevent environmental degradation.
The Ramsar Convention, named after the town of Ramsar in Mazandaran province, is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands.
The convention was developed and adopted by participating nations at a meeting in Ramsar in 1971, hosted by the Iranian Department of Environment, and came into force in 1975.
By 2012, 163 countries ratified the convention in which over 2000 wetlands covering a surface of approximately 200 million hectares are recorded as internationally important.

‘Facing Mirrors’ To Open Indian Festival

The 9th IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival in India will kick off with screening of the Iranian award-winning movie ‘Facing Mirrors’.
The film producer and screenwriter Fereshteh Taerpour is to attend the opening ceremony that will be held at India International Center (IIC) in the capital city of New Delhi.
The movie is also to be screened simultaneously at an international film festival in London, Press TV wrote
Directed by Negar Azarbaijani, ‘Facing Mirrors’ weaves together the lives of two women with different social and cultural backgrounds.
Azarbaijani’s first directorial debut has been lauded at many international festivals as the film garnered numerous awards.
The film won the prize at the 2nd edition of Iranian Film Festival Australia held in five cities of Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney on October, 2012. One of the Australian festival directors, Anne Démy-Geroe, dedicated the award during a ceremony recently held in Tehran.
Azarbaijani’s well-praised movie was also hailed at the 8th edition of Syracuse International Film Festival held in the United States.
The movie won the Best Feature-length movie Award at the 2012 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival as well as the Best Narrative Feature Award at the 2012 International Three Dollar Bill Cinema in Seattle.

Lian Heading To Malaysia

Iranian music ensemble ‘Morvarid-e-Lian’, led by Mohsen Sharifian has been invited to take part in the Rainforest World Music Festival in Malaysia.
The Iranian ensemble is slated to compete with the world’s renowned music groups from the United States, Denmark, Ireland, France, South Africa and many other countries.
The organizers also invited the group to hold several workshops at the festival, the ensemble leader Sharifian noted.
The group has received the Honorary Diploma of Greece Nations’ Friendship Association at the 2012 World Music Expo, WOMEX, Mehr News Agency said.
Morvarid-e-Lian is known for its traditional and regional music pieces from the southern province of Bushehr.
Sharifian believes that music of Bushehr is appealing because the province has always hosted people of different regions and nationalities.
The group usually performs pieces inspired by the works of great Persian poets such as Ferdowsi, Khayyam and Molavi.
They also introduce the religious music of Bushehr, which is a trance ceremony that uses drumming and dancing. The ensemble has held concerts on the sidelines of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and the 2010 World Expo in China. The Rainforest World Music Festival is an annual three-day music festival celebrating the diversity of world music and features a wide range of performances from traditional music, to world fusion and contemporary world music.

‘Images and Symbols’ in Persian

A Persian translation of ‘Images and Symbols’, a book written by the renowned Romanian philosopher Mircea Eliade has recently been published in Iran.
Released by Parseh Books, “Images and Symbols” has been translated into Persian by Mohammad-Kazem Mohajeri.
In this book, Mircea Eliade shows that myths and symbols constitute a mode of thought that not only came before that of discursive and logical reasoning, but also remains an essential function of human consciousness, Mehr News Agency said.
He describes and analyzes some of the most powerful and ubiquitous symbols that have ruled the mythological thinking of East and West in many times and at many levels of cultural development.
Mircea Eliade (1907 –1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago.
He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day.

20th Century Photograph Auction at Heritage

Irving Penn’s iconic close-up portrait of Picasso is expected to bring $60,000+ to lead a rare selection of four different Penn portraits offered in Heritage Auctions’ March 23 Photographs Signature Auction.
The Penn works are offered amid a cavalcade of work by noted artists, ranging from Ansel Adams’ Portfolio V, expected to bring $30,000+, and Richard Avedon’s Kennedy Portrait, triple signed and inscribed by both the artist, JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy, expected to bring $15,000+, according to ArtDaily.
All lots come from private collections and will be presented at Heritage’s Beverly Hills location. “This auction is wall to wall stars, both behind and in front of the camera,” said Rachel Peart, Consignment Director for the company. “There are many instantly recognizable images by the powerhouses of photography from Man Ray to Cindy Sherman being offered.”
The Penn works highlight his work for Condé Nast’s Vogue magazine and include a platinum-palladium of Dahomey Girls, One Reclining, expected to bring $15,000+, an early gelatin silver print of Dusek Brothers, New York, expected to bring $15,000+, and a vintage gelatin silver of Ballet Theater Group New York, expected to bring $8,000+.
A circa 1969 gelatin silver print of Robert Frank’s 1955 photograph titled Newburgh, New York aka Fish Kill is expected to bring $25,000+ and a gelatin silver of Helmut Newton’s Woman into Man, Yves St. Laurent, for French Vogue, 1979, is expected to bring $20,000+, while an edgy 2000 chromogenic print from photographer David LaChapelle depicting musician Eminem is expected to bring $10,000+.

Berlin Wall Under Threat

Detested for nearly three decades as a symbol of oppression, the Berlin Wall again sparked angry protests Friday when a crane began dismantling a segment under plans for a new housing development.
About 200 demonstrators of all ages gathered in front of the Wall’s longest remaining stretch where police grimly stood between them and the barrier that once made East Berliners prisoners of their own country, AP wrote.
“Berlin Is Selling Itself and Its History”, “Berlin Sell-Out” read some placards, while a protestor poignantly shouted “We want our Wall”--the paradox of protesting to save the Wall seems not to be lost. “It’s a cultural heritage and the only place in the world besides Israel with a wall dividing people. We should be able to experience that,” said Berlin resident Riet Meert, 32, from Belgium, who owns a DJ booking agency.
Protestors argue that especially because of the pain the Wall caused--dozens died in dramatic attempts to flee the communist state of East Germany--it should be preserved and not forgotten. Former US president Ronald Reagan famously implored the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall!” in a speech at the iconic Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall two years before it fell.
“They’re pulling down our history here,” 72-year-old former West Berliner Monika Wang complained. Even the bad times must be remembered, she added grumbling that history was being “sacrificed” because Berlin is still cheap for investors. Thrown up in 1961, the Wall stretched 155 kilometres (96 miles) and divided the city until 1989, but today only around three kilometres of it still stand with the longest stretch running 1.3 kilometres, known as the East Side Gallery. Since 1990, the outdoor gallery has been covered in brightly coloured graffiti murals, including the famous “Fraternal Kiss” depicting Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and his East German counterpart Erich Honecker.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

To honor an old man is showing respect to God.