** IRAN DAILY
-- Tomb of Hassan Zirak, a symbol of Bukan
On the morning of the first day of last winter, I went to the tomb of Hassan Zirak, a Kurdish singer and songwriter, located in Bukan, a city in the northwestern province of West Azarbaijan. It was raining but despite the cold of winter, a number of the artists’ fans were in the small park where his tomb is situated. Saeed Hatami and his wife, who had just arrived from the western province of Kermanshah, were among them.
He said, “I used a business mission as an excuse to travel to Bukan and visit Zirak’s tomb. I have been dreaming about coming here for 40 years. No one like Zirak will ever be born again.” Then he sang a famous song of the Kurdish singer.
-- Posters of Iran’s great playwrights’ works to be offered for first time as NFT
Posters of performances by great playwrights Hamid Samandarian, Rokneddin Khosravi, Sirus Shamlu, Manijeh Mahamedi, and Sohrab Salimi will soon be released in NFT format for the first time in Iran during an event titled, ‘Artaniom’.
An NFT, non-fungible token, is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos. They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency, and they are generally encoded with the same underlying software as many cryptos.
-- Iran’s ‘Hoopoe’ wins Ischia’s Best Cinematography Award
Iranian film ‘Hoopoe,’ directed by Mehdi Ghazanfari, received the Best Cinematography Award for Vahid Biouteh at the 20th Ischia Film Festival.
Produced by Hadi Mozaffari, the film which had its international première, was nominated in three sections, ILNA reported.
The Best Film Award of the Italian festival went to ‘Anatolian Leopard’ by Emre Kayis.
‘Son of Man’ by Sepideh Mirhosseini, ‘Before Heaven’ by Ahmad Heidarian, ‘Exchange’ by Barzan Rostami, ‘Burial’ by Mohammad Tanabandeh, ‘Aparat’ by Hassan Najmabadi, ‘The Savior’ by Soheila Pourmohammadi, and ‘Don’t Tell Anyone’ by Sahar Sotoudeh were also among the Iranian films screened at the festival.
** KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL
-- Minister: Iran Ready to Pump More Oil
Iran, whose energy trade is pressed by U.S. sanctions, is ready to pump more oil as the world needs the crude to balance supply and demand and calm prices, oil minister Javad Owji said.
Iran could increase production to levels before the sanctions, he said, without giving an estimate of current output. “There are some worries about oil supply shortage in the coming months,” he said, despite some concerns about economic slowdown and possible curbs to demand because of geopolitical tensions.
-- Iran Marks U.S. Downing of Passenger Plane
Iranians on Sunday commemorated the downing of an Iranian passenger plane by a United States Navy guided-missile cruiser, 34 years after the devastating incident killed all passengers and crew members on board the airliner, which was flying over Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
During a memorial ceremony, officials from Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan and families of the victims tossed flowers into the waters near the Strait of Hormuz and Hengam Island from aboard a vessel.
Chanting slogans such as “Down with the U.S.” and “Down with Israel,” they condemned the inhumane U.S. war crime and called for the punishment of the perpetrators through international legal channels.
-- Iranian Tennis Player Safi Misses 2022 Wimbledon Championships Due to Visa Issues
Meshkatolzahra Safi, a 17-year-old Iranian girl, missed out on playing at Wimbledon this year after failing to get a visa in time.
Before the tournament, she obtained a license to participate in the junior tournament but had to withdraw at the last moment.
According to Safi’s manager, the British government and Wimbledon were uncooperative on the visa. “Today is a sad day for sport in general and for tennis in Iran,” her manager wrote on Instagram.
** TEHRAN TIMES
-- Saudi Arabia apathy could doom Iraqi PM mediation
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi will reportedly visit Saudi Arabia for the second time in a week after a trip to Tehran, where he pushed for a thaw in Iran-Saudi relations.
German news agency DPA broke the news on Saturday that al-Kadhimi will visit Saudi Arabia again this week. Citing a Persian Gulf diplomatic source in Riyadh, the news agency said the Iraqi prime minister was expected to arrive Sunday in the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and other high-level Saudi officials.
-- Iran learn fate at 2023 IHF World Championship
Iran discovered their opponents in the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship.The Iranian team are drawn in Group A along with Spain, Montenegro and Chile.
On Saturday afternoon, the World Championship draw was completed at the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, the same city which will host the first match of the competition, Poland vs France, on 11 January 2023. Iran will play Chile on Jan. 12 in their opening match and meet Montenegro and Spain on Jan. 14 and 16, respectively.
-- Zagros forest restoration document drawn up
A document on Zagros forest restoration has been prepared by a working group under the supervision of the first vice president, Naghi Shabanian, deputy of forest affairs of the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization, has said.
According to this document, regional and sectoral actions will also be carried out. One of these measures in line with the biological balance of the Zagros forests is the real participation of the people. This year, the plan will be piloted in three regions of the country, including Kurdistan, he noted.
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