This column features excerpts from news articles, editorials, commentaries, and interviews of the leading Iranian newspapers and websites. 

HAMSHAHRI: Hospital waste posing serious threat to citizens’ health

TAFAHOM: Cabinet members to visit Hamedan Province 

TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: New documentation shows Bank Saderat managing board’s involvement in financial fraud  

JAM-E JAM: Large number of protesters arrested in U.S. 

KHORASAN: Antonov passenger plane, a joint product of Iran and Ukraine, is unveiled 

KAYHAN: $746 million allocated to make roads safe 

MELLATEMA: Islamic Revolution Resistance Front creating dissension among principlists, (MP) Ali Motahhari says 

TAFAHOM: Gold coin cheaper in currency exchanges than banks

KAYHAN: Islamic Revolution Resistance Front will not present separate list (of candidates for the March parliamentary elections) 

TEHRAN-E EMROOZ, in a news report, has said that although a number of lawmakers had previously called for measures to be taken to resolve the issue of pollution-related deaths in Tehran and had said that they greatly value the lives of citizens, 4000 deaths resulting from air pollution in Tehran has not compelled the MPs to take a serious measure to tackle the issue and they have become nonchalant. The managing director of the Tehran-based Air Quality Control Company, Yousef Rashidi, said that the air quality has been very bad in Tehran since the beginning of the new academic year (September 25). According to official statistics released by the company, Tehran has not experienced even one day of clean air since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21. In addition, the director of Tehran’s car technical checkup center also said that 100 tons of pollutants enter Tehran’s air annually, but unfortunately the country’s officials have gotten used to hearing such reports. 

HAMSHAHRI, in a news report, has said that the Qeshm Free Trade Zone issued a permit allowing the drying out of 35 hectares of Dargahan coastal city without taking residents’ opposition and its environmental repercussions into consideration. The report said that the lands which will be dried out will be sold at 10 million rials per square meter. Elsewhere in the report, the writer said that commercial buildings will be constructed on areas which are natural habitats of certain kinds of fish and shrimps. The people living in Dargahan have said that they will lose their jobs if parts of the city are dried out. Mohammad Sharif Ranjbar, a professor of marine biology, said that drying out 35 hectares of Dargahan, which started a few years ago, will pose a serious threat to the environment and will have social repercussions as well.