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

EGHTESAD POOYA: Inflation rate in calendar month of Shahrivar (Aug. 23–Sep. 22) stands at 18.3% 

TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: 75% of Tehran’s hospitals are dilapidated, health minister says 

JAM-E JAM: If Khavari (former managing director of Bank Melli) does not return to the country, Judiciary will issue an arrest warrant against him, Judiciary spokesman says

JAM-E JAM: Gas prices will decrease as of next month 

HAMSHAHRI: 8th meeting of heads of 3 branches of govt. held

JAVAN: Management of world is easier or management of egg market?

KHORASAN: I will continue my work at full strength and will not get distracted by subsidiary issues, interior minister says  

SHARQ: 14 new suspects arrested in recent financial fraud case, Ejei (Judiciary spokesman) announces 

  

In an interview with TEHRAN-E EMROOZ, Masoumeh Ebtekar, director of the Environment Committee of the Tehran City Council and the former director of Department of Environment, said that the drying up of Lake Urmia could be prevented. “I do not see any bright prospect for environmental protection, and God is my only hope,” she stated. Ebtekar added that the causeway that has been constructed in the Urmia Lake was one of the main challenges facing the Department of Environment during her term in office. The causeway was not based on modern technology, she said, adding that she got astonished when she heard an official saying the causeway is not to blame for the shrinkage of the lake. Ebtekar went on to say that environmental issues are not political but they have been politicized. She also complained about the fact that a number of expert officials who did not have any political persuasion were removed from their posts just because they had served in the Khatami administration. 

EGHTESAD POOYA, in a news report, has quoted Police Chief Esmaeil Ahmadi- Moghaddam, as saying that the number of Afghan refugees who illegally enter the country has decreased after the implementation of the plan to secure the country’s borders. He added that Afghan refugees enter Iran with passports but they stay longer than they are allowed and do not return to their country. Elsewhere in his remarks, Ahmadi-Moghaddam said that a number of Asian nationals who had been seeking to travel to other countries via Iran were apprehended by the police and such illegal trips are no longer made thanks to the police’s efforts. On the traffic of illicit drugs across the border, Ahmadi-Moghaddam stated that drugs which are produced in Afghanistan are smuggled into Iran via Pakistan, and the police have good cooperation with these countries in the campaign against drugs, but the insecurity in these two countries spoil efforts made by their neighbors in the campaign against drugs.