AHVAZ, Khuzestan Prov. – Many experts say industrial waste is the main source of the pollution that has seriously harmed the Persian Gulf ecosystem and depleted the aquatic flora and fauna of the body of water that was once teeming with life.

“Currently, all of the petrochemical plants in the area (including Mahshahr) are dumping their wastes into the sea, which is still regarded as the country’s main aquaculture environment,” said an official from the Fisheries Department of Khuzestan Province, pointing to poaching as another factor in the large decline in the number of species.

Sudan buys 800 ITMC tractors

TEHRAN – Iran’s Tractor Manufacturing Company (ITMC) has exported some 816 tractors to the northeastern African state of Sudan since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2005).

Also in the same period, nearly 1000 of the products of the Tabriz-based ITMC plant were destined for Venezuela, which is one of the major importers of Iranian-made tractors. As the last cargo of the ITMC’s tractors is loaded for this South American country, the company’s annual exports will total 30 million dollars.

SA delegation discusses oil in Tehran

TEHRAN – A South African oil delegation headed by the county’s ambassador to Tehran met here with the head of the Energy Committee of the Iranian parliament on Tuesday.

“Iran and South Africa have both long suffered from and were plundered by the colonialists,” the Iranian MP said, pointing to this fact as a common ground of which the two countries should take advantage in order to develop technological and industrial relations. For his part, the South African official stated that the people of his country (that lived under an official racist system for almost five decades) would never stop fighting against any kind of apartheid. The two sides then discussed ways of expanding trade ties, especially in the field of oil and gas.

20 three-star hotels to be built in Iran in 12 months

TEHRAN – A deputy head of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO) of Iran said that they have planned to build twenty three-star hotels across the country during the next Iranian year (starts March 21).

“Hotel management is a dynamic trade pursued by ambitious people,” Malekzadeh stated, noting that the CHTO has planned to hold free hotel management training courses for all interested tourism industrialists in the next Iranian year. The tourist board inspectors of the organization are to check and grade all hotels and tourist offices of the country until late April, he said.

Govt. allocates $25m for construction of Khaaf Cement Plant

MASHHAD, Khorasan Razavi – An MP told ISNA on Tuesday that the government has decided to allocate a 25-million-dollar loan for the construction of a cement plant in the town of Khaaf, located east of the provincial capital Mashhad.

The loan will be provided by the Economy Ministry, the Ministry of Industries and Mines, and the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). The Khaaf Cement Plant will have a daily production capacity of 3300 tons, Sajjadian noted.