Highway police officers disguised as passengers record violations of public vehicle drivers and report them at the last highway police station on the route.

Undercover traffic police cars dealt with 60,200 high-risk traffic violations on domestic roads during one month (July 14-Aug. 14), according to ISNA. Deputy commander of Highway Police, Colonel Seyyed Hadi Hashemi, explained that highway police officers disguised as passengers observe and record violations of public vehicle drivers and report them at the last highway police station on the route.
“Drivers who observe traffic regulations during the trip are also introduced and commended,“ he added.
The undercover traffic control scheme is presently enforced in 13 provinces, he said, adding, “University graduates willing to cooperate with police as well as drivers noted for their strict observance of traffic rules function as honorary police assistants in monitoring the drivers’ traffic behaviors.“
Colonel Hashemi mentioned speeding and unauthorized overtaking as the most perilous traffic behaviors, noting undercover police assistants deal with an average 2,500 daily offenses.
The deputy said the maximum speed limit on inter-city highways is 120 km/hr, and explained, “State employees traveling at higher than 180 km/hr account for a great number of traffic violations on roads.“
He stated that Fars province had obtained the first rank in terms of traffic offenses in recent months, adding special traffic control teams had been assigned to deal with offenders in the southern province.

About two million doses of bird flu vaccine have been purchased for the current year which will be distributed as of Sept. 23.

Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical Education Kamran Baqeri Lankarani stated that the bird flu virus still poses a serious danger to nations across the world as cases of the contagious disease were detected in African states.
Speaking at a press conference on the occasion of the Government Week (August 24-31), the minister was quoted by ILNA as saying that so far the H5N1 avian flu virus has infected 300 people worldwide, but no Iranians have been yet diagnosed with the virulent disease.
Lankarani said cases of avian flu reported in neighboring countries had made the Islamic Republic vulnerable against the disease. “But even in this high-risk condition, no one inside the country has yet been reported to carry the virus.“
The country has so far been successful in keeping the disease at bay, thanks to measures such as culling poultry along western and northern borders, enforcing hunting bans as well as increasing public awareness.
The official noted that the ministry would step up precautionary measures to prevent an outbreak of the disease, considering the approach of the cold season and the migratory birds which enter the country.
He added that the government has set aside a special budget for adopting preventive measures during the year ending March 20.
About two million doses of bird flu vaccine have been purchased for the current year which will be distributed as of Sept. 23, Lankarani said, advising the elderly and patients suffering from cardiac and respiratory diseases to be vaccinated against the disease.
“It is not necessary for everyone to get the bird flu vaccine,“ the official stressed.
He gave assurances that the ministry is fully prepared to take prompt action in the wake of a bird flu outbreak.
“Patient diagnosed with symptoms similar to those of bird flu as well as those suffering from pneumonia will have to be screened for the virus.“

The amount of glucose present in a glass of Doogh is one-fifth of that in a glass of fizzy drink.

Director general of the Health Ministry’s Office for Improving Nutrition said the per capita consumption of fizzy soft beverages in Iran is four times the global average, IRNA said.
Seyyed Morteza Safavi noted every Iranian consumes 40-42 liters of soft drink per annum, while the global figure stands at 10-12 liters.
He referred to over-consumption of fizzy drinks as the leading cause of obesity among children and youngsters, warning families against the practice.
He put the amount of glucose in a glass of carbonated drink at 280-300 milligrams, adding a person takes in between 75 and 150 extra calories by drinking a glass of fizzy beverage.
He warned that drinking carbonated beverages make the person more susceptible to diabetes, cardiac diseases, osteoporosis and hypertension.
Apart from causing flatulence and gastritis, too much fizzy drinks can increase tooth decay as well, he said.
Safavi proposed that the traditional Iranian drink made from yoghurt and water (Doogh) and lemon juice be used as substitutes for carbonated drinks, adding the amount of glucose present in a glass of Doogh is one-fifth of that present in a glass of fizzy drink.
He recommended that the government withdraw subsidies allocated to fizzy drink manufacturers in a bid to cut down demand.
Presently, as per an endorsement by High Council of Health, supply of soft beverages is prohibited in state-run organizations.

A rural family in Tafresh, Markazi province (Photo by Mehdi Khoshnevis)

Tehran Municipality will expand markets where peddlers and other social groups can display and vend various wares. Director of TM for urban services, Mohsen Sadeqian, told IRNA that Tehran citizens have enthusiastically welcomed markets already set up in three municipal districts.
The markets help create jobs for the unemployed and provide venues where Tehran citizens can purchase some of their staples.
According to him, the municipality will launch four new marts in the capital by the yearend (March 21, 2007).
Sadeqian explained that low-income and jobless groups could use the opportunity to market various goods, especially home-made products, in these markets.
He added that cultural products, clothes, foodstuff, handicrafts, cosmetic and hygienic products, and home appliances could be put on sale in these markets.
Disabled war veterans, families of martyrs and war veterans, those under coverage of State Welfare Organization as well as women heading households can apply for pavilions in the markets and benefit from a 25-50 percent discount.

Tehran Municipality will extend support for master’s theses and Ph.D. dissertations which are authored on subjects highlighted by the municipality, IRNA reported.
Director of the Cultural Studies Center of TM’s Cultural and Artistic Organization, Mohammad Hassan Mozaffari, named urban cultural management, sociocultural problems afflicting the city of Tehran, culture, citizenship rights and behavior, and finally hygienic and environmental issues as research topics prioritized by the TM.
The municipality has vowed to provide researchers with access to its archives, sources and references, he said.
Mozaffari also added that financial assistance would be provided to applicants, adding the amount of grant would vary depending on the study field and the subject of dissertation.
“By providing the support, we intend to help identify and rectify cultural and artistic problems in Tehran,“ he noted, proposing that the students focus on Tehran’s various neighborhoods and districts in their theses.
The research proposals, he said, must be approved by the related universities before being presented to the municipality.

State Welfare Organization has launched its official website www.behzisty.ir in Persian language, in line with the policy to promote e-government services.
According to Fars news agency, the SWO’s new website is aimed to establish closer interaction with the organization’s target community.
The site releases SWO news releases and reports about welfare services, promotes cultural affairs, and gathers information about the organization’s clients.
It also informs users of SWO services by through miscellaneous sections such as calendar of events, laws and documents, future plans and frequently asked questions.
The website also includes a photo gallery, chat room and public relations weblog. Distinct sections have been designed for each of SWO’s social affairs, prevention, public participation, rehabilitation and entrepreneurship departments.

Doctors have sounded a new warning over medicines purchased over the Internet, citing the case of a woman in Britain who badly damaged her eyesight by taking a drug she purchased from an online pharmacy in Thailand, AFP said.
The case study relates to a 64-year-old woman in the northeastern English city of Sunderland who developed glaucoma and cataracts and ended up needing surgery to save her vision.
The condition was linked to an oral steroid, rednisolone, which the unnamed patient had been using for four years.
She had made a self-diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome and purchased the steroid over the Internet from a company in Thailand.
The two authors, Philip Severn and Scott Fraser, of the Sunderland Eye Infirmary, said they carried out their own investigation to see how easy it was to buy prednisolone over the net.
Using the search engine Google, they located offers to sell 1,000 five-milligram tablets for as little as $38 (30 euros).
They also suspect that some drugs sold as prednisolone are counterfeit, but even if the real drug is being sold, the medication could interact with other treatments being taken by the patient and could have side effects.
“It has long been accepted that any physician prescribing steroids should be aware of the potential ocular side-effects.
However, patients are now able to browse the Internet and purchase medications freely,“ the two warn.
They call for tougher monitoring of online availability of drugs.
The case report is the latest warning in medical journals about Internet-purchased treatments.
Although legitimate online pharmacies exist, there are also increasing numbers of outlets that sell powerful drugs without a prescription or knowledge of the patient’s medical history, with the risk that the medication will fail to work or cause bad side effects.
The Internet is also increasingly being used as an outlet for peddling counterfeit medicines and quack remedies for AIDS, bird flu and other diseases.

Vietnam’s poor northern highlands face the threat of “twin epidemics“ of intravenous drug use and HIV/AIDS infection, national leaders and UN officials warned, AFP Wrote.
The mountainous areas bordering Laos and China--remote provinces where ethnic minority groups have traditionally cultivated opium--have seen a sharp increase in heroin trafficking and addiction, officials said.
Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong told a one-day conference in Hanoi that communist Vietnam had so far failed to stem the spread of drug use in the northern highlands, which are also plagued by poverty and illiteracy.
“Unless proper actions are taken, it is predicted that in the next five to 10 years, drug abuse and HIV will become serious and inevitable epidemics, endangering the development achievements of the highland communities,“
he said.
A shift from smoking opium to injecting heroin over the past decade has triggered a spike in HIV cases among intravenous drug users, who now make up 57 percent of Vietnam’s HIV-positive population, health experts warn.
Narumi Yamada, Vietnam Representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, warned that “the twin epidemics of drugs and HIV should no longer be viewed only as a threat to the public security and public health of Vietnam.“
“They must be viewed as potential threats to sustainable human development, the future development of the nation,“ he said.
The Ministry of Labor, Invalid and Social Affairs said that while in the late 1990s, up to 90 percent of drug users in the northwest were opium smokers, “from 1999 to date, most of the drug users turned to heroin use.“
“The past years saw an increase in drug injection,“ said the ministry in a briefing paper for the conference, pointing at three northern provinces where 80-90 percent of HIV cases are now among drug users.
Vietnam’s northwest, with a population of 6.8 million people, is home to more than 30,000 known drug users, said Colonel Vu Hung Vuong, the head of drug crime investigation at the Public Security Ministry.
Yet fewer than 7,000 addicts were treated in 2005, said the labor ministry.
Colonel Vuong blamed the high rate of drug addiction on “the intensive flows of drugs from neighboring countries ... high demand among local residents ... and the poor quality of drug-abuse treatment.“
Half of the heroin and 70 percent of the opium confiscated in Vietnam is seized in the seven northwestern provinces, located near the ’Golden Triangle’ region at the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, he said.