iran
A number of Turkish artworks have been presented during a cultural exhibition held in Tehran’s Saba Art and Cultural Institute. Turkish Ambassador to Tehran, Umit Yardim, President of the Yunus Emre Cultural Institute, Hayati Develi, and the Director of the Iranian National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Ahmad Mohit-Tabatabaei, attended the opening ceremony of the festival.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has taken steps to reach the country's powerful youth constituency since his election in June 2013, using Twitter and talking about the importance of the Internet in an effort to connect. The country has a young, tech-savvy population, more than half of which is under the age of 30, making it an important voice in determining the country's future. But despite Rouhani's outreach, using the Internet remains difficult in Iran amid government repression.
In an unprecedented, three-year cyber espionage campaign, Iranian hackers created false social networking accounts and a fake news website to spy on military and political leaders in the United States, Israel and other countries, a cyber intelligence firm said on Thursday. ISight Partners, which uncovered the operation, said the hackers' targets include a four-star U.S. Navy admiral, U.S. lawmakers and ambassadors, members of the U.S.-Israeli lobby, and personnel from Britain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
For the first time in decades, business people from the United States are visiting Iran in significant numbers, exploring the possibility of future partnerships as Iranian and American entrepreneurs begin to envision a reopening of long-closed commercial channels. Although sanctions blocking most types of trade between the two countries remain in place, there are no bans on travel to Iran. For U.S.
No-frills eco-tourism appears to be a thriving, if limited, sector amid Iran's generally bleak economic landscape. Zhivar, one of a number of ecologically minded boutique travel agencies that have sprouted up, has seen its clientele quadruple in three years, to more than 2,000 in 2013.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that Tehran plans to give priority to Africa in its foreign policy.Zarif made the remarks during a ceremony held in Tehran at the Institute for Political and International Studies on Saturday night to commemorate African Day, which is an annual celebration of the anniversary of the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) on May 25, 1963.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has seemingly waded into the debate surrounding the arrest of a group of Iranians for recreating a tribute to Pharrell Williams’ Happy video. On Wednesday a Twitter account operated by Rouhani’s aides tweeted: "#Happiness is our people's right. We shouldn't be too hard on behaviors caused by joy." The tweet is believed by many to reference the incident, which was branded “a vulgar clip which hurt public chastity” by Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that the cyber world should be regarded as an opportunity and not a threat. The Iranian president said that new communications technologies, such as satellite channels, the internet, and mobile phones, should not be considered a threat to the Islamic beliefs of young people. Rouhani also stated that the era of delivering messages through “one-way tribunes” and “one-way speakers” has come to an end, noting that in the modern world, the more widely messages are circulated, the more effectual they are.