Maritime News Agency of Iran Maritime News Agency of Iran [Iran] Maritime News Agency (MANA)is a private news agency in Iran launched in 2004. Its purpose is to cover a variety of marine, shipping, tourism and navy news along with other fields related to the industry. The website states it is the sole news wire service to cover marine news in the Iran. The news agency has given large coverage to events such as shipping and Persian Gulf news, as well as the Caspian Sea. MANA's main headquarters for news is based in Iran's capital Tehran, with reporters across the country and region. The news
Name of Iran "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably. However the issue is still debated today. The name "Irān" is first attested in the Avesta as "airyānąm" (the text of which is composed in Avestan, an old Iranian language spoken in northeastern Greater Iran, or in what are now Turkmenistan and Tajikistan). The Modern Persian word "Īrān" () derives immediately from Middle Persian "Ērān" (Pahlavi spelling: "ʼyrʼn"), first attested in an inscription that accompanies the investiture relief of the first Sassanid king Ardashir I at Naqsh-e Rustam. In this inscription, the king's Middle Persian appellation is "ardašīr šāhān šāh ērān" while