The fifth edition of the International Fajr Cup started on Sunday in Rasht where Iranian and Indonesian weightlifters managed to collect the gold medals.

Iran’s Hafez Ghashghaei and Bulgaria’s Angel Rusev were the sole two contenders in the 61kg category. Ghashghaei, the 2019 World C’ships silver medalist, snatched the gold medal of the Fajr Cup with an overall of 280kg. He hoisted 120kg in snatch and 160kg in clean and jerk while Rusev, the 2018 European Youth Champion, lifted 110kg in snatch and 147kg in clean and jerk.

The 2018 World Champion Eko Yuli Irawan of Indonesia did not have a hard time gaining the gold medals of the 67kg category. He finished on 310kg, with 138kg in the snatch and 172kg in clean and jerk – well clear of Indonesia’s Deni Deni on 285kg, with Turkey’s Bünyamin Sezer third on 266kg.

Indonesian lifters claimed another gold, this time in 73kg by Triyatno. The 2012 Olympics silver-medalist made 136kg in snatch and 170kg in clean and jerk to finish on 306kg while Iraq’s Mohammed Qaddoori had a total of 292kg made up of 130kg and 162kg.

Indonesian Ambassador to Iran Octavino Alimudin taking a selfie with medalists on the sideline of Fajr Cup
34 male lifters from 13 countries of Iran, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Cameron, Indonesia, Bosnia, Iraq, Jordon, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Norway, and Turkey are participating in the event which is qualifications series for the 2020 Olympics.

Lifters of 81 and 96 kg and those of 109 and +109 kg will compete on Monday and Tuesday respectively. /MNA/

The feature film ‘Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness’ by Iranian director Masoud Bakhshi, has won a top prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the US.

The festival’s World Cinema dramatic section gave its grand jury award to ‘Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness’, a drama by Iranian filmmaker Masoud Bakhshi.

‘Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness’ depicts the future of a young woman facing retributive justice play out live on the country’s most popular reality show.

The film is a joint production between Iran, France, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Lebanon.

Bakhshi’s feature will have its European premiere at the Berlinale Generation section (14plus), to be held on February 20 – March 01, 2020 in Germany.

Meanwhile, Sundance’s special jury award for best actress in a short film went to Sadaf Asgari for her role in ‘Exam’, directed by Iranian filmmaker Sonia Hadad.

The event awarded its grand jury awards to Lee Isaac Chung’s ‘Minari,’ and ‘Boys State,’ directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss.

This year’s Sundance Film Festival took place from January 23 to February 2, 2020. The event is the largest independent film festival in the United States. / MNA/

Head of Iran Space Agency (ISA) Morteza Barari said Sat. that the country has the domestic knowledge of manufacturing satellites in 9 months.

Referring to the launch of Zafar satellite into orbit in the upcoming days, he noted, “Currently, five Iranian teams of scientists and experts are working around the clock, conducting finals tests which have been successful so far.”

According to Barari, Iran has developed the capability of manufacturing domestic satellites in 9 months.

Zafar is a 90-kilogram remote-sensing satellite equipped with color cameras and can be used for surveying oil reserves, mines, jungles, and natural disasters. If the launch is successful, it will orbit the earth at an altitude of 530 kilometers./MNA/

A total of 1,015 educational projects worth 14 trillion rials (nearly $330 million) will be inaugurated across the country, Mehrollah Rakhshanimehr, director of the organization for renovation, development, and equipment of schools, has announced.

The projects will be inaugurated by the next 10 days, on the occasion of the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, he stated, ISNA reported on Sunday.
According to Rakhshanimehr, the projects include 4,168 classrooms, 11 swimming pools, and 32 gyms.

About 14,000 classrooms have been built so far this year (started March 21, 2019), compared with some 10,000 last year, he concluded.

In December 2018, Rakhshanimehr said that there are 530,000 classrooms nationwide, 160,000 of which are dilapidated, not meeting safety standards./T.T/

The pool composition for the men’s and women’s volleyball tournaments at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been confirmed, where Team Melli have been placed in Pool A.

In new World Ranking system, the best Asian team Iran, sit eighth, while Brazil remain in top place. Poland, the U.S., Russia, Argentina, France and Italy sit above Iran in the ranking.

The 12 qualified teams per gender have been split into two single round robin pools of six, with the top four in the standings of each pool to advance to the quarterfinals.

The teams were assigned to pools in line with the serpentine method, with hosts Japan placed in the first position in Pool A and the remaining squads ordered by their positions in the FIVB World Ranking.

The men’s national team of Japan, 1972 Olympic champions, are set to go up against the champions of the world in Pool A of their tournament. In addition to 1976 gold medalists Poland, the hosts will face 2016 Olympic silver medalists Italy, as well as Canada, Iran and Venezuela.

In Pool B, three-time Olympic champs Brazil will defend their Rio gold playing against three-time podium toppers the U.S., four-time gold medalists and reigning VNL champions Russia and the teams of Argentina, France and Tunisia.

In the quarterfinals, each pool winner will meet the fourth-placed team from the other pool, while a draw will determine the opponents of the second-placed and the third-placed teams which will be from the other pool as well, fivb.org reported.

In the women’s tournament, reigning world and European champions and 2016 Olympic silver medalists Serbia, two-time Olympic champions Brazil, as well as the teams of Korea, Dominican Republic and Kenya will be in the company of hosts Japan, two-time Olympic gold medalists themselves, in Pool A.

Three-time Olympic champions China will start the defense of their 2016 title in Pool B, where they will compete against back-to-back VNL gold medalists the U.S., the most decorated team in Olympic history – Russia, 2018 World Championship runners-up Italy, as well as Argentina and Turkey. /T.T/

According to military experts the Iranian army has the fifth most powerful ground force in the world, Chief of the Army Ground Force said on Saturday.

Iran’s Ground Force is the 5th most powerful ground force in the world,” Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari said as he visited a military training center in Tehran.

Iran has conducted major military drills in recent years to enhance the defense capabilities of its armed forces, testing modern military tactics and state-of-the-art equipment.

In November 2019, the ground force staged large-scale military drills, codenamed “Zolfaghar-e-Velayat”, in northwest Iran to boost the combat readiness of its units. It covered a vast strategic area in the region.

Various divisions of the ground force participated in the drill, which was focused on practicing the transfer of rapid reaction units via ground and air from across the country to operation zones. The enlisted units also displayed their efficacy to enhance their readiness in responding to operational requirements and threats through day and night.

In his Saturday remarks, General Heidari also pointed to his forces’ role in the war on the Daesh terrorists, saying, “We went to the Iraqi Kurdistan region to counter Daesh terrorists’ growing threats. We set up a headquarters there to confront Daesh 40 kilometers away from Iran’s borders.”

Back in March 2016, Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, who was army ground force commander at the time, said his forces smashed two teams affiliated with the Daesh (ISIL) group before entering Iran from western borders.

According to Pourdastan, now chairman of the Army’s Center for Strategic Research Studies, a large number of suicide vests and explosive devices were confiscated from the terrorists in the operation at the time. / T.T/

Vice-President for the Science and Technology Sorena Sattari said that Iran’s knowledge-based economy registered a 60-step growth over the past five years.

He further noted to the activity of cooperatives in the country and said, “if cooperatives run their business activities traditionally, they will face serious problems ahead.”

Sattari made the remarks on Sun. in a joint meeting with the members of agricultural and knowledge-based unions and also chairman of Iran Chamber of Cooperatives and pointed to the significant growth of knowledge-based economy in the country over the past five years and stated, “focusing on oil-driven economy causes eradication of ecosystem, the issue of which should be taken into serious consideration.”

Over the past 10 years, pillars of ecosystems have been eradicated, so, effective steps should be taken to activate this ecosystem using technical knowhow, knowledge and entrepreneurship spirit, Sattari added.

He further noted that knowledge-based economy’s rank has hit from 120 to 61 over the past five years, he said, adding, “high potentials and capacities of cooperatives can be used for knowledge-based activities.” / MNA/

Celebrated Iranian kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor won the Artist Award of the globalFEST, North America’s most important world music industry event, which was held in New York last week.

The Artist Award is one of the three main awards of the festival, which is presented to those artists who have made a lasting impression in the U.S., their homeland or around the world.

The Trouble Worldwide Award of the festival went to Lisa Stafford, the Programming director of the Festival International de Louisiane, a music festival in the U.S., while American music consultant and DJ Tom Schnabel won the Impact Award of the festival.

“We are delighted to honor three arts leaders at the globalFEST 2020 Awards, Kayhan Kalhor, Tom Schnabel and Lisa Stafford,” the organizers wrote in a statement published on January 12

“Thank you for your exceptional, visionary, and inspiring contributions to the cultural landscape in the performing arts field in the USA and beyond,” they added.

Iran’s Music Office director Mohammad Allahyari Fumani congratulated Kalhor on his win in a message published on Friday.

“Achieving this success under these circumstances, when we are mourning the loss of Martyr Soleimani and our loved ones in the Ukrainian plane crash, lessens our sadness,” Allahyari Fumani wrote.

Four-time Grammy Award nominee Kalhor has won several awards at Iranian and international music events.

He won the Artist Award at the WOMEX Awards, the World Music Expo, in Finland, last August.

He was also one of the two winners of the Isaac Stern Human Spirit Award at the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition in August 2018./T.T/