The 5th International Conference on Bridges (5IBC2019) will be held at Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT) in mid-December in Tehran.

The 5th edition of IBC2019 will be hosted by AUT on 17-18 December 2019 with the participation of domestic and foreign experts from different countries including the USA, Italy, Australia, Malaysia, Canada, and Portugal.

It will be held in collaboration with the University of Tehran, Iran University of Science and Technology, K. N. Toosi University of Technology at AUT in Tehran.

The purpose of the conference is to provide a forum for academicians, researchers, and professional engineers working in areas of bridge design, construction, and management to review and discuss the recent practical and theoretical approaches and to exchange information leading to close collaboration and cooperation.

The conference focuses on the recent progress on bridge health monitoring, Innovative concepts and implementation of new materials, tools and technologies in practical applications /MNA/

The 36th Tehran International Short Film Festival, Iran’s major cinematic event dedicated to short films, announced the names of winners in various categories of national and international competition.

The 36th Tehran International Short Film Festival (TISFF) announced winners at national and international categories during an awarding ceremony held at Tehran’s Milad Tower on Nov. 15.

Speaking at the ceremony, Director of the Cinema Organization of Iran, Hossein Entezami, lauded the TISFF as one of the most important cinematic events in Middle East and West Asia, voicing hope that the festival could introduce great figures of talented youth to the Iranian cinema industry.

The complete list of winners in the national and international categories is:

International Section:

Special Jury Award (Fiction): The festival’s trophy and plague of honor was granted to “Ashmina”, directed by Dekel Berenson from Nepal

Second Special Jury Award (Animation): “Together”, directed by Sara Tayebzadeh from Iran

Best Fiction Film: “Super Comfort”, directed by Kirsikka Saari from Finland

The Festival Award and Trophy of Best Animation: “Untravel”, directed by Ana Nedelijkovic from Serbia.

Best Experimental Film: “Places”, directed by Claudia Barral Magaz from Spain

Best Documentary Film: “Histories of Wolves”, directed by Agnes Meng from Portugal

The 3000-Euro Grand Prix of the 36th Tehran International Film Festival went to “Brotherhood”, directed by Meryam Joobeur from Canada.

Iranian Cinema Competition:

Best Film: The festival trophy and 200-million-rials award was granted to “Aziz” directed by Seyyed Mahdi Mousavi Barzaki.

Special Jury Award (Fiction): The festival’s trophy and 150-million-rials was granted to Saeed Nejati for “Dabor”.

Best Director (Fiction): The festival trophy and 120-million-rials award was granted to Seyyed Mahdi Mousavi Barzaki for “Aziz”.

Best Director (Experimental): The festival trophy and 120-million-rials award was granted to Payam Rezai for “Earth Style”.

Special Jury Award (Experimental): The festival’s trophy, Honorary Diploma and 100-million-rials was awarded to “When a woman sits next to a flower pot, she is tired after 154 years”, directed by Shahriar Hanifeh.

Best Director (Documentary): The festival’s trophy and 100-million-rials was awarded to “Where the Wind Blows” directed by Mina Mashadi Mahdi.

Best Director (Animation): The festival’s trophy and 100-million-rials was granted to Maliheh Gholamzadeh for “Kalaf”.

Jury Member Award: The festival’s Honorary Diploma and 100-million-rials was granted to “Hungry”, directed by Zahra Rostampour.

Best Film Script: The festival’s trophy and 100-million-rials was awarded to Sonia Hadad abd Farnoush Samadi for “Exam”.

Best Research (Documentary): The festival’s trophy and 70-million-rials was granted to “Where the Wind Blows” directed by Mina Mashadi Mahdi.

Best Sound Recording: The festival’s trophy and 70-million-rials was granted to Mostafa Bahmani for “Aziz”.

Best Editing: The festival’s trophy and 70-million-rials was granted Esmaeil Alizadeh for editing “Cruelty”.

Best Cinematography: The festival’s trophy and 70-million-rials went to Masoud Amini Tirani for “Rodent”.

Best Actor: Top Iranian actress Golab Adineh and Taraneh Alidousti and actor Babak Karimi were praised for supporting the Iranian short films. Also actress Sadaf Asqari was praised for “Exam”.

Meanwhile, the honorary diploma and 50-million-rials award was granted to actress Yasaman Nasiri in “Aziz”.

Best Technical-Artistic Achievement (Animation): The honorary diploma and 50-million-rials award went to Mojtaba Mousavi for ” Mr. Deer”.

Best Music (Animation): The honorary diploma and 50-million-rials award was granted to “Homan Rad” for “Kalaf”.

Best Film with Theme of National Identity (Animation) : The honorary diploma and 50-million-rials award was awarded to Bahram Azimi the director and producer of “The Sixth String”.

Best Film with Theme of National Cohesion and Social Capital: The honorary diploma and 50-million-rials award went to Mohammad Reza Vatan Doost for “Lesek”.

Best Film with Theme of Joy and Hope for Future: The honorary diploma and 50-million-rials award went to Reza Jamali for “There Is No Place for Landing Here”.

Art & Experience Prize:

The festival Art & Experience trophy and 60-million-awar was presented to Maliheh Gholamzadeh for “Kalaf” and a plague of honor and a 30-million-award was granted to Seyyed Mahdi Mousavi Barzaki for “Aziz”.

ISFA Award:

The Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA) trophy and 20-million-award was granted to Samaneh Shojaei director of “Gray Object”.

ISFA Medal:

ISFA Medal was granted to Rohollah Akbari for “Jalil and Khalil” Documentary.

ISFA medal, a plague of appreciation and 50-million rials was also presented to Payam Rezei for “Earth Style”.

ISAF also presented the festival trophy, plague of appreciation and 100-million-rials of top audience prize to Mohammad Reza Mesbah for “Alley”.

UNICEF Trophy:

UNICEF trophy a plague of appreciation and 5d mark 4 camera was granted to Maryam Zarei for “Magarelen”.

Book and Cinema Award:

First prize: 70-million-rials was awarded to “Rubbish” by Ali Azizi.

Second prize: 50-million-rials was awarded to “Other” by Saman Hosseinpour and Ako Zand Karimi

Third Prize: 30-million-rials was awarded to “Filmorgh” by Amir Masoud Soheili.

A plague of appreciation was also awarded to “Limbo” by Touraj Heibati and “Where the Winds Blow” by Mina Mashhadi Moqadam.

Short Story for Adaptation Prize:

First Prize: 50-million-rials was granted to “Squar” by Ali Jalali

Second Prize: 30-million-rials was granted to “Guards of My Ventricle” by Roqiyeh Kabiri

Third Prize: 20-million-rials was granted to “Hebrew Form of Words” by Khosro Abbasi Khodlan

Commemorating Masoud Amini Tirani and Mahvash Sheikholeslami:

In the ceremony the top Iranian cinematography manager Masoud Amini Tirani and veteran Iranian documentary producer Mahvash Sheikholeslami were commemorated. /MNA/

A team of Iranian and Danish archaeologists and cultural heritage experts has recently discovered new traces of Iron Age occupation in a prehistorical cave, which is situated in Ilam province, western Iran.

The discovery was made during a follow-up archaeology season carried out based on an agreement previously signed between Razi University of Kermanshah and the University of Copenhagen.

Supervised by Iran’s Research Institute of Cultural Heritage & Tourism, the project was co-led by Iranian archaeologist Hojjat Darabi and Professor Tobias Richter from the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

New discoveries were made in Mar-Gurgalan [Sarab] cave that, according to Darabi, was inhabited some 50,000 years ago, IRNA reported on Wednesday.

“Preliminary results indicate that the cave was inhabited about 50,000 years ago and appears to be used both by the Neanderthals for residing and hunting, and by the early Homo sapiens,” Darabi explained.

The cave was previously excavated by Danish archaeologists in the early 1970s, however, the excavations were renewed using new scientific methods, he added.

Last year, the team probed evidence of Neolithic settlements through stratigraphy [rock layers] across Ganj Dareh, east of Kermanshah province in a project co-led by Darabi and Richter. The team managed to collect new evidence concerning how sedentism and agriculture [domestication of plants and animals] started in the region, which is situated in central Zagros mountain range.

Stone Age cave dwellers in Iran

Prof. Ezatollah Negahban (1926 – 2009), who was an Iranian archaeologist known as the father of Iranian modern archaeology, believed that caves and rock shelters were particularly attractive living places for the hunter gatherers of the early Paleolithic period and the geographic situation of the Iranian Plateau with its bordering mountain systems including the Zagros range on the west and the Alborz range on the north has meant that there were many cave sites which would have been suitable for early cave dwelling man.

“Although this multiplicity of cave habitats would seem to lend itself to the extended study of the early Stone Age hunting and gathering way of life, there has in fact been comparatively little scientific study of early cave man in Persia, possibly because of the stronger attraction to the archaeologists of the rich Neolithic remains of prehistoric agricultural settlers found throughout the country.”

In general the Zagros highlands have been subject to more Stone Age research and investigation than have the Alborz Mountains and therefore a more detailed picture of early cave dwelling life has been developed for the Zagros region where traces of cave dwellers from the Lower Paleolithic to the Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic, and Epipaleolithic periods have been found. Although other parts of Persia have been less investigated than the Zagros highlands, traces of cave dwellers have also been found at sites scattered throughout the Iranian Plateau and in the lowlands. /T.T/

Iran finished CAFA U23 Women’s Championship with heads held high. Maryam Azmoun’s team finished runners up after the team defeated Afghanistan 7-0 in their final match.

Hajar Dabbaghi completed a fine individual campaign with a final day hat-trick for Iran, while Fatemeh Geraeli, Fatemeh Shaban, Zahra Masoumi and Fatemeh Amineh Borazjani scored once each.

Iran finished the competition with 12 points from five matches, with Tuesday’s defeat to Uzbekistan the only blemish in an otherwise impressive term in Tajikistan.

The Persians defeated Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyz Republic and Afghanistan in the inaugural.

Uzbekistan won the title with 15 points after defeating hosts Tajikistan 3-0 on the final day. / T.T /

The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) have chosen Iran’s Alireza Faghani as the best Asian referee of the 2019.

Faghani, who has recently made the decision to migrate to Australia from Iran for family reasons, sits in the 12th place in the world.

With 2019 drawing closer to an end, IFFHS have named the best referee of this year.

IFFHS held the annual election to crown one man as the best official, with selected journalists and experts from 90 countries across the globe voting.

The award went to Damir Skomina, with 136 points. The Slovenian referee’s most notable achievement in 2019 was officiating the Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham. Skomina picked up this prize after narrowly beating out 2017 winner Felix Brych (129 points).

Skomina is no stranger to the game. He has officiated more than 530 matches, 301 of which came in the Prva Liga, 50 from the Champions League, 17 from the Europa League, and 60 being international games from the likes of the UEFA Euro and the FIFA World Cup.

A look at the 27 names who picked up points in the IFFHS Awards shows a lack of representation of Premier League referees, with only two making the top 10. They are Martin Atkinson, who comes in at ninth with 21 points, and Michael Oliver in 10th with 18 points. This could be proof that fans are right in claiming the English top-flight has the worst officials in Europe’s top-five leagues.

Asian well-known referee Ravshan Irmatov sits 17th in the list. / MNA/

Iranian Ministry of Health and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to improve medical services on the basis of medical management models in Japan, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

The agreement was signed by Mohsen Asadi Lari, director for international cooperation at the Ministry of Health, and Yukiharu Kubayashi, JICA representative to Iran.

Under the MOU, Iranian managers in health sector will benefit from Japan’s experience through training courses in five areas of hospital management, hospital design and construction, elderly care systems, non-communicable disease management and cancer management and control.

Jalal Naeli, an official with the Ministry of Health, said that in order to empower health sector managers, coordination is being made to send 60 managers to learn about Japan’s latest achievements in medical service management. /T.T/

Iranian Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani said that relying on domestic production will save $10 billion for the country in the next two years, IRIB reported.

Speaking in a ceremony on indigenizing production of telecommunications equipment on Tuesday, the minister said that of the mentioned $10 billion, some $500 million is predicted to be earned through domestic production of telecommunications equipment, and $400 million via indigenizing production of car parts, of which $300 million has been already achieved.

“Today, all available potentials and capacities in the country are being used to materialize the target of domestic production and the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade will spare no effort in this due”, Rahmani further emphasized.

He said the country aims to produce electrical, automobile and telecommunications goods and double exports to 15 neighboring countries in order to reach a target value of $48 billion.

Last month, Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said government officials should ban the import of goods that are also produced domestically.

Since the U.S. re-imposed sanctions on Iran to pressure the country’s economy, Iran has been taking all necessary measures to mitigate the impact of the sanctions and counter the U.S. actions.

Improving and boosting domestic production has been one of the major strategies that Iran has been following in the past two years in order to increase its independence.

To this end, Iranian government has put supporting domestic producers atop agenda in the current year.

Providing the required working capital for the production units and offering them facilities is one of the major measures being pursued by the government to support these units.

/ T.T/

Iran’s men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams defeated their rivals at the 2019 International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) Asia Oceania Championships in Thai city Pattaya on Saturday.

Iran’s men team beat China 64-60 at the Eastern National Sports Centre. Iran’s Morteza Abedi scored a match-high 27 and Lin Yinhai led the Chinese team with 18 points.

Team Melli will meet Japan on Sunday.

Earlier on the day, the Iranian women beat Cambodia 40-22. Roghayyeh Amiri scored 14 points for Iran and Sinet An led the Cambodians with 13 points.

Iran will meet India on Monday.

The IWBF Asia Oceania zone has four spots available for men and three for women at Tokyo 2020, with one spot in each already allocated to Japan as the host nation.

Fourteen men’s teams and an event-record eight women’s teams will compete at the competitions, taking place at the Eastern National Sports Centre and are scheduled to conclude on December 7.

In the men’s competition, the six top-ranked teams – Australia, China, Iran, Japan, South Korea and Thailand – will play in Division A, which will be a single round-robin to determine first to sixth place in the ranking.

The other eight teams – Afghanistan, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia – are drawn into two pools of four in Division B.

The top two teams in Division B will become the seventh- and eighth-ranked teams in Division A to make up the quarter-final pairings. / T.T/

According to the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, Iranian knowledge-based firms will hire experts and graduates from developing countries.

Experts and graduates from developing countries including Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries from the African Union will be hired by Iranian knowledge-based firms on the way to boost the firms’ level of exports.

The foreign experts will be introduced to the Iranian firms to get hired, after passing a year of internship offered.

Vice-President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari said on October 15 that knowledge-based companies have targeted manufacturing sanctioned goods and products.

According to him, there are as many as 4,600 knowledge-based companies active n the country, exporting $1 billion worth of products annually. /MNA/

Latest data released by the Energy Ministry shows that Iran has produced over 4.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from renewable sources since the bid to shift focus from fossil fuels to greener energies started in mid-2009.

This volume of clean energy was produced from July 2009 to late November 2019, which has cut the consumption of 1.25 billion cubic meters of fossil fuels. It has also saved 969 million liters of water.

Moreover, harnessing clean energy in the past nine years has helped the country curb the emission of about 3 million tons of greenhouse gases.

Renewable ventures are gaining popularity in the country; with more than 300 sunny days throughout the year, Iran has huge potential to expand solar energy infrastructure and attract foreign investments.

The country meets more than 80% of its electricity demand from thermal power plants that run on fossil fuels. Of the total 82,000 MW production capacity, only a meager amount of 680 MW goes to renewables.

Figures on Iran’s power sector show that 42% of the country’s renewable energies come from solar power, 41% from wind farms, 13% small from hydroelectric plants, 2% from heat recovery and 2% is constituted by biomass. / MNA/