The second national and the first international conference on Quran’s contribution to humanities and empirical sciences theories will be held at Tehran-based Malek Ashtar University of Technology.

Mostafa Borhani, a faculty member of the Shahid Beheshti University (SBU) from the Quranic Miracles Research Center at the university said that the first international conference and the second national conference of this kind dubbed ‘pioneering role of Quran in development of scientific theories’ will be held at the Tehran-based Malek Ashtar University of Technology on 18-19 December 2019.

Borhani said that in the conference, the Holy Quran’s contribution to scientific theories will be discussed. He added that Quaran’s contribution to different scientific fields in humanities including economics, educational sciences, psychology, sociology, law, management, theology, philosophy, political science, Islamic studies and history.

He also said that in addition, Quran’s contribution to the development of empirical sciences such as biology, geology, and cosmology and astronomy will also be addressed at the international conference.

The SBU faculty member added that there will be panels as well as opening and closing ceremonies during the conference.

In order to get more information on the scientific event, Borhani said that the researchers and Islamic scholars can refer to the website of the conference available at: http://www.iquransa.com/fa/ MNA/

The short film ‘Fault Line’ written, directed and produced by Soheil Amirsharifi represents Iran at the Ajyal Film Festival in Doha, Qatar, November 18-23.

Selected for the short films section of the festival, the movie tells the story of a schoolgirl who must create a new version of the truth after breaking her arm in a motorcycle accident.
The 15-minute-long film will be shown along with 11 more films from 7 countries in the section.
Baran Ehsaei, Khorshid Cheraghipour, Mahoor Mirzanezhad, Siamak Ehsaei, Azade Shahmiri, Paniz Barzali, Baran Cheraghipour and Tabssom Jamalpour are in the cast.
A 2018 production, the film won the Best Short Film Award at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival in October.
The seventh Ajyal Film Festival is presented by the Doha Film Institute. With the theme “Find Film, Find Life”, some 96 films from 39 countries will be shown at the international festival on November 18-24. / MNA/

The 19th International Exhibition of Home Appliances kicked off at Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds on Tue. in the presence of representatives of more than 400 domestic and foreign companies, including Germany, China and Turkey.

Secretary General of Iran Home Appliances Association Habibollah Ansari made the remarks on Tuesday on the sidelines of the exhibition.

He pointed to this year’s motto of the exhibition entitled “markets must cross borders,” and added, “in tandem with meeting domestic demands, export-based markets should be taken into serious consideration.”

The number of exhibitors have exceeded 35 percent as compared to the last year’s corresponding period, he stated.

Identifying domestic companies, developing market of home appliances and also deepening domestic manufacturing of parts are of the main objectives of the exhibition, he stressed.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointed to the statistics on the production volume of home appliances in the first half of current year and added, “production of most home appliances registered a significant growth from March 21 to Sept. 22, 2019.”

The 19th International Exhibition of Home Appliances kicked off at Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds today in the presence of Chief Executive of Iran Intl. Exhibitions Company (IIEC) Bahman Hosseinzadeh, Deputy Industry Ministry and Head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) Hamid Zadboum and Acting Head of the Ministry of Industry for Industries Affairs Mehdi Niyaraki.

This exhibition will run until Nov. 22.  / MNA /

Exports of steel by ten major producers in Iran hit 4.049 million tons in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), up eight percent compared to the same period of time in the past year, IRNA reported on Wednesday.

“Industry ministry is planning to increase the exports of steel products to 12 million tons by the end of the current year [March 19, 2020],” according to deputy industry, mining and trade minister.

The value of the exports of such commodities is expected to reach $9 billion by the yearend, Jafar Sarqini has previously announced.

Iran plans to reach steel production of 55 million tons by the Iranian calendar year of 1404 (March 2025-March 2026), of which about 40 percent is planned to be exported.

Iranian industry, mining and trade minister said on Monday that the country holds a 62-percent share of the Middle East’s total crude steel production and it is planning to further increase this share.

Reza Rahmani said that Iran has reached a balanced steel production chain in which all stages of production including engineering, implementation, fabrication and operation are being executed by Iranian experts and with domestic knowledge and technology.

Iran’s steel production has been growing well over the past few years and the country rose from 13th to 10th place in the list of the world’s top steel producers in World Steel Association (WSA)’s latest ranking, he said.

In late January, WSA announced that Iran ranked 10th among crude steel producers in the world in 2018 with 25 million tons of production.

Iran has pushed aside Italy, Taiwan and Ukraine to become the 10th biggest producer of crude steel in the world for the year 2018.

The WSA has put the global crude steel production for the year 2018 at 1.808 billion tons, which shows a 4.6 percent increase compared to 2017.

According to the report, Iran’s crude steel industry has remained in good shape despite the U.S. sanctions.

Iran’s share of global crude steel production was estimated at 1.38 percent for the year 2018. /T.T/

Behdokht Valian has won the Best Actress Award for her role in the Iranian short film ‘Tattoo’ from the 37th Sulmona International Film Festival (SIFF), held in Italy, November 6-9.

Directed by Farhad Delaram, ‘Tattoo’ is about a young girl who wants to renew her driver’s license but she is sent to the traffic police center for her tattoos.
A 2019 production, the 15-minute-long film has won several awards earlier this year.
It won the Golden Owl for best short film at the 19th Tirana International Film Festival, Albania’s Academy Awards short films qualifying event, and the Crystal Bear for best short in the Generation 14plus section of the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.
Besides Valian in the leading role, Alireza Sanifar, Anahita Eghbalnejad, Mojtaba Fallahi and Pouria Shakibaei play in the film.
The SIFF is a festival for short films taking place in Sulmona, Italy. it celebrates young cinema from all around the world with a selection of new works from emerging directors and passionate storytellers with unique visions.
The event also presents a range of special initiatives included film workshop, retrospectives, non-competitive feature films screening, concerts and exhibitions. / MNA/

The Iranian junior Kabaddi team has gained a commanding win over Malaysia at the first-ever junior Kabbadi world cup underway on the Iranian Kish Island.

The last match of the first stage of Junior Kabaddi World Cup was held on Wednesday afternoon between Iran and Malaysia and it ended with a 70-29 win for the host country Iran.

With that commanding victory, the Iranian junior team advanced to the quarterfinals against Taiwan tomorrow.

The First-ever Junior Kabaddi World Cup kicked off on 9th November, 2019 in Kish Island, Iran, organized by the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF).

Iran, Thailand, Pakistan, Denmark, Bangladesh, China Taipei, Kina and Sri Lanka are teams that will compete in the knock-out stage of quarterfinals on Thursday. / MNA/

The science and technology companies of Iran and China signed seven memorandums of understanding on Wednesday in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

During a ceremony with Iran’s Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari in attendance in the city of Shenzhen, in southern China on Wednesday, knowledge-based and scientific companies of Iran and China signed seven memoranda of understanding.

Representatives of over 70 representatives of knowledge-based companies are accompanying VP Sattari on the visit to China, who are in China to attend the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai.

Among others, a MoU between Iran Nano company and two Chinese companies was signed.

On the sidelines of the signing ceremony of the agreements, Sattari said that 21st China International High-tech Fair in Shenzhen provides good opportunities to Iranian firms.

The Iranian delegation arrived in the Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen on Tuesday at the invitation of the Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang to promote cooperation between the two countries’ creative and knowledge-based companies.

The Iranian vice president is also planned to hold talks with Chinese scientific officials during the visit.

The 70 Iranian firms that are accompanying Sattari are active and operating in the fields of information technology, stem cells, industrial machinery and equipment, advanced materials, as well as the field of health. /MNA/

Iranian director Alireza Motamedi’s film “Reza” was crowned best in the official section of the 7th Asian Film Festival Barcelona (AFFBCN) in the Spanish city on Sunday.

The film tells the story of a divorced man named Reza who is trying to adapt to his new life after a divorce while he finds a new romance.

Iranian director Shahram Mokri received the best director award for his film “Invasion” in the Discoveries section, while the screenplay award in the Panorama section went to Iranian writer and director Ruhollah Hejazi for his movie “The Dark Room”.

“Invasion” is about Saman who has been murdered and the police are investigating in a club, the scene of the crime. They have arrested Ali as the murder suspect and are trying to uncover the method used in the murder. However, the case becomes quite complicated and the friends of the murdered person are not very cooperative.

“The Dark Room” is about Haleh and Farhad, who together with their 5-year-old son, Amir, have recently moved into a new complex. Amir is lost in the desert in front of the complex, however, his parents quickly find him. Later, Amir tells his father that someone has seen his body and this makes Farhad very upset, so he goes looking for a suspect who has sexually abused his little boy.

A lineup of 14 Iranian films, including “Orduckly” by Behruz Gharibpur, “Pastarioni” by Soheil Movaffaq, “Sheeple” by Hooman Seyyedi, “First Autograph for Rana” by Ali Zhakan and “Footwork” by Mazdak Mirabedini, were also screened in the various sections of the festival.

“Wild Jonquils” by Rahbar Qanbari, “Divorce Me Because of the Cats” by Mohammad-Ali Sajjadi, “Here” by Hadi Mohaqqeq, “Yeva” by Anahid Abad, “Astigmatism” by Majidreza Mostafavi and “Orange Days” by Arash Lahuti were also among the films. /T.T/

The Islamic Republic of Iran is ranked at the first place among the West Asian countries in terms of the number of papers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) in 2018, according to data released by SCImago Journal.

With 1,813 papers, Iran took first place among other countries in the region in the field of AI research in 2018, followed by Turkey with 1,678 researches, the data analysis shows.

Of the total 1,813 papers, some 1,672 were citable documents.

Based on the information gained from 1997 until 2017, Iran submitted 34,028 articles about AI and its usage, ranking it at the 14th place in the world in the area of artificial intelligence.

Iran is the 8th country in the world based on high impact and high citation articles and the only country from the Middle East in the top ten countries in this field.

Iran has submitted 1.3 percent of the high citation articles in the field of artificial intelligence and also 0.02 percent of the hot articles.

The country has also published 271 highly cited papers and 5 hot papers, making it one of the best countries in this field.

Half of the highly cited papers submitted by Iran have been conducted with the help of researchers from other countries, but only 0.74 percent of them are the result of collaborating with the industry sector. /MNA/