An Iranian karate squad offered awe-inspiring athletic performances to stand atop Central Asia Karate Championships in Uzbekistan.

Tashkent hosted Central Asia Karate Championships among seniors, cadets and juniors in men’s and women’s divisions on December 24-25.

Athletes from Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan had taken part in the two-day competition which convened at the Universal Sports Complex.

The Iranian outfit, comprising top karate practitioners from Qazvin Province, succeeding in collecting two gold, one silver and two bronze medals and stood on top of the podium overall.

Accordingly, Bahman Asgari (-84kg) and Saleh Abazari (+84kg) gained upper hands over their rivals and brought home two gold trophies.

One silver medal was bagged by Meysam Reshvand (+84kg) while Mohammad Hossein Ghasemi (-60kg) and Rauf Dastafkan (-75kg) settled for bronze medals.

Persian athletes also came first in the team kumite section of the sportive event.

The championships were organized by the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Physical Culture and Sport, Asian Karate Federation and Uzbekistan National Karate Federation.Prior to the competition, the workshops and exams were organized for the juries. / Mehr news /

Deputy Head of Iran’s Carpet Center for Economic Affairs Mohammad Mehdi Farshchi said Iran exported $270 million worth of hand-woven carpets during the 8 months of the current Iranian year.

Speaking during a local ceremony in Qazvin on Monday night, Farshchi said the figure shows a 31% hike compared with the similar period of a year before.

Iran exported $290 million hand-woven carpet in 2016, he said, adding the figure rose to $359 million in 2016, rising by 3 percent in terms of weight and and 23 percent in terms of value.

He added 29 countries are the main buyers of Iran’s handmade carpets, among them are 13 Asian, 11 European, 4 Americans and 1 African countries.

Japan, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, Britain, the UAE, Kuwait, Lebanon and Qatar are traditional markets for the luxury Iranian product.

He underlined that $141 million worth of carpets were exported to the Asian countries.

Iran’s carpet exports were hit hard by sanctions imposed on the country over its nuclear program. The United States—the biggest importer of Iran’s handmade rugs—banned the import of Iranian carpets, among other products, in September 2010. / Mehr news /

Scientists at Iran’s Royan Research Institute has succeeded in producing the country’s third cloned goat belonging to Murcia-Granada breed of goat.

Dr. Mahdi Hajian, Head of Embryology Department at Isfahan Campus of Royan Research Institute, made the announcement asserting “following successful cloning of Saanen and Alpine goats, we sought to clone a third one from Murcia-Granada breed.”

Imported from Spain, these types have no particular season for breeding and the females can come into heat at any time of the year and produce a significant amount of milk, said the Iranian scientists while highlighting main characteristics of Murciana goats.

“We managed to extract a sample tissue from the imported goat’s ear in order to obtain necessary stem cells,” noted Hajian.

We were able to extract a sample of the tissue of the ears of this goat to extract the cells, resulting in simulation of the third goat in Royan Research Institute in the central city of Isfahan, Iran.

Hajian said the goat had been born a month ago since when its conditions have been analyzed and investigated.

Referring to the characteristics of the three cloned goats, he said “each simulated goat has its own unique features; the first two ones produce high milk yields.”

“They yield about 3-4 kilos of milk while the newly-born one produces two to 2-3klograms of milk and instead is more resistant to heat.”

Murciana goat can even tolerate high temperatures in southern regions of Iran, emphasized the Iranian embryologist.

In 2006, Iran became the first Middle Eastern country to announce it had cloned a sheep, named Royana.

The effort is part of Iran’s quest to become a regional powerhouse in advanced science and technology by 2025. In particular, Iran is striving for achievements in medicine and in aerospace and nuclear technology.

The cloning of sheep and other animals could lead to advances in medical research, including using cloned animals to produce human antibodies against diseases.

Royan Institute’s main aim in cloning the goat is to produce medicine to be used to treat people who have had strokes.  . / Mehr News /

Head of the provincial office of the Cultural Heritage Organization of Hamedan said that archaeologists have unearthed another buried skeleton in Imam square, Hamedan.

Ali Malmir referred to the excavations in Imam Square in Hamedan and said “archaeological experts have managed to unearth another skeleton in the southern corner of the hole dug up in Imam Khomeini Square, Hamedan.”

“The evidence shows that the skeleton is in a squatting position with its head toward the south,” he added.

Head of the provincial office of the Cultural Heritage Organization of Hamedan expressed regret that the torso of the skeleton has been destroyed as the result of a hole which has been dug up recently and said “preliminary studies show that this skeleton belongs to the historic era and has been buried shortly after the clay coffins of the Parthian Empire.”

“No objects or relics have so far been unearthed near the skeleton,” he added.

During the process of digging tunnels for an urban construction project earlier this month, historic antiques were unearthed in Imam Square, Hamedan. Experts are still carrying out excavations with the expectation to find new antiques near the site. / Mehr News /

Iranian deputy minister of health stressed the necessity of supporting young scientists and researchers and underlined that Iran has been able to rank top in producing science articles through investment on young researchers.

Dr. Reza Malekzadeh said in a scientific event on Sunday “in 2016, we published 52,160 articles and received more than 70,000 citations for our scientific articles. We have been able to rank top in the region in terms of producing scientific articles and attain a higher rank than Turkey and the Zionist regime.”

Malekzadeh said that Iran’s international share in science production has exceeded its population and has reached 8.1 and added “this achievement is not due to adequate budgets, it has been made possible through the attempts by young scientists.”

“Iran’s world ranking is 17 in science production and 18 in scientific citations. The reason for this growth is the change in the evaluation system of medical science universities that favors qualitative activities and achievements.”

“From 1,115 distinguished scientists we have in Iran, 550 are active in the field of medicine which shows that the most outstanding students enter medicine and require support,” Malekzadeh said.

/ Mehr News /

The 20th International Storytelling Festival will be held on 21-25 January 2018 at the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) in Tehran.

According to deputy head of Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA), the annual international festival has 18,000 participants across the country.

Reza Ghamarzadeh went on to add that 6,737 stories have been evaluated at provincial, regional and national levels, and the most qualified ones will be introduced to the event.

He maintained that the aim of the festival is to promote storytelling traditions among younger generations and to keep alive this culture and ancient ritual of Iran.

The stories picked for the festival are focused on topics such as education, Razavi stories, tales from Shahnameh, and folklore, and will be narrated on stage under 20 minutes.

A number of IIDCYA instructors, teenagers and grandparents are scheduled to go on stage to narrate their tales.

In the previous edition of the festival, Cuban writer and narrator Elvia Ines Perez Napoles narrated her stories, while Norbert Kuber from Germany delivered speeches during the event. Indonesian writer Murti Bunanta also held a workshop on creativity in storytelling.

T he Iranian coal industry, long underutilized despite its massive potential, is capable of driving the mining sector, boost energy production and create the sorely-needed jobs envisioned in the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22).

“Iran produces only 1.1 million tons of coal per year while it has 1.15 billion tons of proven reserves. This means Iran is missing out on a huge potential of job, wealth and energy creation,” Ali Palizdar, deputy head of Middle East Mines and Mining Industries Development Holding Company, said in a write-up for the Persian economic weekly Tejarat-e Farda.

It might sound strange to talk of developing coal in a clean-energy obsessed age, as investments are shifting away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy across the world.

However, the International Energy Agency’s 2017 outlook has painted a different landscape, stating that fossil fuels will remain the world’s dominant energy sources for at least the next three decades.

IEA forecasts electricity generated using coal to increase by 10% by 2040. Also, about 74% of the world’s steel are made using blast furnaces and basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), keeping up demand for the material. The 12% growth in coking coal production in 2011-15 is a testament to coal’s resilience.

Large players such as Russia and the United States are increasingly investing in coal, while enjoying huge reserves of oil and gas. Currently, more than 40% of the world’s electricity are generated via coal and coal producing countries use an average of 0.8% of their coal reserves per year.

This is while Iran, hamstrung by its overdependence on oil, has missed out on diversifying its energy sources. It uses only 0.1% of its coal reserves and is yet to establish any coal power plant.

On top of all this, coal prices are looking highly attractive. Coking coal, the material used in steelmaking, has surged 37% in value since the beginning of November and is averaging $185.70 in 2017, a more than $40 gain compared to the average price of last year, Mining.com reported.

Job Creation Potential

The Sixth Plan envisions boosting economic growth to 8% and dropping unemployment from last year’s 12.6% to 8.6% in 2022.

The government has actually betted high on the mining sector to help deliver these goals. Mines are set to have an annual average value-added growth of 8.8% and an average job creation of 4.6%.

Considering the 100,000 workers directly involved in the industry, at least 5,000 more jobs must be created every year in the sector to materialize the goals, with the total number of jobs reaching 25,000.

This is where coal comes in, with a favorable medium-term global condition, vastly untapped reserves and considerable job creation potential.

Coking Coal Shortage

Although coking coal makes up about 900 million tons of Iran’s proven coal reserves, there is still a chronic shortage of the material for downstream industries.

Steel industry’s blast furnaces and BOS plants require 4.3 million tons of coking coal every year and about 30% of it are met through imports.

Iran’s coal mines annually produce 1.1 million tons of coal concentrate while their output capacity reaches 3 million tons. Meeting the real demand for the material requires plants to utilize their total capacity and triple output.

Aside from the immediate benefits, tripling output will at least double coal mines’ current workforce and create more than 10,000 jobs in just one sector.

Thermal Coal

Iran’s 250 million tons of proven and 1.3 billion tons of estimated thermal coal reserves are neither being properly used for energy production nor being cashed in on their exports.

The country’s only coal power plant project was kicked off eight years ago with an investment of $500 million. It was meant to generate 650 megawatts of electricity per year, but was laid off in less than a few years and is currently completely abandoned.

A meager 150,000-200,000 tons of thermal coal are exported every year, most of which lose their competitive edge over high transportation costs.

This is while investing in both plants and thermal coal shipments has a higher job creation potential compared to iron ore and aluminum sectors. The generation of 1,000 megawatts requires 5-7 million tons of thermal coal and will directly create 5,000-7,000 jobs.

/ Financial tribune /

Iran deputy foreign minister announced In Astana on Friday that Iran, Turkey and Russia are finalizing three important documents relating to ‘exchange of detainees, abductees and bodies of the dead people,’ ‘humanitarian demining in Syria,’ and ‘final declaration of the Astana Summit.’

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari is chairing Iranian delegation in Kazakhstan to attend the ‘8th round of Astana meeting on Syria’ that kicked off earlier on Thursday.

Jaberi Ansari said that in addition to a date for the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, the three delegates have agreed on the provisions of three important documents relating to the ‘exchange of detainees, abductees and bodies of the dead’, ‘humanitarian demining in Syria’ and ‘the final declaration of the meeting of the Astana 8.’

The 8th round of inter-Syrian negotiations on the Syrian crisis opened on Thursday (December 21st) in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. Representatives of three peace-guarantor countries – Iran, Turkey and Russia – are attending the talks. /  Mehrnews /

Persian leopard Arezoo, well-known for being named after her habitat in Roudsar, northern Iran, was found dead apparently after a fight with a hedgehog.

On February 5, the Roudsar leopard survived a complicated spinal surgery after getting caught in a trap.

The 4-year-old leopard was transferred to Tehran and undergone a complicated surgery and surprisingly restored its ability to walk within a week and eight month later was released back to its habitat in November.

However, using a tracking device hanged around its neck the animal’s body was found in the depth of the forest on Tuesday by the rangers. It has apparently endured a fight with a hedgehog. There are no signs of human–wildlife conflict.

According to YJC, the animal’s body was transferred to Gilan province’s department of environment for autopsy and deciding the exact cause of death. / Tehran times /

Four Iranian feature-length movies as well as eight short films will go on screen at the 16th Third Eye Asian Film Festival in Mumbai, India.

“Mina’s Option” by Kamal Tabrizi, “Bench Cinema” by Mohammad Rahmanian, “Cyanide” by Behruz Shoeibi and “Soyuq” (Coldness) by directors Bahram and Bahman Ark are the four feature films, Iran’s Farabi Cinema Foundation, the producer of the movies, announced on Tuesday.

“Limit” by Javad Darai, “Birthday Night” by Omid Shams, “Save Me” by Mohsen Nabavi and “Fate” by Azar Faramarzi will be screened in the short film competition.The festival will open on Thursday and will run until December 28. / Tehran times /