Over 90 performances by domestic and foreign musicians are scheduled to be staged at six venues across Tehran

T he 33rd edition of the Fajr International Music Festival, Iran’s most prestigious music event, will be held in Tehran from January 10-20, 2018.

According to the website of the event, fajrmusicfestival.com, 90 performances are scheduled at six venues across Tehran, namely Azadi and Milad towers, Niavaran Cultural Center, Iranian Hall, Roudaki Hall and Vahdat Hall, where the closing ceremony will be held.

Like the previous edition, musician and traditional vocalist Hamid-Reza Nourbakhsh is the director of the festival.

Iran’s National Orchestra conducted by Fereydoun Shahbazian, 74, and Tehran Symphony Orchestra conducted by Shahrdad Rouhani, 62, are among participating ensembles.

Nilper Orchestra, Pars Orchestra, Austrian-Iranian Symphonic Orchestra (AISO), Tehran Flute Choir, Mehr Orchestra, Iran Chamber Orchestra and Tehran Wind Orchestra are among the groups that will attend.

Most of the orchestral performances will take place at Vahdat and Roudaki halls, both located on Shahryar Blvd, Hafez Street, south of Enqelab Avenue.

Contemporary Santur Ensemble led by famous composer, santur player and music arranger Ardavan Kamkar, 49, are among the major bands at the event. Other Iranian groups include the folk bands Rastak, Lian and Dilmun, Amin Ghaffari’s ensemble, the pop band Puzzle and the fusion band Damahi.

Among the celebrated singers, Mehdi Yarahi, Hamed Homayoun, Mohammad Alizadeh, Xaniar and Sirvan Khosravi, Behnam Bani, Alireza Talischi, Omid Hajili and Ali Zand-Vakili will perform at the annual national event.

Ethnic music performances will represent Mazandaran, Gilan, Bushehr, Lorestan, East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan, Kurdistan and Golestan provinces.

Foreign participants at the 33rd Fajr International Music Festival are from Turkey, Portugal, Afghanistan, France, Italy, India, Mongolia, Serbia, Austria, Senegal, Slovenia, Germany, Japan and Spain. / Financial tribune /

Following the arrest of an animal-trafficking band in Tehran, an Asiatic cheetah cub was discovered and required measures were taken for her protection, Iran’s Department of Environment official website reported on Tuesday.

The cheetah, named Iran, was quickly moved to the wildlife rehabilitation center of Pardisan Park for further medical examinations, Hooman Jokar, director of the Conservation of Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP) in Iran, said.

The examinations have shown that “Fortunately, all of her limbs are healthy,” he said, adding, “She is just 8 months old and weighs nearly 15 kilograms.”

Further details about the animal’s fate is not revealed yet.

Trading and keeping animals as pets, importing and exporting any wildlife species should be under the license of the Department of Environment, otherwise it is considered as an illegal act, ISNA quoted Ali Teymouri, the Department of Environment’s deputy director for hunting and fishing, as saying on Tuesday.

Violators are punished by up to three years of imprisonment and 1 billion rials (nearly $25,000) fine, he highlighted.

The main habitat of the Asiatic cheetah in Iran is Dasht-e Kavir desert, encompassing parts of Khorasan, Kerman, Yazd, Semnan, Tehran and Markazi provinces. The cheetah has been put on the IUCN Red List since 1996 as a ‘critically endangered’ species. / Tehran times /

Iran is now ranked among the top 25 countries in the world active in the field of brain implants, a director at the Science and Cognitive Technologies Council said Wednesday.

According to the head of brain implant working group at the Science and Cognitive Technologies Council, Iran currently holds 0.6 per cent of the world’s science production in the last decade, and based on global statistics, Iran is among the top 25 countries with a remarkable record in the field of brain implants.

Hossein Maghami went on to add, “brain implant systems, which are composed of different parts, are responsible for recording neural signals or stimulating neuronal cells. Through their contact with the surface of the brain and receiving signals and sending them outside of the brain, the systems are able to process the received signals and extract the required data from them.”

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) technology is used in treatment of diseases such as Parkinson’s, he said, adding that the Science and Cognitive Technologies Council is currently supporting projects on production of electrodes and batteries used in the deep brain stimulation systems. / Mehr news /

Head of the Iran’s National Space Center announced on Tuesday that Iran has ranked second in the field of launch technologies and space infrastructure in the region.

According to Manouchehr Manteghi, they, in Iran’s National Space Center, have studied and assessed different sections of the industry to reach the conclusion.

He added that after considering different criteria, they now can say that Iran ranks second in launch and space infrastructure, second in space exploration sciences, fifth in remote sensing, seventh in the telecommunications, fifth in satellite technology, finally second in navigation system in the region.

Manteghi pointed out that one of the aims of the National Space Agency is to collaborate with other countries’ aerospace organizations and centers to increase the knowledge about space and advance technologies related to space. / Mehr news /

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.