Young Iranian volleyball players managed to stage a straight-set win against Mexicans in their second encounter at 2017 FIVB Volleyball Boy’s U19 World Championship in Bahrain.

Held in Isa City Sports Hall of Bahrain on Sunday, the Pool D match saw Iranians pulling out a 3-0 (25-19, 25-12, 25-18) win over Mexican rivals.=

Iran’s top scorer was Porya Yali who chucked up 15 points followed by Amirhossein Toukteh, Amirhossein Esfandiar as well as Morteza Sharifi who secured none points each to bring about Iran’s second victory in the sportive event.

The Persian volleyball outfit is slated to take on Czech Republic on Tuesday in Pool D of the competition.

The 2017 FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship is the fifteenth edition of the international volleyball tournament and the world championship for men’s national teams under the age of 19, organized by the sport’s world governing body, FIVB.

The tournament is being hosted by Bahrain in the cities of Riffa and Isa Town from 18 to 27 August 2017. A total of 20 teams are competing in the tournament. / Meher news /

The museum’s collection includes masterpieces of calligraphy on paper, parchments, tiles, potteries, rings, seals and engravings among other forms and materials

C alligraphy Museum of Iran was inaugurated August 19 in Tehran at a historical building on Shariati Street.

Tehran Beautification Organization (TBO) started building the museum two years ago. The organization, affiliated to Tehran Municipality, buys historical buildings of architectural and cultural significance to help uphold the identity of the city. The building housing the Calligraphy Museum dates back to 1950’s. It is now repaired and remade into a permanent museum containing a collection of fine calligraphy works.

The collection includes masterpieces of calligraphy on paper, parchments, tiles, potteries, rings, seals and engravings among other forms and materials, Honaronline reported.

“We were fortunate to have the support of artists and enthusiasts who introduced us to valuable calligraphy collections,” Issa Alizadeh, head of TBO said at the inauguration ceremony.

Alizadeh referred to the collection by late master calligrapher Abdollah Fuadi as one of the most prized holdings of the museum.

“As we approached the opening day, it dawned upon us that it’s just the beginning of a long way … The Calligraphy Museum should become the most important source of research and study on calligraphy,” Alizadeh added.

Before the opening, Qazvin Calligraphy Museum was the only major reference for the art in Iran. Seyed Ahmad Mohit Tabatabai, head of ICOM (International Council of Museums) in Iran, referred to the examples of calligraphy in other museums in Tehran, namely the National Museum and Reza Abbasi Museum, and said: “Inauguration of a calligraphy museum in the capital, particularly in a historical building, is a significant development and demonstrates cultural development.”

A calligraphy master was present at the inauguration ceremony. Karam Ali Shirazi, 36, proficient in the calligraphy schools of ‘Moin Isfahani’ and ‘Qolam Hossein Amirkhani,’ has held many exhibitions in and outside Iran.

Shirazi explained the reason why the new museum made him happy: “On several occasions I received large quantities of top-class calligraphies for evaluation before they were sent abroad.

I had mixed emotions. I was proud because the brilliant works of Iranian artists were being appreciated in other countries. I believe, such works should not be confined within the country; they can serve as cultural envoys. But my other feeling was regret for losing the artistic treasures. I wished the works could have stayed inside the country as treasures of cultural heritage.”

About how the present items of the museum were collected, Mohammad Hassan Hamedi, a representative of the museum’s expert council said: “I was tasked with collecting the artworks and I introduced three experts. All three are active calligraphers focused on their fields of work: Mojtaba Malekzadeh, Mohammad Javad Jeddi and Hamid Reza Qlichkhani.

“Calligraphy collectors are not a large community, and very soon all were aware of the project. So we assessed the authenticity of the works, evaluated them and started to buy them. The collectors were flexible and offered discounts. Sometimes we could buy an entire collection which is very important in enriching the museum.”

Calligraphy Museum of Iran is located on Fouladvand Dead-end, southern end of Shariati Street.

/ Financial tribune /

A round $74 million worth of machine-woven carpets were exported from Iran to Central Asia, Europe, Australia and neighboring countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan during the first three months of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 22), according to deputy minister of industries, mining and trade, Golnar Nassrollahi.

At present, there are close to 900 machine-woven carpet production units in Iran.

About 55,500 tons of machine-woven carpets worth $306.5 million were exported in the last Iranian year (March 2016-17), indicating a 4.3% rise in weight and an 8.9% decrease in value year-on-year.

/ Financial tribune /

A group of female cyclists in western Tehran has established an NGO on the belief that bicycle provides affordable and clean transportation.

The bikers are members of the Shahrbanoo Sports and Cultural Complex, a venue of District 21 of Tehran Municipality.

The project, part of a national campaign dubbed “It Starts with Us”, is primarily aimed to enhance the culture of cycling, respect for traffic laws, car pool, cleaner air, as well as pedestrian rights.

The campaign, organized by the Tehran Municipality’s department of transportation in cooperation with street theater performers, was launched back in February.

/ Tehran times /

Iran’s Kish Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Boeing to purchase of 10 commercial planes, said the airline’s managing director.

Mohammad Taqi Jadidi added that the MoU to purchase 10 Boeing-737-MAX airplanes was signed following negotiations with representative of the US company, Fars News Agency reported on Friday.

He further said that, Kish Airlines seeks investors to finance the deal, adding that, since purchasing new airplanes in cash is not economically feasible, airliners prefer to obtain financing on the purchases.

Domestic banks have obtained licenses to open L/Cs and can easily undertake the financing of the deal, added Jadidi.

He noted that Kish Airlines will purchase six Airbus A-320 family jets by March 20, 2018, explaining that these will be the planes repossessed by financier banks.

Jadidi said that talks are underway with Boeing and Airbus and he predicted that the talks will be concluded within two months.

Iran had been expected to receive the first of 80 aircraft ordered from the US planemaker in April or May 2018, but Iranian media and industry sources have said that Iran might get the first Boeing jet a year earlier than expected under a proposal to swap deliveries with Turkish Airlines.

Industry sources had said Boeing was in talks to release at least one 777-300ER originally built for Turkish Airlines, which is deferring deliveries due to weaker traffic following last year’s failed coup attempt in Turkey.

Boeing said it does not comment on specific deliveries. “Boeing and Iran Air continue to work on implementing the sales contract for commercial passenger airplanes signed in December 2016, at which time we announced first deliveries are scheduled to start in 2018,” a spokesman said.

“We continue to follow the lead of the US government on all our dealings with approved Iranian airlines.”

Since last year, when most sanctions imposed on Iran were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers, Tehran has joined a long waiting list for new airplanes and the swap would have allowed it to speed up its fleet renewal.

Iran Air has also ordered 100 aircraft from Europe’s Airbus under a deal to lift most sanctions in return for modification on Iran’s nuclear program, and has taken three deliveries.

Iran’s return to the aviation market after decades of sanctions is a boon to planemakers trying to dispose of some new planes discarded by airlines facing economic difficulties.

/ Iran daily /

Iran’s parliament capped on Sunday a week of intensive debate on President Hassan Rouhani’s 17 nominees for ministerial posts, approving all except the one for energy minister.

Rouhani handed his list of ministerial nominees to parliament on August 5, three days after he was sworn in. He delayed introducing a nominee to run the Science Ministry, naming a caretaker.

Nearly 24 million of 56 eligible voters cast their ballots for Rouhani, a moderate sexagenarian cleric, for a second four-year tenure in the May 19 election.

The parliament began debating whether to approve Rouhani’s proposed ministers on Tuesday. Rouhani said on the same day he was hoping all the picks will be granted votes of confidence.

The strongest vote of confidence, 261-10, was granted to the nominee for defense minister, Brigadier General Amir Hatami, with health, intelligence, and interior picks standing next respectively. The confidence vote was cast by  288 lawmakers in the 290-seat parliament

Plans for more accurate and destructive missiles appeared atop a priority list Hatami took to the parliament hearing on Thursday.

“The missile program is definitely one of the most important priorities of the Defense Ministry in the upcoming four years,” Hatami told lawmakers.

Also, the lawmakers voted to keep Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, 236-26, and Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, 230-35, in their posts.  / Tehran times /

A research team from Sahand University of Technology, Iran, in close collaboration with Tennessee University, USA, designed and manufactured a biological nanosensor capable of detecting the hazardous substances in canned foods with enhanced precision in just twenty seconds.

According to Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC), the laboratory-scale production of this nanosensor costs only $1, and its finished cost including electrical circuits will reach around $16.

The studies confirm that the use of canned foods in a prolonged period of time results in many acute illnesses. It arises from the presence of hazardous substances in the production of canned cans.

“This research effort aimed at monitoring the concentration of hazardous Bisphenol A in canned foods and beverages maintained in plastic containers. The previous methods are costly and require highly specialized laboratories. In addition, they suffer from weak diagnostics and insufficient precision. Therefore, in our research, we have tried to overcome the mentioned limitations in detecting this hazardous substance by designing and manufacturing a cheap and fast bio-nanosensor,” said Dr. Hadi Mirzajani, referring to the hazardous substance of Bisphenol A as one of the most commonly used substance in the production of canned cans.

Highlighting the cost-effectiveness of this sensor, he added “the fabrication expenditure of this sensor, even in laboratory scale, is about three thousand tomans, being decreased if the mass production is reached. One of the significant factors is the equipment needed to develop this sensor. Since the proposed manufacturing process is well-established, it is possible to supply all equipment necessary for producing the sensor with a total amount of twenty million tomans. The application of this manufacturing method also leads to an exceedingly high sensitivity and short detection time of twenty seconds.”

“Aptamer is used as a probe molecule in this sensor. These molecules are nanometric structures one of whose ends are attached to the sensor electrode and other one floats in an analyte-containing solution. To use a specific sensor for a certain application, Aptamers should be selected such that they benefit from high connectivity and selectivity over a particular molecule,” added Mirzajani, noting that the application of nanotechnology as one of the main reasons for the high accuracy of this sensor.

This research is conducted by Dr. Hadi Mirzajani (Ph.D graduate of Sahand University of Tabriz) and Dr. Ismael Najafi Aghdam and Dr. Habib Badri Ghavi Fekr (faculty members of Sahand University of Tabriz). Also, a number of researchers from University of Tennessee have been involved in this project whose scientific findings are published in the Journal of Biosensors and Bioelectronics / Meher news /

Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival held in Pennsylvania, US, will showcase three feature films by Iranian directors including ‘Kupal’, ‘Lantouri’, and ‘Inversion’.

‘Kupal’ directed by Kazem Mollaei, ‘Lantouri’ directed by Reza Dormishian, and ‘Inversion’ directed by Behnam Behzadi have been accepted into the main competition section of the 12th edition of Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival in Pennsylvania, US.

The 10-day Asian Film Festival will showcase over 25 feature-length films from 15 countries including from India, Japan, China, Turkey, Lebanon, South Korea, Iraq, Philippines, and Iran.

‘Kupal’ is the story of a hunter and taxidermist who accidentally traps himself in his basement. With little food and no water, Dr. Ahmad Kupal must survive using creative and desperate means.

‘Lantouri’ is a social drama about into contemporary Iranian struggles, which takes its name from a street gang in Tehran that robs and kidnaps people in broad daylight.

‘Inversion’ centers around a young, unmarried woman, Niloofar (played by Sahar Dolatshahi), who decides to take charge and find ways to better express herself in the smog-teeming metropolis of Tehran.

The 12th edition of Silk Screen will celebrate will be held on September 15-24, 2017, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. / Meher news /

Shifting to high gear in the latter part of the game, Iran served a sweet revenge to Australia in a 5-set thriller, 19-25, 25-18, 20-25 25-22, 15-10 to snatch the 9th place at the SMM 19th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship on Wednesday.

Iran’s timely victory came sweeter as they not only managed to return the favor to Australia, a team that dealt them a 4-set loss in their Pool G match-up, but also salvage the best spot outside the Top 8 of the 14-team field.

Though failing to qualify in the quarter-finals, Iran head coach Mirmostafa Shojaei was satisfied of their final ranking given the short preparation time he had to squeeze in when he took over the program.

“I came to coach Iran just two months ago, and I changed four or five players in favor of the young ones,” said Shojaei. “I think our team will be good next month in Thailand for the World Championship Asian Qualifier Pool B.”

Down 2 sets to one, the Iranians suddenly found vigor with Maedeh Borhani and Mahdieh Khajehkolaei providing the big lift as their combined 29 points completed the turn around to finish their campaign on a winning note.

Mina Roosta was also pivotal their final match as her service aces in the second frame allowed Iran to erase a 14-16 disadvantage en route to stealing the set –which proved to be the much-needed boost for the team in surviving the Aussies.

Now with more time to implement his system, Shojaei sets sight of forming a competitive team that can compete against the top-tier squads of the region.

“Our goal is to be one of the top four teams in Asia so we inject young players,” said the mentor. “In our point of view, we will have our best team in the next three or four years.”

Australia head coach Shannon Winzer, on the other hand, looks to instill consistency in her wards heading forward after crashing to 10th spot.

“Our game today is a good reflection of how we played in the entire tournament, very inconsistent,” said Winzer.

And to do that, Winzer hopes to continuously expose the Australian volleyballers in either professional or international competitions.

“Our goal in next Asian Championship would be inside the top 8 and for us to do that is to increase the number of players we can send overseas to improve their skills,” she bared.

/ Tehran times /

The country’s first laser innovation center was inaugurated Tue. in Tehran in the presence of VP for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari and AEOI head Ali Akbar Salehi.

Iran’s Laser Innovation Center as the country’s first of its kind was inaugurated Tuesday night, supported by vice-presidency for science and technology. The center aims at introduce the knowledge of laser to industries and attract innovative ideas and meet the demands of the domestic market.

Eight knowledge-based companies active in producing domestic laser-related products are situated in the center. The Center is equipped with facilities in the fields of education, medicine, industry and research.

Products such as laser flash, advanced laser kits, optical light, and laser therapy devices have been produced by the knowledge-based firms at this center./ Meher news/