Mohammad Nabi Rezaei won the first medal in the history of the Iranian canoeing at the Junior World Championship.

At the junior individual canoeing of 1000 meters in calm waters, Mohammad Nabi Rezaei won the bronze medal and placed third after Russia and Latvia.

He rode the 1000 meters in 4: 51: 531 and climbed the third step of the world podium for the first time for Iran in this class. / Isna /

Construction of the first women-only beach in the Persian Gulf island of Qeshm, southern province of Hormozgan, started on Thursday.

The project which is stretching over 2.5 hectares of southern coasts will be developed in three separate phases, IRNA reported.

Making an investment of 100 billion rials (nearly $2.5 million) the private sector is financing the project.

The first phase, including basic facilities namely restrooms, bathrooms, locker rooms, safety deposit boxes, in addition to restaurants, spa treatment, pergolas, coffee shops, shopping areas, kids play areas, green spaces etc. will be completed by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2018).

Over the second phase of the project swimming pools, gym, accommodations, beauty salons, traditional restaurants, and artificial night lighting at the beach will be set up as well.

Environment friendly marine hotels and sea water parks, by causing minimal damages to the ecosystem, will be constructed over the last phase of the Qeshm island first women-only beach project.  / Tehran times /

The gas deal with Iraq includes two contracts, one to send gas to Baghdad and another to send exports to the southern city of Basra via pipeline

Iraq is looking to increase natural gas imports from Iran within an agreement that would allow the Arab country to receive up to five times more gas from the current level.

“Gas flow to Baghdad is currently at 7-8 million cubic meters per day. But Iraq has asked for higher amounts,” Hamidreza Araqi, chief executive officer of National Iranian Gas Company, was quoted as saying by IRNA on Friday.

Iran began supplying Iraq with natural gas through a pipeline last month, about four years after the two countries signed a preliminary export deal.

Based on the terms of the agreement, exports have begun at a rate of 7 million cubic meters per day to Baghdad and will increase to 35 million cubic meters daily, about five times the current rate. The agreement includes two contracts, one to send gas to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and another to send exports to the southern city of Basra via pipeline.

The war-ravaged Arab neighbor needs Iran’s gas to feed three of its power plants and alleviate chronic outages that have sparked protests against the government in Baghdad and its poor public services in the past few years, particularly during the hot summer season when electricity demand soars.

Contingent Supplies

There were reports that gas exports would begin in September 2016, with the initial amount of 7 mcm/d, yet in addition to security concerns, when terrorists took control of large swathes of Iraqi territory, there was trouble with the funding and operational issues related to the construction of the pipeline inside Iraq.

The NIGC chief did not say if and when gas exports to Iraq will rise, but stressed that any increase will depend on higher output from South Pars, a giant gas field shared between Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf. Government data show that Iran produced more than 880 mcm/d of gas, more than two-thirds of which come from South Pars.

“Ramping up gas supply to Iraq will become feasible upon increasing production capacities in the South Pars field,” Araqi said. According to published reports, Iran can generate $3.7 billion annually through the export of the clean fossil fuel to Iraq.

Though Iraq is the second-largest producer of OPEC, the country has been incapable of meeting its domestic electricity demand. Iraq’s peak electricity demand is about 21,000 megawatts in summer and the grid is only able to supply about 13,000 megawatts, Reuters reported in April 2016.

The average Iraqi household receives power for just 7.6 hours a day, according to data from a report by Iraq Energy Expo. As a result of the shortfall, homes need to obtain half their power needs from generators. Iraq is now Iran’s second largest gas customer behind Turkey, which imported about 21 mcm/d in 2016, according to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

Iraqi Energy Minister Qasim al-Fahdawi said this month the country will need Iranian natural gas for at least the next seven years to meet a shortage of feedstock at its power stations. / Financial tribune /

Two movies by Iranian filmmakers will compete in the Orizzonti (Horizons) section at the 74th Venice International Film Festival, the organizers announced last week.

“Disappearance” by Ali Asgari and “No Date, No Signature” by Vahid Jalilvand will be screened in this category dedicated to films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema.

The story of “Disappearance” produced at the Doha Film Institute is set on a cold winter night in Tehran where a couple of young lovers run into a serious problem. They have just a few hours to come up with a solution.

“No Date, No Signature” is about Dr. Nariman, a forensic pathologist who has a car accident with a motorcyclist and injures his 8-year-old son. He offers to take the child to a clinic nearby, but the father refuses his help and money. The next morning, in the hospital where he works, Dr. Nariman finds out that the little boy has been brought for an autopsy after a suspicious death.

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, the Iranian director of numerous acclaimed films, is a member of the panel for the Orizzonti section.

The Italian director Gianni Amelio will preside over the jury, which also includes American director Ami Canaan Mann and Irish-Scottish director and screenwriter Mark Cousins.

Argentine screenwriter Andrés Duprat, Belgian director and screenwriter Fien Troch and French screenwriter and director Rebecca Zlotowski are the other members of the jury.

Twenty films from around the world will be screened in the section.

The 74th Venice International Film Festival will be held on the Italian Lido from August 30 to September 9. /  Tehran times /

Young Iranian physicists have won two gold and three silver medals in the 48th round of International Physics Olympiad (IPhO 2017) held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The Iranian team consisted of Alireza Darvishi and Amin Ravanbakhsh, who won the gold medal, and Seyyed Arshia Razavi, Seyyed Alireza Mousavi Hosseini, and Erfan Abbasgholinezhad, each receiving a silver medal in the international competitions.

Iran finished 11th with the five medals in this year’s round of competition with participation of physicists from 86 countries in the world.

The 48th International Physics Olympiad was held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 16-24 of July, 2017.

Iranian students eceived two gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the 47th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO 2016) in Switzerland. / Meher news/

Trade between Tehran and Beijing in the first half of 2017 increased by 31 percent compared to the amount for a year earlier, the East Asian country’s customs data showed.

According to Tasnim News Agency, trade transactions between Iran and China in the first half of 2017 stood at $18 billion, showing a 31-percent increase compared to the figure for the same period in 2016, the latest data released by China’s customs office showed.

Trade between the two Asian countries from January to June in 2016 amounted to $13.7 billion, according to the report.

China’s exports to the Islamic Republic in the first half of 2017 also increased by 23 percent compared to the figure for the same period in 2016 and amounted to $8.8 billion.

The East Asian country’s imports from Iran during the same period grew by 40 percent, reaching $9.2 billion. In 2016, China’s imports from Iran stood at $6.5 billion from January to July, the report added.

In January 2016, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Tehran, “We predict that the value of economic exchanges between Tehran and Beijing would rise to $600 billion within the next 10 years.”

/ Iran daily /

China’s Exim Bank (the Export-Import Bank of China) penned a contract with Iran’s Bank of Industry and Mine to finance $1.5 billion for signaling of Tehran-Mashhad railroad, IRIB news reported.

The agreement was signed in Tehran on Tuesday by Iran’s Bank of Industry and Mine Managing Director Ali Ashraf Afkhami and Vice President of Exim Bank Sun Ping during a ceremony attended by China’s ambassador to Tehran, Iran’s deputy transport minister, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI), and one of the deputies from Central Bank of Iran (CBI).

As reported, the total value of the contract, which is the first one in its kind during the past one and a half year, stands at $1.7 billion. The Chinese bank will finance $1.5 billion of the project and $200 million will be provided by Iran.

“The agreement has been signed after 16 months of continuous negotiations with the Chinese bank,” Afkhami said addressing the signing ceremony, underlining the significance of JCOPA, commonly called the nuclear deal, implementation.

As Ping said, “China’s Exim Bank has financed 26 projects in Iran in various sectors including electricity, petrochemicals, oil and gas, and non-ferrous metals till the present time.” / Tehran times/

Iran, the guest of honor at the Beijing International Book Fair, will be attending the fair with the motto “Iran, the Colorful Dream of Silk Road”, the Iran Cultural Fairs Institute (ICFI) announced on Saturday.

Eight publishers, three universities, five cultural institutes and three literary agencies are among the participants at the fair running from August 23 to 27, ICFI director Amir-Masud Shahramnia said in a press release published on Saturday.

A collection of Chinese translations of Iranian books introducing art and culture of the country will be put on display in Iran’s pavilion at the fair, he added.

A number of other programs have also been arranged on the sidelines, including film screenings, live music concerts, literary meetings and naqqali, which is a style of storytelling dedicated to Shahnameh epic stories.

A pavilion covering an area of 500-square meters has been dedicated to Iran at the Beijing fair.  / Tehran times /