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 /

Six Iranian films will be competing in the 13th Kazan International Festival of Muslim Cinema, which will be held in the Tatarstan capital from September 5 to 11.

“Off-Key” by Amir Purkian will be competing in the feature films category, the organizers have announced.

In the short films category, “Voice” by Dariush Najafigol will go on screen.

“Overruled” by Iranian filmmakers Farnaz and Mohammadreza Jurabchian and “Papeli” (“Butterfly”) by Mehdi Zamanpur Kiasari are two films to go on screen in the full length documentary films competition.

The short documentary films “Light, Shadow, Life” by Shahriar Purseyyedian and “Bakhshi” by Reza Gholami-Motlaq will be screened at the event.

A selection of 60 films from 27 countries will be competing in the festival this year.

Iranian students won a total six medals at the 58th International Mathematical Olympiad, achieving the 5th place in the competition.

The 58th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 12-23 with 111 countries in attendance.

The Iranian students won two gold, three silver and one bronze medals in this competition.

The gold medal winners are Amir Mojtaba Sabour and Ariyo Lotfi Jandaqi, the three silver medalists are Taha Miranzadeh, Mohammad Sadeq Mahdavi and Farhoud Rostam Khani and the bronze medal winner is Soroush Taslimi.

South Korea won this year’s world championship for mathematics with six gold medals followed by Vietnam, China, United States and Iran.

The Olympiad is a world mathematics competition for high school students that take place every year.

/ Isna /

As part of the discount Iran received from Airbus in its order for 100 planes, an A320 comes free. This was announced by deputy minister of roads and urban development, Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan, in a Sunday ceremony to mark the end of the eight-year tenure of Farhad Parvaresh as the CEO of the flag carrier Iran Air. Airlines usually get discounts from plane manufacturers on huge orders. The Iran Air-Airbus deal is worth $18-20 billion based on list prices, but Parvaresh has been quoted as saying that the value of the contract would not exceed $10 billion considering the number of orders placed and the current market conditions. So far, the Iranian flag carrier has received three out of the 100 orders placed with the European planemaker (1 A321 and 2 A330). Farzaneh Sharafbafi, the first Iranian woman to receive a PhD in aerospace, was recently appointed the new chief executive of Iran Air.

/ Financial tribune /

The vice president of Iran’s International Cooperation Center has announced that 57 thousand foreign students are studying at Iranian universities and each year 10 thousand students from 61 countries add to this number.

Stressing that the admission of foreign students to Iranian universities is one of the main policies of Iran, Vice-President of the Center for International Cooperation of the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology Farajollah Talebi said that Iran annually awards scholarships to 3,000 foreign students in different majors.

“In order to develop cultural diplomacy, Iran has offered the major of Iranian Studies abroad. Sending professors to foreign universities, giving short and long scholarships, writing books and holding scientific conferences with the cooperation of foreign universities are the other measures taken by Iran, “he added. / Isna /