Iran exported seafood worth $110 million during the first six months of the current fiscal year (started March 20), the head of Iran Fisheries Organization said. Hassan Salehi added that the figure indicates a 30% rise compared with the same period of last year.  “As one of the sub-sectors of agriculture, fishing industry continues to enjoy a healthy trade surplus. During the past years, our exports were double our imports,” he said. “Last year, seafood production stood at about 1 million tons, out of which 82,000 tons were exported. Fishing industry is expected to register a 100% growth by the yearend,” Eranico quoted Salehi as saying.  Abbas Matinfar, another official with the organization, said some 20,000 tons of fish will be produced via cage farming by the yearend.  Arash Nabizadeh, the managing director of Cold Water Fish Farmers Association, said Iran accounts for 16% of global production of trout.  “This year’s trout production is expected to reach 125,000 tons,” he added. Tehran signed an agreement with Moscow for the export of 500 tons of trout in September and the first 20-ton shipment of the fish was delivered to Russia, Young Journalists Club quoted Nabizadeh as saying.

/Financial tribune /

The Salesman won the Best Film Award at 61st Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain.

Directed by Asghar Farhadi, The Salesman is a 2016 drama which was included in the In Competition section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Shahab Hosseini won the award for Best Actor and Asghar Farhadi won the award for Best Screenplay.

The Salesman tells the story of a young couple Emad and Rana who play the lead roles in a local rendition of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Meanwhile, their personal relationship takes a hit after moving into a house that was previously inhabited by a woman with a shady background.

The film was selected as the Iranian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film for the 89th Academy Awards, which will take place in 2017.

The Valladolid International Film Festival is one of the oldest and most consolidated in the whole of Europe.

/ Meher news /

Four Iranian competitors won medals at the 2016 Karate World Championships on Saturday. Sajad Ganjzadeh took the gold medal after beating Moroccan Achraf Ouchen in the Men’s over 84kg individual kumite.

“I am happy to win gold since the competition has brought a number of the best karatekas together. My only goal was to win the gold medal and I am very happy my silver medal in the previous edition has been upgraded to gold,” Ganjzadeh said.

Croat Andjelo Kvesic and Herolind Nishevci from Kosovo won the bronze medal.

Furthermore, Zabiollah Poorshab in the Men’s under 84kg individual kumite, Aliasghar Asiabari in the Men’s under 75kg individual kumite and Hamideh Abbasli in the Women’s over 68kg individual kumite also claimed three bronze medals in the event.

Over 2,000 participants from 135 countries are competing at the 23rd edition of the Karate World Championships in the Austrian city of Linz. / Tehran times /

West Azarbaijan Province exports 1,500 tons of honey worth $6 million to Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan Republic, China, Kuwait, the UAE and East Asian countries annually, says the head of the northwestern province’s Agricultural Jihad Organization, Esmaeil Karimzadeh. “West Azarbaijan is home to one million traditional and modern beehives that produce over 18,000 tons or up to 27% of all the honey made in Iran,” he added. Karimzadeh noted that modern beehive yields around 21.1 kg of honey compared to 5.7 kg produced from traditional beehives, Otaghnews.com reported. / Financial tribune /

In the first seven months of the fiscal year (March 20-October 22), Iranian banks allocated more than 38.5 trillion rials ($1.2 billion) in Qarzol-Hasana (interest-free microcredit) marriage loans to 440,300 applicants. “This volume of loan has been unprecedented in previous years and shows how committed banks and the Central Bank of Iran are in supporting matrimony for the youth,” reports the official website of the CBI. According to the system that registers statistics pertaining to this category of microcredit, from the time the system was founded in 2009 until October 22 of the current year, more than 242 trillion rials ($7.6 billion) in loans have been given to 8.03 million applicants. / Financial tribune /

Iran’s railway has launched a new luxurious five-star train, called ‘Fadak’, between Qom and Mashhad, the most important pilgrimage centers in the country.

The ‘fadak’ train is the first luxurious passenger train running from Qom to Mashhad and vice versa. The train operates each day between two cities, taking about 7 hours.

The facilities and services of this new Iranian-made train are designed to be luxurious.

Qom is the second holiest city in Iran after Mashhad.  Its main attraction is the impressive Holy Shrine where Fatima, Imam Reza’s sister, is buried./realiran.org/

Filmmaker Nasser Taqvai, famous for his TV series “My Uncle Napoleon” (1976), was honored for his lifetime achievements during a ceremony held in the Film Museum of Iran on Saturday.

The ceremony was followed by screening Taqvai’s short film “Greek Ship” (1998) and two documentaries “Tazieh” and “Last Rehearsal” both produced in 2004, Persian media reported on Sunday.

Taqvai directed the two documentaries, which were submitted to UNESCO along with Iran’s documents about the Iranian passion play tazieh that was registered on the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010.

A number of veteran cineastes and theatrical figures including Bahman Farmanara, Behzad Farahani, Habib Rezai, Atefeh Razavi and Pari Saberi attended the ceremony.

Speaking at the ceremony, Taqvai said that among all arts, writing is the art most dependent on man.

“Many works might be ruined and destroyed, but there is art that will remain, and for me cinema is such an art,” he said.

Taqvai, whose “Captain Khorshid” (1987) was also a big hit, continued, “The past teaches us more compared with the future, since the future has not arrived yet.”

He added, “Even if we do not like one work by a filmmaker, when we see it is being threatened, we need to take action and defend that work, and nobody should decide on behalf of someone else.”

Next, several music videos by famous cineastes were screened for the audience.

Asghar Farhadi’s video message submitted from Spain, where he is making his new production, was shown to the participants where he talked about his interest in Taqvai and his works.

“Talking about you is both easy and hard. It is easy because one can easily name the number of films you have made and hard since you have a special character and you are like nobody else,” he added.

“Among the filmmakers who are working today compared to the ones who worked over past decades, we can hardly find one who is both able to make films and is also knowledgeable in other fields, and Mr. Taqvai is one of those few,” he added.

The ceremony concluded with a presentation of a portion of the screenplay of the film “Captain Khorshid” that was written by Taqvai and apparently lost, but film producer Harun Yashayai owned part of it and had donated it to the Film Museum of Iran. / Tehran times /

11 Iranian educational institutions are ranked among the best global universities by the U.S. News & World Report, a multi-platform publisher of news and information providing authoritative rankings of best colleges, best graduate schools and best hospitals.

These institutions from the U.S. and around 60 other countries have been ranked based on 12 indicators that measure their academic research performance and their global and regional reputations.

Sharif University of Technology, University of Tehran, Isfahan University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Islamic Azad University of Karaj, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, University of Tabriz, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences are respectively the top 11 Iranian universities ranked among world’s top 1,000 universities in the U.S. News 2017 university ranking.

The number of the Iranian universities have increased by three since last year as University of Tabriz, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences are listed among the top universities for the first time this year, head of Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) said.

Coming in 435th last year, Sharif University has managed to improve its previous ranking by securing the 405th place among world’s top universities in U.S. News 2017 ranking, IRNA news agency quoted Mohammad-Javad Dehqani as saying.

Moreover Islamic Azad University of Karaj which came in 629th has made a remarkable improvement as it held the 736th place last year, Dehqani added.

Iran has also succeeded in keeping the second place regarding the number of the top universities in the region after Turkey, Dehqani highlighted.

According to the U.S. News website Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University are the world’s top universities.

/ Tehran times /

Iran and Germany’s Deutsche Bank have resumed cooperation in oil trade, announced deputy oil minister for international affairs.

Referring to insufficient cooperation between Iran and major European banks, particularly regarding oil deals, in the post-JCPOA era, Amir Hossein Zamani-Nia, added, “However, unlike the past, when collaborations were limited to small European banks, prominent banks are boosting their ties with Iran,” Mehr News Agency reported.

“Transactions with Deutsche Bank of Germany were resumed a few days ago for a number of oil deals,” said the official asserting that several other major European banks will reinvigorate ties with Iran in coming days.

Referring to the talks with giant oil companies over new oil partnerships with Iran under IPCs (Iran Petroleum Contracts), Zamaninia said, “Although negotiations are underway, a number of firms are still harboring doubts about launching cooperation with Iran within the framework of the new model of Iranian oil contracts.”

“Talks are underway to present IPCs to foreign companies, European firms in particular,” the official noted, adding remarkable progress have been made in negotiations with major European companies, the outcomes of which will be announced within a few weeks.

Deutsche Bank had officially suspended its banking activities in Iran in 2006, especially in the field trading crude and oil products. / Iran daily /