Following the Iranian men’s ice hockey team, the women’s team also finished runner-up at the end of the Islamic Countries Ice Hockey Championship in Tatarstan in the Russian Federation on Tuesday.

Iranian women’s national ice hockey team were beaten by the host team Tatarstan on penalty shootouts to finish second at the Islamic Countries Ice Hockey Championship in Kazan in the Russian Federation.

The Iranian men’s team also finished runner-up as well while in the men’s division, the UAE became the champion. /MNA/

Commander of Iran’s Army Air Defense Force said that the Bavar-373 defense missile system is monitoring Iran’s territory. Brigadier General Alireza Sabahifard said that only a few countries in the world make use of a similar version of the Bavar-373 defense missile system.

The commander lauded the results of tests on the system, the Bavar-373 is currently monitoring the territory of the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s defense systems are able to target a variety of targets with RCS, he further noted.

Earlier, the official said that Iran’s Air Defense Force is at the level of the world’s most up-to-date equipment in different fields. /MNA/

Iranian artist Ramin Hosseinpour was chosen as the Best Male Vocalist at the LA Music Video Awards 2022 for his video art of Sculpture.

Ramin Hosseinpour’s video art was awarded at different other international festivals as well.

Hosseinpour was the music video director, producer, composer, arranger, and electric guitar player.

The LA Music Video Awards recognizes the best music videos from the past year, celebrating the artists, directors, and collaborators.

The LA Music Video Awards celebrates the creativity, skill, and talent involved in creating a music video. /MNA/

The existence of several COVID vaccines makes the fight against the new strains easier, Shahnam Arshi, deputy director for the infectious diseases management department of the Ministry of Health, has said.

COVIRAN, Noora, PastoCovac, Fakhra, and SpikoGen are some of the vaccines made by Iranian experts.

Iran is dealing with the newly-emerged eighth wave of the pandemic, as three new strains of BQ1, XBB, and BA2, have been diagnosed recently in patients.

Within the next one to two months, the new wave of the pandemic will reach its peak, according to deputy health minister Hossein Farshidi.

The new wave is not as severe as the previous waves, but people are advised to inject the booster dose and to practice personal and social hygiene, especially avoiding gatherings and wearing masks in closed spaces that do not have proper ventilation, Arshi explained.

Currently, all entry points to the country, especially the borders, are under control and monitoring, and travelers must carry a 72-hour negative corona test, he added.

Recently, medical researchers announced that there is a risk of one of the Omicron variants in the world that is resistant to all available therapeutic antibodies, and the findings indicate that new treatments must be identified to deal with this substrain.

According to new research at a German institute, the new Omicron substrain, BQ.1.1, is resistant to all approved antibody treatments.

Omicron escapes neutralizing antibodies and causes symptomatic disease even in vaccinated or convalescent individuals due to mutations in the spike protein. This is known as an immune escape and is dangerous for high-risk populations, including the elderly and people with weak immune systems. /T.T/

The value of Iran’s non-oil export rose 19 percent from the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21,2022) up to December 31, as compared to the same period of time in the past year, data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) show.

According to the IRICA data, Iran exported 97.843 million tons of goods valued at $43.088 billion in the mentioned period, also registering a two-percent increase in weight, IRNA reported.

Liquefied natural gas, liquefied propane, methanol, liquefied butane, and film-grade polyethylene were the main exported products in the said time span.

Major export destinations of Iranian non-oil goods were China, Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and India.

The Islamic Republic has also imported 28.18 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $44.337 billion in the first 286 days of the present year, with a 14.7-percent growth in value and a 10-percent increase in weight, year on year.

The major items of goods imported into the country in the said period include corn, rice, wheat, soybeans, sunflower seed oil, and cell phones, based on the IRICA data.

The United Arab Emirates was the top exporter to Iran in the mentioned period, followed by China, Turkey, India, and Germany.

Reportedly, the value of Iran’s non-oil trade rose 17 percent during the mentioned period, as compared to the same time span in the past year.

Iran traded more than 126 million tons of non-oil products worth over $88 billion with other countries in the mentioned period.

As previously announced by the IRICA former head, the value of Iran’s non-oil trade rose 38 percent in the past Iranian calendar year 1400 (ended on March 20, 2022), as compared to its previous year.

Alireza Moqadasi put the country’s non-oil trade at 162 million tons worth $100 billion in the past year.

He said that Iran exported 122 million tons of non-oil products worth $48 billion in the previous year, which was $14 billion (41 percent) more than the figure for the preceding year.

The country’s non-oil trade record in 1400 was reached while the toughest sanctions were imposed on Iran, but thanks to God and the efforts of entrepreneurs, producers, and the cooperation of foreign trade-related organizations, a historical record was achieved in the past year which was unprecedented in recent decades, the official has underlined. /T.T/

Iranian short film “Freelodaer” by Elham Mohammadzadeh is scheduled to compete at the 18th edition of the IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival 2023.

Directed and produced by Iranian filmmaker Elham Mohammadzadeh, “Freeloader” narrates the story of a fake divorce.

The synopsis of the short film reads, “Leila and Reza get into trouble to get rid of financial problems and face a new challenge.”

Hamoon Seyyedi, Roshanak Khosravi, Sahar Nassaji Kashi, and Vahid Qazi Zahedi are among the cast of the short film.

The 18th IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival will be held from 9th – 11th March 2023. IAWRT India organizes this unique Asian women’s film festival each year to mark International Women’s Day.

Launched in 2005, the IAWRT film festival has over the years positioned itself with a conscious effort to showcase narratives weaved by Asian women filmmakers and grown in strength and reputation, with participation from around the world.

Over the last 18 years, the festival has traveled to many Indian cities, and the curated package of films from the festival has been screened at other festivals across the world.

The IAWRT film festival endeavors to showcase work by women filmmakers of Asian origin, from around the world.  /MNA/

Car manufacturing in Iran increased 18 percent during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-December 21, 2022), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, according to the data released by the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade.

Based on the ministry’s data, 876,000 vehicles were manufactured in the nine-month period of this year, while the figure was 743,000 in the same time span of the previous year.

The highest production during this period was related to the category of passenger cars with 760,000 vehicles, which constitutes 86.7 percent of the total production. This amount of production has grown by 13 percent compared to the output in the first nine months of the past year.

Also, the highest production growth of car manufacturing was recorded in the van sector with 360 percent. As reported, 2,500 vans were manufactured in the nine-month period of this year, while the figure was just 550 vehicles in the same period of time in the previous year.

Manufacturing of buses and minibuses also rose 49 percent to stand at 1,760 vehicles.

Also, 23,000 heavy vehicles were manufactured in the nine-month period, registering about 166 percent growth year on year.

According to the ministry’s report, in the ninth month of this year, about 128,000 cars were manufactured in the country, which is the highest monthly car production in the last five years. This statistic also shows a five percent increase compared to the eighth month.

Two months ago, Abdollah Tavakoli Lahijani, the director-general of the ministry’s car industries office, said: “We can now say that the production trend stabilization has been formed in the country’s automobile industry”, and expressed hope that after the restoration of the production trend, the development of new platforms and the production of quality and competitive products in the car industry of the country should gain more momentum, as this is considered important in the second step of the transformative program of the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade. /T.T/

Iran’s trade with member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) reached 54.2 million tons worth $34.81 billion.

Latest data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) shows that Iran’s trade with member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, excluding crude oil exports, reached 54.2 million tons worth $34.81 billion during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Nov. 21), registering a 20.45% fall in terms of weight, but a 6.23% rise in terms of value compared with the corresponding period of last year.

The UAE with 15.69 million tons (up 2.51%) worth $15.16 billion (up 16.57%) was Iran’s top trade partner among OIC member states. It was followed by Turkey with 7.32 million tons (down 47.95%) worth $7.21 billion (up 2.86%) and Iraq with 13.31 million tons (down 42.48%) worth $4.78 billion (down 30.04%), Financial Tribune reported.

Iran’s exports to OIC stood at 41.76 million tons worth $17.63 billion during the eight months, registering a 23% decrease in terms of weight, but a 0.47% growth in terms of value year-on-year. /MNA/

Iran’s national karate team topped the 2022 Asian Championship table in the men’s Kumite section in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The 2022 Asian Karate Championship was held in the capital of Uzbekistan with the participation of athletes from 28 countries.

With two gold and silver medals on the last day of the tournament, Iran finished the 2022 Asian Karate Championships with 7 gold, 7 silver, 20 bronze, and a total of 34 medals.

Iran’s national karate team participated in the tournament with 63 athletes in 54 categories. /MNA/

Over 277,000 jobs have been created for financially-struggling individuals since the beginning of the current [Iranian calendar] year (March 21), Morteza Bakhtiari, head of the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, has said.

This year, 50 percent of the employment budget has been allocated to job seekers, he stated, IRNA reported on Saturday.

The Foundation has opened up 277,000 job opportunities for needy individuals, he further said.

The Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation has created over 900,000 job opportunities during the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021), according to Morteza Bakhtiari, head of the Foundation.

He noted in October that 6,000 elites, 52,000 school students, and about 730,000 college students are under the support of the foundation, which can guarantee the future of the country in various fields of science and technology.

Since the beginning of this year, about 50,000 cases of skill training have been provided to clients, he added.

The Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation has launched 3,285 projects to support job seekers over the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year. /T.T/