Iran was the largest net exporter of dairy in Asia in 2022, according to figures reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The reports published on Saturday said that the FAO had put Iran’s dairy exports last year at 1.583 million metric tons (mt) while estimating that the country had imported only 86,000 mt of such products over the same period.

The figures, cited from FAO’s Food Outlook, a biannual report on global food markets, showed that Iran’s dairy exports accounted for 17% of the total milk and dairy exports by Asian countries in 2022.

Dairy exports from Iran accounted for 13% of the country’s total milk and dairy production last year which reached 7.840 million mt, showed FAO figures which indicated that the output may drop slightly in 2023 to 7.820 million mt.

The official IRNA news agency, which covered more items from FAO’s recent Food Outlook, said that Iran was the 13th largest rice producer and the 11th largest meat producer in Asia in 2022.

It also said that Iran was the world’s 13th largest wheat supplier in 2022 with a total output of nearly 13 million mt.

Iran has introduced extensive measures to ensure food security in the country since 2018 when its oil exports came under American sanctions.

The country has encouraged increased production and exports of agrifood as part of its plans to reduce reliance on oil exports and to create jobs for its population.

MNA/

Two Iranian films namely “Cause of Death: Unknown” and “1.5 Horsepower” were awarded at the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival.

Sorour Peyrovani won the Best Actress award for “1.5 Horsepower” and Davood Malek Hosseini won the Best Cinematographer prize for the “Cause of Death: Unknown” at Shanghai International Film Festival.

“When I was a child, I used to put my head on my mother’s shoulders, her shoulders were very warm, I miss my mother’s smell, I miss her,” a brief synopsis for ‘1.5 Horsepower’ reads.

Sorour Peyrovani, Ebrahim Azizi, Mohammad Ashkanfar, and Amir Babashahabi form the cast list of the flick.

The synopsis for ‘Cause of Death: Unknown’ reads, “Eight travelers leave Shahdad for Kerman before sunrise. An accidental midway stops them from going…”

Banipal Shoumoun, Alireza Sanifar, Neda Jebraeili, Ali Mohammad Radmanesh, Zakieh Behbahani, Reza Amouzad, Soheil Bavi, and Saeed Rezaeikia are among the cast members of the film.

Founded in 1993, Shanghai International Film Festival is the largest film festival in China which runs from June 9 to 18 in Shanghai.

Also, “Sunday,” by Uzbekistan-based director Shokir Kholikov, was named the best film in the Asian New Talent section of the festival. /MNA/

 

Iranian scientists have discovered a new way to repair fractured bones using bone scaffolds made of stem cells for the first time in the world.

The head of the Research Department of the Semnan University of Medical Sciences said, “Healing of bone injuries with stem cells and bone scaffolding was done for the first time in the world in Semnan province.”

Majid Mir Mohammad Khani told reporters on Tuesday that they conducted the research on rats first due to the similarity between their bodies with the human body.

He continued that the bones in some rats were repaired in 8 weeks while that period for some other rats was 12 weeks.

The researcher said that they will move forward with their idea to test it on humans in the next clinical trial phase.

Mir Mohammad Khani noted that depending on different age groups, the time of bone repair could vary.

“The bone scaffold is made of polylactic acid, which was made with a 3D printer and contains bone marrow stem cells. One of the branches of tissue engineering is the creation of artificial skin, which is used in burns, and in this research, it was used in bone repair,” he further explained.

“To carry out the research, a bone injury was created in a rat, and then with the help of a 3D printer bone marrow was taken from the animal, and its stem cells were placed on the scaffold and placed on the fractured skull of the rat. The results showed that bone was created on the fractured site of the bone with the vessel also being formed,” the researcher further elaborated. /MNA/

Seven Iranian shorts will be screened in the 16th edition of the Bajo la Luna International Film Festival – Islantilla Cinefórum in Spain.

The festival will take place from July 1 to August 26 in Islantilla.

A highlight of the Iranian film lineup is “Katvoman” by Hadi Sheibami.

The award-winning drama shows a mom and son playing dressed up as Batman and Catwoman before dad returns for dinner. Through the play, the child discovers a difficult truth about his parents.

The film won the award for best fiction at the Festival International du Film Amateur de Kelibia – FIFAK in Tunisia and the audience award for best short fiction at the 10th Amnesty International France’s Cinema for Human Rights Festival.

“Adam, the Ballad of Endless Suffering”, co-directed by Ali Kheiri and Kurdman Puyesh, is also among the films.

Adam has three grenades. He discovers that the first one is a dud. The second is too. Will he face the truth of the third?

Directed by Parsa Dehqanian, “Global Snow” will also be screened. It tells the story of a night driver who inadvertently gets involved in an adventure.

The lineup also features “Justifiable Murder” by Ebrahim Rahnama.

The drama follows a woman who leaves the house with confusion and intense internal conflict and goes to the information office to complain about what happened to her and ask for immediate help.

“Narenji” has also been selected to be screened in the festival. In this drama, director Ermia Rabbani shows the life of a child who is surrounded by loneliness and has a speech disorder.

Director Mohammad Kamal Alavi’s drama “The Single Horn” will be showcased.

The film tells the story of a girl who goes to the park to play with her friends without her family’s permission. Everything has changed when she returns home.

The festival will also screen “Coup de Grace” by Reza Gudazi. It is about a soldier left among the dead and wounded on the battlefield. /T.T/

Soodabeh Davaran, an Iranian female researcher and university professor, won a gold medal at the Teknofest 2023 festival held by the International Federation of Inventors’ Associations (IFIA) from April 27 to May 1 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Her research titled “Nanofibers containing antibiotic drugs and antimicrobial plant extracts for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infectious wounds.” IFIA is a global organization that represents and supports inventors and invention associations from around the world. / T.T/

The Iranian Vice Presidency for Science and Technology is planning to launch cell therapy centers in neighboring countries and boost exports of related products as well.

The Vice Presidency is cooperating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to establish links with the neighboring countries in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine, IRNA reported.

In this line, a meeting was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a number of ambassadors of the country in several countries and a group of CEOs of companies active in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine in attendance.

The meeting aimed to support the development and transfer of technologies in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine and interaction with the target countries.

It was also aimed to create opportunities for the development of educational and research cooperation between Iran and other countries.

In November 2022, the first phase of a national project aiming to take advantage of gene therapy for the treatment of children with cancer, known as “CAR T-cell therapy”, came on stream.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a way to get immune cells called T cells (a type of white blood cell) to fight cancer by changing them in the lab so they can find and destroy cancer cells.

CAR T-cell therapy has been successful on a five-year-old boy suffering from chemotherapy-resistant leukemia.

The project took nearly seven years to be implemented, Amir Ali Hamidiyeh, head of the gene, cell, and tissue research institute of Tehran University of Medical Sciences said.

After passing cell studies and preclinical studies on animals and obtaining a license and code of ethics from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, a gene therapy product was used for a patient for the first time in the country, he added.

The method is currently in the clinical trial stage and was used on a child with leukemia who was resistant to all treatment methods, he highlighted.

The Vice Presidency for Science and Technology has implemented four important projects in order to strengthen the country’s scientific citation in the field of stem cells.

One of the keys to the development is to provide strategic infrastructure in important fields. Smart knowledge-based platforms promote the scientific citation of the country and accelerate the formation of the scientific ecosystem.

The support of university technology development projects took place in a purposeful interaction between the Vice Presidency and the large universities.

Another measure taken in this area was supporting the development of the National Network of Animal Modeling and In-Vivo Research. This support has brought significant achievements including technologies for reproducing, keeping, and breeding of laboratory animals, the development of research and translation of knowledge and technology, and the development of technologies and laboratory services for in-vivo studies.

Another important step of the Council for Development of Stem Cell Sciences and Technologies last year was the establishment of a gene production center for the Royan Research Institute. During this process, two gene therapy projects became operational.

The launch of autophagy and regenerative medicine is also one of the plans supported by the Council last year. In this program, the management of the autophagy process in order to prevent tissue damage is recognized as a functional indicator of this plan.

Iran is one of the countries that has made great efforts in the field of medicine to free itself from the struggle to supply medicine and bypass sanctions and be able to respond to its local needs by relying on knowledge-based companies. One of these areas is the production of biopharmaceuticals, which has grown to 28 items.

Iran is also ranked 12th in the world and first in West Asia in terms of biotechnology, as 9.5 percent of the income of knowledge-based companies and more than 60 percent of their exports are related to biotechnology.

Stem cells are the “parent” cells from which all other blood cells develop. These are mainly red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells. Bone marrow, the factory that produces stem cells, is the soft tissue inside bones like the breastbone or hip bone.

Stem cells are found in the brain, blood vessels, skeletal muscles, skin, liver, bone marrow, peripheral (circulating) blood, and the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies.

The 24th International Congress on Reproductive Biomedicine and the 19th Congress on Stem Cell Biology and Technology will be held on August 30-September 1 in Tehran.

In July 2021, Iran inaugurated an advanced ion therapy center for the first time in West Asia, with the aim of providing definitive treatment for all types of cancer.

Ion therapy is a unique and innovative form of radiation therapy in the world for the treatment of cancer, as the radiation can be focused exactly on the area of the tumor, ensuring that radiation-sensitive organs are best protected. /T.T/

 

Iran climbed six spots in the latest FIFA Women’s World Ranking released on Friday. The Iranian team have moved to 61st place in the ranking. The U.S. stay unchanged on top, while Australia are the best Asian team in the ranking at 10th.

Japan, unchanged at 11th, are Asia’s second highest side with China PR dropping a notch to 14th. Korea Republic stayed at 17th with Vietnam, set to make their FIFA Women’s World Cup debut, improving one spot to 32.

The Philippines, the sixth Asian side headed to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, moved up three spots to 46th in the Ranking – their highest ever. Rounding off the top 10 for Asia were Chinese Taipei (37), Thailand (44), Myanmar 47) and Uzbekistan (50).

The next FIFA Women’s World Ranking will be published on Aug. 25. / T.T/

Iranian stock markets were bullish while foreign exchange prices dropped right after the country’s unveiling of a first home-made hypersonic missile which experts said had injected confidence in the markets.

The main index in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) rose by nearly 0.5% to 2.289 million points on Tuesday, according to a report by the official IRNA news agency.

Total trade in the TSE reached 78.812 trillion rials (over $157 million) as nearly 10 billion shares changed hands in the exchange on Tuesday.

The semi-official ISNA news agency said in a report that the unveiling early on Tuesday of the Fattah hypersonic missile by Iran’s elite military force the IRGC had positively impacted the markets in the country.

Experts said the unveiling had instilled a sense of hope in those investors who are normally wary of risks that could be posed by a military confrontation between Iran and regional or international adversaries.

Iran’s currency the rial firmed against the US dollar after the news of Fattah’s unveiling came out. The rial closed at 509,000 against the greenback late on Tuesday, up from 512,000 reported at the close of trade a day earlier.

The rise in the markets comes against the backdrop of other positive political and military development reported by Iran in recent days.

The country announced on Monday that it would finally reopen its embassy and other diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia later in the week as part of a rapprochement deal brokered by China in March.

Iran’s Navy also announced last week that it will soon form an alliance with maritime forces of Arab countries of the Persian Gulf in a bid to boost regional security. /MNA/

Six other movies by Iranian directors will be screened at the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival. “World War III”, “Leila’s Brother”, “Scent of Wind” and “No Bear” have been selected to be showcased in the Viva la Festival section, which is dedicated to reviewing the latest award-winning or nominated films from the world’s major film festivals.

Directed by Hooman Seyyedi, “World War III” was Iran’s submission to the 2023 Oscars.

The film depicts Shakib, a hapless day laborer who finds himself cast in a film about the Nazi regime while hiding his girlfriend, a sex worker fleeing from her exploiters, on the set.

The film has been screened in numerous international events, including the 79th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Orizzonti Award for best film and the Orizzonti Award for best actor for Tanabandeh for his portrayal of Shakib.

Another highlight of the lineup is “Scent of Wind” directed by Hadi Mohaqeq.

The film was the opening film of the 2022 Busan International Film Festival and won the Kim Jiseok Award.

The film’s story is set in a distant Iranian village where a paralyzed man collects herbal medicine in the mountains for making his living with his sick child. The electricity goes off in his house and an electrician comes to fix it. Unfortunately, the problem is bigger than what was anticipated and may take days to be resolved. When he sees the child on the sickbed, he feels committed to doing whatever he can to bring the electricity back. However, he has a tough job ahead with facing nature and some unexpected events.

It was also the winner of the Silver Balloon (Montgolfière d’Argent) award of the 2022 Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, France.

Winner of the grand prize at the 36th Venice International Film Critics’ Week, “Zalava”, Arsalan Amiri’s directorial feature debut, will be screened in the Spectrum-Midnight Fantasy category.

The film presents a brilliant examination of faith, science and tradition based on stories told to him by his father.

In 1978, the inhabitants of a small village in Iran called Zalava claim there is a demon among them. Masud, a young gendarmerie sergeant who investigates this claim, encounters an exorcist attempting to rid the village of the demon. When he arrests the exorcist on charges of fraud, the villagers’ fear and anger escalate. Masud and his love interest, a government doctor, soon find themselves trapped in a cursed house, surrounded by villagers who believe they are both possessed by the demon.

Director Mohammadreza Aslani’s 1976 drama “Chess of the Wind” will be reviewed in the SIFF Classics-4K Restoration section.

In this film, the first lady of a noble house has died and now there is conflict among those remaining over the distribution of her inheritance.

The Iranian films “The Annoyed”, “1.5 Horsepower”, “Cause of Death: Unknown”, “Dolphin Boy” and “The Passion of Mahmoud” will be screened in different sections of the Shanghai festival, which will take place from June 9 to 18 in Shanghai, China. /T.T/