Iran finished in third place in the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games held in Konya, Turkey from Aug. 9 to 18.

The closing ceremony of the Games, with the participation of 4,200 athletes from 54 countries, was held at the Selçuk University 15 July Stadium. The ceremony started with the hoisting of the Turkish flag accompanied by the National Anthem. After the flags of the participating countries were paraded, light and fireworks displays were held.

Turkey finished top the standing with 341 medals, including 145 golds, 107 silvers and 89 bronzes

Uzbekistan placed second with 158 medals, including 51 golds, 42 silvers and 65 bronzes.

Iran picked up 133 medals to finish third. The Iranian sportspersons claimed 39 gold medals, 44 silver medals and 50 bronze medals.

Iran had sent 257 athletes to the Games.

The Iranian delegation also came third in the previous edition held in Baku, Azerbaijan. /T.T/

The Iranian capital city of Tehran and the Iraqi holy city of Karbala have signed a sisterhood agreement.

The visiting governor of Karbala, Nassif Jassim al-Khattabi, signed the agreement on Tuesday with Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani, ISNA reported.

The two sides aim to boost cooperation during the Arbaeen pilgrimage and broaden the ties in other fields, as well.

The two sides aim to boost cooperation during the Arbaeen pilgrimage and broaden the ties in other fields, as well. The Municipality of Tehran also intends to sign sisterhood agreements with some other Iraqi cities, including Baghdad and Najaf, according to the report.

The Arbaeen pilgrimage, which is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, comes 40 days after Ashura, the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Imam of Shia Muslims, and the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Each year, a huge crowd of people flocks to Karbala, where the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (AS) is located, to perform mourning rituals.

This year Arbaeen falls on September 17.

Before the outbreak of coronavirus, some 2 to 3 million Iranians attended annually in the Arbaeen march. However, last year, the rituals were held virtually to avoid the transmission of the disease.

In July, Mehdi Chamran, chairman of Tehran City Council, said Tehran municipality allocated 300 billion rials (nearly $11 million) to provide essential services, facilities, and equipment, as well as help to create bases needed by Iranian pilgrims.

The fifth international conference on the Arbaeen pilgrimage will be held in Tehran on August 23.

Organized by Allameh Tabatabai University, the conference has been held every year since 2016, and this year it will be held with a 2-year break due to the spread of coronavirus in the country. /T.T/

Iran has followed the path of development to enter the space age by placing the Khayyam satellite into orbit, U.S. academic and author Marsha Freeman has said.

The satellite will make huge contributions to the country’s science and technology fields as it can enhance digital communications, she stressed.

The topographic maps provided by the satellite can provide the basis for improved digital communications in the country. Iran’s Space Organization launched the Khayyam satellite with a wide range of environmental functions on August 9. Named after Persian polymath Omar Khayyam (1048 – 1131), the satellite was put into orbit by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan.

“Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) was a Persian polymath, that is, a person who has a broad knowledge or learning, and was known globally for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and poetry. Similarly, the satellite which bears his name will make contributions to many fields of science and technology,” Freeman, who has authored hundreds of articles on space programs, told Press TV.

She noted that the topographic maps provided by the satellite can “facilitate the planned extension of Iran’s railway network and will also provide the basis for improved digital communications in the country.”

With remote-sensing applications, the satellite will send high-quality pictures four times a day for use in environmental and agricultural research and monitoring of water resources, according to Iran’s Space Organization.

The maps and data will be used for improving agricultural productivity, enhanced monitoring of Iran’s water resources, managing natural disasters, supervising development projects under construction, observing environmental hazards, monitoring mines and relevant excavations, and keeping a close watch on the country’s borders.

Iran’s Space Organization received the first telemetry data sent from the “Khayyam” satellite hours after the launch.

The satellite was launched at the velocity of 7.6 kilometers per second and was placed into an LEO orbit 500 kilometers above the earth’s surface some 480 seconds after the blast-off. /T.T/

Iranian experimental short film “Death is My Neighbor” by Radvin Khodadadi will take part at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival.

Written and directed by Radvin Khodadadi, the experimental short film “Death is My Neighbor” has made it to the 19th PROVINZIALE in Germany.

This cinematic event will take place from October 8 – 15, 2022 at Haus Schwärzetal in Berlin. /MNA/

Iran’s national Taekwondo team has won the title of the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games held in Turkey’s Konya.

Iran taekwondo team champions on the last day of Konya 2021 Islamic Countries Solidarity Games managed to gain two more gold and two more silver medals.

The team received 5 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze medals in the tournament and ended its work with 13 medals in this event.

Seyyedeh Narges Mir-Nurollahi in -62kg got a rest lot in the first round, and then beat Kutubali Kadija, from Chad, to reach the semi-final, where she also beat Ikra Kayer from Turkey to reach the final match. But in the final Foruza from Uzekistan beat her and she gained the silver medal of the game in her weight.

The women’s team’s Captain Akram Khodabandeh in +72-kg weight in her first step beat Sara Al-Haaj, from Joran to face the host team Fafia Kash.

She also beat Kash to reach the final, there Uzbekistan’s Asut Lata beat her and Khodabandeh gained the silver medal.

Amir-Mohamad Bakhsi in -74-kg after gaining a rest lot in the first round, was faced with Dijil from Surinam and them Omar Al-Holu from Jordan, both of whom he beat to reach the final.

In the semi-final he also beat the Asian champion, Jasur Beik Jaisanvo from Uzbekistan and then Ahmad Bohlul from Palestine to win the games gold medal.

In 78-kg weight Ali-Reza Nadalian first knocked out Eslam Bazar from Palestine, and then won Rajaov from Uzbekistan to reach the semi-final. In the semi-final he was faced with Rajabov to become a finalist.

Nasdalian in the final passed through Ayyub Basiri’s Moroccan dam to win the Iranian team’s last shining gold medal in taekwondo. /T.T/

Iran has ranked first in West Asia for development in complementary and alternative medicine in 2021, the SCImago Journal & Country Rank reported.

With 505 documents published in the field of complementary and alternative medicine, the country was placed fourth next to China (4998), the United States (1168), and India (710) in the world.

In 2020, Iran placed fourth in the world ranking, while in 2019 and 2018 the country ranked fifth, according to the report.

The SCImago Journal & Country Rank includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus database (Elsevier B.V.). These indicators can be used to assess and analyze scientific domains. Citation data is drawn from over 34,100 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers and country performance metrics from 239 countries worldwide.

Studies show that Iran enters the year 2022 with the rank of 15 in science production worldwide and it is expected to make progress over the next years.

A country’s scientific products are a collection of research, articles, citations, international collaborations, activities of researchers, and educational and research institutions of a country.

In reviewing scientific products, various indicators such as publication of articles in prestigious international journals, citations, validity of journals, the level of productivity, and scientific impact of scientists are considered quantitatively and qualitatively.

With 505 documents published in this field, Iran was placed fourth next to China (4998), the United States (1168), and India (710) in the world.

According to the latest information on science production, Iran is ranked 15th in the world in the international system of Web of Science in 2021, with an h-index of 383, which indicates the quality of Iranian articles registered.

Iran’s scientific position in the Web of Science over the last 5 years shows that the production of conference papers has been on a downward trend during 2020 and 2021 due to the outbreak.

The share of Iranian science production from conference papers has dropped from 7.38 percent in 2017 to 1.26 percent in 2021.

Scientific studies and analyses extracted from the Scopus International Citation Database showed that the rate of scientific contributions of Iranian researchers to the world increased from 22.24 percent in 2017 to 35.6 percent in 2021.

Three groups of engineering, chemistry, and materials science have been the most important research areas in the country over the last 5 years.

In the SCOPUS international regulations, the most important research areas of Iran in the production of science in 2021 have been medicine, engineering, and materials science, respectively.

Iran’s scientific partner countries were the United States, China, and Canada in 2021, the United States, Canada, and China in 2020, and the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Web of Science shows that the coronavirus pandemic has negatively affected the percentage of conference papers. The share of Iranian science production from conference papers in the Scopus database in 2021 was estimated at 1.80 percent, which was 6.50 percent in 2017 and 5.85 percent in 2018. /T.T/

Iran’s Farzaneh Fasihi claimed a silver medal in the women’s 100m final of the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games.

She won silver in a time of 11.12.

Edidiong Odiong of Bahrain took a gold with 11.03 and Ivory Coast’s Maboundou Koné won the bronze medal with a time of 11.13.

The event was moved from 2021 to 2022 to avoid a clash with the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

More than 4,000 athletes from 56 countries compete in the Games in Konya, Turkey.

There are 19 sports and four Para sports on the program. /MNA/

Director General of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Yazd Province announced the presence of more than 500 foreign tourists in the religious ceremonies of the month of Muharram in the province.

According to the report of the General Department of Public Relations and Information, Ahmad Akhundi said, “These tourists visited the rituals of the month of Muharram in the form of religious and spiritual tours for three days in different cities of Yazd.”

Pointing out that these arrangements were made by the Religious and Spiritual Tourism Committee of the General Department of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Yazd Province and with the coordination of various organizations, including Yazd Municipality, he noted that Yazd Province every year in the months of Muharram and Safar is the destination of many domestic and foreign tourists due to holding rituals and special mourning ceremonies.

Akhundi said, “Foreign tourists from 15 countries of the world, including Austria, Russia, Spain, China, Latin America, etc., were closely informed about the way of mourning and the customs of the people of Yazd by attending Takaya and Hosseiniyeh. /MNA/

Alireza Peyman-Pak the head of the country’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) said that the first transaction in cryptocurrency was done on Tuesday.

“This week, the first official import order was successfully registered with cryptocurrency worth $ 10 million,” Alireza Peyman-Pak the head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) said on Tuesday in a post on the virtual space.

“By the end of September, the use of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts will be widely used in foreign trade with target countries,” the TPO head added. /MNA/

Statistical Department of Turkey announced on Saturday that Iran’s export of products to neighboring Turkey in first six months of the current year in 2022 registered an 81 percent growth.

According to statistics, Iran exported $367 million worth of non-oil products to neighboring Turkey from Jan. to Jun., showing an 81 percent hike as compared to the same period of last year.

The report announced the 37 percent growth of Turkey’s exchange of products with the Islamic Republic of Iran in the first half of the current year in 2022.

Exchange of products between Iran and Turkey in the first six months of the previous year in 2021 (from Jan. to Jun.) hit $2.448, the rate of which reached $3.365 billion in the same period of the current year.

Based on the report, Turkey’s export value of products to Iran from Jan. to Jun. 2022 hit $1.461 billion, showing a 15 percent hike as compared to the last year’s corresponding period.

Turkey exported $1.266 billion worth of products to the Islamic Republic of Iran from Jan. to Jun. 2021.

Accordingly, Turkey’s import of products from Iran in the first six months of the current year recorded a 61 percent hike as compared to the same period of last year.

Statistics showed that Turkey imported $1.182 billion worth of products from Iran from Jan. to Jun. 2021, the rate of which hit $1.904 billion, showing a hike in the same period of the current year. /MNA/