Iranian men’s squash team managed to rank first in the fourth edition of West Asia Men’s Squash C’ships.

The competitions were held in Tehran from 28 June 2022, to 3 July 2022.

Iran, Qatar, Iraq, and Kuwait were the participants in the fourth edition of the competition. /MNA/

A report released by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) indicates that Iran earned more than $25 billion in revenue from oil exports in 2021.

OPEC reported $560 billion in revenue from oil sales in 2021 in its annual report, which shows a 77 percent increase in comparison with a year earlier.

The revenues of 13 members of OPEC from oil exports stood at $317 billion in 2020.

Iran also earned more than $25.313 billion from oil sales in 2021. Iran’s revenue from oil sales tripled in that period as compared to the last year’s corresponding period.

Iran had earned over $7.914 billion worth of income as a result of oil exports in 2020. /MNA/

Local tourism authorities want to improve agritourism infrastructure around the Gandoman wetland in southwestern Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari province, the provincial tourism chief has said.

“To achieve this goal, private investors in agritourism are welcomed and supported in this region,” Alireza Jilan explained on Saturday.

Due to the wetland’s location on the transit route connecting Iran’s central provinces with ports in the southwest and south, Gandaman has become a strategic investment location, especially in the tourism sector, the official added.

Back in June, Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Minister Ezzatollah Zarghami said that the Gandoman wetland has considerable potential to become one of the agritourism hubs of the country.

This wetland has a great deal of tourism potential, especially in the field of birdwatching, the minister added.

Wetland tourism infrastructure development, however, should be done in accordance with the laws of the Environment Protection Organization, as well as the preservation of the ecosystem, he noted.

A major part of attracting investors and facilitating their entry into the Gandoman tourism area is providing local officials with the necessary ground to support tourism investors, he explained.

“Gandoman wetland is one of the wetlands in the world, and it has a lot of potential as a tourist attraction,” he added.

The nature of the Gandoman wetland is the best subject for foreign and domestic tourists, which has not been fully exploited so far, he stated.

The wetland, stretching to 1,070 hectares, is located in Borujen county. It is one of Iran’s top five birdwatching sites, especially in spring and autumn, and the country’s most important permanent habitat for migratory birds. The wetland is surrounded by eight villages.

Agritourism and nature-tourism enterprises might include outdoor recreation (fishing, hunting, wildlife study, horseback riding), educational experiences (cannery tours, cooking classes, or tea or coffee tasting), entertainment (harvest festivals or barn dances), hospitality services (farm stays, guided tours, or outfitter services), and on-farm direct sales (u-pick operations or roadside stands).

It is a relatively new branch of the travel industry in which tourists stay with local people in rural areas. Farm/ranch recreation refers to activities conducted on private agricultural lands, which might include fee-hunting and fishing, overnight stays, educational activities, etc.

Experts believe that in addition to the customer services jobs, agritourism pays special attention to the production sector, saying agricultural tourism is much more important and practical than other branches of tourism because it creates a new chain and diversity in the field of production and services.

Agritourism is a subset of a larger industry called rural tourism that includes resorts, off-site farmers’ markets, non-profit agricultural tours, and other leisure and hospitality businesses that attract visitors to the countryside. / T.T/

Iranian taekwondo team finished in third place in the 25th edition of the Asian Taekwondo Championships on Monday. The competition was held from June 24 to 27 in Chuncheon, South Korea.

Iranian taekwondo practitioners claimed three gold medals, five silvers and two bronzes, Tehran Times reported.

The Iranian women made history in this edition by winning three gold medals, as opposed to the men who failed to win a single gold.

Nahid Kiani defeated Uzbekistan’s Charos Kayumova in the -53kg weight class to register Iran’s first gold in the competition.

Zahra Pouresmaeil seized the second gold for the Iranian delegation, beating Kazakhstan’s Cansel Deniz in the -73kg class.

Akram Khodabandeh took the third gold in the +73kg, defeating Chinese practitioner Zhou Zeqi.

Mobina Nematzadeh seized a silver in the -49kg class. She lost to Guo Qing of China.

Nastaran Valizadeh also snatched a silver, losing to Korean Nam Min-seo in -62kg.

Zahra Sheidaei won Iran’s only bronze medal in the competition in the -57kg.

The Iranian men’s taekwondo practitioners won three silver medals and one bronze.

Mahdi Haji Mousaei fell short against his Korean rival Bae Jun-seo in the final match of -58kg.

Mirhashem Hosseini lost to Uzbekistan’s Jasurbek Jaysunov in the -74kg weight class.

Alireza Nadalian also was defeated against Chinese representative Song Zhaoxiang in the final match of the +87kg.

South Korea finished in the first place, winning four gold medals, one silver and three bronzes followed by Uzbekistan in the second place. /MNA/

Film Academy Invites 397 People to Become Members, Including an Iranian actor and an Iranian filmmaker.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 397 members of the global film community to join the organization, it was announced Tuesday.

The Iranian actor Amir Jadidi who starred in “A Hero” and “Cold Sweat”, along with Firouzeh Khosrovani, director of “Radiograph of a Family” and “Fest of Duty” were invited to the organization.

According to an Academy-provided breakdown of the new invitees, 44 percent are women and 50 percent are non-Americans (54 different countries are represented).

If all the invitees accept membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year, the total number of members of the academy will reach 10,665, according to The Hollywood Reporter. /MNA/

Iranian freestyle wrestler Komeil Ghasemi has finally seized the gold medal of the 2012 Olympic Games.

He was awarded the gold medal two years ago in the 120kg after Artur Taymazov was caught up in the IOC’s re-tests and stripped of gold medal at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 for doping. The Uzbek wrestler tested positive for the prohibited substance dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (oral turinabol).

Ghasemi and Russia’s Bilyal Makhov had initially both been awarded gold in the weight class at London 2012 by the IOC but United World Wrestling confirmed Ghasemi as the sole gold medalist.

Makhov – himself provisionally suspended following a positive drugs test – received the silver.

Uzbekistan’s Davit Modzmanashvili has been banned for six years after he was stripped of his Olympic wrestling silver medal for doping following the re-analysis of his sample from London 2012.

The Georgian, who switched allegiance to Uzbekistan in 2017 and won a bronze medal for the country at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, was beaten in the 120kg final at London 2012 by Taymazov.

Reza Salehi Amiri, Iran’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) president, met IOC President Thomas Bach in IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland last week and the medal was given to him. /T.T/

“A Hero” directed by two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi has received a nomination at the 2022 Humanitas Prizes.

The film is competing in the Drama Feature Film category with the deaf family drama “CODA” written by Sian Heder, “Nine Days” written by Edson Oda and “The Starling” written by Matt Harris.

The Humanitas Prizes are awarded to honor film and television writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way. Prizes are presented in nine categories at an annual event in Beverly Hills, CA, where winners receive a trophy and a cash prize.

Winners will receive their trophies on September 9 during an in-person ceremony after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Humanitas Prizes are presented by the Human Family Educational and Cultural Institute – Humanitas, which is a nonprofit organization with no religious affiliations.

“A Hero”, which is a co-production between Iran and France, follows Rahim, who is in prison because he was unable to pay a debt. During a two-day leave of absence from prison, he attempts to have his creditor withdraw his complaint over part of the sum owed. But things don’t go as planned.

“A Hero”, the winner of the Grand Prix (ex aequo) at Cannes 2021, was shortlisted in the international feature film category of the 2022 Oscars. However, it failed to won an award.

The film scored an award for Farhadi at the 1st edition of the Iran Screen Directors Celebration, which has been initiated by the Directors Guild of Iran to select the best directors of the year in cinema and home video network productions.

Farhadi was also picked as best director at the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) for the film in November. /T.T/

Mirshad Majedi, acting president of Iran football federation, says that they are not going to change the National Team head coach in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Iran, headed by Dragan Skocic, became the first Asian nation to book their place via the preliminaries in late January by beating neighbors Iraq 1-0 in Tehran.

“I believed in my work from (the) first but many underestimated me and didn’t respect me but I’m very happy because I’ve proved myself,” the Croatian coach said in the post-match news conference.

Skocic is under contract with the Iran football federation until 2023 but he is under pressure after losing 2-1 to Algeria in Doha two weeks ago in a friendly match

The critics say that the National Team need a well-known coach in the 2022 World Cup.

On Tuesday, Majedi said the federation has no enough time to make change to the coaching staff and Skocic will absolutely lead Iran in Qatar.

“We are concentrating on holding a good preparatory camp in September. I’ve always said Skocic will be Iran’s coach in the World Cup,” he said.

Iran have been drawn in Group B along with England, the U.S. and Wales. /T.T/

Leiden ranking system published the 2022 report, according to which 44 Iranian universities were among the 1,318 top universities in the world.

The Leiden Ranking is produced by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands. The CWTS Leiden Ranking 2022 offers a sophisticated set of bibliometric indicators that provide statistics at the level of universities on scientific impact, collaboration, open access publishing, and gender diversity.

Indicators included in the Leiden Ranking have two variants: A size-dependent and a size-independent variant. In general, size-dependent indicators are obtained by counting the absolute number of publications of a university that have a certain property, while size-independent indicators are obtained by calculating the proportion of the publications of a university with a certain property.

Last year, 36 universities from Iran were listed in this ranking.

Among Islamic countries, Iran ranks first with 44 universities, Turkey ranks second with 32 universities and Egypt ranks third with 10 universities.

In 2022 ranking, Tehran University, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Amirkabir University of Science and Technology, Sharif University of Science and Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tabriz University, Isfahan University of Science and Technology, Islamic Azad University were the first ten top universities from Iran.

Academic quality

Most recently, Iran University of Medical Sciences has ranked the world’s leading university for contributing to delivering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of good health and well-being.

Also, fifty-eight universities from Iran were listed among the top universities in Asia, according to the 2022 Asia University Rankings of the Times Higher Education.

The 2022 edition of the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, based on universities’ contributions to delivering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), listed 27 Iranian universities.

The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities 2022 has ranked 694 Iranian institutions among 30,000 top universities across the world.

Also, 59 Iranian universities have been listed among the top 3,000 institutions in the world in terms of academic quality, according to the 2021-2022 report released by University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP).

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Graduate Employability Rankings 2022 list has been released, which included three Iranian universities out of a total of 550 institutes worldwide that highlighted graduate employment processes.

Meanwhile, 41 Iranian universities in engineering sciences and 12 universities in computer sciences have made a place among the top 1,188 universities in the world with the announcement of Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 by subject.

It also has introduced 59 Iranian universities among the top institutions in World University Rankings 2022.

The THE Education Young University Rankings 2021 listed 26 Iranian institutions among the world’s best universities that are 50 years old or younger.

Moreover, 34 Iranian universities and institutions were listed among the top 1,000 in the world, according to Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2021.

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HIGHLIGHT: Among Islamic countries, Iran ranks first with 44 universities, Turkey ranks second with 32 universities and Egypt ranks third with 10 universities. / T.T/