** IRAN DAILY
-- NIOC outdoes regional countries in oil, gas exploration
Iran has surpassed regional countries in oil and gas exploration since its current government took office two years ago, said the head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr added that three oilfields — namely Hirkan in the northeastern province of Golestan and Tengoo and Genaveh in the southwestern province of Bushehr — as well as the Cheshmeh Shour gas field in the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi have been discovered in the two-year period, increasing the country’s recoverable liquid hydrocarbons by more than 2.6 billion barrels.
-- Iranian exports to India up 9% in seven months
India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday announced a nine percent growth in Iran’s export of goods to the South Asian country in the first seven months of 2023.
The official statistics indicated that India’s trade exchanges with Iran from January to July 2023 reached $1.171 billion.
-- Iraq plans to import Turkmen gas via Iran in swap deal
Iraq may buy up to 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from Turkmenistan following talks between officials of both countries held in Baghdad in recent days.
Turkmengas Chairman Maksat Babayev led a delegation to Baghdad over October 5–8 and held detailed negotiations with Iraq’s Minister of Electricity Ziad Ali Fadel to supply Iraq with gas from Turkmenistan under a swap arrangement through neighboring Iran, Platts reported, citing a statement from the Turkmenistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
** KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL
-- Martyr Soleimani Satellite Constellation to Be Launched in 2 Years
Head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) Hussein Salariyeh said on Tuesday that Iran’s first satellite system project named after top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani will be put into orbit within the next two years.
Salariyeh said that his agency, in line with efforts to provide space station services in the field of communications especially the Internet of Things (IoT), has drawn up the technical specifications of the first indigenous narrowband telecommunication satellite and invited relevant knowledge-based companies to contribute their share to the project.
-- Nahid Kiani Takes Silver at World Taekwondo Grand Prix
Iran’s Nahid Kiani won a silver medal at the Taiyuan 2023 World Taekwondo Grand Prix on Tuesday. Kiani beat Faith Dillon from the U.S. 2-1 in the women’s under-57kg in her first match and also emerged victorious over Chia-ling Lo of Chinese Taipei 2-1 to secure a place in the semifinal.
In the semifinal, Kiani defeated Russia’s Tatiana Minina 2-1 but she was defeated against Canada’s Skylar Park 2-1 in the final. The competition is being held in Taiyuan, China from October 10 to 12.
Taiyuan is expected to be the scene of some very intense matches. Many of the game’s superstars will be fighting at the top of the competition’s eight Olympic weight categories (eight male, eight female).
-- Scientists Claim Breakthrough in Search for Aliens
Scientists have developed a simple test in the search for alien life, they claim. The breakthrough helps the search for the “holy grail” of astrobiology: a reliable test that will determine whether there is or was life on other planets.
The discovery uses artificial intelligence to determine with 90 percent accuracy whether a sample is biological or not. And it could be used on existing samples, researchers say. That might mean, for instance, that we already have gathered the samples that could tell us whether there is life on Mars.
** TEHRAN TIMES
-- Sacred Defense book fair underway in Hamedan
The 12th edition of the Sacred Defense and Resistance National Book Fair is currently underway in the west-central Iranian city of Hamedan.
The fair is being held simultaneously with the 2nd National Congress of 8,000 Martyrs of Hamedan province, ILNA reported on Monday.
-- Transit of goods via Iran rises 15% in 6 months on year
Transit of commodities through Iran increased by 15 percent during the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, Iranian deputy transport minister announced. Shahriyar Afandizadeh said that 6,539,374 tons of commodities were transited via the country in the first half of the present year.
He said the transit of oil products via Iran rose 7.42 percent, and that of the non-oil goods increased 6.3 percent in the six-month period, year on year.
-- Isfahan conference to raise awareness of dangers to intangible cultural heritage by climate change
Isfahan is set to host an international conference aimed at raising awareness of possible harms that intangible cultural heritage in West and Central Asia may face due to climate change. Experts from Iran, Armenia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkey, as well as guests from Japan and Indonesia, have been invited to attend the event, which will be held in the ancient city from October 17 to 19.
The event will lay great emphasis on the role of non-governmental activists to help shield intangible cultural heritage and discuss ways to promote its resilience against the effects of climate change in Western and Central Asia, ISNA reported on Monday.
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