** IRAN DAILY
-- CBI: Foreign currency assets up in 1st month
The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran announced that in the first month of this Iranian year (began on March 20), the country’s foreign assets have increased by approximately $200 million.
According to Mohammadreza Farzin, the increase indicated a positive balance of $200 million in purchasing foreign assets compared to selling them.
Farzin stated that the cash growth rate, which had decreased to 24% by the end of last year, has reached 23% in the first month of the new year.
-- Iran aims for €7.5b in oil equipment exports
Head of Iranian Petroleum Industries Equipment Manufacturers Association (known as SIPIEM) said that the set target in exporting sector of the oil industry is to reach 7.5 billion euros within the next two years.
Ehsan Saqafi stated that “currently our exports account for 10% of our capacity, with 710 million euros in exports. According to the set target, we must reach 7.5 billion euros within the next two years.
-- Iran, Iraq urged to use national currencies in trade transactions
Iran’s first vice president said that Tehran and Baghdad should use their national currencies in economic and trade
exchanges.
In a meeting with Iraqi Trade Minister Atheer Daoud Salman Al-Ghariri, Mohammad Mokhber referred to the friendly, historical and cultural relations between the two countries and said the two sides should use their national currencies, instead of the currency of a third country, in bilateral trade and economic transactions.
** KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL
-- Researcher of Shahnameh Passes Away at 63
Muhammad Ali Oloumi, an Iranian author, researcher, mythologist, and satirist who researched on Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh has passed away at the age of 63.
Oloumi died at his house in Bam in southeastern Iranian province of Kerman due to illness on Sunday evening. Born in Bam, he was one of the prominent Iranian figures in literary research.
-- First Organ Transplantation From Dead Patient Carried Out in Iran
In a groundbreaking development, Iranian doctors have successfully transplanted the organs of a patient who died from cardiac arrest caused by fatal pulmonary embolism to three recipients for the first time in the world.
Doctors at the Organ Procurement Unit of Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) have successfully transplanted the organs of the dead donor to three recipients in Tehran’s Firouzgar Hospital.
-- Tehran University Opens Branch in Najaf
President of the University of Tehran Muhammad Moghimi says a branch of the university in the Iraqi city of Najaf is to accept students in the near future and there are plans for opening more branches in other Iraqi cities.
The expansion of scientific cooperation with neighboring countries, Iraq in particular, is top on the agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran, he said.
** TEHRAN TIMES
-- Taha Behbahani’s bird sculptures on show at Art Center
An exhibition of artworks by the veteran artist Taha Behbahani is underway at Art Center Gallery in northern Tehran. Entitled “Thirty Birds for Simorgh,” the exhibit showcases a collection of bird sculptures created by Behbahani in about 40 years of artistic career, IRNA reported on Monday.
Behbahani, 77, is a famous Iranian sculptor, painter, set designer, TV and theatre director, and a university professor. He was born into an art-loving family and learned the basics of painting from his father. He later became a distinguished student of Master Ali Akbar Najmabadi (one of Kamal-ol-Molk's students) at the age of 13.
-- Iran exports $345m of fresh dates to over 82 countries in a year
Iran exported high-quality dates to 82 countries in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 19, 2024), according to the spokesman of the trade promotion and international relations commission of Iran’s House of Industry, Mine and Trade. More than 389,000 tons of fresh dates, valued at over $345 million, were exported from the country between March 21, 2023, and March 19, 2024, Rouhollah Latifi noted.
The exports of dates in the previous Iranian calendar year registered a 4.0 and a 6.7 percent hike in weight and value respectively, compared to the preceding year, he maintained.
-- Tehran to host 9th intl. conference on seismology, earthquake engineering
The 9th International Conference on Seismology and Earthquake Engineering will be held in Tehran from May 7 to 9. The conference will be held under the theme of ‘earthquake and megacities, with a focus on Tehran’.
Seismology and Early Warning Systems, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Structural Earthquake Engineering, and Earthquake Risk Management are the main topics of the conference.
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