TEHRAN, Jan. 3 (Mehr News Agency) – The Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) released a report in which the UAE was cited as Iran’s major trade partner in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (began March 20, 2008).

Iran’s exports to the UAE in the nine-month period amounts to 25.10% of Iran’s total trade, and imports from this major trade partner in the Persian Gulf totals 12.82% of its trade, up 6.10% and 40.94% respectively from last year’s corresponding period.

The UAE exports’ volume exceeded 8 million tons valued at $10.7 million where as Iran’s exports to UAE amounts to over 3 million tons, valued at $1.8 million, the Mehr News Agency quoted from the report.

Germany’s imports to Iran with 9.76% of the total amount of imports ranks the second, but stands the 19th with 1.58% in terms of exports. According to the report, China is the third trade partner of Iran in the nine-month period.

Germany, Switzerland, Britain, France, and Italy are among the top ten states in terms of imports from Iran. But Belgium is the only European state among the first ten exporters to Iran.

Iran’s exports to South Korea, Taiwan, Netherlands, Ecuador, and Malaysia had a dramatic rise, where as exports to Japan, Italy, Syria, Germany, Pakistan, Spain, Kuwait, Oman, and Hong Kong had a decrease.

Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, Malaysia, Spain, Azerbaijan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Denmark decreased their exports to Iran in the said period.

Kourosh Ziabari and Ahmadreza Tavassoli: Dr. Saba Valadkhan is a world-renowned biomedical scientist and the Assistant Professor of Case Western Reserve University of USA.

After graduating from the Tehran University of Medial Sciences, Saba Valadkhan moved to New York where she could continue her further studies at the Columbia University upon the fellowship which she had been granted from RNA Research Society.

This young Iranian scientist has won several international awards for her effective, determinant contribution to the field of Molecular Biology such as Peter Sajovic Memorial Award, Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award and James Howard McGregor Prize.

In 2005, she was awarded the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) award of Young Scientist of the Year for her breakthrough in understanding the mechanism of spliceosomes which was something unprecedented and innovative until that time.

By developing a new strategy to prevent the occurrence of some disastrous cancer types, she identified and determined a slight and insignificant deficiency in the functionality of DNA strands and found an effective way of solving it.

Following is the text of exclusive interview with Dr. Saba Valadkhan in which a stack of interesting subjects around the details of her latest discovery, scientific community of Iran and the prospect of research in Iran and has been discussed.

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Read the Interview from “The People’s Voice“, Middle East Youth, Payvand, MediaLeft

The restoration of the tomb of the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great, has been completed and its metal scaffolding removed.
After three stages of restoration, the structure stands strong and will not sustain any further damage. The work on the historical site has gained UNESCO approval.

According to manager of the restoration work, Hasan Rahsaz, the restoration and documentation of the process has been carried out with great precision by 8 archeological experts and modern-day equipment.

The first stage of restoration began in 2000 when metal scaffolding was put around the tomb to allow experts to access every inch of the stone exterior to find, document and restore the damage to its 180 bricks and the 11 slabs of stone that make up its roof.
Broken pieces were also gathered and used to rebuild and protect the sections exposed to snow and rain.

In the second stage of the project, cement used for restoration in 1930 was removed and the process of anastylosis of broken and fallen parts began.
The stone parts were then reattached in the Achaemenid style with the help of dovetail joints; laser scanners were used to determine their exact positions.

In the last stage of restoration, the northern and western sides of the tomb were completely cleaned of limestone.

MaulanaNews: The Iranian Poet Mevlana Museum in the central Anatolian city of Konya has been included in the “Virtual Tour of Museums” application initiated by the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

Virtual museum tours can be undertaken on the ministry’s official Web site: www.kultur.gov.tr. The Web site offers a 360 degree panoramic view of some museums and tourists visiting the site can obtain detailed information about the museums they wish to visit.

Thanks to the newly added panoramic tour of the Mevlana Museum, visitors are able to see all the details of the museum, including the ceiling, walls and historical artifacts. They can also learn which part of the museum they are visiting by clicking the screen as a guide accompanies them.

When compared to the same term last year, the number of visitors to the Mevlana Museum increased by 49.6 percent and reached 205,000 during the period of January to March of this year. Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Mustafa Ç?pan said they received positive reactions to the virtual tour application and added, “In this way we have opened the doors of the Mevlana Museum to people all over the world. We expect the number of visitors to be on the rise thanks to this application.”

The other museums that can be visited virtually on the Web site are the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, the Side Museum and Virtual Music Museum, the Aphrodisias Museum, Hagia Sophia, the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, the Museum of Burdur Archaeology, the Çorum Museum, the Denizli Hierapolis Archaeology Museum, the Divan Literature Museum, the Ephesus Museum, the Gaziantep Museum, the Ertu?rul Gazi Museum, the Göreme Open Air Museum and the Mardin Museum.

Kourosh Ziabari- Nowadays, Iran and its people are being threatened widely for a near, possible attack by the Israeli forces if Tehran continue pursuing its nuclear program. Additionally, the amount of media pressure against the country is increasing simultaneous to the rhetoric of Israeli officials, backed by US statesmen.

Some western governments acclaim that they would support Israel for a possible bombardment of Iranian nuclear facilities because of the threatening nature of these installations.

White House people and the major EU members state frequently that they are looking for ways to help the process of global peace, stability and promote the international security by emptying the world from nuclear threats.

In the meantime, they refuse to pursue the lawsuit brought by the Iranian government against Israel for depositing 170 nuclear warheads. This figure is approved by the former US president, Ronald Reagan too.

According to an unwritten law, none of the global mainstream media are allowed or willing to investigate about the mass destruction weapons of Israel and its exact figures which have been issued by the Federation of American Scientists (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke) and republished by many other independent sources.

However, while the Israeli regime itself is under the international pressure about the details of its nuclear armories and the occupation of Palestinian lands on the other hand, it is lobbying actively to make some troubles for Iran.

It is not significantly clear that what are the roles and position of Israel in the nuclear case of Iran. Israel is neither the member of UNSC nor it signed the NPT and is reckoned as the world 3 countries that didn’t join the treaty…

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