TEHRAN, Dec. 14--Iran will dispatch judokas today to Moscow where the 17th world student event is held from December 16-19, IRNA said.
Secretary of Iran's Judo Federation, Mohammad-Ali Rastgar, who is heading the team told IRNA Tuesday that over 30 teams have participated in the world tournament.
"We have a good team but we have a tough task as Japan, Russia, South Korea, and France are powerful," added the IJF secretary.
Iran finished third in the 16th edition as its two-member team won one gold and one silver.
The country is fielding four judokas in Moscow.
Under coach Mohammad-Reza Haj-Youssefzadeh, the quartet Mohsen Zakaria, Arash Mir-Esmaeili, Hossein Qomi, and Abbas Fallah will represent the country in -60, -66, -90, and -100 kg respectively.

Berlin, Dec 14--German Bundesliga club Borussia Moenchengladbach has joined VfL Bochum and Hertha Berlin in the running to sign up Bayern's reserve forward Vahid Hashemian, the kicker sports magazine reported Monday.
Hashemian's personal manager Lars Baumgarten is to meet with Bayern officials this week to discuss a possible transfer to one of the three teams, IRNA said.
The Iranian striker appears to be reluctant to agree to a move to another team, saying he needed more to integrate himself to Munich's playing style.
VfL Bochum remains the frontrunner to re-sign Hashemian who scored 16 goals in 32 matches for Bochum during the 2003/4 season.
The former Pas forward has failed to make an impact at Bayern Munich following his 2 million euro transfer from Bochum last summer.
Meanwhile, VfL Bochum midfielder Moharram Navidkia returned to practice after being sidelined for six months as a result of torn cruciate ligaments in his left knee, the kicker sports magazine said Monday.
Navidkia suffered the injury during Iran's Olympic qualifying football match against South Korea last May.
The former Sepahan (Isfahan) player who signed a three-year deal with Bochum this summer, is viewed as one of Iran's rising football stars.
Navidkia was named Iran's Footballer of the Year in 2003.

AC Milan's Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko poses with the golden goal trophy, Monday. (AFP Photo)

PARIS, Dec. 14--AC Milan's Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko was on Monday named European footballer of the year for 2004, AFP reported.
The 28-year-old becomes the third Ukrainian to win the award after Oleg Blockhin in 1975 and Igor Belanov in 1986, who both appeared for the then-Soviet Union.
Shevchenko, with 175 votes, beat off competition from two Barcelona players, Portugal's Brazilian-born midfielder Deco and Ronaldinho of Brazil, with 139 and 133 votes respectively.
"I'm very pleased to have received this award," said Shevchenko. "I want to dedicate this to the Ukrainian people. I offer this 'Golden Ball' to my people.
"It is difficult to speak of the situation in Ukraine, but it is clear that people in Ukraine deserve democracy," he said in reference to the fragile political situation in the country after a first presidential election run-off, officially won by the country's pro-Moscow prime minister, was annulled by the supreme court because of fraud.
Known as the Ballon D'Or (Golden Ball), the prestigious prize was created by the French football magazine France Football in 1956.
Voting is undertaken by a group of European football journalists.
Shevchenko has scored 102 goals in Serie A since signing from Dynamo Kiev five years ago in a 37.5-million-euro transfer.
He became the first foreigner to top the scoring charts in a debut season in Italy with 24 goals in 32 matches.
Shevchenko is also in the running for FIFA's world player of the year, along with Arsenal's French striker Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho, to be announced on December 20.

MOSCOW, Dec. 14--Nikolai Zherdev and Alexander Perezhogin scored 18 seconds apart Saturday, leading the Russian Stars past the NHL World Stars 5-4 in an exhibition game during the lockout, AP reported.
Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Alex Kovalev also scored for Russia, which surged to a 5-1 lead.
Ray Whitney scored twice for the touring NHL team, with the other goals by Robin Regehr and Tony Amonte. The NHL team featured Dominik Hasek in goal.
The game was the second of the World Stars' 10-game, seven-country tour. The World Stars beat Riga 2000 4-2 in the opener in Latvia on Thursday.
The next game is in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday, followed by stops in Bratislava, Slovakia; Bern, Switzerland; Karlstad, Jonkoping and Linkoping, Sweden; Oslo, Norway; and Katowice, Poland.

MADRID, Spain,
Dec. 14--The soccer game between Real Madrid and Real Sociedad that was suspended because of a bomb threat Sunday will be completed on Jan. 5, AP reported.
The referee halted the game with the score 1-1 in the 88th minute and pointed the teams toward the tunnel.
About 70,000 fans and players, some still in uniform, cleared Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in approximately eight minutes after the threat was phoned to the Basque newspaper Gara. No bomb was found.
"Now we can say it was just a scare, and we hope it won't happen again," Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said on the team's Web site Monday.
It was the first time that a major sports event in Spain was halted because of a bomb threat.
The Basque separatist group ETA has issued similar warnings to Gara before a series of small explosions in Spanish cities in recent days.
"We were scared to death," Real Madrid player Ivan Helguera said. "It's a shame that sports and politics get mixed up."
When the game resumes in January, the teams will play the remainder of regulation, along with four minutes of injury time.

MIAMI, USA, Dec. 14--Giant center Shaquille O'Neal scored a season-high 40 points to help the Miami Heat post a 106-83 National Basketball League win over the Washington Wizards, AFP reported.;
Heat's star sophomore guard Dwayne Wade left Monday's game with three minutes left in the second quarter because of an ankle sprain. Wade, who O'Neal fondly refers to as the 'Flash', did not return.
In his first season in Miami, O'Neal had notched only one game with at least 30 points but dominated the Wizards inside in this one. The 325-pound former Los Angeles Laker grabbed 12 rebounds, sank 10-of-16 free throws and blocked five shots.
It was the first 40-plus point performance by a Miami player since Alonzo Mourning had 43 against New Jersey almost four years ago.
Miami (16-7) has won five games in a row and secured first place in the Southeast Division--and the best record in the Eastern Conference - over their new divisional rival.
Washington's "big three" of Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas and Larry Hughes was held to a combined 42 points on 15-of-57 shooting. The trio had averaged almost 63 points entering the contest.
The Heat held the Wizards to 36 percent (31-of-86) shooting, improving to 10-0 when holding opponents to less than 40 percent.
Miami never trailed in the second half, and Washington never got closer than seven down the stretch. An 11-2 Miami run midway through the final quarter--featuring two monster dunks by O'Neal--turned the game into a rout.
Kwame Brown scored 16 off the bench for the Wizards, but was plagued by foul trouble.

Manchester United's Mikael Silvestre (r) fights for the ball next to Fulham's Brian McBride at Fulham football club in London, Monday. (AFP Photo)

LONDON, Dec. 14--A late equalizer from Pape Bouba Diop gave Fulham a 1-1 draw at home to Manchester United on Monday and prevented Alex Ferguson's team from moving back into to the thick of the Premier League title race, Reuters said.
United looked set for a fifth straight league win courtesy of a first-half Alan Smith goal when Bouba Diop sent a fierce strike curving past a diving Roy Carroll and just inside the post in the 87th minute.
United remain in fourth place on 31 points, four behind champions Arsenal and nine behind leaders Chelsea, after the two London clubs drew 2-2 on Sunday.
Everton are in second place, five points ahead of United, after winning the 200th Merseyside derby 1-0 on Saturday. Fulham move above Birmingham into 14th.
Played on a crisp London night, the game took time to warm up with Fulham sitting back and United looking to exert some control on the match.
The match came to life when a Roy Keane drive found one Fulham post around the half hour mark and two minutes later Wayne Rooney went through on goal before hitting the other upright.
The United fans did not have to wait long for the breakthrough and it came when Cristiano Ronaldo escaped down the right and found Alan Smith in the penalty area after 33 minutes.
The England striker's first shot was blocked but he scurried back to retrieve the ball with a determined tackle on Sylvain Legwinski, before turning to shoot under Fulham goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
United had the better of the remainder of the half and, with Fulham's usual driving force Steed Malbranque having a poor game, it looked like being a relatively easy night for the visitors.
But Fulham came out firing after the break and former United striker Andy Cole brushed off the attentions of Rio Ferdinand to fire a shot against the woodwork.
Fulham showed no less endeavor and fight for the remainder of the half but failed to create any real openings and when Cole back-headed the ball wide with six minutes to go it looked like their efforts would go unrewarded.
However, with three minutes left Bouba Diop, the man put Senegal on the soccer map when he scored the winner against France in the 2002 World Cup, stepped up to fire home his spectacular equalizer.

LONDON, Dec. 14--Andy Roddick has sacked Brad Gilbert, the coach who guided him to world number one and the US Open crown in 2003, Reuters said.
No reason has been given for the split.
Gilbert, who was not in Seville with Roddick for the Davis Cup final against Spain a week ago, seemed surprised by the player's decision.
"While I believe there is still a great deal of work to be done, Andy clearly does not feel that way," Gilbert said on his website.
"I have enjoyed all of my time with Andy. He has been a great student of the game during the time that we worked together and I am very proud of the results that were achieved.
"I wish Andy all of the best and will be rooting for him."
After losing in the 2003 French Open first round, Roddick parted with long-time coach Tarik Benhabiles and replaced him with Gilbert, who had helped Andre Agassi resurrect his career.
The rewards were instant. Under Benhabiles, Roddick had won one title in 2003. After appointing Gilbert, he won another five titles including the US Open.
Roddick is not believed to have lined up a replacement for Gilbert.
Runaway world number one Swiss Roger Federer won three of this year's four grand slam titles without having a coach.

Bode Miller of the US celebrates after winning the Ski World Cup men's slalom race in the northern Italian resort of Sestriere, Monday. (Reuters Photo)

SESTRIERE, Italy, Dec. 14--Bode Miller of the United States won the men's World Cup alpine slalom race here Monday and so equaled the record of Marc Girardelli in winning a race in all four disciplines (downhill, slalom, giant slalom and super-giant slalom) in the same World Cup season, AFP said.
Miller, 27, the overall World Cup leader, finished ahead of Switzerland's Silvan Zurbriggen and Kalle Palander of Finland to complete the same series of across the board wins that Luxembourg's Girardelli managed in the 1988-89 season.
Although other skiers such as Swiss great Pirmin Zurbriggen, Austria's Gunther Mader and Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt have recorded victories in all the alpine disciplines, it each took them several seasons to wrap up the set and also win in the combined event.
Miller's latest victory, in a made-for-television day-night event, came just two weeks after he won the downhill and super-G races at Lake Louise in Canada.
It meant that only 11 events into the 2004-2005 campaign, Miller had his sixth victory in a runaway start to the season.
On Monday, he won with an aggregate time of 1min, 39.03 seconds, Zurbriggen second with 1:04.30. Palander placed third on 1:40.44 on the Agnelli piste flagged with 57 gates.
Miller, whose go-for-broke style is more flailing attack than smooth power, is burning up the slopesm sought to play down suggestions he's already captured this season's overall title from defending champion Hermann Maier, ahead of the December 23 Christmas break.
"No one has won with 700 points," said Miller, who has 730. "I'm one-third of the way dome. The best thing about today was not the record, it was more that I felt good on my skis.
"Especially in the second run, I had a good feeling in slalom, one that I haven't felt for some time. It felt great of some of the curves, and that pleases me."