TEHRAN, May 20--Iran’s young inventors won 8 gold, 16 silver and 25 bronze medals in the international competition of inventions and technology held in Malaysia.
A total of 49 inventions out of 53 Iranian projects presented in the festival received medals, IRIB reported.
Iranian youths are expected to rank among the top three teams.
A total of 29 countries attended the competition and Iranian inventors faced competition from inventors of Russia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

TEHRAN, May 20--A medical official said on Sunday Iran has succeeded in producing the main drug for treating multiple sclerosis.
Fereydoun Mahboudi, the head of Iran’s Biotechnology Center, also told Fars News Agency that the Iranian MS drug Cinnovex is very similar to its US counterpart Avonex produced by America’s Biogen Company.
“The Iranian drug has passed all clinical and laboratory tests, and obtained permits from the relevant organizations,“ he said.
Mahboudi noted that the drug was launched eight months ago and more patients are likely to use it.
“Before the domestic production of the drug in Iran, the Biogen Company sold about $1.8 billion of Avonex worldwide annually, which accounts for 80 percent of the requirements of MS patients in the world,“ he said.
Mahboudi noted 20 percent of MS patients use other brands such as Rebif and Betaferon.
“The Iranian MS drug is presently in the registration process in Russia, Germany and Pakistan. After its registration in those countries, it can be exported,“ he said.
Mahboudi pointed out that Iran can produce 500,000 units of the MS drug, which constitute twice the country’s requirements and half of which can be exported.
Some 2.5 million people currently suffer from multiple sclerosis throughout the world, of whom about 30,000 to 40,000 are living in Iran.

SHUNEH, Jordan, May 20--Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, sitting alongside Arab officials in Jordan on Sunday, urged Arab states to talk with the Zionist regime about their revived Middle East peace plan.
The Nobel peace laureate told them that Israel would make a counter-offer to the Saudi-drafted blueprint first adopted in 2002 and re-launched at an Arab summit in March, wire services reported.
But he gave no firm timeframe for the counter-proposal, drawing questions from Arab League Chief Amr Mussa about the Israeli government’s seriousness.
“The Arab League has proposed. Fine. We shall make a counter-proposal,“ Peres said during a panel discussion on Arab-Israeli relations at the Middle East World Economic Forum that Mussa also addressed.
“Let’s sit together, air out our differences. If you are serious and we are serious, let’s sit together.“
The Arab plan offers Israel normalization of relations in return for a full withdrawal from Arab lands occupied in 1967 and resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue.
Israel rejected the blueprint wholesale when it was first unveiled but has since warmed to the draft as a basis for negotiation, provided there are changes on the refugee issue.
“You must understand that you cannot send us a document and say--take it or leave it. It’s not done,“ Peres said.
He said Israel would draw up a counter-proposal “as soon as possible“, but despite repeated questioning declined to be more specific.
Mussa said that if the Israeli government was genuine in its expressed readiness to discuss the peace plan, “we are all in business“.
Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel and even pro-Western Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have a public policy of no contacts with it.

HAMEDAN, May 20--Iranian scientists have designed and manufactured a mobile stonebreaker with a capacity of 400 tons per hour.
Speaking to IRIB News, Saeed Mousavi, the head of Hamedan’s Engineers Group, said on Saturday Iran is among the few major industrial countries producing mobile stonebreakers.
“The US and England had a monopoly on the mobile stonebreaker technology,“ he said, pointing out that the whole design and manufacturing process took 4 months for Iranian experts.
The machine costs $3 million in the world market while Iran can produce that at one-third of the international price.
“An African company has signed a contract for buying the Iranian stonebreaker,“ he said.

AMMAN, Jordan,
May 20--Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki denied western media claims regarding his speech in the World Economic Forum about the Zionist Israeli regime.
Mottaki told IRNA, “I said at the meeting every school student knows that a nation like Palestinians cannot be eliminated from the map.“
Some western news agencies quoted Mottaki on Saturday saying that every pupil knows it is impossible to eliminate any country from the map.
“Although the Shah had good relations with the South African apartheid regime and the Zionist regime, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, these ties were severed. But after the collapse of the apartheid regime in South Africa, we have very good ties with that country,“ he said.
Mottaki also said Iran cast a negative vote regarding the Zionist regime’s credentials in the United Nations, indicating the country’s lack of recognition for the regime.
The three-day forum started on Friday in the resort of Dead Sea in Jordan and Mottaki attended the meeting at the head of a delegation.
The Iranian delegation left Amman for Tehran on Saturday evening.

Lebanese soldiers take positions during clashes with the Palestinian 'Fatah Al-Islam' group in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, May 20.

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, May 20--Lebanese troops battled militants based in a Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday and 38 people were killed in Lebanon’s bloodiest internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war.
Thirteen soldiers and 19 militants died in the clashes, which erupted before dawn at the Nahr Al-Bared camp and spread into the nearby Sunni Muslim city of Tripoli in north Lebanon, Reuters reported.
A cabinet minister said the fighting with Fatah Al-Islam, which the government says is backed by Syria, seemed timed to try to derail UN moves to set up an international court to try those suspected of carrying out political killings in Lebanon.
The soldiers were killed at Nahr Al-Bared just north of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city, and in an attack on an army patrol in Al-Qalamoun to the south, a security source said.
Security sources said 15 militants were killed in Tripoli, where the army had reestablished control, and four in the camp, home to 40,000 refugees. Medical sources in the camp said six civilians, including two children, were killed and 60 wounded.
The army was blasting militant positions in the camp with tank, mortar and machinegun fire, a military source said. More than 27 soldiers were wounded overall, the source added.
Fatah Al-Islam, a Sunni Salafist group, said the army had launched an unprovoked attack.
“We warn the Lebanese Army of the consequences of continuing the provocative acts against our mujahideen who will open the gates of fire...against (the army) and against the whole of Lebanon,“ it said in a statement faxed to Reuters.
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
The army had tightened its grip around Nahr Al-Bared after four Fatah Al-Islam members, all Syrian nationals, were charged with planting bombs on two buses in a Christian area near Beirut in February. Three civilians were killed in those attacks.
Fatah Al-Islam is known to have Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinians in its ranks. Its leader is a Palestinian.

TEHRAN, May 20--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday the rich Islamic civilization is the pivot of human progress and development.
In a meeting with the secretary-general of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, the president added that Islam is the only key to human salvation and prosperity, IRIB reported.
“Preserving the heritage of Islam is in fact not only preserving human heritage but also helping development and perfection of humanity,“ he said, referring to the cultural heritage and Islamic civilization as the pride of Muslims.
Ahmadinejad hailed the efforts of ISESCO for introducing and protecting the cultural heritage of the Islamic world, voicing Iran’s support for its activities.
“This organization should maintain unity and solidarity among [Muslim] scholars, students and intellectuals as it bears a sacred responsibility,“ he said, hoping that ISESCO would play an effective role in promoting the Islamic culture.
Altwaijri, for his part, commended Iran’s efforts for supporting ISESCO and said this organization has been established to strengthen unity and solidarity among Muslims.
“One of the major objectives enshrined in the ISESCO Charter is promoting the fundamentals of Islamic culture, civilization and sciences, and unity and solidarity in the Muslim world against the conspiracies of enemies,“ he said.
Altwaijri said his organization is committed to Iran, as the oil-rich state plays an important role in global equations.

Gholamreza Aqazadeh

TEHRAN, May 20--The technical progress in the national nuclear program is satisfactory, a senior nuclear official said.
Gholamreza Aqazadeh, vice president and head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO), also told IRNA on Sunday that work is progressing well but the media usually inflate figures.
Asked about Iran’s plan to commission 50,000 centrifuges it needs to produce nuclear fuel, the IAEO chief said, “Every time inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came to Tehran, the Western media publish news about the Iranian nuclear program in a controversial manner.“
The New York Times last week said Iran has made considerable technical progress in its nuclear program.
After the installation of 1,300 centrifuges installed at Natanz, 300 other centrifuges are to follow, the daily said.
It reported that Iran might produce 5,000 other centrifuges by year-end and inaugurate a total of 8,000 centrifuges.
Commenting on the West’s claim that Iran’s technical progress has scuttled the talks, Aqazadeh said, “The West does not have a correct view. Our technical works do not depend on negotiations.“
Aqazadeh called on the West to put “serious and deep“ talks on its agenda.

TEHRAN, May 20--A total of 233 lawmakers in a statement read out in Majlis on Sunday denounced the brutal acts of the Zionist regime of Israel against the Palestinians.
Part of the statement read out by a member of Majlis Presiding Board, Jahanbakhsh Mohebbinia, noted that the occupying regime of Israel has added another chapter to its criminal record of killing Palestinians in the past few days, IRNA reported. The occupying regime martyred many innocent civilians of the Gaza Strip and destroyed many houses.
The lawmakers argued that the most important question that the US and other western countries supporting the brutal Zionist regime should answer is why are they silent in the face of these crimes.
They noted that this support undoubtedly makes them an accomplice to the Zionist crimes.