Iran won 14 medals at recent international mathematics, physics and biology competitions for high school students held in Germany, Mexico and Japan.
Students won three silver medals and one bronze as well as a diploma of merit at the 40th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO 2009) in Mexico.
Amir-Hossein Tajdini, Reza Javadinejad, Mohammad-Reza Mohammadi from Tehran, Arvin Shahbazi-Moghaddam from Rasht, Gilan Province, and Kasra Hejazi from Mashad, Khorassan Razavi Province comprised the five-member Iranian team at the Mexican event, Presstv reported.
The Iranians emerged over and above 317 compatriots from 72 countries at the IPhO 2009 held from July 12 to 19.
Another team of Iranian youth took one gold, four silver and a bronze in the 50th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in Germany.
More than 560 from 104 countries participated in the July 10-22 event.
Meanwhile, Iranian students won one gold and three silver medals at the 20th International Biology Olympiad (IBO) to emerge 4th among 60 teams.
Arya Haj Mirzaian won the gold and Arad Iranmehr, Fatemeh Kashani, and Fatemeh Moqaddas received honors in silver.
The students beat 220 students from 60 countries, the Public Relations Director of the Young Researchers’ Club, Behzad Solatian, told ISNA.
The United States finished first, Singapore and Taiwan came in second and third.
The IBO is a competition for secondary school students to test their skills in tackling biological problems and biological experiments. Every participating country sends four students from among those who won national competitions.
Japan hosted the 20th prestigious competition in mid-July.
Iranian students won two silver and two bronze at the 19th IBO held in India last year.

(See page Science)

A terrorist attack in the Iraqi city of Khanaqin reportedly claimed the lives of six Iranian pilgrims. More than 30 others were injured.
“The attack took place around 11:00 pm local time Tuesday night,“ the governor of the border city of Qasre-Shirin Bahram Teimouri told IRNA on Wednesday.
“The terrorists using guns attacked the Iranian pilgrims who were traveling to Baghdad,“ he added.
According to the official, the injured were hospitalized in a Khanaqin hospital and are reported to be in stable condition.
Eleven ambulances are now at the Khosravi border crossing to transfer the injured to hospitals in Qasre-Shirin and other cities in the province. No further details were available.
Located near the Iranian border on a tributary of the Diyala River, Khanaqin is a city in eastern Iraq, south of the Kurdish regions.
On April 23, back to back deadly bombings rocked Kazimein, once a small town to the north of the Iraqi capital, but now part of greater Baghdad. Two Shia Imams are buried there. The bombs killed 60 people, 10 of them Iranians.
The double bombing followed a blast at a restaurant in the vicinity of Muqdadiya in the restive Diyala province. Another 53 Iranians lost their lives.
Hundreds and thousands of Iranians annually visit the holy Iraqi cities, Karbala in particular--the burial ground of Imam Hussein--the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and one of the Shiites most revered Imams.
Iraq has been hit by a wave of seemingly unending militant attacks after the disastrous 2003 US-led western invasion and subsequent occupation. The deadly attacks are said to be orchestrated by a wide spectrum of terrorist groups including Al-Qeada, radical Sunni insurgents, remnants of the ousted Baathist regime and Saudi-backed ultra-orthodox Salafists out to undermine the elected Baghdad government.

Saudi Arabia is holding more than 3,000 people in secret detention and has used torture to extract confessions in its anti-terrorism crackdown since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Amnesty International said in a report Wednesday.
The report criticized the international community for turning a blind eye to the kingdom’s methods in its crackdown. Saudi Arabia has carried out a heavy wave of arrests against Al-Qaida members in past years after the militant group carried out a string of attacks against expatriate residential compounds, oil facilities and government buildings, AP reported.
“These unjust anti-terrorism measures have made an already dire human rights situation worse,“ said Malcolm Smart, head of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program, in a press release.
Asked about the report, a Saudi Interior Ministry official, Abdulrahman Alhadlaq, said, “These are claims that have to be proven.“
The report came two weeks after the Saudi government said it had convicted 330 Al-Qaida militants in the kingdom’s first known terrorism trials for suspected members of the terror network.

’Deviant Group’
One militant was sentenced to death, and the others were given jail terms, fines and travel bans in trials that were held in the utmost secrecy. Authorities said the defendants were accused of belonging to the “deviant group,“ a euphemism for Al-Qaida, as well as a range of other terrorism-related charges.
Amnesty said more than 3,100 people are being held “in virtual secrecy“ and others have been killed in uncertain circumstances.
Amnesty criticized the Saudis for carrying out “secret and summary trials“ and for reportedly torturing detainees to extract confessions. They said torture methods include “severe beatings with sticks, punching, and suspension from the ceiling, use of electric shocks and sleep deprivation.“
“The abuses take place behind a wall of secrecy,“ said Smart. “Most (detainees) are held incommunicado for years without trial, and are denied access to lawyers and the courts to challenge the legality of their detention.“

Awaiting Response
Amnesty said it sought Saudi comment on its report but did not receive “any substantive response.“
The US and other countries strongly pushed Saudi Arabia to crack down on terrorism after it was discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States came from the kingdom. Saudi Arabia is also the homeland of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but Saudi authorities revoked his passport in the mid-1990s.

Turkey is ready to resume its role as mediator in indirect talks between Israel and Syria, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday before leaving for a one-day visit to Syria.
“Requests to resume the process have started to come in, we should get to work on this issue,“ he said at Ankara’s airport, without indicating what country had contacted Turkey, AFP reported.
“We should be ready“ to relaunch the talks, he said, adding: “We are determined to do all we can for peace in the Middle East.“
Erdogan is scheduled to meet with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in Alep in northern Syria.
Ankara last year brokered four rounds of indirect talks between longtime foes Israel and Syria, focusing on the contentious issue of the return of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau seized by Israeli forces during the 1967 war.
But talks were suspended when the occupying power launched an offensive against the Palestinian Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip in late December.
Turkey, a Muslim but secular country, is Israel’s main regional ally with strong economic ties since signing a military cooperation accord in 1996.
However, the Gaza offensive that killed more than 1,000 Palestinians has strained relations between Turkey and Israel.
In January an angry Erdogan stormed out of a debate at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on the Gaza conflict that included Israeli President Shimon Peres.