Iran sends animals into space
Payload includes a mouse; scientific purpose unclear
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday carrying a mouse, turtles and worms into space for research purposes, the country’s Defense Ministry announced.
The launch of the Kavoshgar-3 is part of an ambitious Iranian space program that has worried Western powers who fear the same technology used to launch satellites and research capsules could also deliver warheads.
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A U.S. defense expert said there was no scientific purpose to launching such animals into space and that the launch was likely more aimed at boosting Iran’s prestige.
To test a life-support system of use to humans, “the obvious choice would be to send a monkey,” said James Lewis, senior fellow at Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Worms in space serve no purpose.”
Iran’s state TV broadcast images Wednesday of officials putting a mouse, two turtles and about a dozen creatures that looked like worms inside a capsule into the Kavoshgar-3, which appeared to be about 10 feet long. TV then aired footage of the rocket blasting off.
The rocket was fitted with a life-support system and cameras that filmed the condition and movements of the animals as well as images from the rocket’s exterior, transmitting it to experts on the ground, as it arched up into space, the state news agency IRNA reported.
The rocket traveled “beyond the atmosphere” and parachuted back to Earth, said Ebrahim Mahmoudzadeh, a senior Defense Ministry official. He did not specify precisely how high it flew, but suggested its animal payload had survived.
Iran’s lofty space plans also include putting a man in orbit within 10 years.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised the latest launch and said greater events would come in the future.
“The scientific arena is where we should defeat the (West’s) domination,” Ahmadinejad said in remarks broadcast live on state TV. He said the launch is a “very big event. This is the first presence of animals in space launched by Iran. It’s the start of bigger achievements.”
Gaza tunnels targeted; rocket lands in Israel
GAZA STRIP — A Palestinian youth walks through the rubble in the southern Gaza Strip after an Israeli airstrike targeted two smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt. Later, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket into Israel. Police said it caused no casualties or damage. Israeli police safely detonated another barrel bomb on an Israeli beach, just south of Tel Aviv. It was the third explosives-filled barrel to wash ashore this week. Police blamed the barrels on Palestinian militants.
NATION
Senate moves to swear in Scott Brown on Thursday
WASHINGTON — A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says officials will aim to swear in Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown on Thursday afternoon.
Brown captured the seat of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy in an upset last month in the largely Democratic state of Massachusetts. Brown had been saying he didn’t want to be sworn in before Feb. 11 but has taken criticism from conservatives for the delay.
Brown’s win gives Republicans the margin they need to stall voting on legislation in the Democratic-led Senate.
A lawyer for Brown said in a letter Wednesday to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick that the senator-elect wants the Jan. 19 election certified so that he can be sworn in because there may be votes in which he wants to participate.
Charges in lodge deaths
Flagstaff, Ariz. — Authorities have charged motivational speaker James Arthur Ray with three counts of manslaughter for deaths that happened after a sweat lodge ceremony he led in northern Arizona last year.
Yavapai County sheriff’s officials say Ray was arrested Wednesday afternoon. His bond is set at $5 million.
The Oct. 8 ceremony was supposed to be the highlight of Ray’s five-day “Spiritual Warrior” event at a retreat he rented near Sedona. Between 55 and 65 people took part.
Authorities allege Ray encouraged participants to stay inside the saunalike sweat lodge even as they began feeling ill, vomiting and passing out. Three died and 18 others were hospitalized.
WORLD
At least 20 Shiite pilgrimsare killed near Karbala
BAGHDAD — A bomb on a parked motorcycle exploded early Wednesday on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala, killing at least 20 Shiite pilgrims and wounding more than 100 others, officials said.
The blast was the latest in a string of attacks this week that have targeted pilgrims making their way to an important Shiite religious observance in Karbala, raising fears of a spike in attacks when the pilgrimage culminates Friday.
The bomb exploded at about 11 a.m. in an area known as Ibrahimia, near the east entrance — one of three — into Karbala, the official said. The city is located 50 miles south of Baghdad.
At least 100 people were wounded in the attack, the official said, adding that the area was clogged with pilgrims and the number of casualties could increase.
A hospital official in Karbala confirmed the number of dead and wounded.
Artwork sets price record
LONDON — A life-size bronze sculpture of a man by Alberto Giacometti was sold Wednesday at a London auction for $103.4 million — a world record for the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction, Sotheby’s auction house said.
It took just eight minutes of furious bidding for about 10 bidders to reach the hammer price for “L’Homme Qui Marche I” (Walking Man I), which opened at $19 million, Sotheby’s said.
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Sotheby’s had estimated the work would sell for between $19 million and $28.7 million. It went to an anonymous bidder.
Student auctions virginity
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A New Zealand teenager who says she auctioned her virginity online for $32,000 to raise tuition money did not break any laws, but it might be risky for her to follow through on the deal, police warned Wednesday.
The anonymous 19-year-old student offered her virginity to the highest bidder on the Web site www.ineed.co.nz under the name “Unigirl.” She said in a post that more than 1,200 had made bids before she accepted an offer of more than $32,000.
Web site owner Ross McKenzie confirmed Unigirl was a member on the site.
Prostitution is legal in New Zealand under laws considered more liberal than many countries.
Unigirl, in her initial post, described herself as attractive, fit and healthy. She did not post a photograph of herself, and bidders did not appear to have a way of confirming any of the details of her posts.
In the great divide, a tilt toward the right
According to a Gallup poll, conservatives outnumber liberals nationally and in all states; only in the District of Columbia did more residents identify themselves as liberal in 2009. The more liberal states tend to be in the Northeast or the West, while many of the most conservative states are in the South. Results are based on telephone interviews with 291,152 adults nationally, age 18 and older. The margin of error is plus or minus 1 percentage point.
Most conservative
Ala.:49.4%
Miss.:48.3%
La.:47.5%
Idaho:46.5%
Okla.:46.2%
Most liberal
D.C.:36.3%
Mass.:29%
Vt.:28%
Ore.:26.3%
N.Y.:26.3%