IRAN announced yesterday it has successfully launched a research rocket carrying a mouse, two turtles and worms into space – a feat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said showed Iran could defeat the West in the battle of technology.

A Yale University lab technician was today charged with the murder of a graduate student whose body was found stuffed in a research building wall on what was to be her wedding day.

Hurricane Gustav weakened slightly to a Category 2 storm as it headed towards New Orleans today, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

The Court of Criminal Appeal has reduced the jail sentence imposed on Limerick man Wayne Dundon for threatening to kill a young barman, who had refused to allow his 14-year-old sister into a pub, from ten to seven years after finding that the original sentence was unduly severe.

The Court of Criminal appeal has reserved judgment in an appeal brought by a Limerick man against the conviction and 10-year jail sentence he revived for threatening to kill a young barman who refused to allow his 14-year-old sister into a pub.

IRELAND’S U-20’s have lost their most experienced player, Luke Fitzgerald, for tonight’s clash with Wales at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea.

Ireland 20 Wales 15

The Bush administration secretly required a company in the United Arab Emirates to cooperate with future US investigations before approving its takeover of operations at six American ports, it emerged today.

Investigators say the murdered son of Nikolay Soltys may have been violated.

A 27-year-old man stabbed his pregnant wife to death and then drove 10 miles and killed four more relatives before fleeing with his three-year-old son.

A 27-year-old man stabbed his wife to death and then drove to a home in a nearby suburb and killed four more relatives before fleeing with his three-year-old son, Californian authorities said yesterday.