6A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007
Ivan Sekretarev/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, American astronaut Miguel Lopez-Alegría, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikin, Russian Mikhail Tyrin, Space tourist U.S. billionaire Charles Simonyi and U.S. astronaut Sunita Wilma aboard the ISS after the docking of Soyuz space capsule with the International Space Station, is seen at Mission Control at Korolyov, just outside Moscow, Monday.
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Billionaire pays for space flight
TRAVEL
BY MIKE ECKEL ASSOCIATED PRESS
Simonyi treats crew to gourmet dinner
KOROLYOV, Russia — A Russian-built Soyuz capsule carrying the American billionaire who helped develop Microsoft Word docked at the international space station late Monday — to the earth-bound applause of Martha Stewart and others at Mission Control.
The lifestyle Russian and American officials and visitors monitoring the docking at Russian Mission Control, on Moscow's outskirts, as onboard TV cameras showed the Sovuz nearing the station and then jerking to a stop. Stewart is a friend of Charles Simonyi, the American who shelled out $20 to 25 million to be the world's fifth paying private space traveler.
The lifestyle guru was among
The dinner is to be eaten on Thursday, which Russia marks as Cosmonauts' Day, the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin making the first manned
Simonyi returns to Earth on April 20, along with Russian Mikhail Tyrin and the American astronaut Miguel Lopez-Alegria, who have been on the station since September. The other U.S. astronaut, Sunita Williams, will remain on board with cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov.
Baikonur for the rocket's launch Saturday.
"Stewart is a friend of Charles Simonyi, the American who shelled out $20-25 million to be the world's fifth paying private space traveler."
Simonyi was bringing with him a sample of the paper computer tapes that he used decades ago when he first learned programming on a bulky Soviet machine called Ural-2.
While at the space station, Simonyi will be conducting a number of experiments, including measuring radiation levels and studying biological organisms inside the lab.
Simonyi, 58, was born in Hungary but now lives in the United States, where he amassed a fortune through his work with computer software, including helping to develop Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
The arrival of a new crew is always a happy event, and this time the residents are getting an extra treat — the gourmet dinner brought by Simonyi.
The menu, including quail marinated in wine, was selected by Stewart, who was also on hand at
Once the capsule — which also carried two cosmonauts — is secured to the station, it will take roughly two hours before the Soyuz crew are able to open the air locks and greet the station's current inhabitants in person.
space flight in 1961.
>> IRAQ WAR
U.S. death toll may be at 3,280 after roadside bomb kills ten
BY STEVEN R. HURST ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD — The powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his militiamen on Sunday to redouble their battle to oust American forces and argued that Iraq's army and police should join him in defeating "your archenemy." The U.S. military announced the weekend deaths of 10 American soldiers, including six killed on Sunday.
Security remained so tenuous in the capital on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the U.S. capture of Baghdad that Iraq's military declared a 24-hour ban on all vehicles in the capital from 5 a.m. Monday. The government quickly reinstated Monday as a holiday, just a day after it had decreed that April 9 no longer would be a day off.
Among the 10 U.S. deaths announced Sunday were three soldiers killed by a roadside bomb while patrolling south of Baghdad; one killed in an attack south of the capital; and two who died of combat wounds sustained north of the capital, in Diyala and Salahuddin
provinces. On Saturday, the military said, four U.S. soldiers were killed in an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala.
At least 3,280 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.
South of Baghdad, a truck bomb exploded near the Mahmoudiya General Hospital, killing at least 18 people and wounding 23. The pickup truck loaded with artillery shells blew apart several buildings in a warren of auto repair shops.
Violence in Iraq remained as relentless as the deepening debate in the United States about the way forward in the war four years after Marines and the Army's 3rd Infantry Division swept into the Iraqi capital 20 days into the American invasion.
At least 47 people were killed or found dead in violence Sunday, including 17 execution victims dumped in the capital.
BRITAIN
Military bans high-priced interviews with former captives
BY ROBERT BARR ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Britain's government beat a hasty retreat Monday under withering criticism for allowing sailors and marines to be paid large sums for their stories about captivity in Iran.
Officials banned further paid interviews as critics complained that the fees, reported as high as six figures, were unseemly and a slap at families of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The appearance of the first paid interviews also brought new criticism that the 15 crew members yielded too easily to Iranian pressure to make confessions and apologies. Some worried the crew's actions revealed a loss of Britain's famed "stiff upper lip" in tough times.
"The sailors and marines held in Iran have been so compliant and have already said so much that they caused excruciating embarrassment to many people in this country, a retired colonel, Bob Stewart, wrote in The Times newspaper.
Defense Secretary Des Browne said that pending completion of a review of the regulations governing paid interviews, announced earlier in the day, all service personnel were now barred from accepting fees for talking about their military experiences.
The announcement does not affect any of the freed crew members who already accepted fees for talking to journalists, but bars them and all other service members from making new deals with media outlets, the Defense Ministry said. Two such interviews appeared Monday,but it was unknown if others had already sold their stories.
Browne acknowledged "many strong views" had been expressed against the idea of military personnel taking cash to give exclusive stories to the media. Such fees are a long media practice in Britain, though more usually for stories involving sexual capers and lurid crimes.
The first paid interviews appeared Monday in The Sun and the Daily Mirror newspapers, with The Sun bagging the most sought-after sailor, Faye Turney, the only woman among the captives. Financial terms were not disclosed, but other media reported the amount paid was in the six figures.
Royal Navy Lt. Felix Carman, who commanded the captured boat crew and appeared with Air and four other former captives at a news conference Friday, told GMTV that he thought accepting money was "a bit unsavory."
However, Carman added, "I don't begrudge people who have been through an awful ordeal making a bit of money out of this."
Reg Keys, whose son Thomas was killed in Iraq four years ago, said he believed the government was using the freed crew to pursue a propaganda battle with Iran, and he found that offensive.
Others did.
"There are people serving in Iraq with possibly far more interesting stories who are not allowed to talk to the media," Keys said. "When my son died, his colleagues were not allowed to speak to their families about it, let alone the press."