■ Norway
Eagle snares bear cub
Zoologists were astonished on Wednesday to learn that a golden eagle recently snatched a bear cub from its mother. Two park rangers in the Lierne region of central Norway saw the eagle swoop down on the cub trotting behind its mother and carry it away, one of the rangers told public broadcaster NRK. A golden eagle normally weighs about 6kg, while the bear cub was said to have weighed about half that. Torgeir Nygaard of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research said the likelihood of an eagle snatching a bear was about as great as the chance of "finding snow in the Sahara."
■ Iran
UFO fever grips Tehran
Flying saucer fever has gripped Iran after dozens of sightings in recent days. Fanciful cartoons of alien spacecraft have adorned newspapers' front pages. State television on Wednesday showed a sparkling white disc it said was filmed over Tehran on Tuesday night. Other UFOs have been spotted emitting green, red, blue and purple rays over the northern cities of Tabriz and Ardebil and in the Caspian Sea province of Golestan, the official IRNA news agency reported.
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