India’s 1st lunar mission

India’s 1st lunar mission

NEW DELHI — Scientists have better maps of distant Mars than the moon where astronauts have walked. But India hopes to change that with its first lunar mission.

Chandrayaan-1 — which means “Moon Craft” in ancient Sanskrit — launched from the Sriharikota space center in southern India early this morning in a two-year mission aimed at laying the groundwork for further Indian space expeditions.

Chief among the mission’s goals is mapping not only the surface of the moon, but what lies beneath. India joined what’s shaping up as a 21st-century space race with Chinese and Japanese crafts already in orbit around the moon.

Arrest in torture case

CHICAGO — A former high-ranking police official was arrested Tuesday on charges that he lied when he denied that he and detectives under his command tortured murder suspects decades ago, allegations that led Chicago to pay former inmates millions and helped spark Illinois’ death-penalty moratorium.

A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday accused former police Lt. Jon Burge of perjury and obstruction of justice for statements he made in 2003 when answering questions for a civil-rights lawsuit.

The arrest capped a long-running controversy over allegations that beatings, electric shocks and death threats were used against suspects at Burge’s Area 2 violent crimes headquarters.

U.S. recalls older cribs

Tuesday’s recall of nearly 1.6 million cribs opened a new front in the battle to improve consumer safety by focusing attention on older or reassembled children’s products.

The recall announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission involved older cribs that no longer are on the market but often are reused by families or sold at resale shops and online through sites such as Craigslist. The recall covered cribs sold in the U.S. between 1995 and 2007 by Delta Enterprise, the largest distributor of cribs in the world.

Two 8-month-old infants died in the Delta cribs when the drop side detached from the frame, creating a gap that the children fell through. Entrapped, they suffocated. Delta is the largest distributor of cribs in the world.

In the past 13 months alone, the CPSC has taken action involving 3.1 million cribs and bassinets.

Hospital for military dogs

SAN ANTONIO — A new $15 million veterinary hospital for four-legged military personnel opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base, offering a long-overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment for combat-wounded dogs.

Dogs working for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration are trained at the base to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines. Some 2,500 dogs are working with military units.

Like soldiers and Marines in combat, military dogs suffer from war wounds and routine health issues that need to be treated to ensure they can continue working.

Dogs injured in Iraq or Afghanistan get emergency medical treatment on the battlefield and are flown to Germany for care. If necessary, they’ll fly on to San Antonio for more advanced treatment — much like wounded human personnel.

Dealer sues Dr. Phil

LOS ANGELES — The memorabilia dealer who led O.J. Simpson to a hotel room where an infamous robbery occurred filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the “Dr. Phil” show claiming his remarks in an interview were spliced to change their meaning.

Thomas Riccio, who testified at Simpson’s recent kidnapping-robbery trial, sued Philip McGraw — known on the show as Dr. Phil — and Stage 29 Media for unspecified damages. The lawsuit claims defamation, fraud, emotional distress and being portrayed in a false light.

Riccio said that on the show he was referred to as “the shady deal maker,” “a puppet master who would sell his soul for a coin” and “the ring leader of this crime.”

EU criticizes scanner

STRASBOURG, France — EU lawmakers have joined U.S. civil liberty campaigners in criticizing a new scanner that allows airport security to see through passengers’ clothes, calling it a virtual strip search that should be used only as a last resort.

The new system, which the European Union plans to authorize at the bloc’s airports, allows guards to see an outline of passengers’ bodies beneath their clothes, making it easier to detect any concealed objects.

It already is being introduced in several U.S. airports and has been tested in other countries around the world, including EU nations such as Britain and the Netherlands.

Combined dispatches