ODDLY ENOUGH: Report: Iranian president’s car gets $1 million bid for charity

ODDLY ENOUGH

Report: Iranian president’s car gets $1 million bid for charity

TEHRAN, Iran

The Iranian president’s 33-year-old car has received a $1 million bid from abroad in a charity auction to raise money for a low-income housing project, reported a newspaper Sunday.

The 1977 white Peugeot sedan was put on auction to fund a housing projects for disabled and young people in a move by the president to fulfill a campaign promise to put a roof over the head of every poor Iranian.

The Iran daily newspaper said various bids from abroad have been received by the multilingual website set up Saturday for the auction, including $1 million, but it did not elaborate on the identity of the bidders.

The top bidders will be invited to the auction in mid-February in the southwestern city of Abadan. Online offers can be made until the end of January. Foreign bidders paid $67 to register, while locals pay around $50.

The president had made a point of being seen in the humble, white Peugeot 504 sedan when he was Tehran mayor before becoming president in 2005. He has rarely used the car in the past years, however, probably because of security measures. The car would probably be worth around $2,000 on the local market.

Lack of housing has always been a major concern in Iran, where a quarter of the 75 million residents live in rented apartments and nearly a third of a family’s income goes to pay the rent.

More than 1,000 blackbirds die, fall from sky in Arkansas

BEEBE, Ark.

Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over an Arkansas town.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Saturday that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 the previous night. The birds fell over a 1-mile area of Beebe, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside that area.

Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said the birds showed physical trauma, and she speculated that “the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail.”

The commission said that New Year’s Eve revelers shooting off fireworks in the area could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die from stress.

Robby King, a wildlife officer for the agency, collected about 65 dead birds, which will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison, Wis.

Rowe said that similar events have occurred elsewhere and that test results “usually were inconclusive.” She said she doubted the birds were poisoned.

Associated Press