TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran plans to launch a satellite into space soon using its own satellite carrier rocket, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

According to a report Thursday on Iranian state TV, Ahmadinejad said the Persian nation will soon "launch a rocket, which has 16 engines and will take a satellite some 430 miles" into space.

The satellite will likely be a commercial one for communication or meteorological research purposes. Iran has never announced plans to launch military satellites.

But the country has long pursued the goal of developing a space program, generating unease among world leaders already concerned about its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Earlier this month, Tehran announced that a joint research satellite built by Iran, China and Thailand, was sent into orbit by a Chinese-made rocket. At the time, Iranian officials said the three countries suffer from natural disasters and that the satellite would transmit photos to help deal with such crises.

Also, Iran tested a rocket last month which it hopes will one day carry an all-Iranian research satellite. Tehran sent its first commercial satellite into space on a Russian rocket in 2005.

The remarks by the Iranian president came during his meeting with a group of Iranian expatriates in New York, where Ahmadinejad is attending the U.N. General Assembly.

There were no details about what type of satellite the rocket would carry, and Ahmadinejad gave no time frame for the plan.

Iran Human Rights: According to the site "Iranian human rights activists", Nemat Safavi (20), son of Akbar, has been sentenced to death for "lavat" (a term used for sexual acts between men), and his sentence is now sent to the supreme court for final approval.

According to this report, Nemat who is born in 1988, was arrested in 2006, and at that time he was a minor.

Iran Human Rights is currently investigating further details on this case.

According to the same site two others men identified as "Hamzeh Chavi" (19) and "Loghman Hamzehpour" (20) were sentenced to death for homosexual acts in February 2008 in Sardasht.

International human rights organizations have reported several executions for homosexual acts in the past years in Iran. However, it is believed that the Iranian authorities use increasingly charges such as "rape" for death penalties issued for homosexual acts.

www.iranhr.net

NEW YORK (AFP) — The United States and Russia agreed here to hold further ministerial-level meetings in the future in a bid to stop Iran's sensitive nuclear work, a senior US official said Wednesday.

State Department official Daniel Fried told reporters the agreement was reached in talks in New York between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, their first since ties tensions soared over the Georgia conflict last month.

Fried said both "agreed that they should have a ministers" meeting in the future, but set no date.

The United States and its P5-plus-one partners -- Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany -- decided to call off a meeting this week in New York after Moscow complained Washington sought to "punish" it, apparently over Georgia.

"They also agreed that the two governments should be in close contact to signal that the P5-plus-One process is intact," Fried said, referring to the six-country negotiations on Iran.