Finally, an Iranian leader who doesn’t deny settled history – A fresh crew blasts off for the International Space Station – Pakistan’s earthquake death toll rises – And London is dealing with a creepy, crawly invader.

Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani has signaled what might be a major shift in Iran’s attitude toward the rest of the world:  He repudiated his predecessor's Holocaust denials on Wednesday, saying, “The Nazis carried out a massacre that cannot be denied, especially against the Jewish people.”  Holocaust denial was one of the more annoying features of Rouhani’s predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s term in office.  Israel isn’t impressed, noting that many spiritual leaders who agreed with Ahmadinejad are still in place with Rouhani.

A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and has delivered two Russians and one American to the International Space Station.  This returns the ISS to its full staffing of six crewmembers.  They’ll undertake three spacewalks in the duration of their five-month mission, including one with an Olympic torch to promote the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Pakistan as revised the death toll on this week’s magnitude 7.7 earthquake to at least 328 lives lost in the southwest province of Balochistan.  The temblor was so powerful it was felt in India’s capital to the east and in Dubai to the west.  Thousands are homeless.  The area is relatively undeveloped, even for Pakistan, making it difficult to get rescuers in to search the hillsides for survivors.

No deaths are reported so far after a magnitude 7 quake in Peru, but crews are rushing in to rescue miners reportedly trapped in copper pits.  As in Pakistan, adobe and brick homes were no match for the fury of the shaking earth, and many communities are spread out over mountains that are difficult to access.

Also in Peru, two UK women pleaded guilty to drug charges in hopes of getting lighter sentences, or even being sentenced to serve their time in British prisons.  But prosecutors are objecting to the guilty pleas from Michaella McCollum from Northern Ireland and Melissa Reid of Scotland, demanding to know why the 20-year olds at first claimed they were coerced by armed men into attempting to smuggle cocaine through the airport.  They’ve since dropped that defense.  If the judge accepts their pleas, each faces a sentence of six years, eight months in prison.

The sentence is death for a Chinese man convicted of murdering a two-year-old girl in a fight over a parking space.  39-year old Han Lei pulled the girl out of her pram and threw her to the ground when her mother refused to move for his car in Beijing in July.  Han also beat the girl's mother.  An accomplice who drove Han from the scene was sentenced to five years.

A well-known legal rights has “disappeared” immediately after being refused permission to board a Beijing-to-Switzerland flight and questioned by Chinese Police.  Human Rights watch says Cao Shunli has not been seen since he 14 September rousting.  It comes as Beijing is trying to win a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council on 22 October.

London is having a mini-panic over an increase in False Widow Spider sightings.  Britain’s most venomous spider arrived during the 1800s as an unwanted passenger in fruit and vegetable imports.  There’ve been more than fifty sightings in homes and buildings in London and Kent, as temperatures drop and the creatures move inside for shelter.  People are buying up supplies of the pesticide Ardap.  They’re not usually deadly, but bad bites can lead to amputated limb; symptoms usually include chest pains and swelling around the bite.