KAZAKHSTAN
Crew docks with ISS
A Russian rocket carrying a multinational crew yesterday successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) less than six hours after the launch, NASA television showed. The Soyuz TMA 17M carrying Oleg Kononenko of Russia, Kjell Lindgren of the US and Kimiya Yui of Japan roared skyward from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the barren Kazakh steppe at 9:02pm GMT on Wednesday. After a flyaround at about 350m, the rocket maneuvered to rendezvous with the ISS at 2:46am GMT yesterday. “We have contact,” a NASA announcer said, as the craft soared high above the coast of Ecuador, 402km above the Pacific. One solar array did not deploy on time, but this did not affect the rocket’s flight, as the others were still operating, NASA said.
UNITED STATES
Cosby lawsuit bid fails
Bill Cosby lost his latest bid to fend off a lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1974, as the California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the comedian’s petition to review the case. The accuser’s attorney, Gloria Allred, said the decision cleared the way for litigation brought by Judy Huth, now in her 50s, to proceed, and that she intended to take Cosby’s sworn deposition within the next 30 days. There was no immediate response from Cosby or his lawyers, who have consistently denied allegations of sexual misconduct.
UNITED STATES
Cyclist waits on new bike
A 254kg man biking across the nation to lose weight hit a snag in Rhode Island. The Newport Daily News reported that a bent rim on Eric Hites’ bicycle has kept him in Tiverton since late last week, 145km from where his ride began in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Newport Bicycle is outfitting Hites with a new bike that can withstand his weight. In two weeks on the road, the 40-year-old says he has lost 27kg. Hites says he has always been a big person. He hopes to lose lots of weight and gather material for a second book. He previously authored a humorous cookbook entitled Everybody Loves Ramen, which includes 50 recipes he developed in college.
UNITED STATES
Teacher pleads brain defect
The attorney for a New Jersey high-school teacher accused of having sex with six male students said she has a brain condition that left her defenseless to the students’ aggressive behavior. Nicole DuFault of Caldwell pleaded not guilty in April to aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment charges. Her attorney, Timothy Smith, told NJ.com that the 36-year-old teacher suffers from “frontal lobe syndrome,” a condition that experts say is associated with socially inappropriate behavior. It also leaves people unable to control impulses, among other symptoms.
UNITED STATES
Teens sex rate drops
The ratio of teenagers who have had sex has dropped significantly over the past quarter-century, with less than half of 15 to 19-year-olds reporting they had a sexual experience, the National Center for Health Statistics said on Wednesday. Fourty-four percent of never-married females in that age group reported having had sex at least once, down from 58 percent, who said they had done so in a survey released in 1988, data showed. The prevalence of sexual activity among teen males also dropped to 47 percent from 69 percent over the same period. The center’s National Survey of Family Growth surveyed 1,037 female and 1,088 male teenagers from 2011 to 2013.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing