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.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
RSS