CHINA
Space mission to launch
The crew for the nation’s next crewed flight to its space station would include its youngest astronaut to undertake a space mission, as well as four lab mice, authorities said yesterday. The Tiangong space station is crewed by teams of three astronauts that are exchanged every six months. The Shenzhou-21 mission is to blast off today at 11:44pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China Manned Space Agency spokesman Zhang Jingbo (張靜波) said. Flight engineer Wu Fei (武飛), who has just turned 32, is set to become the youngest Chinese astronaut to undertake a space mission, authorities said. “I feel incomparably lucky,” Wu told reporters. “Being able to integrate my personal dreams into the glorious journey of China’s space program is the greatest fortune this era has bestowed upon me.” He would be commanded by veteran space pilot Zhang Lu (張陸), 48, who took part in the Shenzhou-15 mission more than two years ago. Payload specialist Zhang Hongzhang (張洪章), 39, makes up the third member of the crew. Also along for the ride are four mice — two male and two female — which would be the subjects of the nation’s first in-orbit experiments on rodents, Zhang Jingbo said. Zhang Lu said he was confident his team would “report back to our motherland and its people with complete success.”
Photo: Reuters
PAKISTAN
Peace talks to restart
Islamabad and Kabul would restart peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, three sources familiar with the matter said yesterday, a day after Islamabad said the discussions had ended in failure. Two of the sources said the nations had agreed to recommence talks at the request of host nation Turkey. Negotiation teams from both countries are in Istanbul, two of the sources said.
TURKEY
Building collapses
A seven-story apartment building in Gebze collapsed early on Wednesday, trapping a family of five under the rubble and killing four of them. State-run TRT news channel identified those who died as members of the Bilir family: father Levent, 43, mother Emine, 37, daughter Hayrunnisa, 14, and son Muhammed Emir, 12. Rescue personnel saved the eldest sibling, 18-year-old Dilara Bilir, and recovered the bodies of the younger children by Wednesday evening, but the search for the parents continued. Deputy Minister of the Interior Mehmet Aktas yesterday told reporters that the bodies of the parents were recovered overnight. While state-run Anadolu Agency said that the cause of the collapse was unknown, Gebze Mayor Zinnur Buyukgoz suggested to local media that the cause might be related to nearby metro construction.
FRANCE
Louvre suspect arrested
A third suspect has been arrested in connection with a robbery at the Louvre in Paris, TV station BFM reported yesterday. The arrest happened in the Paris region late on Wednesday, BFM said, adding that the man is suspected of being at the crime scene when the heist took place. Four hooded thieves stole jewels from the Louvre’s Apollo gallery, home to the French Crown Jewels, during opening hours on the morning of Oct. 19. Two men arrested last weekend on suspicion of breaking into the museum through an upstairs window and stealing the precious pieces have “partially admitted” their involvement in the heist, the Paris prosecutor said on Wednesday. The jewels remain missing.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
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