NASA astronaut Anil Menon to fly to ISS today
Washington, July 13: Anil Menon, a NASA astronaut of Indian descent, is set to embark on an eight-month mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan along with two Russian cosmonauts. The Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft is scheduled for lift-off from the Baikonur spaceport at 8:17 p.m. (IST) on Tuesday and is expected to dock at the orbital laboratory after a little over three hours. Besides Menon, Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina will be part of the 75th expedition to the ISS. The Soyuz spacecraft will dock at the ISS at 11:56 p.m. IST on Tuesday, and the astronauts will be onboard the ISS at around 1:25 am IST early Wednesday. Once aboard, the trio will join NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, and Chris Williams, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev, and Andrey Fedyaev. (PTI)
UK ex-minister murder probe taken over by police
London, July 13: Britain’s counter-terrorism police on Monday took charge of an ongoing investigation into the murder of a former Tory minister and outspoken far-right politician who was found dead in her home in south-west England. Ann Widdecombe, 78, was attacked in the small village of Haytor Vale at Dartmoor in Devon last week. Prime Minister Keir Starmer led condemnations over the “really shocking news” that shook the political establishment across party lines. A 28-year-old white British man from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, arrested on suspicion of murder on Saturday, has now been re-arrested on terrorism-related charges, Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) said. UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood took to social media to reveal that “new information and evidence” had emerged in the case, which led the CTPSE to take charge of the investigation. “The police are pursuing multiple lines of enquiry to establish the motivation for this attack,” said Mahmood, who will make a statement in Parliament with further details. (PTI)
South Korean court sentences ousted Prez to 2 years in jail
Seoul, July 13: A South Korean court on Monday sentenced ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol to two years in prison for illegally receiving manipulated opinion polls for free from a political broker, potentially helping him secure his party’s 2022 presidential bid, in return for political favours.The case is one of seven trials facing the former conservative president, who was impeached last year following a brief imposition of martial law in December 2024 that triggered South Korea’s biggest political crisis in decades. Last week, the country’s Supreme Court upheld a seven-year prison sentence against Yoon, his first case to reach the country’s highest court since the ouster. Yoon has appealed some convictions, including a February life sentence for the most serious rebellion charge stemming from his botched power grab. His lawyers said they would also appeal Monday’s ruling, calling it based on insufficient evidence. (AP)
