SHANGHAI, April 16,2022: Three Chinese astronauts returned to earth on Saturday after 183 days in space, state television reported, completing the country’s longest crewed space mission to date.
The astronauts landed nine hours after they left a key module of China’s first space station.
While in orbit, the Shenzhou-13 mission astronauts took manual control in the Tianhe living quarters module for what state media called a “docking experiment” with the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft.
Following their launch in October, the astronauts – Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and a female crew member Wang Yaping – spent 183 days in space, completing the fifth of 11 missions needed to finish the space station by the end of the year.
Shenzhou-13 was the second of four planned crewed missions to complete construction of the space station, which began last April. Shenzhou-12 returned to Earth in September.
China’s next two missions will be Tianzhou-4, a cargo spacecraft, and the three-person Shenzhou-14 mission, Shao Limin, deputy technology manager of Manned Spaceship System was quoted by state media as saying.
Barred by the United States from participating in the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit, China has spent the past decade developing technologies to build its own space station, the only one in the world other than the ISS.
China, which aims to become a space power by 2030, has successfully launched probes to explore Mars and became the first country to land a spacecraft on the far side of the Moon.
London,April16,2022: The British government has been accused of trading people like commodities after it unveiled a controversial plan to send asylum seekers on a one-way ticket 6,000km (3,700 miles) away to Rwanda.
In a speech on Thursday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said anyone who has entered the United Kingdom irregularly since the start of the year “may” be relocated to the country in central-east Africa.
“Our compassion may be infinite but our capacity to help people is not,” he said in Kent, a county in the UK’s southeast and a hotspot for refugees and migrants who cross the English Channel and land on British soil.
Johnson said “thousands of refugees” could be transported during the years under the scheme, which, he argued, would “save countless lives” and clamp down on human smugglers.
Many disagreed, however. Rights groups and refugee organisations swiftly blasted what they called a “cruel”, “inhumane” and “neo-colonial” plan, and questioned both its cost to the British taxpayers and effect on migration.
“It’s truly shocking and inhumane,” said Steve Valdez-Symonds, the refugee and migrant rights programme director at Amnesty International UK.
Aprl15,2022:Pakistan’s powerful military has dismissed deposed Prime Minister Imran Khan’s accusation that the United States had conspired to topple him in a parliamentary vote of confidence.
Khan, 69, who led the South Asian country of 220 million people for three and half years, accused Washington of backing his removal because he had visited Moscow against US advice. Washington has denied the charge.
Khan met Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, the day Russian forces invaded neighbouring Ukraine.
Khan initially blocked the no-confidence motion, saying a forum of civil and military leaders, the National Security Committee, had endorsed the alleged conspiracy.
The military’s spokesman, Major General Babar Iftikhar, denied that the country’s National Security Committee, a forum of civil and military leaders, had endorsed the alleged conspiracy.
“You can see clearly whether there’s any word of conspiracy in that statement. I don’t think so,” he told a news conference about an NSC statement this month which had expressed concern about non-diplomatic language used in a cable from a “foreign country”, widely assumed to mean the US, about the no-confidence vote.
Pakistan’s lower house of parliament eventually voted in favour of removing Khan from office on Sunday.
Opposition parties and analysts have said the military helped Khan win the election in 2018, which both have denied, but that support waned after a falling-out over the appointment of the country’s next intelligence chief late last year.
WASHINGTON, April 13,2022: U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to announce as soon as Wednesday another $750 million in military assistance for Ukraine for its fight against Russian forces, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The equipment would be funded using Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, in which the president can authorize the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency.
One of the officials said final determinations were still being made about the mix of equipment.
A senior congressional aide said the equipment to be announced would likely include heavy ground artillery systems to Ukraine, including howitzers.
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The White House said last week that it has provided more than $1.7 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine that Russia calls a “special military operation.”The congressional aide said some lawmakers had been informed within the last 24 hours about the upcoming announcement, which was expected within the next 24 to 48 hours.
Weapons shipments have included defensive anti-aircraft Stinger and anti-tank Javelin missiles, as well as ammunition and body armor.
U.S. and European leaders are being pressed by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to provide heavier arms and equipment to engage Russia in Ukraine’s eastern region, where Russia is expected to intensify its military efforts.
April 10,2022: The Pakistani parliament’s lower house will meet on Monday to vote for a new prime minister after it removed Imran Khan from the premiership in a no-confidence vote in the early hours of Sunday, the acting speaking has said.
Ayaz Sadiq, presiding over the assembly session in the absence of the ruling party members and its designated speakers, said nomination papers for candidates should be filed by 11am local time (06:00 GMT) on Sunday.
Khan, 69, lost the vote of confidence after being deserted by coalition partners who blame him for a crumbling economy and failure to deliver on his campaign promises.
Parliamentary elections are not due until August 2023. However, the opposition has said it wants early elections, but only after it delivered a political defeat to Khan and passes legislation it says is required to ensure the next polls are free and fair.
Khan’s removal extends Pakistan’s unenviable record for political instability: no prime minister has completed their full term since independence from Britain in 1947, although Khan is the first to be removed through a no-confidence vote.
PARIS, April 10 ,2022: Voters cast ballots across France on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election where far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is posing an unexpected threat to President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election hopes.
With undecided voters a crucial issue in the tight race, turnout by midday (1000 GMT) was estimated at 25.5%, down from 28.5% at the same time in 2017.
Voting booths close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), when the first, and usually reliable, exit polls will be published. Polls published before a campaign blackout suggested the most likely outcome was an April 24 Macron-Le Pen runoff.
Until just weeks ago, opinion polls pointed to an easy win for the pro-European Union, centrist Macron, who was boosted by his active diplomacy over Ukraine, a strong economic recovery and the weakness of a fragmented opposition.
“I think he’s the only one today who has the courage … to build the France of tomorrow,” Armelle Savidan, a 47-year-old human resources manager, said after casting her ballot for Macron in Paris.
But Macron’s late entry into the campaign, with only one major rally that even supporters found underwhelming, and his focus on an unpopular plan to increase the retirement age, have dented his ratings, along with steep inflation.
In contrast, the anti-immigration, eurosceptic Le Pen, 53, has been boosted by a months-long focus on cost of living issues and falling support for her far-right rival, Eric Zemmour.
Mar 08,2022: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Friday accorded its approval for supply of fortified rice throughout the Targeted Public Distribution System, Integrated Child Development Services, Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman-PM POSHAN and Other Welfare Schemes in all States and Union Territories by 2024. It will be implemented in a phased manner.
Briefing media in New Delhi after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said, said, Food Corporation of India and State Agencies are already engaged in procurement of fortified rice and so far nearly over 88 LMT of fortified rice has been procured for the supply and distribution. Mr. Thakur said, the entire cost of rice fortification of around two thousand 700 crore rupees per annum to be borne by the Centre.
ISTANBUL, April 8,2022: Turkey’s move to halt and transfer the trial of Saudi suspects over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, upon approval from Turkey’s justice ministry, is not a political decision, a high level Turkish bureaucrat said on Friday.
Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul four years ago had raised a global outcry and put pressure on Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. At the time, Ankara had been harshly critical of Saudi authorities and their handling of the investigation, but has since scaled back criticism in an effort to repair ties.
On Thursday, a Turkish court halted and transferred the case to Saudi Arabia, in a ruling that drew condemnation from rights groups.
ISLAMABAD, April 7 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s move to dissolve parliament was unconstitutional and called for lawmakers to return in two days, a decision that could spell the end of his premiership.
The former cricket star had moved to dissolve the lower chamber ahead of a no-confidence vote against him that he had looked destined to lose. The court said in its judgment that the vote would now go ahead.
The constitutional crisis has threatened economic and social stability in the nuclear-armed nation of 220 million people, with the rupee currency hitting all-time lows earlier on Thursday and foreign exchange reserves tumbling.
When opposition parties united against Khan last week to push for the no-confidence motion, the deputy speaker of parliament, a member of Khan’s party, threw out the motion, ruling it was part of a foreign conspiracy and unconstitutional.
Khan then dissolved parliament.
Thursday’s ruling could spell the premature end of Khan’s tenure in a country where no elected leader has finished their full term in office.
The 69-year-old, who steered Pakistan to cricket World Cup victory in 1992, came to power in 2018 after rallying the country behind his vision of a corruption-free, prosperous nation respected on the world stage.
But it appears that the firebrand nationalist’s fame and charisma may not be enough to keep him in power.
If Khan were to lose the no-confidence vote, the opposition could nominate its own prime minister and hold power until August 2023, by which date fresh elections have to be held.