SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, launched two Americans toward orbit from Florida on Saturday in a mission that marks the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT), launching Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19-hour ride aboard the company’s newly designed Crew Dragon capsule bound for the International Space Station. The craft launched from the same pad used by NASA’s final space shuttle flight, piloted by Hurley, in 2011. Since then, NASA…
Author: Our Correspondent
An accountability court in Pakistan has issued an bench warrant against embattled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently in London for medical treatment, for failing to seem before it during a corruption case that accused him of receiving luxury vehicles and gifts from the national treasury. The court in Islamabad on Friday heard the case against Sharif, former president Asif Ali Zardari and former premier Yusuf Raza Gilani for allegedly receiving luxury vehicles and other gifts presented by foreign dignitaries, which were property of the state. The country’s anti-graft body National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed the case on…
With a promise to satisfy again, Irrfan Khan’s wife Sutapa Sikdar shared a heartwarming note remembering her actor husband and cherishing the time they spent together. Irrfan, 54, lost his battle with a rare sort of cancer and died during a Mumbai hospital on April 29. he’s survived by Sutapa and their two sons — Babil and Ayaan Quoting Sufi poet Rumi, Sutapa wrote on Facebook, “‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there’s a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down therein grass the planet is just too full to speak about.’ It’s just a matter…
Former world chess champion Viswanathan Anand finally arrived India late on Saturday after being stuck in Germany for over three months due to the travel restrictions imposed within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Yes.. Anand is going to be returning today,” the chess maestro’s wife Aruna told PTI on Saturday morning. Anand, who had boarded an Air India flight (AI-120) from Frankfurt on Friday night and landed Bengaluru via Delhi. He arrived in Bengaluru at 4.15 pm. The five-time world champion will undergo 14 days quarantine as per rules laid down by the Karnataka government. “He will complete quarantine…
Gandhi Mahal, a restaurant run by Bangladesh immigrants serving Indian cuisine in the US city of Minneapolis, faced the brunt of an angry mob who protested violently against the racially motivated killing of an African-American man by a white policeman. The restaurant was burned down during protests on Friday, just days after George Floyd died as a white policeman knelt on his neck for over five minutes. “I can’t breathe,” George Floyd kept saying even as the policeman kept asking him to “get up” before he passed out and had to be taken to a hospital. He died soon after.…
Thousands of protesters stormed the security perimeter of Barclays Center in New York as protests spread across the United States over the killing of George Floyd, a Minneapolis black man who died after being pinned by the neck under a white police officer’s knee. Police made scores of arrests at Friday’s massive demonstration in Brooklyn, loading cuffed protesters onto city buses lined up on Atlantic Avenue, shutting down a major thoroughfare. A diverse group of protesters cheered to hip hop music and tried to argue about police brutality with police officers in riot gear, who occasionally lunged into crowds to…
Yogi Adityanath asked officials to provide Rs 5,000 for the last rites of a destitute person. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday directed officials to provide an interim assistance of Rs 2,000 to those left destitute by the coronavirus lockdown and Rs 1,000 to those who do have ration cards to get foodgrains. He also asked officials to provide Rs 5,000 for the last rites of a destitute person. During a meeting to review the lockdown, he directed officials to ensure immediate treatment to destitute people having serious illness even if they are not covered under the Ayushman…
The Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee (SJTMC) Saturday recommended to the Odisha government to conduct the annual Rathayatra of Lord Jagannath in Puri sans devotees in view of the coronavirus pandemic. Rathyatra is scheduled to be held on June 23 in Puri. Keeping the SJTMC ‘s recommendation in mind, the Odisha government has asked the Indian Railways not to run trains to Puri. The SJTMC decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the SJTMC which was chaired by Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, traditionally considered the prime servitor of the deity. The committee also recommended that the state…
The centre has issued fresh guidelines for coronavirus lockdown5 as it extended the lockdown till June 30 in containment zones. The centre has given a plan for phased reopening of areas outside containment zones. Night curfew, however, will remain in force from 9 pm to 5 am across the country, the Home Ministry said in a statement, a change from 7 am to 7 pm in lockdown4. People linked to essential services are allowed to move at night. “Movement of individuals shall remain strictly prohibited between 9 pm and 5 am throughout the country, except for essential activities,” the Home…
On the first anniversary of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s second term, Mr Nadda said the last one year will be known for many bold decisions and its timely actions to deal with coronavirus have ensured that the situation remains in control in India when many big and powerful countries have found themselves “helpless”. The first year of the Modi government’s second term has been full of accomplishments and unimaginable challenges with the Prime Minister leading from the front and taking “bold and timely” decisions to combat COVID-19 crisis, Mr Nadda said. Asked about Rahul Gandhi’s remark that the…