American, 2 Russians back from space
MOSCOW -- A trio of space travelers safely returned to Earth on Thursday after a six-month mission on the International Space Station.
The Soyuz MS-16 capsule carrying NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, and Roscosmos' Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan early Thursday. After a medical checkup, Cassidy will board a NASA plane back to Houston, while Vagner and Ivanishin will fly home to Star City in Russia.
The crew members smiled as they talked to masked members of the recovery team, and NASA and Roscosmos reported that they were in good condition.
Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner spent 196 days in orbit, having arrived at the station on April 9. They left behind NASA's Kate Rubins and Roscosmos' Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who arrived at the orbiting outpost a week ago for a six-month stay.
Cassidy, returning from his third space mission, has now spent a total 378 days in space, the fifth-longest among U.S. astronauts.
Vatican, China renew pact on bishops
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican and China extended a controversial accord on bishop nominations Thursday over opposition from the White House and conservative Catholics given Beijing's crackdown on religious believers.
The Holy See and Beijing government jointly announced a two-year extension to the 2018 agreement, which expired Thursday.
The Vatican justified the extension by saying the agreement was purely ecclesiastic and pastoral in nature, not political.
In an unsigned article accompanying the announcement, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said the Vatican "does not fail to attract the attention of the Chinese government to encourage a more fruitful exercise of religious freedom."
The agreement, which has never been published, envisages a process of dialogue in selecting bishops though Pope Francis has said he has the final word. The Vatican signed it in 2018 in hopes it would help unite China's Catholics, who for seven decades have been split between those belonging to an official, state-sanctioned church and an underground church loyal to Rome.
The Vatican has defended the 2018 accord against criticism that Francis sold out the underground faithful, saying the deal was necessary to prevent an even worse schism in the Chinese church after Beijing named bishops without the pope's consent.
Emergency lifted in restive Thailand
BANGKOK -- Thailand's government on Thursday canceled a state of emergency that it had declared last week for Bangkok in a gesture offered by the prime minister to cool student-led protests seeking democracy changes.
The decree had banned public gatherings of more than four people and allowed censorship of the media, among other provisions. It was challenged in court by an opposition party and university students.
The revocation of the emergency decree, effective at noon Thursday, declared that the situation had been mitigated and could now be dealt with by existing laws.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha went on national television on Wednesday night to appeal to the protesters to reduce political tensions and promised to lift the emergency measure.
As he was speaking, protesters marched near Government House, his office, to demand he step down. They also asked for the release of their colleagues who were arrested for earlier protests.
They said that if their demands were not met, they would return in three days. There were no large demonstrations on Thursday.
The protesters are pressing for a more democratic constitution and changes to the monarchy.
Greek ex-lawmakers to start jail stints
ATHENS, Greece -- Former lawmakers of Greece's right-wing Golden Dawn party began surrendering to authorities Thursday, after a court ordered their imprisonment for running the party like a criminal organization.
In the final act of a marathon five-year, politically charged trial, the three-judge panel ordered 39 people, including 13 former lawmakers, jailed, rejecting appeals for suspended sentences. It ruled 12 others, including five former lawmakers, would remain free pending their appeals.
Thursday's decision was announced after two weeks of summations by defense lawyers after the prosecutor's recommendation that all former Golden Dawn lawmakers be allowed to remain free pending appeal. The appeals process could take several years.
Those surrendering to authorities Thursday included party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and other former lawmakers who were convicted of leading a criminal organization. Michaloliakos and another five former lawmakers received 13-year prison sentences, while a sixth was sentenced to 10 years.
"I am proud to be going to jail for my ideas. Some people at some time will be ashamed for taking this decision," Michaloliakos told reporters outside his Athens home after the court decision was announced. "We will be vindicated by history and by the Greek people."