Landing safe for 3 Russian cosmonauts
MOSCOW -- Three Russian cosmonauts returned safely on Thursday from a mission to the International Space Station.
The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft carrying Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov touched down softly at 4:57 p.m. at a designated site in the steppes of Kazakhstan about 90 miles southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan.
The trio arrived at the station in March. For Artemyev, the mission marked a third space flight that has brought his total time spent in orbit to 561 days. Matveyev and Korsakov each logged 195 days on their first missions.
As the Soyuz capsule was descending on a big striped red-and-white parachute under clear skies, Artemyev reported to the Mission Control that all members of the crew were feeling fine.
Helicopters support teams landed minutes after to recover the crew. After a quick post-flight medical exam, the cosmonauts were set to be flown to the Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow later in the day.
Iraq complains over Iranian drone strikes
BAGHDAD -- Iraq summoned the Iranian ambassador on Thursday to deliver a diplomatic complaint after a deadly drone bombing campaign, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Iranian drones targeted an Iranian-Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least nine people and wounding 32 others. The strikes took place as demonstrations continued to engulf the Islamic Republic over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who died while in the custody of the Iranian morality police.
Iran's attacks targeted positions of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan in the town of Koya, some 35 miles east of Irbil, the main city and capital of Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The group, known by the acronym KDPI, is a leftist armed opposition force banned in Iran.
The Foreign Ministry said in its statement that civilians were among those killed. It added that the Iraqi government condemned "this crime, which represented the continuation of Iranian forces' encroachment on Iraq's sovereignty."
In Washington, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel confirmed to reporters that an American citizen was killed in the rocket attacks in the Iraqi Kurdish region. He offered no additional information, citing privacy concerns, and also reiterated the U.S. condemnation of Iran for the attacks.
Burma gives economist 3 years in prison
BANGKOK -- A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted former leader Aung San Suu Kyi in another criminal case Thursday and sentenced Australian economist Sean Turnell to three years in prison for violating Myanmar's official secrets act, a legal official said.
Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that ruling military authorities adopted in 1989. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other regime opponents have refused to adopt the name change, as have the U.S. and Britain.
Suu Kyi received a three-year sentence after being convicted with Turnell under the secrets law, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information about the case.
Three members of her Cabinet were also found guilty, each receiving sentences of three years.
Turnell was also convicted of violating immigration law, for which he was given a three-year sentence to be served concurrently with the term for violating the secrets law. The 20 months he has already spent in detention will be deducted from his sentence, leaving him less than a year and a half to serve.
Turnell, 58, an associate professor in economics at Sydney's Macquarie University, had served as an adviser to Suu Kyi, who was detained in the capital Naypyitaw when her elected government was ousted by the army on Feb. 1, 2021.
Crash suspect in U.K. court via videolink
LONDON -- An American woman who fled the U.K. claiming diplomatic immunity after she was involved in a fatal traffic accident has appeared in a British court via videolink -- an apparent breakthrough in the long-deadlocked case.
Anne Sacoolas, 45, was accompanied by her lawyer during the 6-minute hearing Thursday at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, speaking only to confirm her name. The court granted her unconditional bail and scheduled the next hearing for Oct. 27.
Sacoolas was charged with causing death by dangerous driving after an August 2019 accident in which 19-year-old Harry Dunn was killed when his motorcycle collided with a car outside RAF Croughton, an air base in eastern England that is used by U.S. forces.
Sacoolas and her husband, who had been a U.S. intelligence officer at the air base, returned to America days after the accident. The U.S. government invoked diplomatic immunity on her behalf, prompting an outcry in Britain.
Dunn's family has met with politicians in the U.K. and the U.S. to demand that Sacoolas face justice in a British court. But American authorities rejected Britain's extradition request.
In his image taken from video footage provided by Iranian military Thursday, missiles launch during an attack targeting the Iraqi Kurdish region. (AP/Iranian military)