American, 2 Russians return to Earth from space station

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APRIL 17, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | In this photo provided by NASA, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov is seen outside the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft after he, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Saturday, April 17, 2021. Ryzhikov, Rubins and Kud-Sverchkov returned after 185 days in space having served as Expedition 63-64 crew members onboard the International Space Station. (NASA via AP)

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) — An American astronaut and two Russians have returned to Earth after six months aboard the International Space Station.

A Soyuz space capsule carrying NASA’s Kate Rubins and Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov landed at 0455 GMT (12:55 a.m. EDT) Saturday in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, said all three were feeling well after they were extracted from the capsule and began reacclimating to the pull of gravity.

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Lawsuit over Indonesia 737 crash claims autothrottle problem

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SEATTLE , United States (AP) — A lawsuit filed in Seattle against Boeing alleges that a malfunctioning autothrottle system on an older 737 jet led to the crash of the Sriwijaya Air plane into the Java Sea in Indonesia last January, killing all 62 people on board.

The Seattle Times reported that the lawsuit, filed Thursday in King County Superior Court on behalf of 16 families of crash victims, cited previous incidents involving malfunctions of the 737 autothrottle system, arguing the history suggests the system should have been redesigned.

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Bangkok nightlife clusters expose Thailand’s virus stumbles

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APRIL 15, 2021 @ 0800 GMT | FILE – In this Feb. 24, 2021, file photo, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha holds samples of Sinovac vaccine during a ceremony to mark the arrival of 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine shipment at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Prayuth was not particularly lauded for his leadership last year against the coronavirus, but for much of 2020 Thailand fought the disease to a standstill, with low infection and death rates envied by more developed countries. (AP File Photo)

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — When Thailand’s transport minister was recently diagnosed with COVID-19, it was Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha who got a headache.

Prayuth was not particularly lauded for his leadership last year against the coronavirus, but for much of 2020 Thailand fought the disease to a standstill, with low infection and death rates envied by more developed countries.

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South Africans anxious over pause in use of J&J vaccines

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APRIL 14, 2021 @ 1700 GMT | FILE – In this Feb. 17, 2021, file photo, a health care worker receives a Johnson & Johnson vaccine at a hospital in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. South Africa has suspended giving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as a “precautionary measure” following the FDA decision in the United States to pause the use of the vaccine while very rare blood clot cases are examined. (AP Photo)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s decision to suspend the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to preliminary reports of rare blood clots has left the country without any shots as it struggles to combat an aggressive coronavirus variant.

South Africa has more than 1.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including at least 53,000 deaths, representing more than 30% of all the confirmed cases in Africa’s 54 countries. So far, it has only inoculated 290,00 health care workers, all with the J&J vaccine.

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Muslims mark Ramadan amid virus surge and new restrictions

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APRIL 14, 2021 @ 1700 GMT | Muslims pray during the first dawn prayers of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, around the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, as they keep social distancing to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, April 13, 2021. During Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar, Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from dawn to dusk. (AP Photo)

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Muslims in many parts of the world marked the start of Ramadan on Tuesday, but a spike in coronavirus cases in several countries has once again put curbs on the holy month’s signature feasts and lengthy prayers in mosques.

Still, there were glimmers that Ramadan 2021 could feel less restricted than last year, when Islam’s holiest period coincided with the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Mosques have since reopened and limits on movement have eased as vaccine rollouts continue in Muslim-majority nations. Clerics in such places as Indonesia have issued assurances the vaccine does not break one’s daytime fast.

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Soviet cosmonaut made pioneering spaceflight 60 years ago

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APRIL 12, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | FILE – This Monday, April 11, 2011 file photo shows an undated portrait of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, and his award of the Hero of the Soviet Union, at right, as part of an exhibition dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first man in space, in Moscow, Russia. The successful one-orbit flight on April 12, 1961 made the 27-year-old Gagarin a national hero and cemented Soviet supremacy in space until the United States put a man on the moon more than eight years later. (AP File Photo)

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) — Crushed into the pilot’s seat by heavy G-forces, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin saw flames outside his spacecraft and prepared to die. His voice broke the tense silence at ground control: “I’m burning. Goodbye, comrades.”

Gagarin didn’t know that the blazing inferno he observed through a porthole was a cloud of plasma engulfing Vostok 1 during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and he was still on track to return safely.

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Russia says troop buildup near Ukraine is a response to NATO

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APRIL 11, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | In this handout photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, Russian nuclear submarines Prince Vladimir, above, and Yekaterinburg stay berthside at a Russian naval base in Gazhiyevo, Kola Peninsula, Russia, Russia, Tuesday, April 13, 2021. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday described a massive military buildup in western Russia as part of drills intended to check the armed forces’ readiness amid the threats posed by NATO. (Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) — Russia’s defense minister said Tuesday that the country’s massive military buildup in the west was part of readiness drills amid what he described as threats from NATO.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the maneuvers in western Russia that have worried neighboring Ukraine and brought warnings from NATO would last for another two weeks.

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Brazil’s virus outlook darkens amid vaccine supply snags

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APRIL 11, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | Mobile Emergency Care Service (SAMU) workers Gabrielle Carlos, top, and Joao Vericimo, move a COVID-19 patient to an ambulance as he is transferred to a municipal hospital dedicated to COVID-19 in Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Tuesday, April 6, 2021. (AP Photo)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — April is shaping up to be Brazil’s darkest month yet in the pandemic, with hospitals struggling with a crush of patients, deaths on track for record highs and few signs of a reprieve from a troubled vaccination program in Latin America’s largest nation.

The Health Ministry has cut its outlook for vaccine supplies in April three times already, to half their initial level, and the country’s two biggest laboratories are facing supply constraints.

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Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, dies at 99

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APRIL 9, 2021 @ 1800 GMT | FILE – In this Sunday June 3, 2012 file photo, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip watches the proceedings from the royal barge during the Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames in London. Buckingham Palace says Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, has died aged 99.(AP File Photo)

LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) — Prince Philip, the irascible and tough-minded husband of Queen Elizabeth II who spent more than seven decades supporting his wife in a role that both defined and constricted his life, has died, Buckingham Palace said Friday. He was 99.

His life spanned nearly a century of European history, starting with his birth as a member of the Greek royal family and ending as Britain’s longest serving consort during a turbulent reign in which the thousand-year-old monarchy was forced to reinvent itself for the 21st century.

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N Ireland leaders call for calm after violence escalates

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APRIL 8, 2021 @ 2045 GMT | firework explodes as Nationalist and Loyalist rioters clash with one another at the peace wall on Lanark Way in West Belfast, Northern Ireland, Wednesday, April 7, 2021. The police had to close roads into the near by Protestant area as crowds from each divide attacked each other. (AP Photo)

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Authorities in Northern Ireland sought to restore calm Thursday after Protestant and Catholic youths in Belfast hurled bricks, fireworks and gasoline bombs at police and each other. It was the worst mayhem in a week of street violence in the region, where Britain’s exit from the European Union has unsettled an uneasy political balance.

Crowds including children as young as 12 or 13 clashed across a concrete “peace wall” in west Belfast that separates a British loyalist Protestant neighborhood from an Irish nationalist Catholic area. Police fired rubber bullets at the crowd, and nearby a city bus was hijacked and set on fire.

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