L A T E S T      N E W S

Sunita Williams returns from space

Almaty/Houston: Record-setting Indian- American Sunita Williams along with two fellow astronauts safely returned to Earth today from the International Space Station, touching down on the steppes of central Kazakhstan, after spending four months in orbit.

It was a perfect landing for Williams and two astronauts, Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Aki Hoshide, as they touched down in the dark, chilly expanses of central Kazakhstan on board a Russian Soyuz capsule.

The three astronauts landed at 0726 IST in the town of Arkalyk.

Helicopters rushed with the search-and-recovery crew to assist them, as their capsule parachuted down some 35 kilometres from the planned touchdown site due to a procedural delay.

Another three astronauts remain on board the International Space Station (ISS) and will return next year.

Earlier, the trio bid farewell to their fellow astronauts at the ISS, Flight Engineers Kevin Ford, Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy. The trio undocked from the Rassvet module of te ISS yesterday.

The return of Williams, Hoshide and Malenchenko has wrapped up a 127-day space journey for them, since their launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 15, this year, including 125 days spent aboard the ISS.

Israel raids kill 31 in Gaza as truce efforts intensify

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories): Israeli air strikes have killed 31 Palestinians in the bloodiest day so far of its air campaign on the Gaza Strip, as diplomatic efforts to broker a truce intensified.

With Egypt at the centre of efforts to broker a ceasefire, Palestinian officials said it was possible a deal would be reached "today or tomorrow".

But there was no letup in the bloodshed in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Medics said women and children accounted for most of yesterday's dead, among them five babies and toddlers, killed in yesterday's Israeli air strikes.

In the day's most lethal raid, at least nine members of the same family -- five of them children -- were among 10 people killed when an Israeli missile destroyed a family home in Gaza City, the health ministry said.

At the scene, medics and bystanders all pitched in to remove the rubble to dig out the bodies in the hope of finding survivors, as people watched in shock, some weeping openly.

The latest violence hiked the Palestinian casualty toll to 77 dead and 700 injured in some 100 hours of raids, while three Israelis have been killed and more than 50 injured by rocket fire since Wednesday.

An Israeli air strike in the early hours of today morning leveled the Abbas police headquarters in Gaza City, but nobody was killed.

No Mumbai bandh today 

Mumbai: A day after lakhs of Mumbaikars bid tearful adieu to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the maximum is slowly returning to normalcy on Monday.

Fears of a continued shutdown in Maharashtra, especially in Greater Mumbai, was assuaged to a large extent after Shiv Sena denied having declared a Mumbai bandh today. As if on cue most taxis, autos are back on the roads. BEST buses and local trains are also operating as per their normal schedule.

While retains outlets, especially chemists shops, opened today, several traders’ association have decided to close markets to observe ‘Shradhanjali Day' as a mark of respect for the Maratha strongman. Federation of Associations of Maharashtra (FAM), that has Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) and markets dealing in grains, sugar, dry fruits, metal, iron and steel and chemicals affiliated to it, would be observing a bandh throughout Maharashtra.