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The MS-17 spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of NASA Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (inset) blasts off to the ISS from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan yesterday. —AFP New crew reaches ISS in record time Emergence of private players has fuelled talk of a new ‘space race’

ALMATY, Kazakhstan: A three-person improvement on the two-day flights that Commercial Crew Program - has fuelled she began training as an astronaut. crew successfully reached the prevailed prior to 2013. Yesterday’s talk of a new “space race” between a International Space Station yesterday manned journey even beat the fastest number of countries. ‘Too US-centric’ aboard a Russian rocket after the fastest time for missions just carrying supplies to But the men and women who fly to the Ryzhikov, a 46-year-old former military ever journey from Earth of just over three the station. Only an unmanned Progress space station play down talk of competi- pilot, has spent 173 days in space com- Azerbaijan strikes hours. The mission of the Soyuz space cargo space ship has previously used this tion and focus instead on space travel’s pared to Rubins’ 115 while Kud- craft carrying two Russian cosmonauts profile which requires just two orbits ability to bring rival nations together for a Sverchkov, 37, is flying for the first time. inside Armenia as and one NASA astronaut was of immense before docking. common cause. Speaking at a pre-launch On the eve of the launch, Ryzhikov importance to Russia’s space agency press conference on Tuesday, Rubins did expressed sadness over ongoing fighting Roscosmos, coming as the SpaceX pro- ‘Incredibly lucky’ not directly reference the SpaceX flight in Nagorno-Karabakh and said he hoped fighting widens gram relaunches manned spaceflight from The launch is sandwiched between two when asked how she felt to be on board the example of the ISS could help “spread the United States and ignites fresh talk of SpaceX missions - the first manned during a new era in space exploration. love, friendship and comradeship”. BAKHARLY, Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan said yesterday it a space race between the two countries. spaceflights to the ISS under NASA’s “We don’t get to choose our launch The ISS, which has been permanently had destroyed missile launchers inside Armenia that Roscosmos said “a new record for aegis since 2011. Before May 30, when US date or what occurs on station but cer- occupied since 2000, has been a rare were targeting its cities, as fierce fighting over flights to the International Space Station Robert Behnken and Doug tainly I feel incredibly lucky to be on sta- example of cooperation between Moscow Nagorno-Karabakh risked widening beyond the dis- was set - the total time from launch to Hurley arrived at the ISS courtesy of cars tion when... these events are happening,” and Washington. Rogozin on Monday said puted region. Hundreds have already lost their lives in docking of the Soyuz MS-17 was three to rockets tycoon Elon Musk, Russia and said the American astronaut, who was cel- he did not envisage Moscow participating two weeks of fighting, and continued clashes have ren- hours and three minutes”. Roscosmos has Baikonur had enjoyed a lucrative monop- ebrating her 42nd birthday yesterday. “on a large scale” in a NASA-led Moon- dered almost meaningless a humanitarian ceasefire had the job of ferrying US astronauts to oly on manned missions to the ISS. But Stringent precautions, including orbiting station known as The Gateway. agreed in Moscow last week. the ISS since the retirement of the space their Dragon Endeavour craft only docked tighter quarantine and mask-wearing The proposed new station “is too US-cen- Armenia confirmed that military positions inside shuttle in 2011. Sergey Ryzhikov and successfully with the ISS about nineteen before launch, have been taken due to tric” Rogozin said. the country had been hit but denied its had Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos and hours after reaching orbit. the coronavirus pandemic but the astro- The Russian space program has suf- been firing into Azerbaijan. It warned that it too could NASA’s Kathleen Rubins launched from The NASA duo returned safely on Aug nauts and space officials rejected any fered a series of reverses in recent years, start targeting military sites inside its adversary’s terri- the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmod- 2 and a fresh SpaceX launch, this time concerns about a risk of infection on the most notably the failure of a Soyuz rocket tory. Clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh - where rome in Kazakhstan at 0545 GMT anticipating a full-length half-year mission ISS. “We have a very strict quarantine, in 2018 just minutes after blast-off - the Armenia-backed separatist fighters are battling Wednesday. to the space station, is expected next almost from March by my perception,” first such incident in the history of post- Azerbaijani forces - have been largely confined to Journeys to the ISS usually take month. The emergence of private players said Rubins, a microbiologist who Soviet space travel. The two astronauts on areas in and around the region since a fresh outbreak around six hours - a time that was a vast SpaceX and Boeing - part of NASA’s researched the deadly Ebola virus before board were not hurt. —AFP of fighting started last month. Direct confrontations between Armenia and Azerbaijan risk spiraling into an all-out, multi-front war ing newspapers and cigarettes was located, witnesses told with devastating consequences for both sides. Tunisians protest an AFP correspondent. Moscow has so far refused to become drawn into the The protesters also threw stones and other objects at conflict - even though Armenia is part of a regional the security forces, the interior ministry said, while the Russia-led security group - noting that the organiza- after man dies in defense ministry added that military and security forces tion’s treaty does not apply to Karabakh. had been deployed “as a precaution” to protect sensitive Overwhelmingly populated by Armenians, sites. Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi announced an Nagorno-Karabakh has been controlled by Armenians kiosk demolition enquiry into the incident, but Sbeitla residents voiced since a 1990s war that erupted as the Soviet Union fell. skepticism. “Will an enquiry tell us anything? There have Azerbaijan has never hidden its desire to win back KASSERINE, Tunisia: Angry residents took to the streets already been lots of cases like this in Tunisia,” said resident control and no state has recognized Nagorno- of an impoverished Tunisian town on Tuesday after a man Anis Ouled Ben Jama. “People die in these kind of circum- Karabakh’s declaration of independence. The latest died when authorities demolished an illegal kiosk where he stances but afterwards, nothing happens. We find the case fighting, which erupted on September 27, has been the was sleeping. The shop in Sbeitla, in the central province of has been closed.” most intense since a 1994 ceasefire, claiming more Kasserine, was demolished in the early hours on the orders SBEITLA: Tunisian protesters take to the streets of this than 600 lives, including more than 70 civilians, of local authorities, security sources told AFP. Abderrazek impoverished town on Tuesday after a man died when according to a tally based on partial tolls from both Khachnaoui, the father of the shop’s owner, was killed in Regional officials sacked authorities demolished an illegal kiosk where he was sides. Each side has accused the other of targeting the operation, according to the same sources and his son. Sbeitla, in Tunisia’s economically marginalized center, sleeping. —AFP civilian areas with shelling, missile and rocket attacks. “I was not informed of this decision... and agents of the has often seen protests in the past over lack of jobs and municipality proceeded with the destruction without investment. Young people often turn to selling newspapers Thuds of shelling checking if there was someone inside,” said the son, 25- and bread on the informal market in order to support their victim’s family. Inland regions of Tunisia have higher unem- Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said in statements year-old Oussama Khachnaoui. “My father, who was only family’s incomes while out of work. Mechichi on Tuesday ployment than the already dire national average, which is yesterday that it had destroyed ballistic missile launch- 49 years old, died on the spot. Security agents fired tear voiced his support for Khachnaoui’s family, saying he had currently at 18 percent and could top 21 percent by the end ers deployed in Armenia in two separate attacks gas at my family who had tried to approach my kiosk to sacked two top regional officials, a district security chief of the year. Khachnaoui’s death came as Tunisia prepares to overnight. The OTR-21 Tochka mobile systems were in save my father,” he told AFP. The death sparked angry and Sbeitla’s police head. mark 10 years since a revolution sparked when a young areas of Armenia bordering the Kalbajar district of protests by residents who blocked roads and set fire to a He also dispatched Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself alight to Azerbaijan that is under separatist control, it said. municipal vehicle in Sourour district, where the shop sell- “immediately” to offer “moral and material” support to the protest against police harassment. —AFP Launchers at the first site were aiming at the Azerbaijani cities of Ganja, Mingachevir and other House said authorities in dozens of countries have score assigned on a 100-point scale to 65 countries populated areas, it said. Armenian defense ministry Governments use cited the COVID-19 outbreak “to justify expanded shows a drop in internet freedom for a 10th straight spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan confirmed that mili- surveillance powers and the deployment of new year. The scale is based on 21 indicators pertaining to tary positions in the area had been hit. But she denied technologies that were once seen as too intrusive”. obstacles to access, limits on content and violations of that Armenian forces had ever fired “a single missile, shell or projectile” inside Azerbaijan. Armenia’s military pandemic to crack This is leading to increasing censorship of dis- user rights. China was the worst-ranked country for now “reserves the right to target any military installa- sent and the expansion of technological systems for the sixth consecutive year, according to the report. tions and combat movements on the territory of down on dissent social control, according to the report. “The pan- It said Chinese authorities “combined low- and Azerbaijan”, she said on . demic is accelerating society’s reliance on digital high-tech tools not only to manage the outbreak of Nagorno-Karabakh’s regional capital Stepanakert technologies at a time when the Internet is becom- the coronavirus, but also to deter Internet users was under heavy shelling and rocket fire for days WASHINGTON: Governments around the world are ing less and less free,” said Michael Abramowitz, from sharing information from independent sources using the pandemic as a justification to expand sur- before the ceasefire, forcing thousands to flee their president of the nonprofit group. “Without ade- and challenging the official narrative”. The report homes or seek shelter in basements. AFP journalists in veillance and crack down on dissent online, resulting quate safeguards for privacy and the rule of law, said these trends are showing a growing trend the city said it was quiet yesterday, after several days in a 10th consecutive annual decline in Internet free- these technologies can be easily repurposed for toward Chinese-style “digital authoritarianism” of relative calm since the ceasefire deal took effect at dom, a human rights watchdog report said yester- political repression.” globally and a “splintering” of the internet as each noon on Saturday. —AFP day. The report by Washington-based Freedom Freedom House’s index of Internet based on a government imposes its own regulations. —AFP