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[ News Briefs ]

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 April 2005, 09:00 CDT

ARKALYK, Kazakhstan

Russian capsule back from space

A Russian space capsule carrying an American, a Russian and an Italian hurtled safely home to Earth from the international space station today, landing softly on the marshy Central Asian steppes in the early morning darkness.

Search-and-rescue helicopters had spotted the capsule floating under a parachute toward its designated arrival site about 50 miles north of the Kazakh town of Arkalyk. The TMA-5 capsule then landed upright in the slush less than 3 1/2 hours after undocking from the orbiting space station, where a new crew stayed behind to prepare to welcome the first space shuttle flight after a two-year hiatus.

Russia's space program has been the only way of getting astronauts to the station since the Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003, resulting in a suspension of shuttle flights. NASA is hoping to renew the flights sometime next month.

SANTA MARIA, Calif.

Wrapping up case

Stung by several recent rulings favorable to the defense, prosecutors in the Michael Jackson child-molestation case said they planned to wrap up their case as early as this week. Jackson's trial was scheduled to resume today following a three-day break. Judge Rodney S. Melville canceled Friday's court session when witnesses were not available to testify.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip

Border control

Palestinian negotiators said Sunday they want Israel to allow movement in and out of the Gaza Strip after its withdrawal from the territory this summer, and suggested international monitors could control borders to allay Israel's security concerns.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, said that before he travels to the United States in May he might meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Bush administration has urged Israelis and Palestinians to do more to coordinate the Gaza pullout, initially envisioned by Israel as a unilateral move.

Also: Former Israeli President Ezer Weizman, a political moderate who pioneered contacts with Palestinian leaders and helped bring about the Jewish state's first peace treaty with an Arab country, has died. He was 80. Weizman, who was president from 1993 to 2000, had suffered from respiratory infections in recent months and was repeatedly hospitalized.

WASHINGTON

Relying on benefits

A group prominent in the fight against President Bush's plan to push for private accounts in Social Security says people near or in retirement are relying increasingly on the federal program, underscoring the need to protect their benefits.

The AARP was making that point in a report today on the economic and health status of Americans age 50 and older. For people in this group, the report found that the qualify of their lives was improving.

But the incomes of older people have dropped from five years ago, according to the study.

NEW YORK

Kingpin captured

An Afghan on the United States' list of most wanted drug kingpins, who allegedly provided weapons to the Taliban in exchange for protection, has been arrested, authorities said today.

U.S. Attorney David N. Kelley scheduled a morning news conference with John P. Gilbride, special agent in charge of the New York office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The name of the suspect was not immediately released, but Kelley said in a statement that the person "is believed to have close ties to the Taliban, which allegedly protected his drug operations in return for demolitions, weaponry and manpower."

Source: Cincinnati Post

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