Launch to space station safely aborted
MOSCOW -- Russia aborted the launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station moments before they were scheduled to lift off Thursday, but the crew was safe, officials said.
The Russian Soyuz rocket was to carry NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan.
The launch was aborted by an automatic safety system about 20 seconds before the scheduled liftoff at 1321 GMT. Russia's Roscosmos space corporation and NASA said the crew was safe, and Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov said the next launch attempt is set for Saturday.
Borisov told reporters that experts quickly pinpointed the cause of the launch abort, saying it was triggered by a voltage drop in a power source.
For Dyson, it was to be her third trip to the orbital complex, where she was due to spend six months. Novitsky, who was to make his fourth flight to the orbiting outpost, and Vasilevskaya, on her first space mission as her country's first astronaut, were set to return to Earth after spending 12 days in orbit.
Roadside bomb kills 2 Pakistan soldiers
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- A roadside bomb exploded near a security convoy in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing two soldiers and wounding 15 others, officials said.
The attack happened in Dera Ismail Khan, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, said Inayat Ullah, head of the police bomb disposal unit in the region.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, which has claimed previous attacks on security forces. The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, is a separate group that has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
On Monday, Pakistan targeted the group's hideouts in Afghanistan, drawing condemnations from Kabul.
Pakistan says Afghanistan's Taliban rulers are giving shelter to the group's fighters across the unruly border. The Afghan Taliban government insists it doesn't allow anyone to use Afghan soil for violence in any country.
Sudan, neighbors to get $47M in U.S. aid
CAIRO -- The U.S. announced more than $47 million in humanitarian aid for war-torn Sudan and two neighboring countries, to which at least a million people have fled in the nearly 1-year-old conflict.
The aid package is expected to help alleviate the suffering of nearly 25 million people, including refugees who have fled Sudan into Chad and South Sudan, according to a statement Wednesday from the U.S. State Department.
"This U.S. humanitarian assistance provides critical life-saving assistance including food, water and sanitation facilities, shelter, medical services including mental health support, and protection to Sudanese fleeing the conflict," it said.
The fresh funds bring to more than $968 million the total U.S. humanitarian aid for Sudan since last year, the statement said.
Sudan plunged into chaos last April, when long-simmering tensions between its military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum. Thousands have been killed.
Vatican defrocks abusive Belgian bishop
ROME -- Pope Francis on Thursday defrocked a notorious Belgian bishop who admitted 14 years ago that he sexually abused his nephew but faced no Vatican punishment.
The case of Roger Vangheluwe, the emeritus bishop of Brugge, long ago became a symbol of the Catholic Church's hypocrisy and dysfunction in dealing with cases of abuse. Not only was he allowed to quietly retire after the scandal broke in 2010, but the head of the Belgian church at the time, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, was caught on tape asking one of his victims to keep his abuse secret until the bishop left office.
The Vatican announcement that Francis had laicized Vangheluwe came a few months before the pope is due to visit Belgium, where the case would have been an unwelcome and problematic distraction.
Vangheluwe, 87, shot to international infamy in 2010 amid disclosures he had sexually abused his young nephew for more than a dozen years when he was a priest and later a bishop. He later admitted he also abused a second nephew. All along, he made light of his crimes, describing his abuse as "a little game" that didn't involve "rough sex."
The Vatican embassy in Belgium said in a statement Thursday that in recent months "grave new elements" had been reported to the Holy See's sex abuse office that justified reopening the case.
It didn't say what new information had been received. In recent months Belgium's own bishops have grown increasingly public in their stated anger at the Vatican's refusal to take action against Vangheluwe.
In this photo taken from video released by Roscosmos space corporation, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-25 space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, stands at the launch pad after cancellation of the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Russia's Roscosmos space agency has aborted the launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station about 20 seconds before they were scheduled to lift off. Officials say the crew is safe. The Russian Soyuz rocket was to carry NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by Roscosmos space corporation, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-25 space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, stands at the launch pad after cancellation of the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Russia's Roscosmos space agency has aborted the launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station about 20 seconds before they were scheduled to lift off. Officials say the crew is safe. The Russian Soyuz rocket was to carry NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by Roscosmos space corporation, NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson sits in the Soyuz MS-25 space ship prior to cancellation of the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Russia's Roscosmos space agency has aborted the launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station about 20 seconds before they were scheduled to lift off. Officials say the crew is safe. The Russian Soyuz rocket was to carry NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by Roscosmos space corporation, Oleg Novitsky, cosmonaut of Roscosmos and Marina Vasilevskaya, cosmonaut of Belarus sit in the Soyuz MS-25 space ship prior to the cancellation of the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Russia's Roscosmos space agency has aborted the launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station about 20 seconds before they were scheduled to lift off. Officials say the crew is safe. The Russian Soyuz rocket was to carry NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation, NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, centre, Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos, bottom, and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus wave as they board to the space ship at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Russia's Roscosmos space agency has aborted the launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station about 20 seconds before they were scheduled to lift off. Officials say the crew is safe. The Russian Soyuz rocket was to carry NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, March 21, 2024 Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, centre, Belarus' crew member Marina Vasilevskaya, right, and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, left, all members of the main crew to the International Space Station (ISS), wave to their relatives as they walk to a bus prior to the launch of a Soyuz-2.1a rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
Expedition 71 NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya, right, wave as they depart the Cosmonaut Hotel to suit-up for their Soyuz launch to the International Space Station, Thursday, March 21, 2024, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.(Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Expedition 71 NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson has her Russian Sokol suit pressure checked as she and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya prepare for their Soyuz launch to the International Space Station Thursday, March 21, 2024 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)