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UK-bound Air India plane makes
emergency landing in Moscow
MOSCOW: An Air India Boeing 787-800 passenger plane en route from India to Britain made a precautionary landing in Moscow on Wednesday due to “technical problems”, Sheremetyevo Airport said. The plane, en route from New Delhi to Birmingham, landed safely without any injuries to all 258 passengers and 17 crew members. The scheduled departure time of the flight was set for 2135 Moscow time (1835 GMT). In July, an Air India plane operating from Delhi to San Francisco made a precautionary landing in the Russian region of Siberia after the cockpit crew detected a potential issue in the cargo hold area. — Reuters
Cambodia says China to
hand over two warships
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia said Thursday that China will soon hand over two warships to improve its defense capabilities, despite US fears about Beijing boosting its military influence in the strategic Gulf of Thailand. Cambodia is a close ally of Beijing and Washington has long harbored concerns about the Chinese-funded renovation of the kingdom’s Ream naval base. Maly Socheata, a spokeswoman for the Cambodian defense ministry, told AFP that China would send the two new so-called Type 056C corvettes next year, at the earliest. — AFP
India hands back Bangladesh
teen shot dead on border
GUWAHATI: Indian officers handed the body of a 14-year-old girl back to Bangladesh on Thursday after she was found shot dead near the border, with a top Indian official vowing to stop “infiltration”. Neighborly relations have been strained by the student-led uprising that toppled Bangladesh’s leader Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India on August 5. Since Hasina’s ousting, Indian security forces have detained or sent back dozens of Bangladeshis accused of trying to sneak across the border. — AFP
New French nuclear reactor
enters automatic shutdown
PARIS: France’s newest nuclear reactor, plagued by massive delays and cost overruns, shut itself down automatically Wednesday just a day after starting up for the first time. The European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) in Flamanville, Normandy is going through a “long and complex startup process requiring many trials and tests, and that can induce shutdowns like this,” a spokeswoman for state-owned energy giant EDF told AFP. — AFP
Small meteor lights
up Philippine sky
MANILA: A small, bright meteor lit up skies over the northern Philippines early Thursday as it burned up entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the European Space Agency and witnesses said. The one-meter (3.3-foot) space rock, named 2024 RW1, collided with the Earth’s atmosphere shortly after midnight (1639 GMT Wednesday) and caused a “harmless” but “spectacular fireball” over the Philippines’ Luzon island, the ESA said. — AFP