Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and American astronaut Chris Cassidy have landed safely on Earth after spending half a year on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said. “The trio landed in a Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft at around 0320GMT on Thursday, in a remote town in Kazakhstan,’’ NASA said in a tweet. The 402km journey back to earth took about three hours and 20 minutes. Their return marks the end of a 196-day...

Officials say 12 children were killed and several others wounded in an airstrike on a mosque in Afghanistan’s northern Takhar province on Thursday. The strike occurred on Wednesday afternoon in Baharak district, where Taliban fighters had killed over 40 Afghan security forces in the early morning, provincial councilor Mohammad Azam Afzali told dpa. The provincial governor spokesman also confirmed the report. An aircraft bombarded the mosque after receiving information that Taliban fighters who were involved...