India's space agency launched a rocket on Friday that will attempt to land a spacecraft at the lunar south pole, an unprecedented feat that would advance India's position as a major space power.
Television footage showed the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) LVM3 launch rocket blast off from the country's main spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, leaving behind a plume of smoke and fire.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission is designed to deploy a lander and rover near the moon's south pole around Aug. 23.
Only three other space agencies - the United States, the former Soviet Union and China - have touched down a lander on the moon's surface. None have landed near the lunar south pole.
The third Chandrayaan, which means "moon vehicle" in Sanskrit, includes a 2m tall lander designed to deploy a rover near the lunar south pole, where it is expected to remain functional for two weeks running a series of experiments.
ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2020 successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander and rover were destroyed in a crash near where the Chandrayan-3 will attempt a touchdown.
A man missing for more than 26 years has been found alive in his neighbour's cellar, just a few hundred metres from his family home. Omar bin Omran was reportedly kidnapped as a teenager and was discovered on Sunday.
China will always be a good neighbor, friend and partner of mutual trust with Russia, the state television quoted China president Xi Jinping as saying, as he mets Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in a life-threatening condition after he was shot in an assassination attempt when leaving a government meeting on Wednesday, a government minister said.
US President Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump on Wednesday agreed to face off in two debates on June 27 and Sept. 10, setting up the highest stakes moments yet of the race for the White House.
The number of people killed by weekend flash floods and mud slides in Indonesia's West Sumatra province has risen to 67 and 20 are still missing, authorities said on Thursday, as the government plans to relocate survivors to safer areas.