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FILE PHOTO: A child stands near a giant screen showing the image of the Tianhe space station on the country's Space Day at China Science and Technology Museum in Beijing, China April 24, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo - 

Three Chinese astronauts returned to earth on Saturday (Apr 16) after 183 days in space, state television reported, completing the country's longest crewed space mission to date.

The astronauts landed nine hours after they left a key module of China's first space station.

While in orbit, the Shenzhou-13 mission astronauts took manual control in the Tianhe living quarters module for what state media called a "docking experiment" with the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft.

Following their launch in October, the astronauts - Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and a female crew member Wang Yaping - spent 183 days in space, completing the fifth of 11 missions needed to finish the space station by the end of the year.

Shenzhou-13 was the second of four planned crewed missions to complete construction of the space station, which began last April. Shenzhou-12 returned to Earth in September.

China's next two missions will be Tianzhou-4, a cargo spacecraft, and the three-person Shenzhou-14 mission, Shao Limin, deputy technology manager of Manned Spaceship System was quoted by state media as saying.

Barred by the United States from participating in the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit, China has spent the past decade developing technologies to build its own space station, the only one in the world other than the ISS.

China, which aims to become a space power by 2030, has successfully launched probes to explore Mars and became the first country to land a spacecraft on the far side of the Moon//CNA

The trial is being held in the former NATO headquarters which has been converted into a Belgian court (Photo: AFP/File/JOHN THYS) - 

Fourteen people charged as accomplices to militants who carried out deadly bomb and gun attacks in Paris in 2015 will go on trial in Belgium from Tuesday (Apr 19).

Proceedings will take place under high security in NATO's former headquarters and are expected to last until May 20, with a verdict likely to take several more weeks.

They are happening in parallel with a trial in Paris of 20 suspects charged in France, which opened in September and is expected to run until the end of June.

The November 2015 Paris attacks saw 130 people killed, with the Islamic State group claiming responsibility.

Assailants set off suicide belts outside the Stade de France stadium, as a group of gunmen in a car cut down people outside restaurants and bars. Three militants then killed 90 people attending a performance at the popular Bataclan music venue.

Part of the attack was planned in Belgium, according to prosecutors.

The 14 accused in the Belgian trial - 13 men and one woman - are suspected of transporting, housing or financially helping some of the perpetrators of the attacks.

Charges include driving an alleged attacker to the airport for a trip to Syria.

Some of the suspects are close to Salah Abdeslam, a 32-year-old French national who is the only surviving suspected assailant after failing to set off his bomb belt. Abdeslam is on trial in Paris.

Prosecutors allege they had knowledge of the militant group's intentions, or helped Abdeslam - who was living in the Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek - go to ground in the four months following the attacks that he was a fugitive.

One of the suspects is Abid Aberkane, Abdeslam's cousin who lived nearby him in Molenbeek. He is charged with hiding Abdeslam at his mother's house in the days before his March 2016 arrest.

Others are friends of the attacks' mastermind, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, or of two brothers who were suicide bombers during later attacks in Brussels on Mar 22, 2016 that killed 32 people.

Another is Ibrahim Abrini, brother of Mohamed Abrini, an alleged assailant who decided not blow himself up during the part of the 2016 attack in Brussels' airport.

Ibrahim Abrini is suspected of helping his brother get to Syria in June 2015, by buying him a phone.

Two of the 14 suspects charged will be tried in absentia. The two, both Belgians, are thought to have died in Syria.

They are Sammy Djedou, whose death was announced by the Pentagon in December 2016, and Youssef Bazarouj, linked to the Islamic State group's external operations cell and who is believed to have been killed in combat.

Djedou, born to an Ivorian father, went to fight in Syria in October 2012. He is the only one in the trial to be described by prosecutors as a leader of a "terrorist group".

Most of the suspects are charged with "participating in the activities of a terrorist group", which carries punishment of up to five years in prison.

Two are to be tried on linked charges: one for allegedly violating laws on guns and explosives, and the other - the only woman on trial - for allegedly providing false identity documents to the assailants in Paris and Brussels//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian Prime Minister and head of the country's delegation Denys Shmyhal attends a joint news conference after an EU-Ukraine Association Council meeting in Brussels, Belgium February 11, 2021. Francois Walschaerts/Pool via REUTERS - 

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and top Ukrainian finance officials will visit Washington next week during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, sources familiar with the plans said on Friday (Apr 15).

Shmyhal, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko are slated to meet bilaterally with finance officials from the Group of Seven countries and others, and take part in a roundtable on Ukraine to be hosted by the World Bank on Thursday, the sources said.

Thursday's event will be the first chance for key Ukrainian officials to meet in person with a host of financial officials from advanced economies since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24.

Spillovers from Russia's war in Ukraine are expected to dominate next week's meetings of senior economic officials from World Bank and IMF member countries, as well as the G7 and G20, with the IMF poised to downgrade its forecast for global growth as a result of the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on what he calls a "special military operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine.

Kyiv and its Western allies say those are bogus justifications for an unprovoked war of aggression that has driven a quarter of Ukraine's 44 million people from their homes and led to the deaths of thousands.

Thursday's meeting will be more of a roundtable than a donors conference, although both the IMF and World Bank have set up separate accounts to be able to process and relay donations, and additional pledges are expected to be announced next week.

It will give officials a chance to discuss the physical devastation and economic consequences of the war, as well as the continued functioning of Ukraine's banking and financial sector.

"Without support now, there will be no reconstruction in the future," one of the sources said.

The World Bank had no immediate comment on the event.

World Bank President David Malpass told an event in Warsaw this week that the bank was preparing a US$1.5 billion support package for Ukraine.

The IMF's executive board last week approved creation of a new account giving bilateral donors and international groups a secure way to send financial resources to Ukraine.

Canada, one of Ukraine's main supporters, has proposed disbursing up to C$1 billion dollars through the new account, which will be administered by the IMF.

The account will allow donors to provide grants and loans to help the Ukrainian government meet its balance of payments and budgetary needs and help stabilize its economy as it continues to defend against Russia's deadly invasion.

Marchenko last week said his government was seeking about €4 billion (US$4.37 billion) in foreign financing in addition to the about €3 billion it has already received to deal with a budget shortfall//CNA

Sri Lankan government doctors shout slogans against the political system during a protest near the national hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Apr 6, 2022. (Photo: AP/Eranga Jayawardena) - 

The Singapore Government will contribute US$100,000 as seed money to support the Singapore Red Cross' (SRC) public fundraising efforts for Sri Lanka's vulnerable communities.

In a statement on Friday (Apr 15), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said that the move would supplement SRC's earlier commitment pledge.

On Wednesday, the SRC committed S$100,000 for urgently-needed medical supplies and other basic necessities in aid of vulnerable communities in Sri Lanka. 

This was in response to Sri Lanka’s economic and humanitarian crisis, which has led to widespread resource shortages across the country, said the SRC in a press release on its website.

Citing the Sri Lanka Medical Association, SRC said that all hospitals in Sri Lanka lack access to imported emergency drugs and medical equipment, leading to the cessation of surgeries at several hospitals.

"The situation has compelled health authorities to curtail the operations in hospitals and also limit the issuance of medications to patients, which could result in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the country," said SRC.

It also launched a public fundraising appeal to rally donations to support these communities with medical drugs and equipment.

Sri Lanka is in the grip of its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, with severe shortages of essential goods and regular blackouts causing widespread hardship.

Demonstrations have raged across Sri Lanka for weeks as people angered by prolonged power cuts and shortages of fuel and medicine demand President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation.

An internal memo from a major state-run hospital in Colombo seen by Reuters said that only emergency, casualty and malignancy surgeries would be conducted from Apr 7 onwards because of a lack of surgical supplies.

Sri Lankans are also struggling with rocketing inflation that has hit middle-class families, with citizens overseas urged to send home money to help pay for desperately needed food and fuel after the country announced a default on its US$51 billion foreign debt//CNA