It’s official. India is now the world’s sixth space power.
India’s victorious launch on Wednesday of its first lunar mission, the unmanned Chandrayaan-I, marked a dramatic step forward in its race with China to put a man on the moon.
Chandrayaan-1 — which means “Moon Craft” in ancient Sanskrit — launched from the Sriharikota space center in southern India in a two-year mission aimed at laying the groundwork for further Indian space expeditions.
Officials said the lift-off was a total success, with the rocket placing the craft into a transfer orbit around the …

Bangkok, Thailand – A court in Thailand sentenced former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra guilty of corruption. He was sentenced 2 years imprisonment and was handed down in absentia because Shinawatra is currently in United Kingdom.
Thaksin, 59, filed bail and fled to Britain two months ago along with his wife, Pojaman, 51, who was also charged. The Thailand Supreme Court acquitted her.
The case was started from a Bangkok land arrangement while Thaksin was in power. He was convicted of violating a law that forbids ministers or their wives from doing business …

In a newly published interview for the New York Times Magazine, the Democratic presidential candidate said: “I’m convinced that if there were no FOX News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching FOX News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak!

Afghan officials say Taliban rebels have pulled some 50 commuters off a bus and killed about 30 of them.
The police chief of Kandahar Province, where the attack took place, said that of six bodies retrieved so far, all had been beheaded and mutilated. The police had collected information that 24 others had been executed but had yet to find the bodies.
The attack occurred Thursday on the main ring road running from the city of Kandahar to the western town of Herat. It is also the major road for British and …

And now the Chinese government is crying over spilled milk.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said in an interview that his government was partly to blame for the contaminated milk scandal.

While assuring tough legislation and monitoring, the Chinese Premier said his government is to blame concerning industry regulation.

Another 1,500 workers at three General Motors Corp. plants will be laid off indefinitely over the next few months due to decreasing demand for many products, the International Herald Tribune reported on its website.
GM, which posted a $15.5 billion net loss in the second quarter, has been battling an industry sales slouch in the United States. Its 2008 U.S. sales were down nearly 18 percent through September.
GM plans to lay off 700 workers at its Pontiac Assembly plant, about 400 hourly workers each at its Wilmington, Del., assembly plant and …

A community in eastern Uganda has banned the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), an official has said.
Historically, natives of Kapchorwa believed that a woman who married without first being circumcised would be stricken for life with various illnesses.
Kapchorwa district chairman Nelson Chelimo said it was “outmoded” and “not useful” for the community’s women.
The Sabiny are the only group in Uganda that practices female circumcision, which involves cutting off a young girl’s clitoris.
“The community decided that it was not useful, that women were not getting anything out of it, so …

International Space Station
The spacecraft Soyuz which blasted off on Sunday from Khazakstan was already on International Space Station (ISS). The Soyuz crew consists of 5 people and multi-millionaire spaceflight participant Richard Garriott boarded the ISS at 4:38 a.m. EDT.
Richard Garriott whose father was a former astronaut Owen Garriott was welcomed by cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, whose father is also a veteran of the Russia space program.
Garriot who shed a huge portion of his money will stay on the facility until October 24. He will gather photos and information for his sponsors …

Authorities are becoming concerned that the economic woes could turn more violent, and they are advising people to get assistance. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full, the Associated Press reported.
A laid off money manager in California loses his wealth and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. A 90-year-old widow from Ohio shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to expel her from the house she called home for 38 years.
“A lot of people are telling …

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan – The spacecraft Soyuz blasted off early this Sunday from Khazakstan. The crew consisting of 6 people namely: Commander E. Michael Fincke, Flight Engineers Yury V. Lonchakov, Gregory E. Chamitoff, Sandra H. Magnus, Koichi Wakata and a spaceflight participant Richard Garriott.
Richard Garriott is a computer game-developer multi-millionaire. He is a private passenger aboard a Soyuz capsule, having paid the Russian space agency $30 million for the privilege and undergone a year’s training.
The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft has penetrated the orbit and will be docking with the ISS in …

Scientists have found 274 new marine species beneath the surface of the ocean near Australia.