UAE announces first astronauts to go to space
AFP, Dubai
The United Arab Emirates has selected its first two astronauts to go on a mission to the International Space Station, Dubai’s ruler said Monday.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum named the new astronauts as Hazza al-Mansouri, 34, and 37-year-old Sultan al-Neyadi. Writing on Twitter, he said the duo “raise the bar of ambitions for future Emirati generations”.
New French school year begins amid mobile phone ban
AFP, Paris
Texting under the table should be a thing of the past after French children returned to class Monday following a nationwide ban on mobile phones in schools.
The new rule, a campaign pledge of President Emmanuel Macron, was brought in under a law passed in July which for primary and junior schools also banishes tablets and smart watches.
US service member killed in Afghanistan
Reuters, Kabul
A U.S. service member was killed and another wounded in an apparent insider attack in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement.
The service member, who has not been identified, was the sixth American to be killed in Afghanistan this year.
The incident came two months after a member of a U.S. army training unit was shot dead by an Afghan soldier in the southern province of Uruzgan.
8 killed in S African ammunition
plant blast
AFP, Cape Town
Eight people were killed Monday in an explosion at a munitions factory near Cape Town in South Africa, a city official said.
Local residents reported that nearby houses shook from the blast, which sent a plume of white smoke into the air above the Rheinmetall-Denel plant in Somerset West when it erupted at 3:45 pm (1345 GMT).
