'Stranded' Astronauts Closer to Coming Home after Next ISS Launch

This image provided by NASA shows four astronauts completing a countdown dress rehearsal on March 9, 20295, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ahead of their planned SpaceX launch. From left, Russia's Kirill Peskov, NASA's Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain, and Japan's Takuta Onishi. (NASA via AP)
This image provided by NASA shows four astronauts completing a countdown dress rehearsal on March 9, 20295, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ahead of their planned SpaceX launch. From left, Russia's Kirill Peskov, NASA's Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain, and Japan's Takuta Onishi. (NASA via AP)
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'Stranded' Astronauts Closer to Coming Home after Next ISS Launch

This image provided by NASA shows four astronauts completing a countdown dress rehearsal on March 9, 20295, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ahead of their planned SpaceX launch. From left, Russia's Kirill Peskov, NASA's Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain, and Japan's Takuta Onishi. (NASA via AP)
This image provided by NASA shows four astronauts completing a countdown dress rehearsal on March 9, 20295, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ahead of their planned SpaceX launch. From left, Russia's Kirill Peskov, NASA's Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain, and Japan's Takuta Onishi. (NASA via AP)

A routine crew rotation at the International Space Station has taken on unusual significance: It paves the way for a pair of astronauts stranded for more than nine months to finally come home.
The NASA-SpaceX Crew-10 mission is set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:48 PM (2348 GMT) on Wednesday. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carries a Crew Dragon capsule with a four-member team on a scientific expedition to the orbital lab, AFP said.
All eyes however will be on astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who have been stuck aboard the ISS since June after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft developed propulsion issues and was deemed unfit for their return.
The pair, initially slated for an eight-day mission, were reassigned to Crew-9 after its astronauts arrived in September aboard a SpaceX Dragon. The spacecraft carried only two crew members instead of the usual four to make room for Wilmore and Williams. Crew-9 will remain in orbit until Crew-10 arrives.
"We came up prepared to stay long, even though we plan to stay short," Wilmore said in a recent news conference. "That's what your nation's human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies."
Crew-10 is expected to dock early Thursday, followed by a brief handover before Crew-9 departs on March 16 for an ocean splashdown off the Florida coast, weather permitting. Along with Wilmore and Williams, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will also be aboard the returning Dragon capsule.
Wilmore and Williams's prolonged stay has recently become a political flashpoint, as President Donald Trump and his close advisor Elon Musk have accused ex-president Joe Biden's administration of abandoning the pair.
SpaceX boss Musk has suggested, without providing specifics, that he had offered Biden a "rescue" mission outside of the routine crew rotations.
However, with Trump now in office for nearly two months, the astronauts are still set to return as originally planned.
The issue recently sparked a heated online exchange between Musk and Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen, whom Musk called "fully retarded." Retired astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly and Chris Hadfield defended Mogensen.
One astronaut who backed Musk however was Wilmore, who offered contradictory statements in last week's press conference.
"I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says is absolutely factual," he said, seemingly endorsing the SpaceX founder's version of events, before adding "politics is not playing into this at all."
"We have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk, and obviously respect and admiration for our president of the United States, Donald Trump. We appreciate them... and we're thankful that they are in the positions they're in," he continued.
The Crew-10 team consists of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi, and Russia's Kirill Peskov.

During their mission, they will conduct a range of scientific experiments, including flammability tests for future spacecraft designs and research into the effects of space on the human body.



Diriyah Company Awards Contract for Development of Grand Mosque in Diriyah’s Second Phase

Designed by award-winning firm X Architects, the mosque will accommodate 11,400 worshippers. (SPA)
Designed by award-winning firm X Architects, the mosque will accommodate 11,400 worshippers. (SPA)
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Diriyah Company Awards Contract for Development of Grand Mosque in Diriyah’s Second Phase

Designed by award-winning firm X Architects, the mosque will accommodate 11,400 worshippers. (SPA)
Designed by award-winning firm X Architects, the mosque will accommodate 11,400 worshippers. (SPA)

Diriyah Company said on Wednesday that it has signed an approximately $244 million (SAR917 million) joint venture contract for the development of the Grand Mosque in Diriyah’s second phase with AlMajal AlArabi Group and MAN Enterprise AlSaudia LLC.

Designed by award-winning firm X Architects, the mosque will accommodate 11,400 worshippers, up to 5,240 worshippers indoors and 6,160 outdoors, across a gross floor area of 12,320 square meters, said Diriyah in a statement.

"The Grand Mosque in the second phase of the Diriyah masterplan will become a proud symbol of an urban development that is being built around the historic birthplace of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," it added, saying that its plaza will host community prayers for significant occasions, such as Eid and Ramadan.

The mosque will also serve as a gathering space for community events, including book fairs, cultural activities, and local produce markets on Fridays and weekends. It will include separate male and female prayer halls, ablution areas, a library overlooking Wadi Hanifah, and facility management offices.

The Diriyah’s Grand Mosque will feature a unique architectural style that integrates modern engineering with Najdi-inspired design, featuring distinctive façades, iconic architecture, and an elegant interior design.

In line with all assets across the Diriyah development area, the Grand Mosque in Diriyah’s second phase is designed to achieve LEED Gold and Mostadam Gold green building certification. "This will be helped by its use of a 3D mesh which allows ample natural sunlight to enter the building while reducing heat impact, ensuring comfort within the prayer hall," said the statement.

The mosque will also be fully integrated into Diriyah’s smart city infrastructure, with water supply, irrigation, power consumption, LEED and Mostadam monitoring, Fire and Life Safety (FLS), and security systems all connected to the central Diriyah Operations Center.

Diriyah Company Group CEO Jerry Inzerillo said: "The Grand Mosque in Diriyah’s second phase will be a landmark place of worship through its serene Najdi-inspired design."

The Grand Mosque in the second phase of the Diriyah masterplan will be one of 31 mosques planned for Diriyah, contributing to 74,300 square meters of dedicated religious space.

Developed on the outskirts of Riyadh, Diriyah is one of Saudi Arabia’s giga-projects backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF). "The integrated urban development project aims to build homes for an estimated 100,000 people, create over 180,000 jobs, attract 50 million visits annually by 2030, and contribute nearly $18.6 billion directly to Saudi Arabia’s GDP," said the statement.


Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi Share Nobel Prize in Chemistry 

(LtoR) Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, Hans Ellegren, Secretary General of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Olof Ramstroem, Member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, address a press conference to announce the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 8, 2025. (AFP)
(LtoR) Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, Hans Ellegren, Secretary General of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Olof Ramstroem, Member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, address a press conference to announce the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 8, 2025. (AFP)
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Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi Share Nobel Prize in Chemistry 

(LtoR) Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, Hans Ellegren, Secretary General of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Olof Ramstroem, Member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, address a press conference to announce the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 8, 2025. (AFP)
(LtoR) Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, Hans Ellegren, Secretary General of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Olof Ramstroem, Member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, address a press conference to announce the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 8, 2025. (AFP)

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi share the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work in the development of metal–organic frameworks.

Hans Ellegren, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced the chemistry prize in Stockholm on Wednesday. It was the third prize announced this week.

Robson is affiliated with the University of Melbourne in Australia, Kitagawa with Japan’s Kyoto University and Yaghi with the University of California, Berkeley.

There have been 116 chemistry prizes given to 195 individuals between 1901 and 2024.

The 2024 prize was awarded to David Baker, a biochemist at the University of Washington in Seattle, and to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, computer scientists at Google DeepMind, a British-American artificial intelligence research laboratory based in London.

The three were awarded for discovering powerful techniques to decode and even design novel proteins, the building blocks of life. Their work used advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, and holds the potential to transform how new drugs and other materials are made.

The first Nobel of 2025 was announced Monday. The prize in medicine went to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.

Tuesday's physics prize went to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis for their research on the weird world of subatomic quantum tunneling that advances the power of everyday digital communications and computing.

This year's Nobel announcements continue with the literature prize Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics prize next Monday.

The award ceremony will be held Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, who founded the prizes. Nobel was a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite. He died in 1896.


Bear Injures Two in Japan Supermarket, Man Killed in Separate Attack 

This handout photo taken on October 7, 2025 and released by Gunma Prefectural Police via Jiji Press shows a CCTV camera footage of a bear walking inside a supermarket in Numata, Gunma prefecture. (AFP / Gunma Prefectural Police via Jiji Press)
This handout photo taken on October 7, 2025 and released by Gunma Prefectural Police via Jiji Press shows a CCTV camera footage of a bear walking inside a supermarket in Numata, Gunma prefecture. (AFP / Gunma Prefectural Police via Jiji Press)
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Bear Injures Two in Japan Supermarket, Man Killed in Separate Attack 

This handout photo taken on October 7, 2025 and released by Gunma Prefectural Police via Jiji Press shows a CCTV camera footage of a bear walking inside a supermarket in Numata, Gunma prefecture. (AFP / Gunma Prefectural Police via Jiji Press)
This handout photo taken on October 7, 2025 and released by Gunma Prefectural Police via Jiji Press shows a CCTV camera footage of a bear walking inside a supermarket in Numata, Gunma prefecture. (AFP / Gunma Prefectural Police via Jiji Press)

An agitated bear roamed the aisles of a supermarket in central Japan, injuring two men and frightening shoppers while separately a man was found dead in a suspected mauling, officials and reports said Wednesday.

More and more wild bears have been spotted in Japan in recent years, even in residential areas, due to factors including a declining human population and climate change.

A man was found dead on a mountain Wednesday in northern Iwate region after another suspected bear attack, according to public broadcaster NHK, citing police.

Separately, the 1.4-meter (4.5-foot) adult bear that entered the supermarket Tuesday evening -- in Numata, Gunma, north of Tokyo -- lightly injured a man in his 70s and another in his 60s, regional police and fire officials said.

The store is close to mountainous areas, but has never had bears come near before, Hiroshi Horikawa, a management planning official at the grocery store chain, told AFP.

"It entered from the main entrance and stayed inside for roughly four minutes," he said.

"It almost climbed onto the fish case and damaged glass. In the fruits section, it knocked over a pile of avocados and stamped on them," he added.

The store's manager told local media that around 30 to 40 customers were inside at the time, and that the bear became agitated as it struggled to find the exit.

Between April and September 108 people nationwide suffered injuries caused by bears, including five deaths, according to the environment ministry.

Also on Tuesday, a farmer in Iwate region was scratched and bitten by a bear, accompanied by a cub, just outside his house.

A Spanish tourist on Sunday was attacked by a bear at a bus stop in scenic Shirakawa-go village in central Japan.