The capsule separated from the Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket as planned after taking off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is scheduled to reach the ISS around 1100 GMT on Sunday, then return to Earth next Friday.

Kim boarded his olive green armoured train at the Dong Dang border station in Vietnam before it rolled northward toward China en route to Pyongyang, kicking off a marathon 4,000-kilometre (2,500-mile) journey expected to take two and a half days.

Earlier Kim made a highly unusual stop at the stark concrete monument where the body of Vietnam’s independence hero is on display.

On historic North Korean anniversaries Kim regularly pays tribute — with the “humblest reverence”, according to the official KCNA news agency — to his predecessors, his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung, at the sprawling memorial palace on the outskirts of Pyongyang where their preserved remains lie in state.

But he is not known to have previously done anything similar for a foreign leader.

The North Korean adjusted the ribbons on a large wreath emblazoned with his name and the message “Cherishing the memory of President Ho Chi Minh” before bowing his head for no less than 48 seconds.

Kim has visited China, the North’s key diplomatic protector and main provider of trade and aid, four times but there have been no reports in either country’s state media of him going to Mao Zedong’s mausoleum in Beijing.

But Kim’s grandfather was a close friend of Ho Chi Minh and supplied him with fighter pilots and psychological warfare specialists during his war against the US-backed regime in South Vietnam.

Pictures of the two together are displayed on the noticeboard outside the Vietnamese embassy in Pyongyang.

– Single-string guitar –

Kim’s trip to Vietnam was the first by a North Korean leader since 1964, when Kim Il Sung also travelled by rail for his journey to the southeast Asian nation.

Kim boarded his own train Saturday and headed towards China, though his route was not known and it was not clear whether he would be stopping to meet President Xi Jinping along the journey.

A smiling Kim waved to crowds at the station and clasped his hands in the air as he was seen off by white-uniformed soldiers and Vietnamese officials.

“I really admire Chairman Kim Jong Un and I see him as a friendly person,” said local resident Nguyen Thuy Chi at the station.

On Friday Kim met Vietnam’s top leaders and reportedly tried his hand at playing a dan bau — a traditional single-string guitar.

Pictures in the Vietnamese press showed the grinning leader with the instrument as a crowd of Vietnamese guests — including President Nguyen Phu Trong — cheered him on.

Kim and Trump’s much-hyped second summit finished abruptly with a signing ceremony scrapped after the pair failed to reach an agreement on walking back North Korea’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Both sides said they were open to further talks, though a third summit has not been scheduled.

This time around, the only occupant on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule will be a dummy named Ripley.

But if the test goes smoothly, NASA plans to put two astronauts aboard by the end of the year.

The new capsule will blast off aboard a rocket built by SpaceX — run by billionaire Elon Musk — at 2:49 am Saturday (0749 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

It is scheduled to reach the ISS by Sunday, with a return to Earth next Friday.

“This is a critically important event in American history,” the head of the US space agency, Jim Bridenstine, told reporters, with the rocket and capsule visible behind him on the legendary launch pad where the Apollo missions to the Moon began.

“We’re on the precipice of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil again for the first time since the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011.”

The excitement was palpable at Cape Canaveral, from the space-fan volunteers guiding media on site, to the tourists who came to watch the launch light up the overcast skies.

“It’s been a long eight years,” the Kennedy Space Center’s director Bob Cabana, a former astronaut himself, said as SpaceX employees milled around the rocket.

After the shuttle program was shuttered in July 2011 after a 30-year run, NASA began outsourcing the logistics of its space missions.

It pays Russia to get its people up to the ISS orbiting research facility at a cost of $82 million a head, for a round trip.

In 2014, the US space agency awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing for them to take over this task.

But the program has suffered delays as safety requirements are much more stringent for manned flights than for unmanned missions to deploy satellites.

“We’re going to have more access to space at a better cost than at any point in human history,” said Bridenstine, adding he was “100 percent confident” that a manned flight would happen by year’s end.

– Boeing next –

Boeing also received a contract in 2014 to develop a space vessel, the Starliner. It will not be tested until April, in a mission similar to SpaceX’s.

NASA did not want to rely on just one single vehicle, in case of accidents.

“We’re going to be a customer,” Bridenstine told reporters.

Planning has been delayed by around three years, with the first manned SpaceX flight still penciled in for July, though officials frequently refer to the end of 2019 as a more realistic deadline.

“We’re going to take it day by day,” Bridenstine said of the timeline.

“Right now, the date is July and that’s what we’re planning for, but if we change that date we’ll make sure people know when it’s the right time.”

Doug Hurley, one of the two astronauts chosen for the future first manned flight, said: “We will be ready when SpaceX and NASA are ready for us to fly.”

– ‘Going to learn a ton’ –

Saturday’s flight aims to test the vessel’s reliability and safety in real-life conditions. The dummy that will ride in the capsule — which SpaceX’s Hans Koenigsmann prefers to call a “smartie” — has been nicknamed Ripley in honor of the character played by Sigourney Weaver in the “Alien” movies.

It will be fitted with monitors to test the forces that future astronauts will be subjected to on takeoff and when they return to the Earth’s atmosphere and then splash down in the Atlantic, slowed down by giant parachutes.

“We’re going to learn a ton from this mission,” said Kathy Lueders, the manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program.

For SpaceX, which Musk founded in 2002, sending an astronaut into orbit would be a culmination of years of hard work and high-risk investment.

“Every mission is important, but this is even more important, said Koenigsmann, the firm’s vice-president for build and flight reliability.

“Early on, our goal was human spaceflight,” he said. “Human spaceflight is a core value of business of SpaceX.”

In less than a decade, SpaceX has become a key partner for NASA, in addition to dominating the market for private satellite launches.

Its Falcon 9 rockets have resupplied the space station 15 times in seven years, even though one of them blew up in 2015.

During the 30-minute meeting, Anwar exchanged opinions and ideas about the progress of the nation’s digital economy and efforts to reduce the economic burden faced by the rakyat.

The Port Dickson MP shared his views about the need to better the digital economy and inject a new dimension through the continuity of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), which was the brainchild of Dr Mahathir.

“Met Tun Dr Mahathir. Managed to inform him of efforts to advance the digital economy sector in this country, and at the same time continue the MSC initiative he started,” said Anwar through his official Facebook page.

He added that the issue of the “rakyat’s pockets” and continuous efforts to strengthen the socio-economy of the people were also discussed.

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said it had viewed two videos that have begun to circulate on social media, with one allegedly showing a man calling a woman a “ratbag” and striking her during a sex act.

He is reportedly a Penrith Panthers player.

“Penrith Panthers has been made aware of a video allegedly involving a Panthers player,” the club said in a brief statement.

“The club is cooperating with the NRL integrity unit and will be making no further comment at this time.”

Australian Rugby League chairman Peter Beattie told the Telegraph: “I haven’t been briefed on it. I don’t know the details. I will wait until I am briefed.”

The Sydney Morning Herald said the videos were believed to be nine months old.

If it is proven to be a player, which is not yet the case, they face being thrown out of the game after NRL chief Todd Greenberg vowed on Friday to get tough on violence against women.

It followed Canterbury Bulldogs star Dylan Napa being fined 10 percent of his 2019 salary for appearing in several lewd videos.

Greenberg described Napa’s acts as “gross stupidity” but said he decided not to suspend him because the footage dated back five years and Napa had no knowledge of them being leaked.

He warned, however, that anyone appearing in videos from now on would face much harsher punishment.

“I would suggest that every NRL player would be acutely aware now that if they distribute or take video which are idiotic, senseless and juvenile and distribute them around and it gets out, they can expect a significant sanction,” he said.

The latest scandal comes on the back of a week in which two players were suspended indefinitely under a tough new regime against NRL stars accused of serious crimes.

Updated rules, unveiled on Thursday, will see players charged with serious criminal offences automatically stood down.

Previously, they could continue playing while they awaited the outcome of their court cases.

St. George Illawarra’s Jack de Belin, who is facing sexual assault allegations, and Manly Sea Eagles’ Dylan Walker, who is accused of domestic violence, were the first to suffer the fate.

The model refers to sustainable security, strengthening, consolidating and optimising defence cooperation and supporting cross-pillar activities, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan said in a press statement recently.

The model is intended to promote defence and security cooperation in line with the prime minister’s policy to build a people-centred community that focuses on the future and leaves no-one behind, while harmonising the cooperation in the community’s three pillars under the key theme Advancing Partnership for Sustainability, he said.

Moreover, security and trust among Asean Member States are an important foundation, especially on the border areas both on land and at sea, Prawit said.

Asean military plays an important role in supporting border management continuously and this year it will address the issue of illegal, unreported and unregulated or IUU fishing, the statement said.

In addition, there will be the preparation on important activities such as Asean Center of Military Medicine or ACMM, joint staff exercises on peacekeeping operations and joint exercises on counter-terrorism to move forward sustainable security cooperation together.

This year, the meetings under the preview of ADMM and the ADMM-Plus will be held to discuss and exchange security views in four sessions including the Asean Defence Senior Official’s Meeting Working Group or ADSOM WG, the Permanent Secretary of Defence level or ADSOM, and the Asean Defence Minister-level or ADMM respectively.

They will begin with the ADSOM WG and ADSOM-Plus WG meetings until March 1 in Phuket province, followed by the ADSOM and ADSOM–Plus meetings during April 2-5, in Hua-Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan province.

The 13th ADMM will be held in Bangkok during July 10-12 and the ADMM Retreat and 6th ADMM-Plus which will be held from November 16-19 in Bangkok.

All meetings are organised as part of Thailand’s Asean chairmanship in 2019.

    Users who typed “nicer” into Reverso looking for a French equivalent were offered the example: “Hitler was a lot nicer to the Jews than they deserved.”

A search of “much nicer” produced the result “Dachau was much nicer than Auschwitz.”

The French-based service used by more than 45 million people a month threw up equally hateful results for the word “Jew”.

    “There are too many Jews here”, “Here is the ultimate example of how the Jews control America” and “This is why the Jews are so dangerous” it offered as examples of how the word is used.

AFP found that translating “Jew” into Italian brought up, “We will knock on the door of the mosques with Jewish skulls”, while a search in German on “Muslim” threw up the result, “A good Muslim always keeps his mouth shut.”

The International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism, known by its French acronym Licra, condemned Reverso, saying its “examples of translations were dripping in anti-Semitism”.

It called for immediate action to fix the problem.

The site’s founder Theo Hoffenberg told AFP that its machine translating tools had never been known to slip up so badly.

– ‘Unfortunate and horrible’ –

“We have never had such shocking examples that need such rapid correction,” he added.

Hoffenberg promised to correct the “unfortunate and horrible” examples pointed out by Licra within hours and said the site would be carrying out a “complete revision of all potentially risky terms” and words.

He said the billions of examples of how words can be translated in its “Context” feature were managed by algorithms based on common expressions and problems set by linguists.

Reverso uses subtitles from films and internet videos to replicate the most commonly used phrases from natural speech.

Hoffenberg said the site is not corrected in real time but every few weeks based on feedback and recommendations from “several thousand” of its users.

Jew and Muslim are not the only words that throw up questionable results.

A search done by AFP on the French word for “blacks” gave the English translation “Known fact — blacks move in, crime goes up”, “To be fair, most animals hate black people”.

A search in English gave “He was shot by two blacks outside a garage.”

The site previously got into hot water in 2015 for offering up pornographic explanations for certain German words.

While Pakistan’s promised release of an Indian pilot has eased the threat of a wider conflict, there has been no letup in the Himalayan region divided between the neighbours since 1947.

Alongside the shelling, which caused widespread damage, Indian forces in Kashmir killed two suspected militants during a night-time clash.

It comes after Indian and Pakistan fighter jets staged tit-for-tat cross-border raids this week, as they wrangled over a suicide bomb attack in Kashmir last month that left 40 Indian paramilitaries dead.

India blamed Pakistan, which denied any role, as it does in an armed uprising in Muslim-majority Kashmir that has left tens of thousands dead since 1989.

Shelling that has been a part of daily life for decades has intensified even as Pakistan said it would free a pilot shot down on its side of the Line of Control that divides Kashmir.

“There is a very high risk of escalation towards localised, but more intense direct Indian-Pakistani military confrontation in Kashmir,” Jane’s Intelligence service said in a study this week.

Heavy mortar and artillery fire sent inhabitants on both sides of the frontier scurrying for bunkers and other cover.

 Lights out, hopes fade 

One woman was killed and an Indian soldier wounded during shelling late Thursday and early Friday in the Poonch and Krishna Ghati sectors on the Indian side, according to police.

Indian authorities told villages to turn off lights to avoid becoming a target for Pakistani gunners.

Nowshera, a small town three kilometres (two miles) from the ceasefire line, was plunged into darkness but gunfire and explosions broke the silence through the night.

Surjeet Kumar, village head in the town’s Kalal sector, told how he was at home with his family when the building was hit by nine 120mm mortars.

One shell left a huge hole in the stone bedroom wall, smashing the windows and furniture. His bed and a steel trunk were crushed by debris.

Eight other shells failed to explode and remained buried in the house and nearby. Kumar said Indian troops inspected the damage in the darkness, but explained they could only move the shells once calm had returned.

“We want peace or an all out war. We don’t want to live in bits and pieces,” Kumar said.

“We have been suffering since 1947. Whenever the governments in India and Pakistan fail, the armies start fighting here. This has to stop.

“We are very scared. They are firing heavy weapons not just bullets. Yesterday Pakistani jets were flying over our village. We haven’t cooked or eaten properly since the shelling began.”

 Revenge 

Kashmir residents had been bracing for the surge in hostilities since a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into a military convoy at Pulwama, near the main city of Srinagar, killing the paramilitaries. It was the worst militant attack in three decades of violence.

Amid nationwide anger, Indian forces have staged near-daily raids since the attack and two militants were killed in a gun battle at Handwara near the frontier in the early hours of Friday, police said.

“We are angry about what happened in Pulwama,” said Kumar. “We want India to take revenge for the deaths but they should also think about us. Let them annihilate Pakistan once and for all. We can’t pass on this violence to our next generation.”

The village of about 250 houses has no protective shelters. Some people have built their own, but work on a public shelter was halted last month because of winter rains.

The only school has been closed for a week and most children have been sent away.

With more explosions and gunfire echoing around the valley, Kumar’s wife Raj Banti said they may leave too.

“We cannot live like this. If we are given an option we would definitely leave this place forever. We are poor but still love our lives,” she said.

The Philippines in 2016 was the first nation to use Dengvaxia in a mass immunisation programme, but Sanofi disclosed a year later that it could worsen symptoms for people not previously infected by the dengue virus.

The disclosure sparked a nationwide panic, with some parents alleging the vaccine killed their children.

The controversy also triggered a vaccine scare that the government said was a factor behind measles outbreaks that the UN Children’s Fund said have killed 203 people so far this year.

    The justice department said on Friday its prosecutors found grounds to hold Sanofi officials criminally liable and that charges of “reckless imprudence resulting to homicide” will be filed in court, but gave no timeframe.

The department said the charges were based on an investigation into the deaths of 10 children, adding other complaints were still being probed.

“Members of the board of Sanofi Pasteur actively advertised, in fact marketed the drug, despite knowledge of the risks involved in the vaccine, despite knowledge of the risks involved in its use,” justice department spokesman Markk Perete said.

“Later on when certain deaths and other medical emergencies arose, they did not render assistance to the victims and their family … It’s a crime by neglect,” he told AFP.

The department said the crime is punishable by up to six years in prison.

Sanofi on Friday criticised Manila’s decision to file charges and vowed to defend the officials.

“We strongly disagree with the conclusions reached against Sanofi and certain of its employees and we will defend them vigorously,” the group said in a written statement.

Sanofi has repeatedly said the vaccine is safe, noting in a March 2018 statement: “No causal-related deaths were reported in 15 countries after clinical trials conducted for more than a decade with 40,000 subjects involved.”

Current and former officials of the health department will also be charged, the justice department said, adding complaints against two other Sanofi executives were dismissed.

Dengue, or haemorrhagic fever, is the world’s most common mosquito-borne virus and infects an estimated 390 million people in more than 120 countries each year — killing more than 25,000 of them, according to the World Health Organization.

Friday’s announcement comes less than two weeks after the Philippine Food and Drug Administration permanently banned the sale, import and distribution of Dengvaxia.

Manila stopped the public immunisation programme shortly after Sanofi’s 2017 disclosure.

The United States on Thursday offered a $1 million reward for information on a son of late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, seeing him as an emerging face of extremism.

The location of Hamza bin Laden sometimes dubbed the “crown prince of jihad,” has been the subject of speculation for years with reports of him living in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria or under house arrest in Iran.

“Hamza bin Laden is the son of deceased former AQ leader Osama bin Laden and is emerging as a leader in the AQ franchise,” a State Department statement said, referring to Al-Qaeda.

The State Department said that it would offer $1 million for information leading to his location in any country.

Bin Laden, who according to the United States is around 30, has threatened attacks against the United States to avenge the 2011 killing of his father, who was living in hiding in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, by US special forces.

US intelligence agencies increasingly see the younger bin Laden as a successor to his father for the mantle of global jihad, especially as the even more extreme ISIS group is down to its last sliver of land in Syria.

In 2015, bin Laden released an audio message urging terrorists in Syria to unite, claiming that the fight in the war-torn country paves the way to “liberating Palestine.”

And in a message a year later, following in the footsteps of his father, he urged the overthrow of the leadership in their native Saudi Arabia.

Osama bin Laden’s three surviving wives and his children were quietly allowed to return to Saudi Arabia after his killing.

But Hamza bin Laden’s whereabouts have been a matter of dispute. He is believed to have spent years along with his mother in Iran, despite Al-Qaeda’s strident denunciations of the Shiite branch of Islam that dominates the country.

Observers say that the clerical regime in Tehran kept him under house arrest as a way to maintain pressure on rival Saudi Arabia as well as on Al-Qaeda, dissuading the Sunni terrorists from attacking Iran.

One of Hamza bin Laden’s half-brothers told The Guardian last year that Hamza’s whereabouts were unknown but that he may be in Afghanistan.

He also said that Hamza bin Laden married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker in Al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States that killed some 3,000 people and sparked the US intervention in Afghanistan.