Busy Enda forced to relinquish EU role

Astronauts from Canada and Belgium and a Russian cosmonaut have landed safely in Kazakhstan after a six-month stint on the International Space Station, Russian Mission Control said today.

FACEBOOK, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter – they have all been enlisted to encourage Europe’s 375 million voters to cast their votes in the European Parliament elections.

A Russian space capsule blasted off in Central Asia on a landmark mission to expand the permanent human presence in space.

A Russian rocket, in which US pop star Lance Bass was hoping for a ride, lifted off from a launch site in the steppe today, carrying two cosmonauts and a Belgian astronaut to the international space station for an eight-day mission.