Five die after fall from Canada's Mt Harvey

MONTREAL • Five climbers from South Korea fell to their deaths last Saturday from a snow ledge that gave way on the peak of Mt Harvey, near Vancouver, Canada.

A hiker concerned about the collapse told police he had seen footprints leading to the summit. The Vancouver Sun reported that the dead were experienced climbers.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Space station crew returns after mission

CAPE CANAVERAL (Florida) • A US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts made a parachute landing in Kazakhstan yesterday, wrapping up a nearly six-month mission on the International Space Station, a Nasa TV broadcast showed.

The Russian Soyuz capsule, which left the station shortly before 4pm Singapore time, touched down south-east of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 7.20pm, with returning station commander Shane Kimbrough of Nasa and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko from Russian space agency Roscosmos aboard.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Russian opposition leader Navalny freed

MOSCOW • Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny walked free yesterday after 15 days in jail over a rally protesting against alleged massive corruption by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The anti-corruption campaigner was arrested on March 26 at the largest unauthorised demonstration of recent years in Moscow and found guilty of disobeying police orders.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE