Russia to verify US moon landings: Roscosmos chief

Moscow: The head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency has said that a proposed Russian mission to the moon will be tasked with verifying that the American moon landings were real. “We have set this objective to fly and verify whether they’ve been there or not,” said Dmitry Rogozin in a video posted Saturday on Twitter. Rogozin was responding to a question about whether or not NASA actually landed on the moon nearly 50 years ago. He appeared to be joking, as he smirked and shrugged while answering.  But conspiracies surrounding NASA’s moon missions are common in Russia. AP

Lankan Prez to pen book on current political crisis

Colombo: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who last month abruptly sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe and replaced him with former strongman Mahinda Rajapksa, will write a book on his “unsuccessful political marriage” with the ousted premier. Sirisena’s controversial action on October 26 led to a political crisis in the country with both Wickremesinghe and Rajapaksa claiming to be the legitimate prime minister. Sirisena, addressing a public gathering on Friday, said the book will be titled ‘My unsuccessful political marriage with Ranil’. “I know that people are criticising me right now. I will tell them to wait until I release my book,” the President said. PTI 

Microsoft most valuable US firm, Apple 2nd

San Francisco: Microsoft has become the most valuable US company with $753.3 billion in market capitalisation, riding past Apple for the first time since 2010 when it came close to the Cupertino-based tech giant. Apple, which became the first $1-trillion US company in August, came down to $746.8 billion on Friday, owing to lower-than-expected iPhone sales amid reports of its suppliers cutting cost and workforce. PTI

Charges dropped against Indian-origin doc  

New York: A US court has dropped nearly all charges against Indian-origin doctor Jumana Nagarwala, accused of performing female genital mutilation on at least nine underage girls by ruling that America’s law over the practice was unconstitutional, outraging women’s rights groups in the country. In April last year, Nagarwala, 44, Fakhruddin Attar, 53, and wife, Farida Attar, 50, all Michigan residents, were indicted by a grand jury for performing female genital mutilation on minor girls in the US. PTI