Radical Pakistan Party Releases 11 Police Hostages After Anti-France Protests.

The officers had been held at a TLP mosque stronghold in Lahore, which is now packed with supporters and surrounded by police.

Lahore: 

Eleven Pakistani police officers seized by supporters of a radical Islamist group as part of their campaign to get the French ambassador expelled have been released, officials said Monday.

The officers were grabbed as hostages Sunday by supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) during violent protests in Lahore.

Video circulating on social media -- and confirmed unofficially by police as genuine -- showed some of them bloodied and bruised, with bandages around their heads.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the police had been released early Monday after "negotiations" with the TLP, which the government banned last week after effectively labelling it a terrorist organisation.

The officers had been held at a TLP mosque stronghold in Lahore, which is now packed with supporters and surrounded by police.

Negotiations have been started with TLP; the first round completed successfully," said Rashid in a video on Twitter.

"They have released 11 policemen who were made hostages."

He said a second round of negotiations would take place later Monday, although it is not clear what they will discuss.

Previously the TLP had set an April 20 deadline for the expulsion of the French ambassador.

The group has been behind an anti-France campaign for months since President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of Charlie Hebdo magazine to republish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad -- an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.

Last week the embassy in Pakistan advised its nationals to leave the country -- a call that appears to have gone largely unheeded.

"The TLP people have gone inside the Mosque and the police have also stepped back," said Rashid.

"Hopefully, the rest of the issues will be settled in the second round."

Rioting has rocked the country for the past week since the leader of the TLP was detained in Lahore after calling for a march on the capital.

The protests have paralysed cities and led to the deaths of six policemen.

TLP leaders say several of the party's supporters were killed in Sunday's clashes.

Source:NDTV

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UAE Selects First Arab Woman For Space Programme.

Emirati national Nora al-Matrooshi, a 27-year-old mechanical engineering graduate currently working at Abu Dhabi's National Petroleum Construction Company, will join NASA's 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class in the United States.

Dubai: 

The United Arab Emirates has selected the first Arab woman to train as an astronaut, as the Gulf country rapidly expands into the space sector to diversify its economy.

Emirati national Nora al-Matrooshi, a 27-year-old mechanical engineering graduate currently working at Abu Dhabi's National Petroleum Construction Company, will join NASA's 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class in the United States.

The UAE is using its space programme to develop its scientific and technological capabilities and reduce its reliance on oil.

In February a UAE probe reached the orbit of the planet Mars, the Arab world's first interplanetary expedition. The UAE has plans to launch a moon rover by 2024 and even a vision for a Mars settlement by 2117.

Matrooshi will be joined by another Emirati, Mohammed al-Mulla, making a total of four people under the UAE Astronaut Programme. They include Hazza al-Mansouri who became the first Emirati in space in 2019 when he flew to the International Space Station.

Nora was one of 4,300 applicants assessed on scientific abilities, education and practical experience, and then on physical, psychological and medical assessments, Dubai's Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) said.

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