Briefly

UNITED STATES

Suicides hit all-time high since WWII

About 49,500 people took their own lives last year in the United States, the highest number ever, according to new government data posted on Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which posted the numbers, has not yet calculated a suicide rate for the year, but available data suggests that suicides are more common in the US than at any time since the dawn of World War II. Experts caution that suicide is complicated, and that recent increases might be driven by a range of factors, including higher rates of depression and limited availability of mental health services.

INDIA

No-confidence motion against Modi defeated

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday easily defeated a vote of no confidence taken by the opposition over his handling of a deadly ethnic conflict in Manipur, and dismissed the move in a two-hour speech as a vain attempt to "defame India". More than 180 people have been killed, many hundreds more wounded and tens of thousands rendered homeless since May in Manipur, but Modi failed to publicly address the violence until last month. The no-confidence vote, motioned by a new Congress-led opposition alliance called "INDIA", was easily defeated as expected, with opposition lawmakers walking out of the legislature in protest even before the motion was put to vote.

RUSSIA

Lander launched in race to find moon water

Russia launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years on Friday in a bid to be the first nation to make a soft landing on the lunar South Pole, a region believed to hold coveted pockets of water ice. The Russian lunar mission, the first since 1976, is racing against India, which launched its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander last month, and more broadly with the United States and China, both of which have advanced lunar exploration programs targeting the lunar South Pole. A Soyuz 2.1 rocket carrying the Luna-25 craft blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome. The lander was boosted out of Earth's orbit toward the moon over an hour later, at which point mission control took command of the craft, Russia's space agency Roscosmos said.

Agencies - Xinhua