BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) - A Russian Soyuz craft launched into the morning skies over Kazakhstan on Sunday, carrying three astronauts on their way to the international space station, where they will quickly start preparing for a frenzy of incoming traffic. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko and Japan's Akihito Hoshide are set to travel two days before reaching their three colleagues already at the permanent space outpost. Families and colleagues watched the launch from an observation platform in the Russian-leased cosmodrome in the dry southern steppes of this sprawling Central Asian nation. Liftoff took place at the exact scheduled time of 08:40 a.m. local time (0240 GMT), sending a deafening roar as the craft gained height.
Evangelical March
SAO PAULO (AP) - Brazilian police say at least 1 million evangelical Christians are taking part in Saturday's annual ``March for Jesus'' in Sao Paulo. The event is organized by the Reborn in Christ Church and draws faithful from hundreds of Protestant churches in Brazil, which is the world's largest Roman Catholic country. Police Capt. Luis Fernando Otaviano says that ``the number of people participating is extremely high - at least 1 million.'' Organizers have described the march as the ''largest Christian event in the world,'' saying they expected at least 5 million people to rally behind 15 sound trucks and attend religious music shows likely to last well into the night.
Hurricane Fabio
MIAMI (AP) - Forecasters say Hurricane Fabio has strengthened over the Pacific but will not threaten land. The National Weather Service in Miami says Fabio has maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (169 kph) and is about 575 miles (925 kilometers) south-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California. It is moving northwest. Fabio is expected to start weakening late Saturday or early Sunday. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Emilia, farther out in the Pacific, is moving westward and is expected to continue weakening.
News Provider
CHICAGO (AP) - The Chicago Tribune has suspended its use of local news provider Journatic after discovering plagiarized and fabricated material in one of its stories, an announcement that was quickly followed by the resignation Saturday of one of the news service's senior staffers. Journatic's head of editorial, Mike Fourcher, said on his blog that he had resigned because of disagreements with senior staff over ``ethical and management issues.'' The Chicago-based company has come under scrutiny since the public radio program ''This American Life'' reported two weeks ago that Journatic was using low-paid writers overseas to produce items under fake bylines that were published in print and online by several major U.S. newspapers.
U.S. Filmmaker
DUBAI (AFP) - Bahrain announced on Saturday that it had deported US filmmaker Jen Marlowe, accusing her of falsifying her visa application and shooting a documentary without permission. Marlowe, a Seattle-based documentary filmmaker who arrived in the country around a week ago, told immigration officials that she had come ''to help a friend who had recently had a baby,'' the information affairs authority said. ''But investigation showed the names and addresses she gave were fabricated... While in Bahrain she has been shooting a documentary film that requires a proper visa permitting one to work in the kingdom,'' it added. ''Marlowe is affiliated with members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISI) organisation, some of whom had resorted to similar illegal entry tactics in February of this year,'' the Bahraini authority said.
