News in Short

• The Taliban visited the closed Indian consulates in Kandahar and Herat and took away parked vehicles from both embassies.
• Nearly 6,000 cadre of the Haqqani Network has taken control of the capital city, led by AnasHaqqani, brother of SirajuddinHaqqani.
• Negotiations are on to ensure to get both Karzai and Abdullah to formally hand over power to the Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Barader in the Presidential Palace in a staged event.

• Japan’s space agency plans to bring soil samples back from the Mars region ahead of the US and Chinese missions now operating on Mars, in hopes of finding clues to the planet’s origin and traces of possible life.
• The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to launch an explorer in 2024 to land on the Martian moon Phobos to collect 10 grams of soil and bring it back to Earth in 2029.
• The rapid return trip would put Japan ahead of the United States and China in bringing back samples from the Martian region despite starting later.
• NASA’s Perseverance rover is operating in a Mars crater where it is to collect 31 samples that are to be returned to Earth with help from the European Space Agency as early as 2031.

• O.M. Nambiar, the man who transformed a village girl P.T. Usha into Asia’s Golden Girl, passed away in Kozhikode. He was 89.
• Nambiar spotted Usha at a very young age in 1976 and soon began coaching her at the Kannur Sports Division.
• Under his guidance, Usha began winning medals at the Asian level but his best move was making the sprinter switch to the 400m hurdles before the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
• Usha went on to become one of Asia’s biggest names. Between 1983 and 1998, she won an astonishing 23 medals at the Asian Championships, including 14 gold and six silver.

• Japanese actor Sonny Chiba, who wowed the world with his martial arts skills in more than 100 films, including Kill Bill, has died. He was 82.
• Chiba rose to stardom in Japan in the 1960s, portraying samurai, fighters and police detectives. He did many of the stunt scenes himself.
• His overseas career took off after his 1970s Japanese film The Street Fighter proved popular in the U.S.Tarantino cast Chiba in the role of Hattori Hanzo, a master swordsmith in Kill Bill.
• Chiba appeared in the 1991 Hollywood film Aces, directed by John Glen, as well as in Hong Kong movies.

• Young cager Princepal Singh became the first Indian to be part of an NBA title winning team when his side Sacramento Kings clinched the 2021 NBA Summer League crown.
• The Kings dominated the championship game against the Boston Celtics, clinching the title with a 100-67 win.
• The win also made the Kings the only franchise to win multiple Summer League titles, having previously clinched it in 2014, according to the NBA.
• Princepal finished with two points by scoring the Kings final bucket which took them to 100, while also pulling down one rebound.