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Sydney (AFP) – One of Australia’s most-decorated soldiers has been charged with murdering unarmed prisoners captured in Afghanistan, police said following a sweeping war crimes probe.

Johnson Space Center (United States) (AFP) – A look inside the Science Mission Operations Room, located at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where scientists analyze materials sent by the Artemis II crew in real time. The astronauts have wrapped up their lunar flyby and are now journeying back to Earth.

Dans l’espace (AFP) – NASA mission control in Houston regains communications with Artemis astronauts traveling around the Moon after an expected blackout that lasted some 40 minutes. “We will always choose Earth, we will always choose each other,” says astronaut Christina Koch, in initial comments following the signal cut that happened as their spacecraft passed behind the Moon. IMAGES

Kyoto (Japan) (AFP) – Against a backdrop of blooming cherry blossoms, a group of geishas elegantly shuffle onto a stage in Japan’s Kyoto city to begin a centuries-old performance celebrating the arrival of spring.

In space (AFP) – Artemis mission commander Reid Wiseman describes the energy and excitement of the astronauts as they get closer views of the moon. “We’re lika bunch of little kids up here,” Wiseman tells Houston’s mission control. “We cannot get enough of this”. The astronauts are in the final phase of their run-up to a lunar loop, meaning the Moon’s gravity is now having a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth’s. IMAGES

Kabul (AFP) – Samira Muhammadi hopes an international investigation can “extinguish” her pain after a Pakistani bombing killed her son and hundreds of other Afghans in the capital Kabul. The March 16 attack hit a drug treatment centre and killed 411 people, according to Afghan officials.

Havana (AFP) – Cuban authorities begin freeing prisoners after announcing it would pardon 2,010 inmates, the second release in less than a month, as it faces heightened US pressure. More than 20 inmates emerge from La Lima penitentiary in eastern Havana, holding their release papers, crying and hugging relatives who had been waiting for them all morning. IMAGES

Cakovec (Croatia) (AFP) – In northern Croatia, workshops are keeping alive the 19th century tradition of painting Easter eggs black. Traditionally exchanged on the Sunday after Easter to symbolise friendship and kinship, these black eggs are now listed as part of Croatia’s registered cultural heritage.

Altadena (United States) (AFP) – When wild fires raged around Los Angeles last year, Rene Amy’s home was razed to a pile of toxic ash contaminated by the burned remains of modern city life. But his plot now shimmers with delicate orange blooms — the California poppies he has sown throughout the wrecked town of Altadena as a symbol of hope.

(AFP) – The people of Burkina Faso must “forget” about democracy, says Captain Ibrahim Traore, the leader of the country’s ruling junta. “We have to tell the truth: democracy isn’t for us,” he says, during a press interview broadcast on national television.

Tehran (AFP) – Families gather in a Tehran park to share picnics and celebrate Nature Day, the 13th day after Nowruz, marking the end of the Persian New Year. Iran has been at war for more than a month and US President Donald Trump — who launched the conflict alongside Israel on February 28 — has vowed to strike the country hard for another “two or three weeks”.

In space (AFP) – A NASA operator thanks the four Artemis II crew members, with NASA astronaut Christina Koch floating upside down as they head to orbit the Moon for the first time in more than half a century. The spacecraft lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 18:35 EDT on April 1.