S. KOREA TO LAUNCH SATELLITE INTO SPACE
SEOUL: South Korea hopes to launch a satellite into space on Friday in its third attempt to join an elite club that includes Asian powers China, Japan and India.

After two previous failures in 2009 and 2010, the 140-ton Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-I) will, weather permitting, blast off from the Naro Space Center on the south coast. Success will mean a huge boost for South Korea—a late entrant into the high-cost world of space technology and exploration that is desperate to get its commercial launch program up and running. Seoul’s space ambitions were restricted for many years by its main military ally the United States, which feared that a robust missile or rocket program would accelerate a regional arms race, especially with North Korea.

AUSTRIAN JOSEF ‘INCEST MONSTER’ FRITZL DIVORCES
VIENNA: Fritzl, the Austrian who fathered seven children with his own daughter in a homemade dungeon, has divorced his wife of 55 years because she has never visited him in prison, a press report said on Thursday. The divorce, which was legally approved a few weeks ago, means that Rosemarie Fritzl can no longer draw on her 77-year-old ex-husband’s pension, the Austrian Weekly News reported. The divorce lawyer reportedly hired by Fritzl to file for the separation, Nikolaus Rast, declined to comment. News also said that Rosemarie has not replied to Fritzl’s many letters to her. Fritzl kept his and Rosemarie’s daughter Elisabeth prisoner in the basement of the family house in Amstetten, central Austria, for 24 years, raping her thousands of times and fathering seven children. One of the children died as a baby. Three of the surviving children were brought to live with Fritzl and Rosemarie while the other three spent their entire lives in the dungeon, never seeing daylight. AFP