Astronauts safely return to Earth after space mission

ZHEZKAZGAN, Kazakhstan (AP) - An American, a Russian and the first astronaut to fly into space from the United Arab Emirates have safely landed after a six-hour flight from the International Space Station.

The capsule carrying Nick Hague, Alexey Ovchinin and Hazzaa al-Mansoori touched down on the steppe in Kazakhstan in Central Asia at 3:59 p.m. local time (1059 GMT) on Thursday.

Al-Mansoori, the first of two men chosen by the United Arab Emirates to fly to the space station, is coming back after an eight-day mission while space veteran Ovchinin and Hague, who was on his maiden flight, are coming back after spending six months at the station.

Three NASA astronauts, a European Space Agency crewmember and two Russians remain aboard the orbiting lab to continue their work on hundreds of scientific experiments.