The Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberté has arrived at the International Space Station after travelling for two days on board a Russian Soyuz rocket launched from a base in Kazakhstan.

The 50-year-old founder of the well-known Cirque du Soleil, who joined an American and a Russian astronaut, paid 24 million euros to become history's seventh space tourist and mark his company's 25th anniversary. From space he will host a special circus programme to call attention to water shortage in developing countries. Mr Laliberté will return to Earth on 11 October.