America

Issued on: 28/05/2020 – 06:43Modified: 28/05/2020 – 06:44 Demonstrators gathered Wednesday for a second night of protests over the killing in the US city of Minneapolis of a handcuffed black man by a policeman who held him to the ground with a knee on his neck. Advertising Read more As dusk fell, police formed a human barricade around the Third Precinct, where the officers accused of killing George Floyd worked before they were fired on Tuesday. They pushed protesters back as the crowd grew, a day after police fired rubber bullets and tear gas on thousands of demonstrators angered by the latest death of an African-American at the hands of US law enforcement. Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo cautioned protestors to remain peaceful. President Donald Trump in a tweet called Floyd's death "sad and tragic", as outrage spread across the country over a bystander's cellphone video of his killing on Monday while in the custody of four white police officers. ….I ..

Issued on: 28/05/2020 – 02:12Modified: 28/05/2020 – 02:12 SpaceX's landmark launch to the International Space Station — the first crewed mission to blast off from US soil in almost a decade — was scrubbed Wednesday due to bad weather. Advertising Read more With NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley strapped into the Crew Dragon capsule, the launch pad platform retracted and rocket fueling underway, SpaceX made the call to abort. "Unfortunately, we are not going to launch today," launch director Mike Taylor said, with less than 20 minutes to go until takeoff. Officials cited the threat of lightning, among other factors. It means a wait of at least a few more days for the first crewed launch on an American rocket since the space shuttle program ended in 2011. They will try again on Saturday. If successful, the launch will be the first time the feat has been performed by a privately-owned company. A live video feed showed Behnken and Hurley — in their futuristic w..

Issued on: 28/05/2020 – 02:12Modified: 28/05/2020 – 02:12 SpaceX's landmark launch to the International Space Station — the first crewed mission to blast off from US soil in almost a decade — was scrubbed Wednesday due to bad weather. Advertising Read more With NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley strapped into the Crew Dragon capsule, the launch pad platform retracted and rocket fueling underway, SpaceX made the call to abort. "Unfortunately, we are not going to launch today," launch director Mike Taylor said, with less than 20 minutes to go until takeoff. Officials cited the threat of lightning, among other factors. It means a wait of at least a few more days for the first crewed launch on an American rocket since the space shuttle program ended in 2011. They will try again on Saturday. If successful, the launch will be the first time the feat has been performed by a privately-owned company. A live video feed showed Behnken and Hurley — in their futuristic w..

Issued on: 27/05/2020 – 13:34Modified: 27/05/2020 – 13:34 SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, was set to launch two Americans into orbit on Wednesday from Florida on a mission that would mark the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from US soil in nine years. Advertising Read more A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was due to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center at 4:33 pm EDT (20:33 GMT), launching Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19-hour ride aboard the company's newly designed Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. They were to blast off from the same launch pad used by NASA's final space shuttle flight, piloted by Hurley, in 2011. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were scheduled to visit Florida's Cape Canaveral to view the launch in person. Prospects for an on-time liftoff hinged on the weather, with forecasters late on Monday citing a 40% chance that storms over eastern Florida could force..

Issued on: 27/05/2020 – 13:34Modified: 27/05/2020 – 13:34 SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, was set to launch two Americans into orbit on Wednesday from Florida on a mission that would mark the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from US soil in nine years. Advertising Read more A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was due to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center at 4:33 pm EDT (20:33 GMT), launching Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19-hour ride aboard the company's newly designed Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. They were to blast off from the same launch pad used by NASA's final space shuttle flight, piloted by Hurley, in 2011. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were scheduled to visit Florida's Cape Canaveral to view the launch in person. Prospects for an on-time liftoff hinged on the weather, with forecasters late on Monday citing a 40% chance that storms over eastern Florida could force..

Issued on: 27/05/2020 – 08:07Modified: 27/05/2020 – 08:07 The New York suburb of New Rochelle, home to one of the first coronavirus clusters in the US, began to slowly reopen for business on Tuesday. Advertising Read more A containment zone was declared around the city in mid March, well before the rest of NY State went into lockdown, after a New Rochelle lawyer contracted and unwittingly spread the virus by attending his synagogue and other gatherings. New York then went on to become the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in the US. Westchester County, which includes New Rochelle, started phase one of reopening Tuesday, which includes construction, manufacturing and curbside and in-store pickup at some retailers. The executive director of New Rochelles Chamber of Commerce, Catherine White, said that it was a “monumental day” because “we had been waiting for signs that things were moving forward, definite concrete signs that things are getting better.” White added that..

Issued on: 27/05/2020 – 04:18 Denouncing "racism of any kind," a global investment firm has fired a white woman after a viral video showed her calling police to say she felt threatened by an African-American man who asked her politely to leash her dog in New York's Central Park. Advertising Read more The video drew outrage on social media where it was viewed more than 30 million times, and the backlash prompted Franklin Templeton on Tuesday to fire the woman, Amy Cooper. "Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately. We do not tolerate racism of any kind," the company said on Twitter. When hours earlier the company put her on administrative leave, Cooper told WNBC she wanted to "sincerely and humbly apologise" to the man, Christian Cooper, who is no relation. She turned over the dog to Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue Inc. It was the latest racially ten..

Issued on: 26/05/2020 – 16:37Modified: 26/05/2020 – 16:37 Costa Rica became the latest country to legalise same-sex marriage early Tuesday when a ruling from its supreme court went into effect ending the country's ban. Advertising Read more Couples held ceremonies — mostly private due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but some that were broadcast — to celebrate their unions before judges and notaries after the ban was lifted at midnight. Two women in their 20s married just after midnight in an outdoor service performed by a notary wearing a face mask who pronounced them “wife and wife." Costa Rica is the sixth country in Latin America to legalise same-sex marriage, following most recently Ecuador, which allowed it last year. It is also permitted in some parts of Mexico. The issue took center stage in Costa Rica's 2018 presidential election after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued an opinion that countries like Costa Rica, which had signed the American Conventi..

Issued on: 26/05/2020 – 03:39 People in Suriname went to the polls on Monday with strongman President Desi Bouterse seeking a third term, battling to hold onto power months after being convicted of the murder of political opponents. Advertising Read more The former military dictator turned politician has dominated his tiny South American country for four decades but polls suggested his National Democratic Party (NDP) was likely to lose its majority in the 51-member parliament which elects the president. Voting was extended by two hours beyond the 7:00 pm (2200 GMT) closing, with many voters still lining up to cast their ballots. At some polling stations, voters had stood in line for up to three hours. First results were not expected until Tuesday. Local election observer groups reported irregularities at several polling stations, including the names of deceased people on the voter rolls. "It is chaos. With every election you have spots, but these are like a big pool of oil ..

/ Americas Issued on: 25/05/2020 – 10:28Modified: 25/05/2020 – 10:53 South Carolina was among the first US states to start easing stay-at-home orders imposed to halt the spread of Covid-19. In the city of Charleston, a magnet for tourists, the lockdown has helped keep infectioRead More – Source [contf] [contfnew] france24 [contfnewc] [contfnewc]