North America

Flight in US delayed by teens refusing to wear masks

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — An American Airlines flight from North Carolina to the Bahamas was delayed by a day after around 30 teenagers refused to wear masks, local media said Tuesday. Flight 893 was scheduled for take-off from Charlotte Douglas airport late Monday but only left the tarmac on Tuesday morning, with the troublemakers still on board. An initial delay of several hours was caused by mechanical problems, but when the plane was finally […]

New York’s ‘essential’ food delivery workers demand rights

by Laura BONILLA NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — New York’s legions of food delivery men and women — who were declared essential workers during the pandemic but have no on the job access to bathrooms, health insurance or a minimum wage– are mobilizing for the first time to demand better working conditions. The 80,000 “deliveristas,” overwhelmingly Hispanic immigrants who zip around the Big Apple on electric or other bikes come rain, snow or shine, […]

Florida condo death toll 36, Storm Elsa complicates search

by Eva Marie Uzcategui with Chris Lefkow in Washington SURFSIDE, United States (AFP) — Rescuers on Tuesday combed through the debris of a deadly condo tower collapse in Florida as Tropical Storm Elsa threatened to complicate the delicate search mission with strong winds and heavy rain. The death toll from the June 24 disaster in Surfside, a town north of Miami Beach, rose to 36 as search teams found four more bodies in the rubble, […]

US sends Vietnam 2 million Covid vaccine doses

by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States began sending Vietnam two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine Tuesday, the White House said, in its latest assistance to countries struggling to tame the pandemic. The Moderna vaccine shipment — part of a first 80 million doses that President Joe Biden has pledged to allocate worldwide — should arrive in Vietnam this weekend, a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told […]

Fears for future of Mexico City’s ‘green lung’

by Yussel Gonzalez MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — A major construction project in wetlands seen as one of the “green lungs” of smog-choked Mexico City has raised concerns for the future of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. A more than 1.7-kilometer (one mile) long reinforced concrete bridge is being built on a freshwater lake system that helps to regulate the temperature and prevent flooding in the city of nine million people. Hundreds of trees have […]

Toll hits 28 as work resumes at collapsed Florida apartment

by Gianrigo MARLETTA SURFSIDE, United States (AFP) — The death toll climbed to 28 Monday in the collapse of a Florida condo tower, where search work resumed after the dangerously unstable remaining portion of the building was brought down with explosives ahead of a coming tropical storm, officials said. Some 117 people remained missing after the 12-story Champlain Towers South crumbled over a week ago in Surfside, but an Israeli search official put the chances […]

Storm Elsa batters Cuba as it heads toward Florida Keys

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — After battering Cuba with a dangerous storm surge, mudslides and “flooding rains,” Tropical Storm Elsa gained slightly in intensity on Monday as it headed north toward the Florida Keys, the US National Hurricane Center reported. The storm left a trail of destruction through the Caribbean, claiming at least three lives. But Florida appeared to be getting a bit of a break, as forecasters shifted its likely path westward, suggesting not the […]

Biden marks ‘independence’ from Covid, but pandemic remains a threat

  by Sebastian Smith Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden celebrated US Independence Day on Sunday with an upbeat assessment of a country he said is roaring back to post-pandemic life, even if Covid-19 has yet to be fully “vanquished.” Speaking before a festive crowd of 1,000 guests on the White House South Lawn, Biden drew a comparison between the declaration of independence from the British Empire in 1776 and […]

Rest of collapsed Florida apartment block to be demolished overnight

by Gianrigo MARLETTA SURFSIDE, United States (AFP) — The remaining section of the collapsed apartment block in Surfside, Florida will be demolished overnight between 10:00pm (0200 GMT) and 3:00 am, the county mayor said Sunday, with the confirmed death toll at 24, and 121 people missing. The search for victims was halted on Saturday as demolition crews prepared to bring down the rest of the building ahead of the possible arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa […]

Storm Elsa cuts through Caribbean after claiming three lives

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Tropical storm Elsa battered Jamaica and Cuba with winds and rain Sunday after claiming at least three lives while cutting a path of destruction through the Caribbean, authorities said. Flooding, mudslides and destructive gusts were expected as the storm — downgraded from hurricane status but still powerful — crept north toward the United States. “Across portions of southern Haiti and Jamaica, storm total rainfall of 4 to 8 inches (10 to […]

Florida building collapse toll rises to 22

  SURFSIDE, United States (AFP) — Two more victims were found in the rubble of a partially collapsed apartment building in Florida on Friday, bringing the death toll from last week’s tragedy to 22, with 126 people still unaccounted for, officials said Friday. The rise in number of victims came as Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she had signed an order authorizing the demolition of the part of the building that still stands, […]

Trudeau denounces vandalism, arson of Catholic churches, as history of abuse in residential schools unearthed

  OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday denounced a wave of vandalism across Canada that saw churches damaged and statues of monarchs splashed with red paint and torn down. These acts followed the recent discoveries of more than 1,000 unmarked graves at former indigenous boarding schools that has provoked anger and grief in indigenous communities, and beyond, along with a reckoning of the country’s colonial history. “It is unacceptable and wrong […]