North America

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 5 (APP): The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is aimed at ending poverty in all its forms, is characterized by a shallow commitment to racial justice and equality, an independent UN-appointed rights expert told the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, adding that it fails to address systematic racism and xenophobia.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 05 (APP): Nearly a third of all women in developing countries start having children at the age of 19 or younger, and nearly half of first births to adolescents, are to children or girls aged 17 or under, a new research released on Tuesday by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, reveals.

While total fertility across the globe has fallen, the UNFPA report shows that women who began childbearing in adolescence, had almost five births by the time they reached 40, during the period examined in the report, between 2015 and 2019.

WASHINGTON, July 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was likely to have been killed by gunfire from Israeli positions but it was probably unintentional, the US State Department said.

Independent investigators could not reach a definitive conclusion about the origin of the bullet that struck her, it said.

Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American, was killed on May 11 during an Israeli raid in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank under circumstances that remain bitterly disputed.

WASHINGTON, July 5 (Reuters) - Iran added demands unrelated to discussions on its nuclear program during the latest talks and has made alarming progress on enriching uranium, the U.S. envoy for talks on reinstating a nuclear deal said on Tuesday.

U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said that there was a proposal on the table for a timeline by which Iran could come back into compliance with the nuclear deal and Washington could ease sanctions on Tehran.

NEW YORK, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The latest mass shooting targeting participants of an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, in the northern suburbs of Chicago, on Monday morning has sent a new round of shock waves across the United States.

Not only the death of six people and injury of 31 others, but also the on-going manhunt of the shooter hours after the calamity leave many on high alert.

Tom Genest, a resident from Highland Park, told Xinhua that his family has been living there for several generations and gun shooting has never happened in the area before.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is increasing the heat on the federal government to consider recalling e-cigarette batteries and devices that explode and catch fire, injuring users.

Schumer, a New York Democrat, has called e-cigarettes “ticking time bombs” and said they continue to cause injuries including severe burns.

At a press conference Sunday, Schumer cited a recent Associated Press story saying the FDA identified about 66 explosions in 2015 and early 2016 after recording 92 explosions from 2009 to September 2015.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street futures slipped Tuesday after the Independence Day holiday following declines in Europe and an upbeat session in Asia.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials fell 0.6%, as did futures for the S&P 500.

The war in Ukraine and its impact on energy supplies are casting a shadow over the global economic outlook at a time when central banks are raising interest rates to slow inflation.

(AP) --- After the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the federal right to an abortion that’s been in place for half a century, companies like Amazon, Disney, Apple and JP Morgan pledged to cover travel costs for employees who live in states where the procedure is now illegal so they can terminate pregnancies.

But the companies gave scant or no details on how they will do this and it’s not clear if they will be able to — legally — while protecting employees’ privacy and keeping them safe from prosecution.

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) — A shooter fired on an Independence Day parade from a rooftop in suburban Chicago, spraying the crowd with gunshots initially mistaken for fireworks before hundreds of panicked revelers of all ages fled in terror. At least six people were killed and at least 30 wounded.

NEW YORK, Jul 03 (APP): Prominent Kashmiri leader Ghulam Nabi Fai, highlighting world power’s duplicity towards Muslim conflicts, has posed the question: while rightly feeling Ukrainian people’s pain, why those powers are turning a blind eye to the suffering of the people of Palestine and Kashmir.

Speaking at an event in Istanbul last week, Fai, Secretary General of World Kashmir Awareness Forum, a Washington-based advocacy group, said the world powers have proved to be selective in implementing the UN Security Council resolutions.