In first, SpaceX sends all-civilian crew into Earth orbit

The Inspiration4 crew of Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux enjoy zero gravity conditions in this September 15 photo. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying four space tourists blasted off on the night of September 15 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first mission to orbit the globe with an all-civilian crew.Xinhua

Paris mayor eyes French presidency

Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, has sought to transform the French capital with a crusade against cars but now faces an even tougher challenge of expanding her profile nationally to become France’s first female president.

The first female mayor of Paris, 62, was a virtual unknown seven years ago when she succeeded her former mentor and boss, Bertrand Delanoe, as mayor of Paris — a position seen as a stepping stone to the presidency.

Hidalgo, who grew up in a housing estate near Lyon, is used to being underestimated. Responding to polls that show her winning only between 7 and 9 percent of the vote for president, she told Paris Match magazine last month: “All my life I’ve proved the polls wrong.”

Police make four arrests in killing of journalist

Police in Northern Ireland said last week that they had arrested four men under the Terrorism Act in connection with the killing of journalist Lyra McKee.

The men, aged 19, 20, 21 and 33, were detained on September 15 in Londonderry, in the northwest of the British province, where McKee was killed in April 2019.

They were taken to a police station in Belfast, where they will be questioned later, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.

“These arrests are the culmination of a detailed two-year investigation into Lyra’s murder and the events which preceded it,” said Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy.

McKee, 29, was shot in the head while standing near a police vehicle as dissident pro-Ireland republicans clashed with officers in the Creggan area of Londonderry.

Foreigners kidnapped from Mexico hotel

Gunmen have abducted about 20 suspected migrants from a hotel in central Mexico, authorities said.

Armed men stormed the Sol Y Luna hotel in the city of Matehuala in the early hours of September 14.

The kidnapped men and women are thought to be mostly from Haiti and Venezuela.

Police were hunting for the victims. But the abductors also took the hotel’s logbook of guests, complicating the search.

“We are trying to find their identities,” said Arturo Garza Herrera, the attorney general of San Luis Potosi state.

The kidnappers had arrived in three SUVs, the state prosecutor’s office said.

Norway’s leftist

opposition wins election

Norway’s leftist opposition headed by Labor Party leader Jonas Gahr Store won the general election after a campaign dominated by questions about the future of the key oil industry in Western Europe’s largest producer.

The Labor Party and Store could possibly even win an absolute majority in parliament with its preferred allies, the Center Party and the Socialist Left.

That would eliminate the need to rely on the support of the two other opposition parties.

US, Aussie submarines contract denounced

France on Thursday denounced a “blow in the back” by the United States and Australia after the two countries, together with Britain, sealed a submarines supply contract under the just-announced trilateral security partnership.

“We had established a relationship of trust with Australia. This trust is betrayed,” French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian told the radio network France Info, adding that the contract is a “blow in the back.”

“It is not over. They will have to give explanations,” he said. “The American behavior worries me. This unilateral and brutal decision is very similar to what Mr. (Donald) Trump was doing.”(SD-Agencies)