[ti:New York City Announces Plan to Retrain Police]
[ar:]
[al:In the News]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]New York City says it is planning to retrain its police force. 
[00:06.82]Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the retraining 
[00:10.76]of the city's 20,000-member police force Thursday. 
[00:15.04]He said it is essential that police treat people of all races equally.
[00:21.56]On Wednesday, 
[00:23.31]a New York grand jury ruled against charging a white police officer 
[00:28.83]in connection with the death of an unarmed black man. 
[00:32.67]The officer had held his arm around the man's neck 
[00:37.15]and forced him to the sidewalk before he died. 
[00:40.65]A witness video of the act 
[00:43.69]shows the man repeatedly saying he could not breathe.
[00:47.82]Earlier Thursday, 
[00:49.76]U.S. civil rights leaders condemned the grand jury decision.
[00:54.25]A top New York police official says 
[00:57.78]the three-day retraining will be completed by June.
[01:02.07]American space agency officials have delayed plans 
[01:08.69]to launch a new spaceship for at least a day. 
[01:12.44]The officials say their decision was based on several problems, 
[01:17.36]including equipment failure 
[01:19.90]and winds at the Cape Canaveral launch area in Florida.
[01:24.23]The spaceship is designed to take American astronauts 
[01:28.91]to the moon and beyond. 
[01:30.60]This first trip is to be unpiloted, however. 
[01:35.39]The ship is to orbit Earth twice before returning. 
[01:39.63]The orbit was to be 14 times farther from Earth 
[01:44.85]than that of the International Space Station.
[01:48.14]NASA officials say the launch could take place on Friday.
[01:53.41]A group of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has threatened 
[01:59.38]to kill an American hostage. 
[02:01.38]The group says the United States must meet its demands 
[02:06.20]within three days to stop the killing of a man 
[02:10.52]who says he is Luke Somers. 
[02:13.26]A video released Thursday shows him saying 
[02:17.69]that he is certain his life is in danger. 
[02:20.67]Gunmen in Saana captured an American news 
[02:25.35]photographer of that name last year.
[02:28.64]The group has not made clear 
[02:31.08]what it expects from the United States.
[02:34.16]The Somali militant group Al Shabab says 
[02:38.90]it has shot down a Kenyan military plane 
[02:42.23]returning from fighting in Somalia. 
[02:44.94]But the Kenyan military denies the report. 
[02:48.47]It says technical problems caused the crash 
[02:52.56]in the area of Kismayo.
[02:54.55]Earlier Thursday, a spokesman for al-Shabab said 
[02:59.58]its gunman had killed a former Somali lawmaker 
[03:03.47]in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. 
[03:06.81]The spokesman said a current member of Parliament 
[03:11.14]was injured in the attack.