Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish-Iranian Woman Who Died in Police Custody, is Awarded EU Human Rights Prize

People attend a protest rally in Rome, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023 to mark the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)
People attend a protest rally in Rome, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023 to mark the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)
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Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish-Iranian Woman Who Died in Police Custody, is Awarded EU Human Rights Prize

People attend a protest rally in Rome, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023 to mark the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)
People attend a protest rally in Rome, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023 to mark the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)

Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran last year, sparking worldwide protests against the country’s conservative theocracy, was awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize on Thursday.
The EU award, named for Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honor individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sakharov, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died in 1989, The Associated Press said.
Other finalists this year included Vilma Nunez de Escorcia and Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez — two emblematic figures in the fight for the defense of human rights in Nicaragua — and a trio of women from Poland, El Salvador and the United States leading a fight for “free, safe and legal abortion.



Bezos' Blue Origin calls off New Glenn Launch Again, Eyes Thursday

A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket stands ready for its inaugural launch at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., January 11, 2025. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket stands ready for its inaugural launch at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., January 11, 2025. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo
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Bezos' Blue Origin calls off New Glenn Launch Again, Eyes Thursday

A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket stands ready for its inaugural launch at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., January 11, 2025. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket stands ready for its inaugural launch at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., January 11, 2025. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo

Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin moved the launch of its New Glenn rocket from Tuesday to Thursday, Jan. 16, further pushing back its inaugural attempt to reach orbit and compete with SpaceX in the satellite launch market.

The company called off its first scheduled launch on Monday after a technical issue was encountered in the lead-up to its takeoff.

The three-hour launch window opens at 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT) on Thursday, Blue Origin said in a post on X, according to Reuters.

The development of New Glenn has spanned three Blue Origin CEOs and faced numerous delays as Elon Musk's SpaceX grew into an industry juggernaut with its reusable Falcon 9, the world's most active rocket.

New Glenn is more than twice as powerful as a Falcon 9 rocket and has dozens of customer launch contracts collectively worth billions of dollars lined up.

The rocket would seek to land New Glenn's first stage booster on a sea-fairing barge in the Atlantic Ocean 10 minutes after liftoff, while the rocket's second stage continues toward orbit.

"The thing we're most nervous about is the booster landing," Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, told Reuters in a pre-launch interview on Sunday. "Clearly on a first flight you could have an anomaly at any mission phase, so anything could happen.