Новости за 12.03.2017

As the battle is nearing to recapture the Syrian city of Raqqa - the de facto capital of Islamic State - more civilians are reported fleeing their homes to seek safety in areas outside the control of the terror group. Every day, dozens of local residents embark on a dangerous journey to get out of the city, and are paying large amounts of money to smugglers to facilitate their escape, according to local activists and military officials. “Smugglers charge up to $700 for each individual who wants to flee the city,” said Hussam Eesa... Читать дальше...

At least 34 people have been killed after a bus involved in a hit-and-run  accident veered into a crowd Sunday in the Haitian city of Gonaives, officials say. The vehicle first knocked over two pedestrians, killing one. Then as the driver tried to flee the scene, he rammed the bus into a band of street musicians, leaving 33 of them dead at the scene. Another 17 people were injured in the crash. Gonaives is located 150 kilometers north of the capital, Port-au-Prince. "The people who were not... Читать дальше...

The White House must promptly produce any evidence it has to substantiate President Donald Trump’s charge that his phones were wiretapped last year at the behest of former President Barack Obama. That’s the message from key U.S. lawmakers, Republican and Democratic, before hearings on Capitol Hill probing charges of Russian meddling in American elections. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, making his first trip to Japan, South Korea and China as the top United States diplomat this week, is expected to expand the effort to find new options for dealing with North Korea and the nuclear and military threat it poses to the region and to the world. Pyongyang's provocative gestures, such as firing multiple missiles into the Sea of Japan this month in a rehearsal for a potential "attack" against U.S. military bases in Japan, have been so strident that... Читать дальше...

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

Officials in Pakistan say that arrangements are in place to conduct a national census for the first time in 19 years starting Wednesday, and more than 200,000 troops will assist civilian enumerators in collecting the data. Information minister Maryam Aurangzeb told a news conferences in Islamabad Sunday the 70-day door-to-door campaign will be concluded in two phases at a financial cost of around $185-million. The minister explained that nearly 120,000 specially trained government workers have... Читать дальше...

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces say Islamic State fighters are trapped in western Mosul. The Iraqi army has surrounded Mosul and is now is control of the last road leading out of the city. U.S. Envoy Brett McGurk said Sunday, “ISIS is trapped. ... Any of the fighters left in Mosul, they’re going to die there.” U.S.-backed Iraqi forces pushed deeper into Mosul to take positions still held by IS militants. Iraqi Staff Major General Maan al-Saadi told the French news agency, AFP, that "around more... Читать дальше...

The death toll from twin bombings on a religious shrine in the capital Damascus has risen to 74, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Most of the dead were Iraqi Shi'ite pilgrims. Images from the scene showed several wrecked tourist buses, with eyeglasses, shoes, cellphones and a mangled wheelchair scattered in the blood-stained wreckage. An al-Qaida-linked alliance claimed responsibility for the blasts. Syrian authorities and monitors cited conflicting reports about the cause of the blasts. Читать дальше...

Cairo's population is set to grow by 500,000 this year, more than any other city in the world, adding to the pressure on an Egyptian economy struggling to recover from six years of political turmoil. Greater Cairo, a metropolitan area including the cities of Cairo, Giza and Qalyubia, is home to some 22.8 million people and will gain another half a million in 2017, a Euromonitor International report released last week shows. That represents a quarter of Egypt's 92 million. The national natural... Читать дальше...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the Netherlands Sunday it would "pay a price" for refusing to allow Ankara's foreign minister into the country and expelling another minister Saturday to keep them from holding rallies with Turkish immigrants. Erdogan accused the Dutch government, a NATO ally, of "nazism and fascism," saying only a repressive regime would block Ankara's officials from traveling to the Netherlands. Both of the Ankara officials were trying to rally Turkish immigrants... Читать дальше...

Malaysia's deputy prime minister said Sunday that 315 North Koreans are in the country and barred from leaving amid a diplomatic dispute over the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half brother.   The figure is lower than an estimate previously given by a government official, who had told The Associated Press that some 1,000 North Koreans were believed to be in Malaysia.   Malaysia says Kim Jong Nam died after two women smeared his face with the banned VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur's airport on Feb. Читать дальше...

Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as Carlos the Jackal, is due to go on trial Monday for a deadly attack in a Paris' shopping mall decades ago, the oldest one blamed on the former public enemy of France and probably the last one to come to court. The Venezuelan-born Ramirez Sanchez, one of the most notorious political terrorists of the 1970s and `80s, is serving a life sentence in France for a series of murders and attacks he perpetrated or organized in the country on behalf of the Palestinian cause or communist revolution. Читать дальше...

The risk of a steep slide in China's economy has reduced, the head of a government research center said on Sunday, adding the country had moved through an "L-shaped" pattern of slowing to now "horizontal" growth. China's economy grew 6.7 percent last year, according to the government, the slowest pace in 26 years. The country met its growth target with support from record bank loans, a speculative housing boom and billions in government investment. But as Beijing moves to cool the housing market... Читать дальше...

Madagascar's government says the death toll from Cyclone Enawo has risen to at least 50, with 20 people missing. The island nation's disaster management agency on Sunday said the cyclone that made landfall in the northeast on Tuesday also has driven 110,000 people from their homes. At least 183 people were injured.   Enawo brought heavy rains and winds in excess of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour — the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane.   Officials say the full extent of the damage is... Читать дальше...

Federal judges found more problems in Texas' voting rights laws, ruling that Republicans racially gerrymandered some congressional districts to weaken the growing electoral power of minorities, who former President Barack Obama set out to protect at the ballot box before leaving office. The ruling late Friday by a three-judge panel in San Antonio gave Democrats hope of new, more favorably drawn maps that could turn over more seats in Congress in 2018. But the judges in their 2-1 decision didn't propose an immediate fix... Читать дальше...

A former White House spokesman during the Obama administration said Sunday he believes more will come to light regarding ties between Russia and aides to President Donald Trump. Josh Earnest pointed in part to political consultant Roger Stone's communication with an individual involved in hacking Democratic National Committee emails. And when asked about Trump's claim, made without evidence on Twitter, that Obama ordered a wiretap on him, Earnest simply said: "The bigger the scandal, the more outrageous... Читать дальше...

South Korea's ousted former president Park Geun-hye has left the presidential Blue House, two days after the Constitutional Court issued a verdict removing her from office over a corruption scandal. She headed Sunday to her private home in Seoul where hundreds of supporters have been protesting her ouster. The Constitutional Court on Friday upheld a parliamentary vote to impeach Park, removing her from office over the scandal that involved her close friend. However, she had remained in the Blue House as her private home... Читать дальше...

Hundreds if not thousands of armed men are converging on Libya's main oil shipping terminals, which the rival powers in the country's east and west are fighting to control in a battle being watched by global oil markets. The struggle for the Ras Lanuf refinery and nearby Sidr depot threatens to spiral into an all-out conflict between east and west. Already, it has seen the bloodiest fighting yet between the two camps: Around 40 troops from the east were killed over four days as militias backed by western factions stormed the area last Friday... Читать дальше...

The U.S. House Intelligence Committee is calling on President Donald Trump to produce evidence by Monday that the phones at Trump Tower were wiretapped during the presidential campaign. The president went on a Twitter rant a week ago saying former president Barack Obama had the Trump Tower phones tapped, but Trump did not offer any evidence. The president tweeted, "Terrible. Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism." Committee chairman Devin Nunes... Читать дальше...

Police in Nigeria say two teenage female suicide bombers have been shot dead by troops as they tried to sneak into the northeastern city of Maiduguri.   Borno State police spokesman Victor Isuku says the two were wearing explosive vests under their clothes when they were shot dead Saturday night. The vests were later detonated safely by police.   No one else was harmed.   Extremist group Boko Haram has been using more and more teenage suicide bombers in the past couple of years. Maiduguri is... Читать дальше...

A landslide swept through a massive garbage dump on the outskirts of Ethiopia's capital, killing at least 15 people and leaving several dozen missing, residents said, as officials vowed to relocate those who called the landfill home. Addis Ababa Mayor Diriba Kuma said 15 bodies had been recovered since the landslide Saturday night at the Koshe Garbage Landfill buried several makeshift homes and concrete buildings. The landfill has been a dumping ground for the capital's garbage for more than 50 years. Читать дальше...

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are pushing deeper into western Mosul Sunday to take positions still held by Islamic State militants. Iraqi Staff Major General Maan al-Saadi told the French news agency that “around more than a third” of western Mosul is under the control of Iraqi units. Large plumes of smoke could be seen Sunday above the city’s skyline as a series of explosions was heard. Since the government’s initial push into the western side of the city began February 19, U.S. and Iraqi commanders... Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to quiz German Chancellor Angela Merkel about her experience dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin when the chancellor visits the White House Tuesday. A senior administration official said Friday Trump would be “very interested to get German Chancellor Merkel’s insights” as he prepares to engage the Kremlin leader. Critics on both sides of the Atlantic have been suspicious of what they see as Trump’s naivete when it comes to Putin, particularly with regard... Читать дальше...

Faced with aggressive on-air questioning about the president’s wiretapping claims, Sarah Huckabee Sanders didn’t flinch, she went folksy.    Speaking to George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America, she pulled out a version of an old line from President Lyndon Johnson: “If the president walked across the Potomac, the media would be reporting that he could not swim.”   The 34-year-old spokeswoman for President Donald Trump was schooled in hardscrabble politics and down-home rhetoric from a young age by her father, former Arkansas Gov. Читать дальше...

A Jordanian soldier who killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in a 1997 shooting rampage was released Sunday, after serving 20 years in prison. Ahmed Daqamseh had opened fire on the eighth graders while they were on a class trip to the scenic ``Island of Peace'' border post, also wounding seven girls. A Jordanian court later deemed Daqamseh mentally unstable and sentenced him to life in prison, rather than imposing the death penalty.   Daqamseh arrived before dawn Sunday in his home village of Ibdir in northern Jordan. Читать дальше...