Новости за 16.03.2017

A U.N. body on Thursday added two chemicals used to make the drug fentanyl, which killed music star Prince, to an international list of controlled substances, which the United States said would help fight a wave of deaths by overdose. Fentanyl is a man-made opioid 100 times more powerful than morphine. Roughly 20,000 U.S. overdose deaths in 2015 involved heroin or synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An annual meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs... Читать дальше...

Somali pirates on Thursday released a hijacked oil tanker and its eight-man Sri Lankan crew without any conditions or ransom payments. The release followed a gunfight earlier in the day between the pirates and a marine force, and then intensive negotiations between the marine force, clan elders and the pirates. Two people in the Somali town of Haabo were wounded as naval forces traded fire with men trying to ferry supplies to the tanker. Witnesses told VOA's Somali service that the navy of... Читать дальше...

The White House announced nominees for six senior Pentagon jobs on Thursday, including a longtime Boeing Co. executive for deputy secretary of defense, in its most significant step toward surrounding Defense Secretary Jim Mattis with Trump administration picks. President Donald Trump has struggled to fill top Defense Department positions. Mattis is the only administration nominee to be confirmed at the Pentagon. Until Thursday, the administration had only announced four other nominees; two of those later withdrew. Читать дальше...

President Donald Trump’s blueprint budget calls for a dramatic increase in defense and homeland security spending, offset by deep cuts to foreign aid and federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency. But could there be another way to build up the military without taking money away from other valuable programs?  Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) thinks so. “American multinational corporations owe $700 billion in U.S. taxes on profits they are holding offshore - much of it earned in... Читать дальше...

Ten people were injured in an eruption on Mount Etna on Thursday when magma flowing into snow caused a violent explosion that sent stones and rocks flying into the air, emergency services said. Among those hurt near the summit of Etna on the island of Sicily were members of a television crew filming for the BBC. "Running down a mountain pelted by rocks, dodging burning boulders and boiling steam — not an experience I ever ever want to repeat," the BBC's science correspondent Rebecca Morelle wrote on Twitter. Читать дальше...

In January, then-President-elect Donald Trump announced a "complete separation" from his global business empire. Under siege by critics who charged that his organization represented a maze of potential conflicts of interest, Trump said his sons would manage it in a trust and that he would "completely isolate himself" from the company's day-to-day operations. The plan fell short of what the U.S. government's own ethics watchdog has insisted Trump must do: a total divestment of his business holdings. Читать дальше...

The United Nations said Thursday it is preparing for a "mass exodus" from the western part of the Iraqi city of Mosul, as military operations intensify to dislodge Islamic State terrorists. The military liberated the eastern part of Mosul in mid-January, and then turned its sights to the city's western sector last month. Until then, Iraq's second largest city had been in the grip of IS terrorists since 2014. "The number of people that are coming out and the pace of exodus is higher than it... Читать дальше...

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he is willing to accept the "fairly dramatic" cuts President Donald Trump is proposing to make to his department's budget, saying "the level of spending" it has been undertaking "particularly in this past year, is simply not sustainable." The White House's "America First" budget proposal for the federal government proposes to significantly boost defense spending and offset the increase with steep cuts in funding for the State Department, other foreign aid programs... Читать дальше...

President Donald Trump's own words have come back to haunt him as he tries to launch an executive order on travel that will stick. Wednesday, two U.S. federal courts issued temporary restraining orders against the president's  second attempt at a travel order that would limit who can enter the country. A judge in Hawaii blocked both the order's suspension of refugee admissions and its ban on issuing new visas to people from a group of six countries.   Judge Derrick Watson pointed to statements... Читать дальше...

Developers of an experimental blood test for autism say it can detect the condition in more than 96 percent of cases and do so across a broad spectrum of patients, potentially allowing for earlier diagnosis, according to a study released on Thursday. The findings, published in PLoS Computational Biology, are the latest effort to develop a blood test for autism spectrum disorder, which is estimated to affect about 1 in 68 babies. The cause remains a mystery although it has been shown that childhood vaccines are not responsible. Читать дальше...

Twice a week, fisherman Romould Compton puts on scuba gear to dive to the seabed and clean tiny elkhorns growing in the coral nursery off the Caribbean island of Carriacou, tending them until they can be transplanted to a damaged reef nearby. He hopes his conservation work will help to bring back more of the fish, such as red snapper, king butterfish and hind, that many islanders depend on. "In my area we depend on the reef for our survival and livelihoods, and a lot of reef is dead," said Compton by phone from Windward... Читать дальше...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is headed Friday to his first G-20 meeting of the world's top financial leaders in Germany with a message that the new administration of President Donald Trump won't tolerate any countries that try to devalue their currencies to gain an unfair trade advantage. The U.S. ran a trade deficit of $502 billion last year, the difference between the value of U.S. exports compared to the bigger worth of products it imports. Even as Trump has vowed to end multi-national trade deals... Читать дальше...

One woman will make history next week as the first female Marine to join the infantry through the traditional entry-level training process that was previously unavailable to women, officials tell VOA. The Marine is finishing up her training as a mortarwoman and will graduate next week from the U.S. Marine Corps School of Infantry at Camp Geiger in eastern North Carolina, said Marine Capt. Joshua Pena, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Training and Education Command. "More women will follow her... Читать дальше...

The Kenya Association of Manufacturers says the government's directive to ban plastic bags beginning in September will hurt more than 170 companies and put at least 60,000 people out of work. The problem is not plastic bags, but consumer behavior, says Phyllis Wakiaga, the association's chief. "Issue of waste management is an issue we must admit as a country because all of us are responsible for it," Wakiaga said. "How we manage our waste at the individual level, at a household level, at the business level, is a concern that all of us. Читать дальше...

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe says foreign companies that comply with his indigenization law are guaranteed security. His comment is a deviation from his earlier promise that he would revise the policy, which analysts repeatedly have said scares away investors. At the official launch Thursday of an $82-million cement manufacturing plant by a South African company, PPC Zimbabwe, a frail looking 93-year-old Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said he was happy the company had not resisted the indigenization law... Читать дальше...

Malawian Airlines made history Thursday with an all-female operated and supported flight from Blantyre, Malawi, to Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. The two-hour flight by a Bombardier Q400 aircraft that took off from Chileka International Airport was the first of its kind in Malawi's aviation history.   All flight-related operations such as security checks, customer service, check-in, air traffic control and cabin procedures were conducted by women. Even airport staff such as police, immigration and ground control officers were women. Читать дальше...

Demi Lovato is celebrating five years of sobriety.  The 24-year-old singer celebrated with an Instagram post on Wednesday. She writes that "it's been quite the journey,'' adding, "so many times I wanted to relapse but sat on my hands and begged God to relieve the obsession.''   Lovato's personal struggles have been well-documented. In 2010, she left a tour with the Jonas Brothers and entered rehab for an eating disorder and self-mutilation. She has also said that she used drugs and alcohol to self -medicate. Читать дальше...

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

World Water Day will be observed on March 22 but by far not every country enjoys easy access to the commodity. Among them is Cameroon where residents of major cities suffer frequent water cuts, with schools impacted in particular. During a noisy morning at the Grace nursery and primary school in the Damas neighborhood in Cameroon's capital city, Yaounde, children all carry water bottles in their bags. Jannette Nanyongo, the school’s head teacher says at times the neighborhood in which their school... Читать дальше...

Tucked away in Spain's Pyrenees mountains, patients at psychiatric facility Benito Menni stretch out across floor mats and stroke greyhound puppies Atila and Argi. Puppy love is part of the treatment for conditions such as schizophrenia. The facility, based in a town near the border with France, uses the dogs to help patients with intellectual disabilities and mental health conditions develop social skills and a sense of autonomy. Alongside misty views of green rolling mountains, petting... Читать дальше...

On a cold winter morning in the Iranian capital recently, a homeless dog lay basking in the sun's rays for warmth. Suddenly, the canine moaned — it had been shot with an anesthetic dart from a blowpipe. It ran several steps, then fell immobilized. The cream-and-gray colored dog was collected by a worker for a new shelter where it will be given a medical check, neutered and microchipped — the first such initiative in this country where strays in the street are usually killed. The Aradkouh Stray... Читать дальше...

The rising sun hasn't lit up the cobblestone streets of this colonial city yet, but people of all ages are busy covering them with brightly colored sawdust mosaics and carpets made of flowers and fruits. Many have worked overnight on these elaborate masterpieces that will disappear in a couple of minutes under the feet of dozens of men carrying in procession a 3-ton religious float. Whether shouldering massive sacred images or decorating the streets where they will pass, the people of Antigua... Читать дальше...

Each year, aspiring tech entrepreneurs from all over the world head to the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas, to prove their worth. But what does it take to stand apart from the competition? Anna Skaya, chief executive and co-founder of Basepaws, a DNA home test kit for cats, secured some seed funding at the conference. Seed funding is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in exchange for an equity stake in the company. "People are really excited about this idea of pet genetics. Читать дальше...

32 years ago today on March 16, 1985, Associated Press journalist Terry Anderson was abducted by Hezbollah militants in Beirut, Lebanon and held in captivity for nearly seven years. “I had about a year and a half in solitary [confinement] which… nearly destroyed me,” Anderson said during an address he gave at a newspaper association conference last year. “It is soul destroying,” Anderson said. “I discovered that I need people."   On the day he was taken hostage. Anderson, AP’s chief Middle East correspondent at the time... Читать дальше...

During the Cold War, the films were highly classified, but now anyone can watch a newly released treasure trove of U.S. nuclear weapons tests on YouTube. Greg Spriggs, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, said the 750 movies were in danger of becoming degraded to the point that they were no longer useful. “We got to this project just in time,” he said in a three-minute recording introducing the nuclear test videos. “We know that these films are on the brink of... Читать дальше...