Новости за 04.04.2017

A spokesman for Islamic State is lashing out at the United States and President Donald Trump in what some see as an attempt to rally the terror group’s fighters. In a new, nearly 37-minute-long audio message published Tuesday by IS propagandists on Telegram and other social media, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir said the U.S. was drowning with no one to save it. “You are bankrupt and the signs of your demise are evident to every eye," al-Muhajir said. “There is no more evidence than the fact that you are... Читать дальше...

American voters, by a wide margin, continue to disapprove of the job President Donald Trump is doing in his first months in the White House. Quinnipiac University reported Tuesday that its recent survey of nearly 1,200 voters showed Trump's approval rating at 35 percent, while 57 percent of those surveyed disapproved of his performance. The latter figure was up a percentage point from the university's most recent polling two weeks ago. Quinnipiac said Republican voters, by 79 percent to 14 percent, viewed the Republican president favorably.

Taking turns, taking risks and following the rules are lessons people learn by playing games. One road to those skills is board games, where people sit together and move figurines on a special board. One player wins. Everyone else is defeated. But a newer style teaches a different skill. In these games, the deck is stacked against everyone. Players only win if they cooperate. Shelley Schlender reports.

Lawmakers in the southern U.S. state of Tennessee are close to passing an ordinance that would allow undocumented students to pay less expensive college tuition rates. Undocumented students who were brought into the U.S. illegally as children do not qualify for the federal or state financial aid that makes college more affordable. And in Tennessee, like several other U.S. states, they are required to pay out-of-state tuition rates that are often double the price that residents pay. If approved... Читать дальше...

Democracy scores declined in 2016 in more than half of the 29 countries surveyed in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Eurasia, according to Freedom House, a U.S.-based pro-democracy watchdog organization. This is the second-biggest decline in the annual report's 22-year history and is attributed to the rise of populism in the "Nations in Transit" region, where "leaders are openly attacking liberal democracies."  Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has the lowest ranking in Central Europe... Читать дальше...

South Sudanese army soldiers killed as many as 16 people in a town near the Ugandan border, witnesses said. Hundreds of locals fled into Uganda following Monday's violence in the town of Parjok. Witnesses said men wearing uniforms of the South Sudan army arrested more than 10 young people and executed them. A deputy spokesman for the army, Brigadier General Santo Dominic, said the troops had killed people whom he described as "bandits."   The general told VOA's South Sudan in Focus that his... Читать дальше...

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is now halfway between Pluto and its next much, much smaller stop. New Horizons — which reached the milestone this week — is bound for an even more remote object called 2014 MU69. Like Pluto, the object orbits in our solar system's twilight zone known as the Kuiper Belt, but is barely 1 percent its size. MU69 is nearly 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto. The spacecraft will swoop past MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019. "That flyby will set the record for... Читать дальше...

A New Jersey teen has pleaded guilty to participating in a plot to try to kill Pope Francis in 2015 during a public Mass in Philadelphia, according to a statement by federal prosecutors. Santos Colon, 17, admitted on Monday in a federal court in Camden, New Jersey, that he attempted to conspire with a sniper to shoot the pope during his visit in Philadelphia and set off explosive devices in surrounding areas. Colon engaged with someone he thought would be the sniper from June 30 to Aug. 14, 2015... Читать дальше...

Officials in southern Afghanistan said an overnight airstrike killed at least 22 Taliban insurgents, including 18 would-be suicide bombers. Regional corps commander Lieutenant General Daud Shah Wafadar told VOA on Tuesday that the strike had targeted a major training center in Shamulzayi district of troubled Zabul province. He said three Pakistani trainers and the head of the Taliban's so-called provincial military commission were also among those killed. The general added that bombers trained... Читать дальше...

A new poll released Tuesday shows Americans’ attitudes toward China are improving over years past, before a planned meeting later this week between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The timing of the poll’s release appears to be good news for Xi, whose visit coincides with the highest U.S. China favorability rating since 2011.  According to the Pew Research Center poll, 44 percent of Americans say they view China favorably, up from 37 percent last year. Between 2012 and 2016, the approval rating hovered between 37 and 38 percent. Читать дальше...

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “deeply regrets” the United States’ decision to cut funding to the U.N. Population Fund, which provides life-saving care to millions of women and girls around the world.   The Trump administration said Monday it would no longer fund the program, because it has determined that it “supports, or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization” in China.   A spokesman for Guterres said Tuesday the U.N. chief believes... Читать дальше...

Large numbers of job seekers from around the world are filing applications at U.S. federal offices as the season opened Monday for H1-B visas for foreign workers.   H1-Bs allow employers – mostly high-tech firms – to hire skilled foreign workers for jobs in the United States for three years. Eighty-five thousand slots are available - 65,000 for applicants with bachelor’s degrees and 20,000 for those with master’s or more advanced degrees. In recent years, there have been so many applications... Читать дальше...

A few hours after 20-year-old Zeena escaped Islamic State militants in Mosul on Monday, she is at a makeshift bus station where fleeing Mosul residents gather to be assigned tents or catch buses to relatives' homes. As it starts to rain, Zeena says she and her family are among the lucky ones. When militants caught women attempting to flee a few days ago, she says, female IS guards arrested them and took their money and gold. But as Iraqi forces get closer to defeating the militants, violence has... Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump is suggesting that Susan Rice, the national security adviser for his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, spied on conversations Trump aides had with foreign nationals last year and sought to unmask their identities for political gain, an allegation Rice said Tuesday was "absolutely false." Rice, in an interview with MSNBC, said there is no truth to Trump's claim a month ago that Obama wiretapped him, an allegation also widely debunked by U.S. lawmakers and intelligence officials. Читать дальше...

Two Florida men pleaded guilty Tuesday of conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Dayne Christian, also known as Shakur, and Darren Jackson, who used the name Daoud, were arrested last year while driving a co-defendant, Gregory Hubbard, often called Jibreel, to the Miami airport, where he planned to fly to Germany and from there travel to Turkey and Syria to join Islamic State. Christian, 32, and Jackson, 51, also both provided firearms and... Читать дальше...

Former U.S. President George W. Bush touted his signature aid project for Africa during a visit to Botswana on Tuesday, saying he hoped Washington would recognize its importance in saving lives threatened by AIDS. Launched in 2003 during the first Bush administration, PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is the world's largest provider of AIDS-fighting medicine and has branched out over the years to include provision of services for cervical cancer, which is linked to HIV infections in women. Читать дальше...

A Red Cross report says African countries are failing their internally displaced people.  Reversing that trend was the subject of a high level meeting of the International Red Cross and the African Union that wrapped up Tuesday in Zimbabwe. Africa has about 13 million internally displaced people, a third of the global number of IDPs, and more than double the amount of refugees on the continent. By definition, refugees flee across a national border, while IDPs leave their homes but stay within their own country. Читать дальше...

Observers warn piracy is making a comeback along the coast of Somalia, after gunmen hijacked two ships in 48 hours and took them to an area known as a pirate haven. On Monday, pirates hijacked a Pakistani boat, Salama 1, soon after seizing an Indian-owned boat, MSV Al Kausar.   The mayor of Hobyo, a town on the central Somali coast, tells VOA Somali the Al Kausar, with 11 crew members, is now anchored off the nearby village of El Hur.  The Salama 1 was reportedly headed to the same area with an unknown number of crew. Читать дальше...

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

Top diplomats are condemning what appears to be a chemical weapons attack that killed least 58 people and injured more than 200 others Tuesday in Syria. The use of chemical weapons has not been confirmed, but ambassadors have been quick to speak out against the use of these weapons at large. "The reports we are receiving strongly suggest the use of chemical weapons," British foreign minister Boris Johnson said.  "And although we cannot yet be certain about what has happened, this bears all the hallmarks of an attack by the regime... Читать дальше...

The two bid cities in the 2024 Olympic race addressed voters and sports leaders on Tuesday. Only one talked about "the elephant in the room." That is a possible double vote IOC President Thomas Bach has repeatedly hinted at, which could give Los Angeles and Paris either the 2024 or 2028 rights in September. "We believe that the '24-'28 conversation makes a lot of sense," LA bid chairman Casey Wasserman told an audience of Olympic stakeholders, "and it's fortunate that the IOC has two great cities to consider." Minutes later... Читать дальше...

Saying no “artificial controversy” should be created around the visit of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, India has called on China not to interfere in its internal affairs. The Dalai Lama arrived Tuesday in the border territory that is also partially claimed by China.  But his stop at the famous Tawang monastery where he is due to deliver sermons was delayed due to bad weather. The Buddhist monk’s visit to the sensitive eastern Himalayan... Читать дальше...

An innovator at Kenya’s Lake Victoria has turned an invasion of water hyacinth into a business opportunity, making paper from the weed that he sells in local shops. The initiative is creating jobs and supporting environmental sustainability. Michael Otieno began making paper from water hyacinth ten years ago. The flowering weed is a nuisance to fishermen. It depletes fish stocks, affecting thousands of livelihoods.   Known as the ‘paper man’ by locals, Otieno has perfected his daily routine. Every morning... Читать дальше...

Arab and Egyptian media reacted mostly favorably to the reception given to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi by U.S. President Donald Trump.  Sissi's Islamist opponents either condemned the visit or ignored it completely.   Most Arab and Egyptian news channels broke into their newscasts to carry Sissi’s meeting with Trump at the White House live, describing the talks between the two men as cordial and positive. Arab media underscored the theme of combating terrorism, and Sissi’s emphasis... Читать дальше...

Doctors have used an electrical stimulation technique that allowed a paralyzed man to move his legs, stand and “make steplike motions.” Four years ago, a snowmobile accident left Jared Chinnock, in his 20s, of Wisconsin, paralyzed from the mid-torso down. "I just thought I got the wind knocked out of me and needed to catch my breath and realized I couldn't get up," he told KARE television. "I was just pretty much set in my ways of I'm going to be in my wheelchair the rest of my life and I was... Читать дальше...