Новости за 08.05.2017

Several human rights groups and think tanks on Monday launched a campaign to drastically reduce homicides in Brazil, the world leader in absolute number of annual killings. In 2015, the last year for which comparative numbers are available, 56,212 people were killed in Brazil, according to the Igarape Institute think tank, which draws data from the United Nations data and governments around the world. That is more than countries like China and India, which have much larger populations. “For decades, Brazil has had the No. Читать дальше...

The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said on Monday they had agreed to link their power systems to other European Union members through Poland as they look to reduce their dependence on Russia. Power grids in the Baltic countries, formerly part of the Soviet Union, are still integrated with those in Belarus and Russia. The three Baltic countries have been members of the European Union and NATO since 2004. The Baltic governments see the continued dependence on Russia as a threat... Читать дальше...

There has been no policy change with regard to U.S. Navy freedom of navigation operations under the administration of President Donald Trump, U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift said on Monday. Under the previous administration, the U.S. Navy conducted such voyages through the South China Sea — most of which is claimed by China — angering Beijing. But none has been conducted in the region under the Trump administration. The New York Times reported last week that a U.S. Pacific Command... Читать дальше...

Spreading ethnic violence is driving more people from their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the humanitarian situation is "dramatically deteriorating", the United Nations said on Monday. Some 100,000 people were uprooted last week alone, bringing the ranks of displaced in the central Kasai region to nearly 1.3 million, it said. The total number of displaced throughout Congo has more than doubled to 3.7 million since Aug 2016. "This very acute crisis in the DRC is not just expanding... Читать дальше...

Venezuela's opposition boycotted a meeting on Monday to discuss President Nicolas Maduro's plan for a new popular assembly, preferring to protest in the streets where they were again blocked by security forces firing tear gas. In familiar scenes from five weeks of unrest, youths with gas masks and makeshift shields faced off with police and National Guard troops in Caracas, after hundreds of demonstrators were stopped from reaching government offices. In Venezuela's second city Maracaibo, a crowd... Читать дальше...

Efforts to start a "national dialogue" in war-ravaged South Sudan are on hold again after a key steering committee could not muster enough members for a quorum. The government says more than half the committee members appointed by President Salva Kiir have yet to report for duty. Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said Sunday that officials were forced to delay the swearing-in of the committee that was to oversee the dialogue. "It has been postponed until further notice because the percentage... Читать дальше...

The United States on Monday called on Kosovo's political parties to ratify a border demarcation deal with neighboring Montenegro, saying the delay is damaging the Balkan state's credibility abroad. The U.S. Embassy urged the government in Pristina to resubmit the ratification question to parliament. The embassy says the holdup also is hindering the ability of Kosovars to travel freely through Europe. “We remain fully convinced - after considerable review by United States Government experts -... Читать дальше...

Deteriorating public discourse in Hungary risks demolishing the country's achievements since the 1990 return to democracy, President Janos Ader said Monday. Ader told lawmakers after his induction ceremony in Parliament that politicians should not follow the example of tabloid publications and involve each other's families and sexual or religious identities in their disputes. "It's not worth measuring who started it, who was the first to be crass, who stepped first over the line," Ader said. "There is a year left until the elections... Читать дальше...

U.S. Senator John McCain is criticizing the foreign policy of the Trump administration, saying it is not focused enough on human rights abuses around the world. In an op-ed article for the New York Times Friday, the Republican senator said the United States has an obligation to speak out for human rights as a country that was created from "an ideal that liberty is the inalienable right of mankind." He criticized recent comments made by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who said conditioning U.S.... Читать дальше...

It's not a movie set, but visitors to Disney World's new Pandora-World of Avatar land are in for a cinematic experience. The 12-acre land, inspired by the “Avatar” movie, opens in Florida in late May at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom. It cost a half-billion dollars to build.   The marquee attraction is Flight of Passage, where a 3-D simulator plunges riders into a cinematic world. You feel like you're riding on the back of a banshee, a bluish, gigantic, winged predator that resembles something out of the Jurassic era. Читать дальше...

Centrist Emmanuel Macron’s victory over Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential elections means one of the EU"s key nations has for now avoided a brush with nationalist politics. But as VOA Europe Correspondent Luis Ramirez reports from Paris, there are questions on whether Macron – who ran as an independent - will have a mandate to deliver.

Life expectancy in the United States depends on what county one lives in, a new study suggests. According to the study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle, “The gap between counties with the highest and lowest life expectancies is larger now than it was back in 1980 – a more than a 20-year difference in 2014 – highlighting massive and growing inequality in the health of Americans.” For example, in Owsley County, Kentucky, one of the poorest counties... Читать дальше...

Seventy-two years ago on May 8, 1945, tens of thousands of people gathered in streets across the world to celebrate “VE Day” — Victory in Europe Day — the official end of the Second World War on the continent. U.S. President Harry Truman announced the surrender of German forces during a broadcast address to the American people. Truman said, “Much remains to be done,” a reference to fighting against Japan in the Asia-Pacific rim. In Britain, Londoners celebrated that six years of death and hardship were finally over. Читать дальше...

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

Malaysia's most-wanted member of the Islamic State militant group has been killed in Syria, police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said Monday, citing intelligence information. Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi, 26, who was on a U.S. list of global militants, was the alleged mastermind behind a grenade attack on a Kuala Lumpur bar last June which injured eight people. It was the first and so far only Islamic State attack that caused casualties in Malaysia. "After reviewing intelligence, the Royal Malaysian... Читать дальше...

The walkie-talkie in the commander’s hand buzzes and crackles as soldiers line up their humvees and tanks, readying themselves to enter Islamic State territory.     “Tell all the men to put on helmets,” are the orders over the walkie-talkie.  “I don’t want to see anyone without a helmet!”   A few minutes later, many of the soldiers still don’t have helmets, including the commander with the walkie-talkie, who wears a camouflage cap.     Five full Iraqi divisions are fighting in the latest offensive... Читать дальше...

The Vatican is celebrating the big-bang theory. That's not as out of this world as it sounds.   The Vatican Observatory has invited leading scientists and cosmologists to talk black holes, gravitational waves and space-time singularities as it honors the late Jesuit cosmologist considered one of the fathers of the idea that the universe began with a gigantic explosion.   The Tuesday-Friday conference honoring Monsignor George Lemaitre is being held at the Vatican Observatory, founded by Pope... Читать дальше...

It has been only six months since real estate developer Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States in one of the most divisive political campaigns in U.S. history. Trump has struggled to make major progress in his early months as president. One of those moments came last Thursday when Republicans narrowly pushed a health care replacement bill through the House of Representatives, the first step toward Trump’s campaign goal of repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. Читать дальше...

Three concrete block buildings bake in the heat of Diffa, Niger. They would likely go unnoticed, if they weren't guarded by soldiers armed with Kalishnakovs and ringed by barbed wire perched atop the walls. This is a deradicalization camp for former Boko Haram fighters. The camp, which opened six months ago, houses about 150 people, most of them ex-jihadists, accompanied by their wives and children.   Some of the occupants have threatening faces. There are teenage faces too, belonging to boys who weren't really fighters. Читать дальше...

At a night rehearsal for Russia’s annual May 9 World War II Victory Day parade in Red Square, troops practice goose-stepping while tanks, missile launchers, and other armored vehicles roll past a select audience toward St. Basil’s Cathedral.   Russia will show off its latest hardware, new missile defense systems for Russia’s Baltic Fleet and Arctic troops, as well as debut President Vladimir Putin’s “Youth Army,” or Yunarmiya.     Putin ordered the creation of the military’s "patriotic" youth organization in 2015. Читать дальше...

Neither Bill Clinton nor James Patterson has ever tried something like this before.   The former president and the best-selling novelist are collaborating on a thriller, "The President is Missing," to come out June 2018 as an unusual joint release from rival publishers — Alfred A. Knopf and Little, Brown and Co. In a statement Monday provided to The Associated Press, the publishers called the book "a unique amalgam of intrigue, suspense and behind-the-scenes global drama from the highest corridors of power. Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump, who already has won confirmation of a conservative jurist to the Supreme Court, is set to name more conservative judges to lower courts. Aides say 10 of the people on Trump's list include five nominees for U.S. appellate courts, the next level down from the nation's highest court, where judges often play a significant role in interpreting U.S. laws. The nominees must be confirmed by the Senate. The nine-member Supreme Court only hears appeals in about 70 cases annually... Читать дальше...

At least six people have been killed in a car bombing outside a Mogadishu restaurant, including a senior Somali military general. Government officials have told VOA's Somali Service that General Abdi Bashir Aden was among those killed in the Monday bombing. Ten others were injured when the bomb went off shortly before 6 p.m. local time, next to a popular eatery and coffee shop known as the Italian Cafe.  Witnesses said they believe the explosion was timed for an hour when many customers sit outside... Читать дальше...

A beach that was swept away more than 30 years ago from a remote island off the west coast of Ireland has reappeared after thousands of tons of  sand were deposited on top of the rocky coastline. The 300 meter beach near the tiny village of Dooagh on Achill Island vanished in 1984 when storms stripped it of its sand, leaving nothing more than a series of rock pools. But after high spring tides last month, locals found that the Atlantic Ocean had  returned the sand. "It's enormously significant,"... Читать дальше...

Arguments on President Donald Trump's executive order restricting travel will be heard in appeals court Monday. The order, which bars entry of foreign nationals from six Muslim countries for 90 days and refugees for 120 days, has been on hold since March when two lower courts, one in Hawaii and one in Maryland, issued stays. The U.S. government appealed both cases, one to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and one to the Ninth Circuit. The Fourth Circuit will hear arguments Monday. Here is what you can expect... Читать дальше...