Новости за 09.05.2017

The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday launched an upgrade of a website to allow for the first time the tracking of all federal government spending categories, which totaled $3.85 trillion last year. The new Beta.USAspending.gov website culminates a three-year initiative to improve the existing USAspending.gov to provide a broader view of government spending than the grant and procurement data previously available on the site. The project brings together some 400 different data sets from more than 100 federal agencies... Читать дальше...

Hate crimes targeting Muslim Americans nearly sextupled between 2014 and 2016, fueled by toxic political rhetoric during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to a Muslim advocacy group. In a report released Tuesday, the Council on American Islamic Relations said there were 260 anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2016, up from 180 in 2015 and 38 in 2014, a 584 percent increase for the two-year period. Overall anti-Muslim bias cases, including hate crimes and non-violent incidents such as harassment and employment discrimination... Читать дальше...

South Sudan President Salva Kiir has fired his long-time army chief, Paul Malong. The move follows a number of resignations by senior generals who claimed the South Sudan Army was involved in ethnic cleansing and war crimes. It’s not clear if Malong will be appointed to another position. The president appointed General James Ajong as the new army chief. A brief presidential decree that aired on state television Tuesday did not explain President Kiir’s decision to replace Malong. South Sudan has... Читать дальше...

The European Union foreign policy chief Tuesday sought to reassure the international community that the bloc remains strong, despite Britain’s planned departure and anxiety caused by elections in several member states.   In her annual briefing to the United Nations Security Council, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini said the bloc marks its 60th birthday, about to lose member Britain but as strong as ever.   “Indeed, our British friends have decided to leave us – which is very sad for all of us ... Читать дальше...

A measure to ban child marriage could become law this week in New Jersey, which would become the first of the 50 states in America to outlaw the practice without exception, activists say. Viewed as the strongest such bill to be considered in the United States, it would prohibit any marriage of children under age 18. Activists say the practice of underage marriage is rampant in the United States, where about 170,000 children were wed between 2000 and 2010. Most are underage girls married to older men. Читать дальше...

Venezuela's infant mortality rose 30 percent last year, maternal mortality shot up 65 percent and cases of malaria jumped 76 percent, according to government data, sharp increases reflecting how the country's deep economic crisis has hammered at citizens' health. The statistics, issued on the ministry's website after nearly two years of data silence from President Nicolas Maduro's leftist government, also showed a jump in illnesses such as diphtheria and Zika. It was not immediately clear when the ministry posted the data... Читать дальше...

The Victoria & Albert Museum's new exhibition is a psychedelic time capsule of a show devoted to the band Pink Floyd, complete with floating pigs, surreal animations and trippy projections.  But it's not the visuals, or the group's experimental and sometimes indulgent music, that marks this out as an ode to a vanished time. It's the economics. Pink Floyd was given limitless studio time to create sprawling albums that sold in the tens of millions. The band staged multimedia shows so huge and... Читать дальше...

Blasphemy laws across the world were brought back into the spotlight this week after a court in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, sentenced Jakarta's Chinese-Christian governor to two years in prison for insulting Islam. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama was accused of blasphemy during his re-election campaign last year when a video surfaced of him quoting a verse in the Quran to prove to his supporters that there were no restrictions on Muslims voting for non-Muslim politicians. Читать дальше...

President Donald Trump has authorized the Pentagon to equip the Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a move that places the United States at odds with NATO ally Turkey. Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Dana W. White said Tuesday the Kurdish component, which makes up more than half of the SDF fighters, would be armed "as necessary to ensure a clear victory" over Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria. "The SDF, partnered with enabling support from U.S. and coalition forces, are the only force on... Читать дальше...

When Moumouni Abdoulaye and his fellow herders in western Niger used to set off on scouting missions in search of water, they feared for their livestock - and for their own lives. Unable to rely anymore on their traditional methods of predicting the weather amid increasingly erratic droughts and floods, and lacking modern climate information, they struggled to predict where, and when, they might find water in the vast arid region. "We were living in limbo. Without knowledge, we constantly risked our lives," said Abdoulaye... Читать дальше...

When farmers in northern Burkina Faso speak about the direction of the wind, they refer to the direction it is blowing in. Burkina Faso's meteorological agency, however, classifies wind by the direction it comes from. That means that when state forecasters warn of a strong west wind, farmers find an east wind comes gusting along, flattening their faith in forecasts. But a new guide aims to solve that problem — and help farmers build better resilience to climate change — by translating the French... Читать дальше...

Part of a tunnel containing radioactive waste collapsed in Washington state Tuesday morning, prompting an evacuation of nearby facilities. No personnel was in the tunnel, which houses rail cars full of radioactive waste, at the time of the collapse and no release of radiation was detected, officials determined. But workers at nearby Hanford were evacuated and others farther from the site were advised to remain indoors. The accident occurred at a closed plant formerly known as PUREX in the middle of the Hanford site... Читать дальше...

Screening for thyroid cancer is no longer recommended for adults with no symptoms, a U.S. health task force says. In a news release, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force said physicians should not screen for the disease in adults who have “no signs or symptoms.” Thyroid cancer, which grows on the thyroid, is relatively rare in the U.S., the Task Force said, adding there likely would be 56,300 new cases in 2017 or 3.8 percent of all cancers. The thyroid is a gland found in the neck and it produces hormones governing metabolism. Читать дальше...

In South Africa, President Jacob Zuma launched the country’s new state-of-the-art Metrorail, dubbed the “People’s Trains.”  The event was seen as an opportunity for Zuma to shore up popular support amid mounting political tensions and an upcoming no-confidence vote in parliament. Zuma rolled out the first phase of a $4-billion, 20-year project to modernize public transport. Commuters have in the past resorted to burning trains in anger at the aging current fleet of trains for arriving late and constantly breaking down. Читать дальше...

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

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday that American forces in Afghanistan face “a determined enemy” but are dealing significant blows to the enemy. Speaking at a news conference in Copenhagen alongside his Danish counterpart, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, Mattis said both the Islamic State group and al-Qaida are losing ground and power in Afghanistan as the government, under President Ashraf Ghani, “ wins the affection, the respect and the support” of the people. “In Afghanistan, the enemy... Читать дальше...

FBI chief James Comey overstated a key finding in the investigation of Democrat Hillary Clinton's emails during testimony to Congress last week, officials familiar with the inquiry said Tuesday. They said Comey erred when he told a congressional investigative panel that a Clinton aide, Huma Abedin, had sent "hundreds and thousands" of Clinton's emails from the 2009 to 2013 period she was the U.S. secretary of state to Abedin's estranged husband, disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner. The actual number was far less, the officials said. Читать дальше...

A United Nations peacekeeper in Central African Republic was killed and eight others wounded late on Monday when their convoy was attacked by unknown assailants in the southeast of the country, the U.N.mission (MINUSCA) said on Tuesday. Four peacekeepers are missing following the attack on the convoy near the town of Bangassou, about 730 km (453 miles) east of the capital Bangui, the mission said in a statement. The peacekeeper who was killed was from Cambodia, while the injured and missing are Cambodian and Moroccan, MINUSCA said. Читать дальше...

Indian airline IndiGo said it plans to start flying smaller planes to second-tier towns and cities later this year, in a shift in strategy for the carrier that has prided itself on the simplicity of running only one type of jet. IndiGo, which has a fleet of 131 Airbus A320 aircraft, said on Tuesday it has placed a provisional order for 50 ATR 72-600 aircraft from European turboprop maker ATR, worth over $1.3 billion at list price. IndiGo joins national carrier Air India and SpiceJet which have... Читать дальше...

When Rabi’a Keeble converted to Islam more than 10 years ago, praying next to men would have been out of the question. Keeble is now leading a new Berkeley, California, mosque that says men and women are welcome to worship together. It’s long been a tradition of the Muslim faith that men and women pray separately — sometimes in different parts of the same room, sometimes in different rooms or divided by a partition.  ​ As a new convert, Keeble accepted the Muslim faith and traditions, but she then became frustrated. Читать дальше...

Pain from Nowhere

Britain’s political centrists and liberals can only look on jealously. The victory of Emmanuel Macron across the English Channel in France’s presidential race is reviving talk in Britain of a progressive alliance to deprive the Conservatives of a likely landslide win in next month’s parliamentary elections. The leaders of the country’s main opposition Labor Party, however, are rejecting out of hand any electoral pact with the Liberal Democrats and Greens, despite mounting calls from activists for them to do so. Читать дальше...

China's military has conducted live-fire drills and weapons tests in the northeastern Bohai Sea close to the Korean peninsula, the country's defense ministry said on Tuesday. In a brief statement late on Tuesday, the ministry said the tests of new missiles and weapons were carried out by the People's Liberation Army's Rocket Force "in recent days" and were designed to raise operational capability so as to effectively deal with national security threats. No further details were provided. Chinese... Читать дальше...

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, gearing up for an assault on the de facto Islamic State (IS) capital of Raqqa, say they gained control of several waterways on the Euphrates River in an attempt to oust IS fighters from Syria's largest dam. VOA’s Mahmoud Bali reports.

Gibraltar is preparing for a post-Brexit setup in which its firms will have no longer access to the European Union market but will maintain a preferential relationship with Britain, a top Gibraltar financial official said on Tuesday. The tiny British enclave on Spain's southern tip, with a population of 30,000, is home to around 15,000 companies and is a major provider of insurance and gambling services. "We are currently planning for a hard Brexit," James Tipping, director at Gibraltar's government body for financial promotion... Читать дальше...