Новости за 27.05.2017

Jim Bunning, a baseball star who later served nearly a quarter-century in the U.S. Congress, has died at age 85 in his home state of Kentucky. Bunning, who died Friday, had suffered a stroke in October 2016. He served six two-year terms as a congressman beginning in 1987, and was elected twice to the U.S. Senate. Bunning pitched for 17 years, originally for the Detroit Tigers then for three other teams, and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. The only Hall of Famer ever elected to Congress... Читать дальше...

Based on confirmed sightings of Ramadan's new moon crescent, millions of Muslims around the world are fasting on the first day of the holy month. According to Islam, the sighting of the new moon marks the beginning of the Muslim lunar month of Ramadan. Thirty-three countries, mainly those in which the majority of residents are Sunni Muslims, officially started Ramadan on Saturday. Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq declared Sunday to be their first day of Ramadan. During Ramadan... Читать дальше...

Sergio Bendixen, a pioneer in public opinion polling of Latinos who also was the first Hispanic to run a U.S. presidential campaign, has died. His business partner, Fernand Amandi, tweeted Saturday that Bendixen was 68. The Miami Herald reported that no cause was immediately given for his death in Miami on Friday. As a researcher and strategist, Bendixen had clients that included the World Bank, the United Nations and several foundations. He pioneered multilingual surveys for Hispanics and other ethnic groups. Читать дальше...

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the message in U.S. President Donald Trump's "blunt" speech urging alliance members to boost defense spending echoed that of previous administrations. Stoltenberg spoke to RFE/RL in an interview on Friday, a day after Trump met with the other leaders of the 28-member military alliance at its new headquarters in Brussels. Trump used a large part of his speech before unveiling a 9/11 memorial to admonish allies he said are not shouldering their share of the financial burden. Читать дальше...

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg wasn't shocked by Donald Trump’s "blunt and direct" speech on defense spending during the U.S. president's first meeting with alliance leaders in Brussels. In an interview with RFE/R's Brussels Correspondent Rikard Jozwiak, Stoltenberg said NATO leaders were committed to fairer burden sharing. Stoltenberg said leaders also discussed Russia and Ukraine at a working dinner following the unveiling of NATO's new headquarters in Brussels. (NATO TV, RFE/RL)

A key U.S. Senate committee has moved forward on new legislation aimed at countering Russian propaganda and election meddling in the United States and elsewhere.  The bill, passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, is one of several Russia-targeted measures now circulating in Congress, reflecting the general attitude among many U.S. lawmakers toward Moscow.  President Donald Trump's administration has sent mixed signals about its approach to the Kremlin. Trump's conciliatory... Читать дальше...

Two new documentaries have shed light on the plight of Syria's refugees and how they are regarded by the world around them. Apo Bazidi's "Resistance is Life" chronicles the siege of Kobane, a primarily Kurdish town in northern Syria that Islamic State militants seized in 2014, forcing many of its inhabitants to flee. During the monthslong siege, thousands escaped to Turkey, including a family of five that moved into a refugee camp in Suruc. Eight-year-old Evlin is the eldest of the children. Smart and engaging... Читать дальше...

When suicide bomber Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old British-Libyan, triggered his bomb packed with nuts and bolts Monday in Manchester, he not only brought Libya’s civil war to the streets of Britain, he may well have wrecked the chances of a peace deal being struck between rival governments and their militia backers in the strife-torn North African state.  The Manchester bombing that left 22 dead and dozens injured, mostly teenagers and children, has sparked an escalation in fighting in Libya in a... Читать дальше...

On May 30, many people in southeastern Nigeria will remember those who lost their lives in one of Africa’s most brutal wars. More than one million people died during Nigeria’s 1967 to 1970 civil war known as the Biafra War The conflict erupted after leaders from southeastern Nigeria declared that the region would secede from Nigeria.  Memories of the war remain strong for those who lived through it. “Have you been walking with somebody and the bomb killed him and all you have to do is look at the corpse and continue walking? Читать дальше...

A group of protesters sought to break through a police cordon at the end of a protest march against world leaders meeting on the island of Sicily on Saturday, scuffling with security forces, who fired tear gas to disperse them. After hundreds of people had peacefully marched through the streets of the seaside town of Giardini Naxos, down the hill from where a Group of Seven meeting had been held, a smaller group of about 100 people peeled off from the pack and challenged riot police. When they tried to flank them by running along the beach... Читать дальше...

Iran's Supreme Leader has said that Saudi Arabia is a "cow being milked" by the United States. A Saturday report by the semi-official Fars news agency quotes Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying that Saudi Arabia trades its wealth with "pagans and enemies." "The stupid Saudi government thinks it can attract the friendship of enemies by giving them money," said Khamenei. Khamenei added that bastion of Islam Saudi Arabia is "cruel toward believers and kind toward pagans." President... Читать дальше...

Take a seat, "Thor." Scattered plans among Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas to host women-only screenings of the upcoming "Wonder Woman" movie have produced both support and some grumbling about gender discrimination. Various locations have taken to social media in response, including the operators of the Brooklyn theater promising on Twitter to funnel proceeds from women-only screenings in early June to Planned Parenthood. And by women only, they mean staff, too. Some of the screenings were already selling out despite social media haters... Читать дальше...

Four men have been ordered to stand trial in Pennsylvania in the death of a Somali immigrant cab driver in Pittsburgh. Prosecutors allege the group wanted to rob a pizza delivery driver on the night of Feb. 21 but due to the late hour opted for a cab driver. Authorities say the men punched, kicked and beat 31-year-old Ramadhan Mohamed, who died three days later at a hospital. At a preliminary hearing Friday, District Judge Armand Martin ordered all four suspects held without bond on charges of homicide, robbery and conspiracy. Читать дальше...

The Islamic State group on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack on a bus carrying Christians on their way to a remote desert monastery south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, which killed 29. Egypt responded to Friday's attack by launching a series of airstrikes that targeted what it said were militant bases in eastern Libya in which the assailants were trained. On Saturday, the military said on its official Facebook page that the airstrikes were continuing "day and night" and that they have "completely" destroyed their targets. Читать дальше...

British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party's lead over the opposition Labor Party has narrowed to 10 percentage points, according to an Opinium poll for the Observer newspaper on Saturday. Opinium said May's lead had slipped from 13 percentage points on May 16 and 19 percentage points at the start of the campaign. The Conservatives were on 45 percent, down one percentage point since Opinium's last survey, and Labor were on 35 percent. The online poll of 2,002 people was carried out between May 23 and 24.

Two documentaries shed light on the hardships Syrian refugees and how they're regarded by the world. One tells the story of a town in northern Syria seized by Islamic State militants in 2014, turning its inhabitants into refugees. Another focuses on a Bulgarian village's debate over what to do with the refugees crossing into their lands from Turkey. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.

On the political and military front, U.S. China relations has been an often tense dance between governments. However, in arts and education, many say the relationship is deepening. Some say this is progress that is reaping economic and cultural benefits for citizens from both countries, while others are much more skeptical. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from Los Angeles.

Syrian troops and allied militia have pushed back Islamic State militants and U.S-backed opposition fighters, gaining control of a large swath of territory in the country's strategic southern desert, the government-controlled media and a war monitor said Saturday. With the new advances, the government and allied troops secured an area nearly half the size of neighboring Lebanon. The strategic juncture in the Syrian desert also restores government control over mineral and oil resources. The gains... Читать дальше...

Asked about reports that U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law had tried to set up a clandestine communication channel with Russia before the president took office, U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Saturday that so-called "back-channeling" was normal. McMaster was in Taormina, Italy, on the sideline of the Group of Seven meetings, and he did not speak specifically about Jared Kushner, who is also a senior advisor to Trump. When asked if it would concern him, though, if someone... Читать дальше...

Deborah Crosby touched her father's flag-draped casket as her three brothers hugged her in a tearful embrace on the tarmac at the San Diego airport Friday — ending a more than half century search to find and bring home the remains of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick P. Crosby, shot down as a Navy pilot in the Vietnam War. Deborah Crosby, now 58, was only six when she was sent home from the first grade to learn her father was presumed dead, though his body had not been found. Her mother could never talk about that day... Читать дальше...

Pakistani authorities reopened the main Chaman border crossing at Afghanistan's request after shutting it down earlier this month when the two sides traded fire there, killing 15 people on both sides, the military said Saturday. The move comes on the first day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Pakistan. In a statement, the Pakistani military said the border was reopened Saturday on "humanitarian grounds." Kabul welcomed the decision. The statement said Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed... Читать дальше...

The fabled World War II bomber Memphis Belle will finally go on public display next spring at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force alongside John F. Kennedy's presidential plane, an early Wright Brothers flyer and other national treasures. The journey from the flak-ridden skies over occupied France and Germany to restoration and display in the Ohio museum has been long for one of the most celebrated American planes to survive the war. The B-17F "Flying Fortress," feted as one of the first... Читать дальше...

British Airways canceled all flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports Saturday as a global IT failure caused severe disruption for travelers on a busy holiday weekend. The airline said it was suffering a "major IT systems failure" around the world. It didn't say what was causing the problem but said there was no evidence of a cyberattack. BA said terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick had become extremely congested and cancelled all flights from those airports until 6 p.m. (1700GMT, 1 p.m.... Читать дальше...

A Yazidi woman who was sold five times a sex slave under the Islamic State group (IS) came to Washington to push for help for the traumatized, displaced Yazidi community in northern Iraq and the hundreds of others who remain in IS bondage. Shireen Jardo, 25, met with several U.S. congressmen and federal officials along with Iraqi aid groups and media. "I told them to rescue our people and our land from IS," Jardo said in an interview with VOA on Friday. "I asked them: 'How much longer should... Читать дальше...

A Yazidi woman who suffered for 10 months as a sex slave under the Islamic State group (IS) came to Washington to push for help for the traumatized, displaced Yazidi community in northern Iraq and the hundreds of others who remain in IS bondage. Shireen Jardo, 25, met with several U.S. congressmen and federal officials along with Iraqi aid groups and media. "I told them to rescue our people and our land from IS," Jardo said in an interview with VOA on Friday. "I asked them: 'How much longer should... Читать дальше...