Новости за 19.06.2017

Otto Warmbier, the American college student  who was detained in North Korea for nearly a year-and-a-half, has died, his family announced Monday afternoon. Warmbier was returned to the United States last week in a coma. Doctors in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio said the 22-year-old had suffered severe brain damage while in North Korea, but that it was not clear what caused it. "It is our sad duty to report that our son, Otto Warmbier, has completed his journey home," his family said in a statement. Читать дальше...

NASA's planet-hunting telescope has found 10 new planets outside our solar system that are likely the right size and temperature to potentially have life on them, broadly hinting that we are probably not alone.   After four years of searching, the Kepler telescope has detected a total of 49 planets in the Goldilocks zone. And it only looked in a tiny part of the galaxy, one quarter of one percent of a galaxy that holds about 200 billion of stars.   Seven of the 10 newfound Earth-size planets circle stars that are just like ours... Читать дальше...

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Monday he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming, a statement at odds with mainstream scientific consensus but in line with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.   Asked on CNBC's "Squawk Box'' whether carbon emissions are primarily responsible for climate change, Perry said no, adding that "most likely the primary control knob is the ocean waters and this environment that we live in.''   Perry's view is contrary to mainstream climate science... Читать дальше...

In a packed Istanbul courthouse the trial of 17 journalists, accused of being involved in July’s failed coup, got underway Monday.  All are facing long sentences, including life if convicted. Prosecutors allege the journalists belong to a network of followers of the U.S.-based Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey's government blames for the coup attempt. Nazli Ilicak is a leading newspaper columnist who rejected the accusations, telling the court she was a supporter of President... Читать дальше...

Jared Kushner is traveling to the Middle East this week to continue work toward a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.   A White House official said the senior aide and son-in-law to President Donald Trump will arrive on Wednesday for meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah. Jason Greenblatt, Trump's international envoy, will arrive on Monday.   The official said Kushner and Greenblatt will hear from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and their senior advisers. Читать дальше...

The European Union has extended sanctions against Russia for a year over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014. EU foreign ministers said in a statement Monday that the 28-nation bloc "remains committed to fully implement its non-recognition policy" of Russia's seizure of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. The sanctions are now set to run until June 23, 2018, and apply to EU citizens and companies. They ban the import of products from Crimea and Sevastopol, halt any European investment... Читать дальше...

Carrie Fisher's autopsy report shows the actress had cocaine in her system when she fell ill on a plane last year, but investigators could not determine what impact the cocaine and other drugs found in her system had on her death.   The report released Monday states Fisher may have taken cocaine three days before the Dec. 23 flight on which she became ill. She died four days later.   It also found traces of heroin, other opiates and MDMA, which is also known as ecstasy, but that they could not determine when Fisher had taken those drugs. Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday announced he wants to see up to $1 trillion of tax savings over the next decade by a “sweeping transformation of the federal government’s technology.”   Trump told the American Technology Advisory Council in the White House State Dining Room that “we’re embracing big change, bold thinking and outsider perspectives to transform government and make it the way it should be and at far less cost.” A slew of high-tech heavyweights, some of whom have criticized President Donald Trump’s policies... Читать дальше...

As U.S-backed Iraqi forces begin their assault on Islamic State’s (IS) last enclave in Mosul, Kurdish security officials in neighboring Kirkuk are concerned that IS militants are trying to regroup in their oil-rich province. VOA’s Dlshad Anwar reports.

This week, Uganda welcomes U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other high-level international guests and donors for the two day Refugee Solidarity Conference (Thursday 6/22 and Friday 6/23). The conference in Kampala hopes to raise $8 billion to support refugees in Uganda for the next four years. At the border separating Uganda from South Sudan, exhausted women and children arrive daily, hungry and dehydrated. Aid workers give them fortified biscuits. Uganda hosts 1.2 million refugees from at least five African countries. Читать дальше...

Pope Francis will visit Chile and Peru in January, the Vatican said on Monday, the latest in a series of trips to his home continent. Starting in Chile on Jan. 15, the Argentine pontiff will go to the cities of Santiago, Temuco and Iquique, before heading to Peru, where he will stop in Lima, Puerto Maldonado and Trujillo. The Vatican said in a statement Francis had accepted invitations from the heads of state and bishops of the two countries. The trip will wrap up on Jan. 21. Since his election... Читать дальше...

Congo's justice minister says investigations into killings in the central Kasai regions have "progressed well'' and four people have been arrested over the grisly slayings of two U.N. experts.   Alexis Thambwe Mwamba expressed opposition to European Union resolution at the Human Rights Council that seeks an international, independent mission to investigate rights violations and allegations of mass graves in the wake of hundreds of killings in the Kasai provinces.   Speaking to reporters Monday on the sidelines of the council session... Читать дальше...

Swinging for peace

Cameroon has detained 30 of its soldiers fighting Boko Haram in the northern part of the country. The Defense Ministry says the soldiers abandoned their positions in a protest over pay and working conditions. Military officials in Cameroon say the incident happened earlier this month.  Several dozen Cameroonian soldiers erected barricades near the country's border with Nigeria and asked to be immediately replaced. The soldiers were part of the Multinational Joint Task Force fighting Boko Haram since 2015. Читать дальше...

Qatar says it will not negotiate with neighboring countries unless they cease their economic and travel "blockade" of the Gulf state. The countries have accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, a charge that Doha strongly denies. “We have to make it very clear for everyone, negotiations must be done in a civilized way and should have a solid basis and not under pressure or under blockade,” Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulraham al-Thani told reporters in the capital city of Doha. Читать дальше...

Cuba's foreign minister has rejected President Donald Trump's new policy toward the island, saying "we will never negotiate under pressure or under threat" and refusing to return U.S. fugitives who have received asylum in Cuba.   In a hard-edged response to the policy announced Friday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said from Vienna Monday that Trump's restrictions on transactions with the Cuban military would not achieve their objective of weakening the government. He said they would instead create unity behind the communist leadership. Читать дальше...

How national leaders respond to a crisis, man-made or natural, can make or break their time in office, and even curtail it, if they get it awfully wrong.  Aside from showing determination to correct what went wrong or repairing the damage, did they connect and channel a nation’s grief acting as an inspiring mourner-in-chief?   That question is being asked now of British Prime Minister Theresa May as she faces public fury over her response to a devastating fire last week in London that engulfed an apartment tower... Читать дальше...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to Chevron Corp. by preventing Ecuadorean villagers and their American lawyer from trying to collect on an $8.65 billion pollution judgment issued against the oil company by a court in Ecuador. The justices turned away an appeal by New York-based lawyer Steven Donziger, who has spent more than to two decades trying to hold Chevron responsible for pollution in the Ecuadorean rain forest, of lower court rulings blocking enforcement in the United States of the 2011 judgment. Читать дальше...

Russia is hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup tournament through July 2 as a test for how it handles the 2018 World Cup.   But preparations have not been without controversy as upgrades on the Saint Petersburg Zenit stadium burst several budget projections amid allegations of corruption and North Korean forced laborers. “I'm more than sure that it's impossible to handle the big construction site ... without illegal workers,” says Russian sports commentator Fyodor Pogorelov.  “So, I wasn't surprised... Читать дальше...

It is estimated Uganda has one doctor for every 24,000 citizens.  The nurse-to-population ratio is not much better, one for every 11,000 people, and much of that staff is concentrated in urban areas. Now add 1.2 million refugees. The massive influx of South Sudanese refugees into northern Uganda during the past year has strained the country’s already overburdened health care system.  Health centers near refugee settlements in the country’s Adjumani district are overwhelmed, especially those providing maternity care. Читать дальше...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday tightened rules on where injury lawsuits may be filed, handing a victory to corporations by undercutting the ability of plaintiffs to bring claims in friendly courts in a case involving litigation over the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. blood-thinning medication Plavix. The justices, in an 8-1 ruling, threw out a lower court decision allowing hundreds of out-of-state patients who took Plavix to sue the company in California. State courts cannot hear claims against companies... Читать дальше...

Google says it is stepping up its efforts to identify and remove videos related to terrorism and violent extremist content, particularly on its YouTube platform. “While we and others have worked for years to identify and remove content that violates our policies,” Google said, “the uncomfortable truth is that we, as an industry, must acknowledge that more needs to be done. Now.” First, the company says it’s increasing its use of technology to identify videos that contain extremist messages. It... Читать дальше...

A man was killed after driving a car packed with explosives into a police van in Paris's popular Champs Elysees shopping district Monday, police said. No one else was injured in the crash. Officials called it a deliberate attack. The 31-year-old man was known to authorities as being potentially linked to extremism, early reports said. A bomb squad is securing the scene, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. Police added that a Kalashnikov rifle, handguns, and gas bottles were also found in the car. Читать дальше...

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to consider whether state lawmakers can be too partisan when they set the geographic boundaries of federal congressional districts, giving themselves an unfair advantage over their political opponents. The country's top court said Monday that later in the year it would consider a dispute in the midwestern state of Wisconsin, where Republican lawmakers drew maps that gave them a political advantage over Democrats. A three-judge panel, in a 2-1 decision, struck down the Republican-drawn maps... Читать дальше...

A court ruling to not extradite eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece following the failed coup attempt last year must be respected, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Monday. His comments came at a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim in Athens. "The Greek justice system has ruled on this issue ... and this decision must be fully respected," Tsipras said in response to a question. Turkey alleges the men were involved in efforts to overthrow President... Читать дальше...