Новости за 02.08.2017

The new railway linking Nairobi to the port of Mombasa was supposed to be the crowning achievement of an infrastructure bonanza propelling President Uhuru Kenyatta to victory in Kenya's August 8 polls. Instead, more than two months after Kenyatta inaugurated it to great fanfare, the Chinese-built line is plagued with administrative problems, particularly the ticketing process that has made it impossible to buy tickets online or on the day of travel, for example. The problem, critics say, is that... Читать дальше...

Nana Sanjaia of VOA's Georgian service spoke with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, following Vice President Mike Pence's visit to the country. Below is a transcript, edited for clarity and length. Q: Vice President Mike Pence is the highest official of the current U.S. administration who visited Georgia. What is the takeout from his visit? A: The vice president's visit was extremely important, and so is the timing. The administration is six months in office but we've seen continued stable support for Georgia from the Senate... Читать дальше...

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence accused Russia on Wednesday of working to "destabilize" the Western Balkans and divide the region from the West where he said its future lies. Pence spoke in Montenegro, which joined NATO this year in defiance of Russia, on the final leg of a tour designed to reassure Eastern Europe of Washington's commitment to its security despite doubts sowed by President Donald Trump's lukewarm support for the Western military alliance. Montenegro, a former Yugoslav republic... Читать дальше...

Romania on Wednesday commemorated the deaths of thousands of Roma at a Nazi concentration camp, as Holocaust survivors recalled the horrors of more than 70 years ago. Romania's foreign ministry said young generations should be educated about "this tragic episode in European history," referring to August 2, 1944, when about 3,000 Roma were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The Elie Wiesel Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania says 50,000 Roma were deported to Trans-Dniester in the Soviet Union and 11,000 died. Читать дальше...

Illegal Gold Mining in Northern Ivory Coast

Bipartisan groups of Republican and Democratic lawmakers are looking for ways to fix problematic parts of the U.S. health care law, even as President Donald Trump says he wants to let it collapse. Trump has voiced his anger that the Senate last week failed in three attempts to overhaul the law, passed during the first term of former President Barack Obama and commonly known as Obamacare. Since then he has said he just wants to let the law implode and leave Democrats to explain to voters why their... Читать дальше...

A U.S. seabed exploration firm has offered to take on the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, families of passengers and a Malaysian government minister said Wednesday, in a bid to solve one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries. The Boeing 777 disappeared in 2014 en route to Beijing from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur with 239 people aboard. Analysis of radar and satellite contacts suggested someone on board may have deliberately switched off the plane's transponder before diverting... Читать дальше...

A group of 250 Raqqa residents graduated from a training course provided this week by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to secure neighborhoods retaken from Islamic State (IS) militants. VOA's Mahmoud Bali reports.

India, one of the world's largest markets for pharmaceuticals, is drawing up its first set of marketing rules for drugmakers, restricting gifts and trips offered to doctors and pharmacists to 1,000 rupees ($15), according to a draft proposal seen by Reuters. Such rules are common overseas, but are not set in stone in India, where campaigners have long demanded a crackdown on unethical selling practices that include gifts ranging from electrical appliances to foreign trips to woo physicians and... Читать дальше...

The premiere of Star Trek: Discovery on CBS's subscription streaming service, CBS All Access, was postponed nine months to maintain the quality of the brand. Executive producer Alex Kurtzman told the Television Critics Association on Tuesday that much time had been spent discussing how to create this new world for TV that felt authentic to the Star Trek universe. Also during that time, executive producer Bryan Fuller decided to exit the series to focus on other projects. Kurtzman said... Читать дальше...

Money! Power! Glamour! Catfights! The CW's reboot of "Dynasty" will have much in common with the classic 1980s original. But the new "Dynasty" aims to "kick it up a notch," says Elizabeth Gillies, who plays Fallon Carrington, daughter of wealthy industrialist Blake Carrington, on the show. Pamela Sue Martin played her in the original series.   Gillies told TV critics Wednesday that her character is "as feisty as ever" and that she loves Fallon's strength.   She played a strong woman on FX's... Читать дальше...

Gene editing is getting fresh attention thanks to a successful lab experiment with human embryos. But for all the angst over possibly altering reproduction years from now, this technology already is used by scientists every day in fields ranging from agriculture to drug development.   New gene editing tools let scientists alter the DNA of living cells - from plants, animals, even humans - more precisely than ever before. Think of it as a biological cut-and-paste program. A look at the science.   What is gene editing? Читать дальше...

Developments in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday include President Donald Trump trying to limit legal immigration to the U.S., signing a bill that strengthens sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, planning to enact trade action against China, and allegedly calling the White House a dump. Trump Joins Senators in Bid to Cut Legal Immigration -- Trump and two Republican senators have announced a proposed new law to reduce legal immigration. Speaking Wednesday at the White House, Trump said... Читать дальше...

The United States, Britain, France and Germany have called Iran’s recent rocket test “inconsistent” with a U.N. Security Council resolution and asked the U.N. chief to investigate it.   “This launch therefore represents a threatening and provocative step by Iran,” says the letter sent Wednesday to U.N. Secretary-General António Gutteres and the president of the Security Council by the United States on behalf of the four powers.   Last Thursday, Iran announced that it had successfully fired a rocket carrying a satellite into space. Читать дальше...

Shaka Ssali discusses Kenya’s presidential election with Vincent Makori, VOA, Managing Editor and Anchor of Africa 54 and with Anita Ragan, Independent Consultant and Energy Policy Advisor.

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

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson surprised reporters at the State Department by joining the daily briefing for the first time Tuesday, laying out his vision for U.S. foreign policy for North Korea, Venezuela, China, the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine, among other global hot spots. Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has the story from the State Department.

Until a few weeks ago, says Lawrence Seretse, editor of The Botswana Gazette, few people in this nation of two million people even knew who the Dalai Lama was.   But now, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is making headlines in Botswana as it prepares to host him August 17-19 for a human rights conference in the capital, Gaborone. China, which happens to be one of Botswana’s largest trading partners, has repeatedly objected to the visit. The objections carry weight because China is a leading investor in the Southern African nation... Читать дальше...

Turkey's top military body will replace its heads of the army, air force, and navy, Turkish media reported Wednesday. The heads of the three military bodies will be replaced by other high-ranking members of the military in Turkey's latest shakeup of the armed forces after last year's failed coup, according to media reports. The decision followed a Wednesday meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS) chaired by Prime Minister Binali Yildrim, and will go to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for final approval later Wednesday. Читать дальше...

As the U.S. stock market hit a new all-time high Wednesday, key U.S. lawmakers staked out core positions for a looming battle that could impact economic performance for decades: reforming America's complicated and much-maligned tax system. "Comprehensive tax reform represents the single most important action we can take now to grow the economy and to help middle-class families finally get ahead," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, adding that Washington has a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to act. Читать дальше...

A Palestinian-Syrian software pioneer has been executed in prison after being arrested five years ago by Syrian authorities in Damascus, his widow and colleagues said Wednesday, in what Amnesty International said was a "grim reminder of Syrian prison horrors." Noura Ghazi Safadi wrote on Facebook late Tuesday that she has received confirmation that security services executed Bassel Khartabil in October 2015 after torturing him in prison. Khartabil, who also went by the name Bassel Safadi, was... Читать дальше...

The Boy Scouts are denying a claim by President Donald Trump that the head of the youth organization called the president to praise his politically aggressive speech to the Scouts' national jamboree.   Trump told The Wall Street Journal, "I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful." Politico published the transcript of the interview.   On Wednesday, the Scouts responded, "We are unaware of any such call."... Читать дальше...

A new lawsuit lays out an explosive tale of Trump allies, the White House and Fox News Channel conspiring to push a false story about Democratic leaks and an unsolved killing in order to distract attention from the Russia investigation that has been swirling around the president. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Fox by an investigator who had been looking into the killing of Seth Rich, a former Democratic National Committee staff member who died in 2016 in what police say was a botched robbery. Читать дальше...

Former FBI Director James Comey has a book deal. Flatiron Books told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Comey is writing a book about leadership and decision making that will draw upon his career in government. Comey will write about experiences that made him the FBI's best-known and most controversial FBI head in recent times, from his handling of the bureau's probe into Hillary Clinton's private email server to allegations of ties between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Trump... Читать дальше...

Spoiler alert- U.S. cable channel HBO says it's been hacked and its programming has been targeted. The network is behind the hit fantasy show 'Game of Thrones' And there's potentially some bad news for its fans. Entertainment Weekly claims the theft includes the script of an unaired episode, but no need to go into a social media blackout just yet. That's NOT been confirmed by HBO. They declined to comment on any specific content stolen in the hack, but acknowledged that some of their programming had been taken. Читать дальше...