Новости за 10.08.2017

China has sent an unbreakable code from a satellite to the Earth, marking the first time space-to-ground quantum key distribution technology has been realized, state media said Thursday. China launched the world’s first quantum satellite last August, to help establish “hack proof” communications, a development the Pentagon has called a “notable advance.” The official Xinhua news agency said the latest experiment was published in the journal Nature Thursday, where reviewers called it a “milestone.”... Читать дальше...

China urged the U.S. government Thursday to act “prudently” to avoid damaging economic relations between the two countries, in a strongly worded response to Washington’s preliminary decision to place anti-dumping duties on Chinese aluminum foil. In a statement posted on the Ministry of Commerce’s Wechat account, the government said the United States had ignored cooperation offered by Beijing and Chinese companies in making its ruling this week. The statement, attributed to Wang Hejun, head of... Читать дальше...

Jessi Calzado-Esponda became an accidental refugee when she was seven years old. And that was just the first of a chain of hardships she suffered from homelessness to a devastating car injury. Yet, she never lost hope and she is now a self-styled cultural ambassador who helps connect the U.S. and Cuba. VOA's June Soh shares her story.

The US says its pressure on North Korea to get its leadership to abandon its nuclear arms program is backed by other nations. The confrontation between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has raised concerns about a possible military confrontation that could destabilize the Korean peninsula. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports.

The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for a baby's first six months and continued breastfeeding up to two years of age. Uganda's parliament has been promoting breastfeeding with a free, day care center for female legislators and staffers. Halima Athumani reports for VOA.

A study published this month in the online scientific journal Nature stunned the world: Scientists were able to fix a hereditary genetic mutation in a human embryo. The milestone achievement was quickly tempered by the ethical question: Will this lead to the making of designer babies?' VOA's George Putic explains.

The planet has a bit of a waste problem. Every year, at least 200 million tons of raw sewage goes untreated. This is an environmental and health crisis. But one enterprising startup in Kenya is turning all that waste into fuel. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports.

At least 19 militants have been killed in daylong fighting in the western Somali region of Bakool. The clashes Wednesday took place between al-Shabab militants and fighters loyal to former al-Shabab leader Mukhtar Robow. Officials said an al-Shabab onslaught early in the morning forced Robow's loyalists to retreat from Abal village. But they later returned to beat back their attackers in a midday counter offensive. 'A lot of people are dead' Mohamed Hassan Fiqi, the acting president of Southwestern region... Читать дальше...

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta appeared late Wednesday to be headed for re-election, while his opponent was charging that massive fraud had occurred in voting the day before. Kenya's election commission said that with results from 96 percent of polling stations counted, Kenyatta led opposition leader Raila Odinga 54 percent to 44 percent. Officials have up to a week to verify the results and announce a winner. But Odinga alleged hackers had carried out a "massive and extensive" attack on the... Читать дальше...

More than 20 million people are working as modern slaves, and a technology developer is hoping artificial intelligence can help clean up the world’s supply chains and root out worker abuse. Developer Padmini Ranganathan said mobile phones, media reports and surveillance cameras can all be mined for real-time data, which can in turn be fed into machines to create artificial intelligence (AI) that helps companies see more clearly what is happening down the line. “The time to do this now is better than ever before... Читать дальше...

The European Union recorded the largest increase in slavery of any world region in 2017, with the arrival of more than 100,000 migrants, many of them extremely vulnerable to exploitation, analysts said Thursday. The risk of slave labor in farming, construction and other sectors rose across the region, with 20 of the EU's 28 member states scoring worse than in 2016 in an annual global slavery index by British analytics company Verisk Maplecroft. "The migrant crisis has increased the risk of slavery... Читать дальше...

Developments in Washington, D.C., in recent days include North Korea threatening to take military action against U.S. territory Guam by mid-August, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis saying North Korea risks annihilation if it starts a war, and the FBI saying it raided former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's home last month as part of the Russia probe. North Korea Threatens Attack Plan for Guam by Mid-August -- North Korean state media on Wednesday quoted General Kim Rak Gyom as saying Pyongyang... Читать дальше...

Researchers in the United States have unveiled a prototype of a battery-free mobile phone, using technology they hope will eventually come to be integrated into mass-market products. The phone is the work of a group of researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and works by harvesting tiny amounts of power from radio signals, known as radio frequency or ‘RF’ waves. “Ambient RF waves are all around us so, as an example, your FM station broadcasts radio waves, your AM stations do that, your TV stations, your cellphone towers. Читать дальше...

Many indigenous populations suffer from high rates of viral hepatitis, and are 2 to 5 times as likely as the surrounding general population to contract it. But efforts to eliminate the diseases have begun to show promise, some researchers say. Globally, 71 million people have hepatitis C and 257 million have hepatitis B. The viruses cause inflammation of the liver and can lead to cirrhosis and, especially with hepatitis C, liver cancer. Most cases come from contact with infected blood, drug use... Читать дальше...

North Korean state media on Wednesday quoted General Kim Rak Gyom as saying Pyongyang was "about to take" military action targeting the U.S. western Pacific territory of Guam, home to sizable U.S. Air Force and Navy facilities. Kim, who commands the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army, said the North would finalize a plan by mid-August to fire four mid-range missiles known as Hwasong-12 rockets toward the island. After passing over Japan, they would be expected to land in waters 30 to 40 kilometers off the shores of Guam. Читать дальше...

A Pakistani group designated by the United States as a terrorist organization has announced it is forming a political party to make Pakistan "a real Islamic and welfare state." The group Jamaat-ud-Dawa has been listed as a sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. State Department for more than a decade, and its leader and founder, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, has been under house arrest in Pakistan for the past six months. The U.S. government also has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his conviction on criminal charges. Читать дальше...

Facebook on Wednesday made its biggest move to date to compete in the television market by expanding its video offerings with programming ranging from professional women’s basketball to a safari show and a parenting program. The redesigned product, called “Watch,” will be available initially to a limited group in the United States on Facebook’s mobile app, website and television apps, the company said. The world’s largest social network added a video tab last year, and it has been dropping hints... Читать дальше...

China and Malaysia broke ground on Wednesday on a $13 billion rail project linking peninsular Malaysia's east and west, the largest such project in the country and a major part of Beijing's Belt and Road infrastructure push. The planned 688-km (430-mile) East Coast Rail Link will connect the South China Sea, large parts of which are claimed by China, at the Thai border in the east with the strategic shipping routes of the Straits of Malacca in the west. It is among the most prominent projects... Читать дальше...

The extreme volatility of Venezuela's exchange rate has the crisis-hit country's shop owners hurriedly marking up their merchandise and consumers balking at the higher price tags. Just last week, the bolivar currency fell around 70 percent on the black market, according to DolarToday, the opaque U.S.-based website that dictates the black market rate. Although the currency roared back this week to around 10,387 bolivars to the U.S. dollar, prices for often imported products have already been adjusted... Читать дальше...

Hurricane warnings are out for parts of the central Gulf coast of Mexico after Tropical Storm Franklin strengthened Wednesday into the first Atlantic hurricane of the season. Forecasters predict Franklin will make landfall between Puerto Veracruz and Cabo Rojo, Mexico, Wednesday night or early Thursday. As of Wednesday afternoon, Franklin was a Category 1 storm but, like all hurricanes, is still a danger. Residents are warned to expect winds of around 120 kilometers per hour, mudslides, and... Читать дальше...

A low-flying Russian airplane created a buzz in the nation’s capital Wednesday, but it turns out the surveillance flight over the Capitol, Pentagon and other sites was cleared by the U.S. government under a long-standing global treaty. The flight, which was filmed by The Associated Press, was permitted under the Open Skies Treaty. Russia and the United States are signatories to the treaty, which allows unarmed observation flights over the entire territory of all 34 member nations. The flights... Читать дальше...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the din of criminal investigations around him as "background noise" and dismissed speculation he will be forced to resign by saying simply on Facebook: "Won't happen." He might just be right. At the moment time appears to be on Netanyahu's side and - unlike his predecessor Ehud Olmert, who quit and later went to jail for corruption - he leads a relatively stable coalition government and presides over a buoyant economy. While a former top... Читать дальше...

The Trump administration's decision on Wednesday to slap sanctions on eight members of Venezuela's all-powerful constitutional assembly brings to 30 the number of government loyalists targeted for human rights abuses and violations of democratic norms since anti-government protests began in April. But even as the list of targeted individuals grows longer, promised economic sanctions have yet to materialize amid an outcry by the U.S. oil industry that a potential ban on petroleum imports from Venezuela ... Читать дальше...

Washington and Moscow have over decades established mechanisms to prevent crises from spinning out of control, from hotlines to satellites to over-flights that allow the nuclear-armed adversaries to track each other's military deployments. No such safety nets exist between Washington and Pyongyang, which worries experts who say an accident, misstatement or erroneous reading by one side of the other's actions could spiral into full-scale conflict even though neither side wants war. Tensions between... Читать дальше...

North Korea's threat against Guam spotlights a western Pacific U.S. territory that looms large as a military asset, despite being smaller than Singapore. A former Spanish colony, Guam has been in American hands since the end of the nineteenth century. It is one of 17 non-self-governing territories of the United States. Guam serves as a major military base for the United States, with U.S. Air Force and Navy installations occupying some 29 percent of the island's total land area. It is also a... Читать дальше...