Новости за 25.08.2017

A man armed with a knife was detained Friday evening outside London's Buckingham Palace, and two police officers were injured while arresting him, police said. The Metropolitan Police force says two officers suffered minor injuries while detaining the suspect, who is being held on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and assaulting police. Police said the officers did not require hospital treatment. No other injuries were reported. A large number of police vehicles could be seen in the Mall, the wide road outside the palace. Читать дальше...

Hurricane Harvey strengthened to a Category 4 storm Friday evening as it moved closer to the Texas coast, with forecasters calling it a "life-threatening storm." The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Harvey, moving across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, had sustained winds of over 125 mph (200 kph) and was expected to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the hurricane would be a "major disaster" and warned residents to prepare for record flooding. Читать дальше...

The suspected mastermind of an international drug-smuggling operation has been arrested in London and faces extradition to the United States on charges that carry at least 30 years in prison upon conviction, prosecutors in New York said Friday. Muhammad Asif Hafeez, 58, a Pakistani national known as "The Sultan," was charged with trafficking several tons of heroin and methamphetamine, U.S. prosecutors said. He faces three counts in federal court in Manhattan, each with a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years. Читать дальше...

Marine authorities in the U.S. and Canada said Friday they will marshal resources to try to find out what's behind a string of deaths of endangered North Atlantic right whales. The animals are among the rarest marine mammals in the world, with only about 500 still living. The countries will collaborate on a report that could help craft future regulations that protect the vulnerable whales, representatives said. Representatives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Fisheries... Читать дальше...

Suspected Boko Haram militants sprayed a village in remote Cameroon with automatic fire, killing 15 people and kidnapping eight others in an overnight raid near the Nigerian border, several officials said on Friday. The attackers burned down around 30 houses in Gakara village, just outside the town of Kolofata, which has been a frequent target of suicide bombings by the Islamist group. A government source on the ground said that 15 people had been killed, all shot dead except one who was burned alive... Читать дальше...

A man was shot in the center of Brussels on Friday evening after attacking two soldiers with a knife, state broadcaster RTBF reported. It was not clear whether the man had survived the shooting, RTBF said. Brussels police was not immediately available for comment. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

North Korea has increased its efforts to produce parts for a new nuclear reactor it is building while continuing to operate the main existing one that provides fuel for its atom bombs, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in an annual report released Friday. North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and dozens of missile tests since the beginning of last year, defying world powers and raising fears of a conflict breaking out on the heavily militarized Korean Peninsula. A missile test last month put... Читать дальше...

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

A court in Azerbaijan on Friday jailed the head of an independent news agency pending an investigation on tax evasion charges, a move that the opposition denounced as an attack on the freedom of speech in the ex-Soviet nation.   The court in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, put Turan news agency director Mehman Aliyev in prison for three months. He was arrested on Thursday night.   Tax authorities have accused Aliyev of failing to pay the equivalent of nearly $22,000 in taxes in 2014-2016.   Turan has denied the charges. Читать дальше...

A bitter exchange of words erupted between France and Poland on Friday after French President Emmanuel Macron sharply criticized Poland's opposition to plans to change European Union rules on "posted workers" — the cheap labor from eastern countries sent to more prosperous EU nations. On a trip Friday to Bulgaria, Macron said the Polish reluctance to reform the bloc's labor rules is "an illustration of the mistakes made by this government." His comments came on the final leg of a three-day visit... Читать дальше...

Hurricane Harvey is not expected to hit the Texas Gulf Coast until late Friday or early Saturday, but it is already boosting the cost of crude oil and gasoline and raising concerns about $40 billion worth of homes in harm's way. The Gulf of Mexico region is home to nearly one-fifth of the nation's crude oil output and almost half the refining capacity in the United States. Energy production could be hampered by storm winds; the shipping of crude oil and refined products could be prevented by flooding... Читать дальше...

The Republican National Committee walked the tightrope Friday in carefully but resolutely denouncing white supremacist groups without criticizing President Donald Trump, who waffled in his own statements in the wake of the deadly clash in Virginia this month. Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, the RNC approved a raft of resolutions, including one asserting "Nazis, the KKK, white supremacists and others are repulsive, evil and have no fruitful place in the United States." And while the vote was unanimous... Читать дальше...

Rodeo is a uniquely American sport generally associated with “cowboys,” but some of its best riders are “Indians,” growing numbers of whom are women. Horses disappeared from prehistoric North America more than 10,000 years ago, and didn't return until 1519, when the Spanish brought them to modern-day Mexico. Migrating north, they transformed the ways Native American tribes hunted, traded and conducted warfare. “I like to think that Native Americans took the horse to a whole new level by riding horses bareback... Читать дальше...

Nearly 1,000 people were forced out of their jobs Friday in Turkey, joining more than 150,000 people who have been fired as part of an ongoing government crackdown following a failed coup last year. The opposition is increasingly rallying around two purged educators who have been on a hunger strike for more than five months. "Semih, Nuriye, we are with you," protesters chanted earlier this month in the heart of Istanbul. It was the latest show of support for Professor Nuriye Gulmen and schoolteacher Semih Ozakca... Читать дальше...

High above the Persian Gulf, an Iranian drone crosses the path of American fighter jets lining up to land on the USS Nimitz. The drone buzzes across the sky more than a mile above the massive aircraft carrier and is spotted by the fighters. It is unarmed. But for the senior Navy commanders on the ship, the presence of the enemy drone so close is worrying. Their biggest fear is the surveillance aircraft will start carrying weapons, posing a more direct threat to U.S. vessels transiting one of... Читать дальше...

In a winding early-morning queue, Jemaa Laalaoua hunches over with 50 kg (110 lb) of kitchenware on her back, waiting to cross back into Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla. The 41-year-old mother of eight is one of thousands of Moroccans who eke out a living by walking loads of merchandise from Melilla into the northern Moroccan province of Nador. Goods including metal kettles that Laalaoua was carrying are counted as personal luggage and are not taxed, allowing for a small markup when... Читать дальше...

Iranian media are reporting that Apple Inc. has removed all Iranian mobile apps from its App Store. In reaction to Apple's decision, Telecommunication Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said Apple should respect its Iranian consumers. He also sent out this tweet:   Apple, based in Cupertino, California, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jahromi tweeted: "11 percent of Iran's mobile phone market share is owned by Apple. Giving respect to consumer rights is a principle today which Apple has not followed. Читать дальше...

Zimbabwe's first lady has made her first public appearance since leaving South Africa following allegations that she assaulted a young model at a Johannesburg hotel.   Grace Mugabe appeared cheerful on Friday as she toured exhibition stands at an agricultural show in the capital, Harare. The show is set to be officially opened by President Robert Mugabe, who returned to Zimbabwe with his wife last weekend after South Africa granted her diplomatic immunity.   There were calls in South Africa for... Читать дальше...

People smugglers are using Facebook to broadcast the abuse and torture of migrants in order to extort ransom money from their families, the U.N. migration agency said on Friday. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) lambasted the tech giant for failing to police the platform and help crack down on traffickers. One video hosted on the site since June shows Libyan gangmasters threatening emaciated and abused migrants - mostly Somalis and Ethiopians - huddled in a concrete room.... Читать дальше...

The federal government has not notified U.S. state election officials if their voting systems were targeted by suspected Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign, and the information will likely never be made public, a top state election chief told Reuters. "You're absolutely never going to learn it, because we don't even know it," Judd Choate, state election director for Colorado and president of the National Association of State Election Directors, said in an interview on Thursday during the group's summer conference. Читать дальше...

The World Health Organization says efforts are moving ahead to establish routine programs to vaccinate children against killer diseases in conflict-ridden Syria. Before the country’s civil war erupted in 2011, immunization coverage for children against killer diseases stood at nearly 100 percent; but routine programs against vaccine-preventable illnesses have all but collapsed during the years of conflict.   Several months ago, the World Health Organization helped re-start routine immunization programs in northwest Syria. Читать дальше...

The Saffir-Simpson scale of a hurricane's intensity is used to estimate potential property damage and coastal flooding caused by storm surge. The scale is determined by wind speed. Storm surge is an abnormal rise of water above the normal tide, generated by a storm. Flooding from storm surge depends on many factors, such as the track, intensity, size, and forward speed of the storm and the characteristics of the coastline where it comes ashore or passes nearby.   Category 1   Winds of 74-95 mph (120-150 kph). Читать дальше...

U.S. authorities on Thursday accused a Chinese national visiting the United States of providing malware that has been linked to the theft of security clearance records of millions of American government employees. Yu Pingan of Shanghai was arrested on Monday at Los Angeles airport after a federal criminal complaint accused him of conspiring with others wielding malicious software known as Sakula, a Justice Department spokesman said on Thursday. The complaint said the group attacked a series of unnamed U.S. companies using Sakula... Читать дальше...

The United States on Friday forbade any dealings in new Venezuela debt or equity in Washington's latest move to pressure the repressive government of President Nicolas Maduro. An executive order, signed by President Donald Trump, bars U.S. transaction with Maduro's government and the PDVSA state oil company. "We are not going to tolerate the dictatorship he's trying to create and we are not going to respect the sham assembly," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told reporters at... Читать дальше...

Iraqi military forces have advanced to the center of the Islamic State-held town of Tal Afar after securing several surrounding neighborhoods, according to a military statement. After a six-day offensive operation, elite Iraqi forces broke through IS lines, seizing the neighborhoods of Nida' and Taliaa north of Tal Afar and reaching the center of the old city, according to the statement from the Iraqi Joint Operations Command. Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil of Iraq's Special Forces told the Associated... Читать дальше...