Новости за 27.08.2017

Much of Houston, the fourth largest U.S. city, is under water and Texas Governor Greg Abbott says more "incredibly heavy" rain is on the way from the tropical storm system that hit the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Harvey. Rising water chased thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground and overwhelmed rescuers trying to keep up with constant calls for help.  The downpours turned some streets into rivers, navigable only by boat. In a rescue effort that recalled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina... Читать дальше...

After more than five decades of battle in Colombia's jungles, the nation's largest rebel movement initiated the launch of its political party Sunday at a concrete convention center in the capital, vowing to upend the country's traditional conservatism with the creation of an alternative leftist coalition. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia will transform into a political party under a new, still-to-be-announced name as part of a historic peace deal signed last year. The accords guarantee... Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his threat to scrap NAFTA and ripped on trading partners Canada and Mexico in a tweet early on Sunday, days before the three countries were scheduled to hold a second round of negotiations on rewriting the 23-year-old agreement. "We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada. Both being very difficult, may have to terminate?" he wrote. In a separate Sunday morning tweet, Trump repeated his pledge that Mexico... Читать дальше...

El Salvador's government has asked the Trump administration to extend Temporary Protected Status to nearly 200,000 of its nationals living in the United States, the country's foreign minister announced Friday. In a one-on-one interview with VOA's Latin America service, Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez said tropical storms within the past five years, followed by drought conditions more recently, make the return of those citizens untenable. "We've told the U.S. also that, of course they... Читать дальше...

Scientists have not been able to develop a vaccine against the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, despite working toward one for more than 100 years. However, they may have stumbled onto something that could provide clues to advance the development of such a vaccine. Decades ago, in the late 1990s, a strain of meningitis B was reaching epidemic proportions in New Zealand. A vaccine, MeNZB, was developed to protect young people who were at the highest risk of getting this particular type. Читать дальше...

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says President Donald Trump, who has faced criticism over his response to a recent white nationalist rally in Virginia, "speaks for himself" on his values. Tillerson appeared on Fox News Sunday, and was asked by anchor Chris Wallace about a United Nations committee criticizing the Trump administration for its failure to condemn "racist violent events."   Tillerson said "we express America's values from the State Department.  We represent the American people... Читать дальше...

A Jordanian official said Sunday that Jordan is negotiating with Germany over the legal status of German troops to be stationed in the kingdom, amid reports that disagreements delayed deployment. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Germany seeks immunity in Jordan for 250 soldiers who are part of the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State group extremists. The report says Jordan balked at the demand.   The Jordanian official said talks with Germany are "subject to international diplomatic... Читать дальше...

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

U.S. forces in Afghanistan have once again vowed to defeat the Islamic State militant group. the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan told VOA. “We can defeat and will defeat IS in the future,” General John Nicholson, commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told VOA’s Afghan service. “Our primary goal this year has been to reduce their attempt at a caliphate in Nangarhar and we are doing that.” Islamic State's self-styled Khorasan Province branch (IS-K) emerged in the mountainous... Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump's new aid chief, Mark Green, kicked off an African tour in Sudan on Sunday, where he will assess whether Khartoum has done enough to get help into conflict areas to deserve eased sanctions. It is Green's first trip as administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, a job he began two weeks ago amid talk of budget cuts and a wide-reaching reorganization of the agency by the Trump administration. He is due to visit aid projects in drought-hit zones including neighboring Ethiopia... Читать дальше...

Pakistan postponed a visit by a U.S. acting assistant secretary of state, officials said, as small protests broke out against President Donald Trump's accusations that Islamabad was prolonging the war in Afghanistan. The visit of Alice Wells, acting assistant Secretary of State for South and Asian Affairs, scheduled for Monday, would have been the first high-profile visit by a U.S. official since Trump's Afghan policy speech on Aug. 21. "At the request of the Government of Pakistan, Acting Assistant... Читать дальше...

A 51-year-old German woman died Sunday from injuries suffered in the Aug. 17 vehicle attack in Barcelona, raising the overall death toll in Spain's recent attacks to 16, health officials in Catalonia said.   The woman died in the intensive care unit of Barcelona's Hospital del Mar, according to the regional health department.   The latest death raises the toll to 14 in the van attack in Barcelona's popular Las Ramblas boulevard. Another man was stabbed to death in a carjacking that night as the van driver made his getaway... Читать дальше...

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Sunday the firing of three ballistic missiles by North Korea this week was a provocative act but that the United States will continue to seek a peaceful resolution. "We do view it as a provocative act against the United States and our allies," Tillerson said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday." "We're going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign as I have described it, working with allies, working with China as well to see if we can bring the regime... Читать дальше...

A Guatemalan court blocked the president's order to expel the head of a U.N. anti-corruption commission investigating his campaign financing. The constitutional court ordered the government not to carry out  the order from President Jimmy Morales to expel Colombian national Ivan Velasquez. Morales had called for Velasquez's immediate expulsion "in the interests of the Guatemalan people, for the strengthening of the rule of law and our institutions" in a video published online just hours earlier Sunday. Читать дальше...

Iraqi forces have retaken almost all of Tal Afar, Islamic State's stronghold in the country's northwest, the Iraqi military said on Sunday. After just eight days of fighting, all 29 neighborhoods in Tal Afar city had been taken back from the militant group, the military said in a statement on Sunday. However, fighting was ongoing in al-'Ayadiya, a small area 11 kilometers northwest of the city, where militants who fled the district's city center were hiding out, Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said. Читать дальше...

Tropical storm Harvey has left at least two people dead as flooding and tornadoes presented continuing danger for the residents of southeastern Texas.

Police in Houston warned residents to go to their roofs, not their attics, if their homes begin flooding, as tropical storm Harvey caused unprecedented rains in southeastern Texas Sunday. The National Weather Service in Houston called the flooding in the region "catastrophic, unprecedented, and life threatening" Sunday and warned that it could continue into next week. At least two people died over the weekend as flooding and tornadoes presented continuing danger for the residents of southeastern Texas. Читать дальше...

House speaker Paul Ryan says he disagrees with President Donald Trump's decision to pardon former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, less than a month after he was convicted of criminal contempt in a case involving his department's racial profiling policy. “Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon,” Ryan spokesman Doug Andres said in a statement. Читать дальше...

The death toll in ongoing clashes in Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine State has climbed to at least 96, as thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been trying to cross into neighboring Bangladesh. The total includes at least 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces. Fighting between the military and hundreds of Rohingya militants continued Saturday with the fiercest clashes near the major town of Maungdaw, according to locals and the government sources. Myanmar's government said it evacuated... Читать дальше...

Facing the digital wrath of a Republican president increasingly unhappy with legislative roadblocks, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told a GOP gathering in his home state on Saturday that people should not be surprised with the challenges that come with governing. "A lot of people look at all that and find it frustrating, messy. Well, welcome to the democratic process. That's the way it is in our country," McConnell said during the Republican Party of Kentucky's Lincoln Dinner in Louisville. Читать дальше...

Dozens of Saudi craftsmen, mostly in their 40s and 50s, are hard at work in a factory in Mecca preparing an embroidered black and gold cloth to cover the Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam. Known as the kiswa, the cloth is woven from silk and cotton and adorned with verses from the Koran. A new one is made each year to be placed on the Kaaba in Mecca's Grand Mosque during the annual Muslim haj pilgrimage, which begins on Wednesday. Many of the craftsmen have worked in the factory in the Oum al-Jood... Читать дальше...

President Donald Trump should not have pardoned a former Arizona sheriff who was convicted of criminal contempt in a case of racial profiling, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said on Saturday. Trump announced on Friday he was pardoning Joe Arpaio, an anti-immigration hardliner found guilty last month for flouting a 2011 court order that barred officers from detaining Latino motorists solely on the suspicion they were illegal immigrants. "Law-enforcement officials... Читать дальше...

An Emirati filmmaker is pushing boundaries and bypassing state censors by delicately unraveling a story about a traditional Arab family grappling with issues of homosexual love, gender identity, sectarianism and women's rights. The movie focuses on a conservative Iraqi family who begin seeing and unearthing one another's secrets after the family matriarch goes blind and dies. What makes the film "Only Men Go To the Grave" particularly avant-garde is that the homosexual characters are not simply... Читать дальше...

A second tropical storm in days swept into southern China on Sunday, lashing Hong Kong and Macau with heavy rain and strong wind as the region reels from the strongest typhoon in decades that left at least 22 dead. Severe Tropical Storm Pakhar made landfall west of the Chinese casino hub of Macau in the early morning, packing maximum sustained winds of 90 kilometers (55 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 106 kph (65 mph). Forecasters in Hong Kong and Macau raised a storm signal two notches below the maximum... Читать дальше...

The Islamic State news agency Aamaq has claimed the Brussels attacker who assaulted three soldiers with a knife as an Islamic State group soldier. In a statement Sunday, it said he carried out the Friday evening attack in response to calls to target countries of the coalition that is fighting IS. Belgian prosecutors have opened an attempted terrorist murder probe after attacker assaulted the soldiers while shouting "Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great." He was shot dead by troops. The... Читать дальше...