Новости за 03.09.2017

John Ashbery, an enigmatic genius of modern poetry whose energy, daring and boundless command of language raised American verse to brilliant and baffling heights, died early Sunday at age 90. Ashbery, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and often mentioned as a Nobel candidate, died at his home in Hudson, New York. His husband, David Kermani, said his death was from natural causes. Few poets were so exalted in their lifetimes. Ashbery was the first living poet to have a volume published by the Library of America dedicated exclusively to his work. Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump responded Sunday with strong words to Pyongyang's most recent nuclear test, calling North Korea a rogue nation that has become a great threat. Many wonder what steps Trump will take in reaction to the new development. VOA's Marcus Harton has more from Washington.

An American student and three other people linked to the U.S. - either citizens or permanent residents - have lost appeals against 10-year prison sentences they are serving for alleged espionage, Iranian authorities said Sunday. Princeton student Xiyue Wang was imprisoned last summer while conducting dissertation research in Iran. He was subsequently convicted of "collaborating with foreign governments" and sent to prison. Tehran's prosecutor confirmed Sunday that his appeal had been rejected. Wang was born in China but is a U.S. citizen... Читать дальше...

Years of militancy and counterinsurgency operations in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region have destroyed much of the infrastructure, including education centers, in the area. More than 1,100 girls’ schools in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which is adjacent to the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, have reportedly been damaged or fully destroyed by the decade long insurgency, according to Pakistan government estimates. While the Pakistani government claims to have rehabilitated around 900 schools... Читать дальше...

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis says any threat by North Korea to the United States or its allies will be met with a "massive military response ... both effective and overwhelming." Mattis spoke outside the White House Sunday after he and other top advisers met with President Donald Trump on North Korea's apparently successful test of a hydrogen bomb. Mattis said the U.S. has many options on the table, including military, and that the president wanted to hear about all of them. The Pentagon... Читать дальше...

When two scions of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) elite wed in June, they posted a series of videos on YouTube and Facebook celebrating their union — and their wealth. In “The Love and Honor of Sokan and Leakhena,” Sok Sokan, the son of the late Council of Ministers President Sok An, straps on his Patek Philippe watch before driving his Range Rover to the mansion of Sam Ang Leakhena, whose parents own Vattanac Capital.  The camera cuts away, then lingers over the couple’s diplomas... Читать дальше...

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

Moscow is demanding Washington rethink its order to close three Russian diplomatic facilities, calling the closing a "hostile act." "We consider what has happened as an openly hostile act and a gross violation of international law by Washington," the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement Sunday. "We call on the American authorities to come to their senses and immediately return the Russian diplomatic properties or all blame for the continuing degradation in our relations lies on the... Читать дальше...

Al-Shabab militants carried out a suicide car bombing on a Somali military base killing at least seven soldiers north of the main city of Kismayo, regional officials tell VOA. Officials said militants detonated two suicide car bombs at a military checkpoint before heavily armed militants attacked the base early Sunday at Bulogudud town. A spokesman for the Jubbland regional administration, Abdinasir Serar, told VOA Somali more than 10 other soldiers were wounded in the dawn attack. The al-Shabab... Читать дальше...

Nine days after Hurricane Harvey dumped unprecedented rains on Houston, residents of the city are beginning to return home and assess the damages. In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that damages could cost up to $180 billion - over 20 times more than the $7.85 billion initial funding requested by U.S. President Donald Trump from Congress last week. Though many people are returning to their homes as waters recede, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner called for evacuations... Читать дальше...

Police in Italy say they've arrested a Congolese refugee as the fourth suspect in gang rapes at a beach resort. Rimini police chief Maurizio Improta says the man was caught Sunday morning on a train about to leave a nearby town. On Saturday, the other three suspects, all minors, including two Moroccan teenage brothers, were detained in the rape of a Polish tourist, the savage beating of her companion and the rape of a Peruvian woman shortly after the first attack.   Improta said the brothers... Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump condemned North Korea on Sunday for carrying out its largest nuclear test yet, calling it "a rogue nation" whose "words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States." In a pair of Twitter comments, the U.S. leader said North Korea "has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success." But Trump also rebuked U.S. ally South Korea, saying Seoul "is finding, as I have told them, that their... Читать дальше...

The head of Kenya's Central Organization of Trade Unions, the umbrella body for the country's trade unions, has appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to stop drinking alcohol.   COTU Secretary-General Francis Atwoli held a press conference in Nairobi on Sunday in which he urged Kenyatta to "sober up."   Kenyatta appeared on state television speaking to supporters Friday night after the Supreme Court canceled his re-election and ordered fresh polls within 60 days. Atwoli said Kenyatta "appeared... Читать дальше...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed a woman as a defense minister on Sunday as he reorganized his Cabinet in an effort to deliver on key pledges ahead of general elections due in a year and a half.   Nirmala Sitharaman will be the first woman to handle the important portfolio in 35 years, India’s former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had also held charge of the defense ministry. Sitharaman, a 58-year-old former junior commerce minister, takes charge at a time when India’s tensions with both its northern neighbors... Читать дальше...

The annual five-day Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia known as hajj is officially over.   Khalid al-Faisal, governor of Mecca, announced Sunday the formal end of the pilgrimage at a news conference in the holy city.   Hajj draws people from around the world to Saudi Arabia each year. The crowds, squeezed shoulder to shoulder in prayer five times a day, fill the city of Mecca and surrounding areas to perform a number of physically demanding and intricate rites.   The pilgrimage is... Читать дальше...

North Korea's claim of a successful hydrogen bomb test marks a major step in the isolated country's long-stated goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile that puts the U.S. mainland within range, experts say. North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, which it said was a successful detonation of an advanced hydrogen bomb, technically known as a two-stage thermonuclear device. All of North Korea's six nuclear tests including the one on Sunday have taken place at its underground testing site in Punggye-ri... Читать дальше...

The two fighters, one an Arab sniper, the other his Kurdish commander, are each driven by a personal grudge against the Islamic State group. They are working side by side in an elite commando unit of the U.S.-backed forces fighting the militants in the Syrian city of Raqqa. But they have vastly different visions of what happens once they succeed. Abdullah, the Arab fighter, fears the militants' fall in Raqqa will only be the start of more turmoil. He worries it will unleash a wave of bloodshed... Читать дальше...

Pope Francis travels to Colombia this week to encourage a fledgling peace process that ended half a century of war between a succession of governments and the guerrilla group FARC but has left the country deeply divided. Francis, making his 20th foreign trip as pontiff and his fifth to his native Latin America, will spend five days in the country, visiting the capital Bogota and the cities of Villavicencio, Medellin and Cartagena. The Argentine pope had delayed accepting a government and Church invitation to visit Colombia... Читать дальше...

Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga says his coalition would not share power, two days after the supreme court annulled presidential election results, citing irregularities. Speaking at a church service in Nairobi, Odinga said his party would not share power with "thieves". Incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta similarly said a day earlier that his Jubilee party would not share power with the opposition, while also lashing out at Supreme Court judges. "Who even elected you?  Were you?  We have a problem and we must fix it," he said Saturday... Читать дальше...

Australia’s Northern Territory is to rename racist names on a number of landmarks that have long demeaned indigenous groups. It follows similar measures in the state of Queensland.   The official Northern Territory place names register shows several entries with the pejorative term "blackgin." This refers to a phrase used by white Australians to describe an Aboriginal woman, or "gin," who were used for sexual services. Other racially insensitive place names, including "murdering creeks" and "skull... Читать дальше...

Iran's Arabic language TV station al-Alam is reporting that the country's air defense base sent two warnings in the last six months to U.S. spy aircraft that approached Iranian airspace.   The TV's website quoted the country's chief of air defense, Brig. Gen. Farzad Esmaili, as saying Iran warned a U2 reconnaissance aircraft on March 21. He did not mention the location.   He also said the country's air defense warned an American drone on Aug. 26.   Gen. Esmaili says: "We do not allow such rabid... Читать дальше...

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday called for the world to reject protectionism even as American and European pressure mounts on Beijing to lower market barriers, speaking at the start of a Chinese-led summit of five large emerging economies now overshadowed by North Korea's sixth nuclear test.   Lamenting that "protectionism and an inward-looking mentality are on the rise," Xi said that "only openness delivers progress and only inclusiveness sustains such progress."   Xi was speaking to business representatives of the BRICS nations ... Читать дальше...

Approaching dusk, a Vietnamese family of 12 from Pennsylvania scrambles to move from their two minivans in Parking Lot 1 to the America’s Niagara Falls before nightfall. Dipendra Chhantyal, the dad in charge of family operations, is frantic. “Which way to the falls?” he said. “One-two-three-four ...” he counts heads; two boys in matching Gap tees, three infants in strollers. His in-laws stick together as he orchestrates a family portrait with a stranger. Then onward to America’s oldest state park. Читать дальше...

One evening in 1975, soon after the Khmer Rouge forces had taken control of Cambodia, some of the cadres came to Taing Kim’s village in Boribo district of Kampong Chhnang Province. The cadres inspected each household, and Taing Kim and her husband, who had soldiered for the defeated Khmer Republic forces of General Lon Nol, were taken to a nearby rice field. Taing Kim, then 23 years old, realized a terrible fate awaited them. Her husband of five years was bludgeoned to death in front of her.... Читать дальше...

German authorities are making final preparations in Frankfurt before experts defuse a huge World War II-era bomb Sunday in an operation that includes evacuating more than 60,000 residents.   Hospital patients and the elderly are among those affected in what will be Germany's biggest evacuation in recent history.   Construction workers found the 1.8-ton (4,000-pound or 1,815 kilograms) British bomb Tuesday. Officials have ordered residents to evacuate homes within a 1.5-kilometer (nearly a mile)... Читать дальше...