Новости за 27.09.2017

A four-day Afghanistan trade-and-investment show, sponsored by the United States and aimed at providing new opportunities for businesses in the war-torn country, got underway Wednesday in New Delhi, but the mammoth challenge of that task was underlined even before the conference began. Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who was scheduled to inaugurate the show along with Indian and American officials, could not do so because a rocket attack aimed at the Kabul airport Wednesday morning delayed his arrival in the Indian capital. Читать дальше...

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, warned Wednesday of a high risk of terrorism in Myanmar and the region if the Rohingya crisis remains unresolved. Grandi recently visited Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, which is home to some 800,000 Rohingya refugees. Among those, 450,000 refugees recently fled violence and persecution in Myanmar, while more than 300,000 others arrived in neighboring Bangladesh before the current crisis.  Most of the refugees are women and children, and many are deeply traumatized. Читать дальше...

The United Nations will send several high-ranking members of the agency to Myanmar’s Rakhine state Thursday as it pushes for more humanitarian aid in the region, according to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric. "We have always underscored and stressed our concern about the limited humanitarian access in that area,” he said during a daily briefing. “We welcome this invitation as a first step, and we do hope it will lead to much broader and wider humanitarian access.” The trip scheduled for Thursday... Читать дальше...

The Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is playing a central role in the Iraqi operation to remove Islamic State from the town of Hawija. VOA's Dlshad Anwar reports.

The latest executive order signed by President Donald Trump would, in effect, amount to a full trade and financial embargo, squeezing all the revenue channels North Korea maintains to finance its weapons programs, a former senior counterterrorism official said. On Sept. 21, less than two weeks after the U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions, Trump turned up the heat on the Kim Jong Un regime with an executive order that widens U.S. authority to sanction any bank and company that finance... Читать дальше...

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi is the latest in a long line of Nobel Peace Prize laureates to disappoint many of those who once applauded her, and probably won't be the last, a cautionary tale for the 2017 laureate who will be named next week. Aung San Suu Kyi is facing international criticism, including from fellow peace prize winner Desmond Tutu, for not doing more to stop what the U.N. says are mass killings, rapes and the burning of villages taking place in Rakhine state. The violence has... Читать дальше...

Chinese social media firm Weibo Corp is looking to recruit citizen censors to help weed out sensitive content on its platform, rewarding those who report the highest numbers of offending posts with iPhones and tablets. The platform posted a statement on Wednesday saying it was looking for an initial 1,000 “Weibo supervisors” as part of a program overseen by the Beijing arm of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country's top Internet watchdog. The CAC on Monday fined Weibo along... Читать дальше...

Smoke, ash and red-hot rocks belched from the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City on Wednesday, heightening the anxieties of Mexicans still shaken by last week's powerful earthquake that killed hundreds and severely damaged thousands of buildings. Popocatepetl, whose name means "Smoking Mountain" in the native Nahuatl language, showered a village at its base with ash, shook with the force of a 1.8 magnitude earthquake and spewed flaming rocks to distances of up to 1 km (0.62 mile), the National Disaster Prevention Center (Cenapred) said. Читать дальше...

Top negotiators from the United States, Canada and Mexico sought to keep NAFTA talks on track on Wednesday as Canada fumed over a U.S. decision to impose preliminary duties on Bombardier's CSeries jets, which is likely to add to trade tensions. The decision by the U.S. Commerce Department is likely to further harden Canada's stance on keeping a key dispute-settlement mechanism in the North American Free Trade Agreement, which the Trump administration wants to eliminate. The talks are supposed... Читать дальше...

Algeria will implement a wealth tax for the first time next year as part of measures aimed at securing new sources of finance after a sharp fall in energy earnings, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said on Wednesday. State finances of the OPEC member North African nation have been significantly hit after a more than 50 percent drop in oil and gas revenue. Oil and gas account for 60 percent of the state budget and 95 percent of total exports. That has forced the government to consider long-delayed reforms... Читать дальше...

The veteran leader of Angola's largest opposition party said  Wednesday that he would step down to allow someone else to keep the new government of President Joao Lourenco to account. Isaias Samakuva, who has led UNITA since 2003, said a new leader should take the party forward through the "new political cycle." He announced his departure a day after Lourenco was sworn in as only the third president of Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975, ending 38 years of rule by Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Читать дальше...

Clad in a sparkling ball gown and tuxedo, the stars of the latest film to premiere in London's Leicester Square walked the red carpet in a rather unusual manner - on four legs. The stars in question were a group of sheep who feature in a new eight-hour, dialogue-free film "Baa Baa Land" - billed by its makers as the dullest movie ever made. It's not so much watching the grass grow as watching it be eaten. The film - whose title plays on Hollywood hit "La La Land" -- features no actors, words... Читать дальше...

A Saudi woman has been named to a senior government post for the first time, authorities said on Wednesday shortly after a ban on women drivers was lifted as the conservative kingdom takes steps to modernize its image. Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, had been widely criticized for being the only country in the world that barred female motorists, a tradition seen by rights activists as emblematic of Riyadh’s repression of women. Twenty-four hours after King Salman issued a decree end the ban... Читать дальше...

Temporary border controls inside the European Union's free-travel zone could be extended for up to three years during a crisis, the European Commission proposed on Wednesday, giving it more leeway to stem migration. The proposal by the EU executive comes as border controls in Germany, Austria, Denmark, and Norway expire, part of the European Union's response to a surge of refugees and migrants in November 2015 that tested EU rules on passport-free travel. Those countries must lift the frontier... Читать дальше...

The anticipated public release of thousands of secret government documents related to President John F. Kennedy's assassination has scholars and armchair detectives buzzing. Now, they're waiting to see whether President Donald Trump will block the release of files that could shed light on a tragedy that has stirred conspiracy theories for decades. The National Archives has until October 26 to disclose the remaining files related to Kennedy's 1963 assassination, unless Trump intervenes. The CIA and FBI... Читать дальше...

Kenya's electoral commission remains in the hot seat as the country heads to a re-run of the presidential poll on October 26. The opposition has launched what it says will be regular protests until the country's electoral commission officials, including the CEO, are replaced. VOA's Jill Craig reports from Nairobi that the controversy surrounding the IEBC goes back several years.

Southern California's Occidental College, where Barack Obama studied from 1979 to 1981, is offering scholarships in honor of the former president. The school in Los Angeles says Wednesday that the Barack Obama Scholars Program will launch in the fall of 2018.   It will initially endow two scholarships, and with the support of donors, eventually offer up to 20.   Each Obama Scholar will be awarded loan-free funding for the entire cost of a four-year Occidental education.   In a statement,... Читать дальше...

With Venezuela's economic crisis leaving consumers struggling to buy basic staple foods, small Caracas brewery Social Club might seem out of place selling craft beer that costs per bottle what a worker earning the minimum wage makes in two days. But business is booming. Demand for Social Club's beer regularly outstrips the 3,000 liters (793 gallons) it produces a month, according to its owners. Most of it is sold on weekends at a beer garden set up in the garage of its small production facility. Читать дальше...

A blueprint of a Republican tax overhaul plan proposes tax cuts to wealthy Americans, businesses and the middle class while protecting deductions such as those for mortgage interest and charitable contributions. The sweeping plan was unveiled Wednesday, the beginning of negotiations to revamp the U.S. tax code. It lacks critical details about the many tax breaks the White House and Republican congressional leaders want to eliminate to offset some of the trillions of dollars in revenue that would be lost through tax cuts. Читать дальше...

In Kirkuk, it appears competing claims to the divided Iraqi city are being negotiated with flags. And at the moment, the Kurdish side is winning.   But in recent weeks, flags signaling Iraq's claim have been showing up more and more. They're not government flags, though, but Shia Islam banners, a nod to the sect dominant among leaders in Baghdad and their supporters.   Kirkuk residents seem largely relieved the competition is confined to pieces of cloth, after weeks of warnings the referendum... Читать дальше...

Garth Brooks is taking a long look back at his life and career in an autobiography that will span five books, the first of which will be released in November. The country music superstar announced Wednesday that The Anthology Part 1: The First Five Years goes on sale Nov. 14. It promises ``all the secrets, details, origins, true stories an insider would get.'' Some of those stories include background on some of Brooks' early hits, including The Thunder Rolls, Friends in Low Places and The Dance. Читать дальше...

In a sign of rapidly deepening ties, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will welcome his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to the presidential palace in Ankara Thursday for talks on Syria and a growing range of other issues that are prompting the two to set aside their differences. A packed agenda is testament to an improved and growing relationship between the two countries. “Talks will focus on the Turkish decision to buy a Russian made S400 anti-missile system, but it's not limited to... Читать дальше...

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

Guest host Peter Clottey talks to Straight Talk Africa host Shaka Ssali and producer Paul Ndiho about the issues and challenges they encountered on their recent reporting trip exploring democracy in transition across Africa.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is "not happy" with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, referencing in particular Price's use of private planes for official business. Trump added that he is looking into the issue, speaking to reporters as he headed to Indiana to announce a new tax plan. When asked if he planned to fire Price, Trump simply responded, "We'll see." The HHS inspector general has said the agency is reviewing Price's flights to see if they violated government travel recommendations. Читать дальше...