Новости за 07.10.2017

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the start of Turkish military operation into Syria's Idlib province. "There is a serious operation in Idlib at the moment, and this will continue," Erdogan announced in a speech Saturday to his party members. The military offensive is aimed at ending the jihadist control of the Idlib area. Much of Idlib is controlled by the jihadist Tahrir al-Sham alliance, which is made up of large elements of a former al-Qaida affiliate that changed its name last year from the al-Nusra Front. Читать дальше...

The Afghan government reportedly has sought the closure of the Afghan Taliban office in Qatar, citing the inefficiency of the office as a reason behind its request to the U.S. and Qatari officials. There has been no official confirmation of such a request being initiated by the Afghan government. But a senior official with knowledge of discussions between senior Afghan officials and their American counterparts, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told VOA the Afghan government did discuss plans... Читать дальше...

U.S. and Russian envoys have met in an effort to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine. U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker and Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov met Saturday in Belgrade, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said.  But no details have emerged from the closed-door meeting. Before the meeting Volker tweeted the meeting would focus on "how to catalyze Minsk implementation and restore Ukraine's territorial integrity."   A 2015 deal signed in the Belarusian... Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he spoke with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to determine whether Democratic lawmakers would be interested in helping pass a health care bill. "I called Chuck Schumer yesterday to see if the Dems want to do a great HealthCare Bill. ObamaCare is badly broken, big premiums. Who knows!," Trump tweeted Saturday morning. Schumer responded through a spokesman Saturday morning that he would be willing to listen to Trump's proposals but repealing... Читать дальше...

Thousands of protesters gathered Saturday at rallies in Barcelona, Madrid, and other Spanish cities as Catalonians continue to push for secession from Spain after last week's independence referendum. Organizers of the Catalonia secession rally had asked the demonstrators to wear neutral white, and not to display any flags, either Spanish or Catalonian. The demonstration organizers have been promoting the slogan, "Let's Talk." In Madrid, the Spanish national capital, there also was a competing demonstration, for Spanish unity. Читать дальше...

London police said a "number" of pedestrians were injured in a vehicle incident Saturday near the city's Natural History Museum. Police said a man has been detained in connection with the incident and the cause was under investigation. "Inquiries to establish the circumstances and motive are underway," police said. The man was detained after British media reported a car had veered onto the pavement outside the museum. The museum confirmed the incident on Twitter and said it is working with the police. Читать дальше...

The well-known poem Flanders Fields talks about “the crosses, row on row." A similar sight can be found in Las Vegas, behind the old iconic sign that marks the city. People are lining up to pay their respects at this emotional memorial to the victims of Sunday’s massacre. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti takes us there.

U.N. aid agencies are struggling to meet the needs of refugees in eastern Cameroon as multitudes flee the renewed violence in neighboring Central African Republic. The population of the Gado refugee camp has exploded from just 1,000 refugees in January to 25,000 today. Scores of children are being attended to by medical staff at the Gado refugee camp on Cameroon's eastern border with the C.A.R. At least a hundred children fleeing with their parents have been received by humanitarian workers this week. Читать дальше...

Three men have been handed preliminary terror-linked charges in the failed attack a week ago on a residential building in an upscale Paris neighborhood with gas canisters that failed to ignite, a judicial official said Saturday. The suspects were placed under formal investigation late Friday in the mysterious attack attempt in the building in western Paris' chic 16th arrondissement, the official said. No motive for the attack has been uncovered, and the three have refused to answer questions. The... Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed surprise that The Washington Post — a newspaper Trump repeatedly has accused of writing inaccurate news stories about him — published a favorable news story about his fundraising prowess. The Post reported Friday the Republican Party is on the verge of raising more money in small amounts than in more than a decade, thanks to Trump's fundraising appeals to his supporters.   Trump has regularly derided the Post and other U.S. media outlets as purveyors... Читать дальше...

The U.N. Human Rights office denounces the killings of demonstrators from Cameroon’s Anglophone community in towns across the Northwest and Southwest regions Sunday, October 1, and is calling for an impartial investigation into these events. Government figures put the number of deaths at about 10. But other estimates report many more people than that were killed. U.N. Human Rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, says credible sources indicate some of the deaths were caused by the excessive use of force by the security forces. Читать дальше...

Home to half the world’s Mountain gorilla and 50 percent of world bird species, conservation tourism marketing remains a challenge for Uganda.  In a first ever conservation Finance Giants Forum, Uganda also known as the Pearl of Africa, Friday, got an opportunity to market its beauty in a bid to lure more investors and tourists into the country. Uganda held the first ever Conservation and Tourism Investment Forum Friday, gathering senior business figures from around the world.   Emphasis was put on new marketing strategies... Читать дальше...

The World Health Organization reports 900,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine are expected to arrive in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh Saturday.  A mass vaccination campaign for Rohingya refugees is set to begin Tuesday, October 10.  More than one half million Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in Myanmar since August 25 are at risk of getting cholera.  Conditions in the squalid, overcrowded, makeshift settlements in Cox’s Bazar are perfect for an outbreak of this fatal disease.  Cholera is spread by contaminated drinking water... Читать дальше...

Australian investigators have released their last report into missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370, saying it is "almost inconceivable" the aircraft has not been found.  The Boeing 777 disappeared in March 2014 while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board. Investigators in Australia have said their understanding of MH370's whereabouts was "better now than it has ever been” but they still do not know why it crashed.  In its final report into the mystery, the Australian Transport... Читать дальше...

The U.S. government and an European security organization are calling on Russia to find and prosecute the people who killed a prominent Russian journalist 11 years ago.   Both the U.S. State Department and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe issued statements Saturday urging Russia to prosecute those responsible for the death of Anna Politkovskaya who was killed in her Moscow apartment building on October 7, 2006.   "Ms. Politkovskaya's reporting brought to light the violation... Читать дальше...

As investigators continue their search for what motivated 64-year-old Stephen Paddock to unleash a hailstorm of bullets from a high-rise Las Vegas hotel, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more, public safety officials are taking a hard look at how they do their jobs. The central questions are persistent and agonizing: What more could have been done, and what more can be done to further minimize the risks to so-called soft targets, such as concerts, sporting events and other public spaces. Читать дальше...

A longtime editor of a magazine that specializes in global power politics recently put forth a scenario where China would stage a takeover of North Korea, giving Washington and the rest of the world a nuclear weapons-free Korean Peninsula. Bill Emmott, the former editor-in-chief of The Economist magazine, said such a move by China would not only gain Beijing a solid foothold on the Korean Peninsula, but also the opportunity to strengthen its own geopolitical position, enhance its global power status... Читать дальше...

The Legion of Christ religious order, stained by revelations that its founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered several children, is facing a new credibility scandal: The rector of its diocesan seminary in Rome is leaving the priesthood after admitting he fathered two children of his own.   In a letter released by the Legion on Saturday, the Rev. Oscar Turrion said he fell in love with a woman a few years ago during a time of turmoil in the Legion, fathered a son and, a few months ago, a daughter. Читать дальше...

Danish police say divers have found the decapitated head, legs and clothes of a Swedish journalist, who was killed after going on a trip with an inventor on his submarine.   Copenhagen police investigator Jens Moeller Jensen said Saturday that the body parts were found Friday in plastic bags with a knife and heavy metal pieces to make them sink near where Kim Wall’s naked, headless torso was found in August.   Inventor Peter Madsen, who is in pre-trial detention, has said Wall died after being... Читать дальше...

The death toll from a suicide bombing at a Shiite shrine in the country’s southwest increased to 24 after four victims died at a hospital overnight, police said Saturday.   A suicide bomber struck the shrine packed with worshippers in a remote village in Jhal Magsi district, about 400 kilometers (240 miles) east of Quetta in Baluchistan province on Thursday.  Routine search   Senior police officer Mohammad Iqbal said that more than 20 victims were still receiving treatment, some with critical wounds. Читать дальше...

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said her government would continue to support nearly 1 million Rohingya Muslims who have fled neighboring Myanmar to escape violence.   Hasina said the government was pursuing a plan to build temporary shelters for the Rohingya on an island with the help of international aid agencies whom she praised for their support.    She made the statement at Dhaka airport on her return from New York after attending the U.N. General Assembly session.... Читать дальше...

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said early Saturday that Tropical Storm Nate was now a hurricane, and it issued hurricane and storm surge warnings for the Southern US state of Louisiana and the Mississippi and Alabama coasts. “No one should take this storm lightly,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Friday. “It has already claimed the lives of at least 20 people.” Forecasts for the storm indicate the greatest risks are wind and storm surge, which is forecast to be 10 feet (3 meters), not large amounts of rain. Читать дальше...

Tina Lund came to support a friend who came to represent the family. But she cared for the marker like a victim’s mother, gently wrapping blue ribbon around the cross and hanging a collage of photos. Brian Fraser’s cross stands in a stunning row of 59 white crosses. Each cross has a name written in black marker, one for every victim of Sunday night’s mass shooting, the deadliest in modern U.S. history. The crosses have been erected in a graceful, curved line behind the “Welcome to Las Vegas”... Читать дальше...

Once a refugee, an Ethiopian immigrant to the United States is now a successful businessman running a multimillion dollar transportation company. VOA's Tigist Geme recently documented his journey to achieving the American Dream.

The Chinese Basketball Association is on tour in the US, with teams playing against US professional squads. Calla Yu from VOA's Mandarin Service was at a recent game in the Washington area.