Новости за 05.01.2023

As Islamabad increasingly voices concern about the alleged sheltering of a Pakistani insurgent group in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, there is speculation whether the Pakistani military might strike targets in the neighboring country and how that would impact the region's fragile security. Observers say the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021 appears to have revived the armed insurgent group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan — known as the TTP — which has sought the establishment of an Islamist... Читать дальше...

With the dawn of 2023, the Canadian foreign buyers ban went into effect, banning non-Canadians from purchasing property, with several exceptions. These include landed immigrants, workers on temporary visas, refugees and some international students, on properties valued at less than 500,000 Canadian dollars or in areas with a population of less than 10,000. This would include many resorts and vacation areas. The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau enacted the ban in an effort to curb sky-high home prices... Читать дальше...

Pakistan said Thursday that a military counterterrorism raid in a remote region near Afghanistan’s border had killed at least 11 militants linked to a banned militant organization.    The “intelligence-based operation” in the South Waziristan district “successfully foiled a high-profile terrorist activity,” a military statement said.    Security sources said the slain men, including suicide bombers and a key commander, were members of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or the Pakistani Taliban... Читать дальше...

U.N. and Pakistani officials are appealing for global solidarity to rehabilitate and rebuild flood-ravaged Pakistan in advance of the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan next week in Geneva. The conference will be opened Monday by co-hosts Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Delegates from some 40 countries, including several heads of state, representatives of financial institutions and international development organizations will attend. Читать дальше...

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

Some of the more than 70,000 Ethiopians who fled to Sudan during the two-year war in the Tigray region are hoping to return home soon, as a November peace deal between Ethiopian federal forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front appears to be holding. However, many of those refugees are skeptical the peace will last. Tigrayan Tesfai Gabriel-Mariam, who is 61, fled Ethiopia's civil war to Sudan's Um Rakuba refugee camp two years ago after his wife was killed in the fighting. He has since... Читать дальше...

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban signed their first international agreement with a Chinese petroleum company Thursday to extract and develop oil reserves in the country’s north.  Senior Taliban officials and China’s ambassador to Kabul, Wang Yu, witnessed the televised signing ceremony in the Afghan capital, marking the first major foreign investment deal in Afghanistan since the Islamist group seized power in August 2021.   Taliban mining minister Shahabuddin Dilawar told the event the contract... Читать дальше...

The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday it was taking joint action with Turkey against a network it said played a key role in money management, transfer and distribution for the Islamic State group operating in Iraq and Syria. Turkey has frozen the assets of members to the network, who also were added to the U.S. sanctions list, the Treasury Department said in a statement. Those sanctioned included an Iraqi national living illegally in Turkey, Brukan al-Khatuni, his two sons, and two businesses... Читать дальше...

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has shown what physicians treating him are calling "remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours," the team announced Thursday, three days after the player went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field.  "While still critically ill, he has demonstrated that he appears to be neurologically intact," the Bills said in a statement. "His lungs continue to heal and he is making steady progress."  Bills rookie cornerback Kaiir Elam also posted a... Читать дальше...

With more than 100 radio stations closed in the past 12 months and proposals to regulate social media, Venezuela’s journalists brace for a tough time. Alvaro Algarra has this report for VOA from Caracas, narrated by Veronica Villafane.

Mourners pour into St. Peter's Square for the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to pay their final respects to the German theologian who made history by retiring and to participate in a rare requiem Mass for a dead pontiff presided over by a living one, The Associated Press reports.

One of the longest serving Palestinian prisoners in Israel went free Thursday after completing a 40-year sentence for kidnapping and killing an Israeli soldier. Karim Younis was greeted by hundreds of supporters as he arrived home in the northern village of Ara. “It was 40 years full of stories, prisoners’ stories and each story is a story of a nation,” Younis said. “I am very proud to be one of those who made sacrifices for Palestine and we were ready to sacrifice more for the sake of the cause... Читать дальше...

Pope Francis presided at the funeral of former Pope Benedict on Thursday, delivering a homily comparing his predecessor to Jesus before tens of thousands of mourners in St. Peter's Square. To the sound of tolling bells, 12 pallbearers had carried the wooden coffin holding Benedict's remains out of St. Peter's Basilica and placed it on the ground before the largest church in Christendom. Applause broke out across the vast cobbled esplanade,  in a sign of respect for Benedict, a hero to Roman Catholic... Читать дальше...

Mourners poured into St. Peter's Square early Thursday for the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to pay their final respects to the German theologian who made history by retiring and to participate in a rare requiem Mass for a dead pontiff presided over by a living one. Thick fog shrouded the Vatican before dawn as police manned metal detectors and barricades and herded well-wishers into the square. Heads of state and royalty, clergy from around the world and thousands of faithful are flocking to the Vatican... Читать дальше...

After two days of deadlock, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will try again Thursday to agree on who should be the next speaker of the House.  Republican leader Kevin McCarthy's bid floundered Wednesday when, for a second day, a group of conservative lawmakers withheld crucial support in multiple rounds of voting.         McCarthy, a 16-year lawmaker from California and the House Republican leader in the session of Congress that ended Tuesday, has long sought to become speaker. Читать дальше...

Tens of thousands of tech innovators and their fans are flocking to Las Vegas this week for the annual Consumer Electronics Show. Deana Mitchell has spotted some up-and-coming tech trends.

Thousands of migrants have flocked to government offices in southern Mexico seeking asylum since the United States said it would keep restrictions used to quickly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.  Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would maintain a pandemic-era measure for expediting expulsions of undocumented migrants to Mexico until it had time to consider Republican arguments against its repeal, which U.S. President Joe Biden said could extend the curbs until at least June. Читать дальше...

Freedom is bittersweet for Htin Lin Oo, a former official in the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and one of the 7,012 prisoners released by Myanmar's ruling junta Wednesday to mark the 75th anniversary the nation's independence from Britain. "I have no feelings on the issue of being released from prison, but I was ashamed because the people who were imprisoned with me remained in the prison cells," the former National League for Democracy information officer told VOA by telephone after his release from Yangon's Insein prison. Читать дальше...

Amazon.com layoffs will now stretch to more than 18,000 jobs as part of a workforce reduction it previously disclosed, Chief Executive Andy Jassy said in a public staff note on Wednesday. The layoff decisions, which Amazon will communicate starting January 18, will largely impact the company's e-commerce and human-resources organizations, he said. The cuts amount to 6% of Amazon's roughly 300,000-person corporate workforce and represent a swift turn for a retailer that recently doubled its base... Читать дальше...

Wang Xiaodong lives in Qatar, where he imports Chinese-made construction material. His home on the Arabian Peninsula is thousands of kilometers away from his family's village deep in the mountains of China's southern Yunnan province.   The hamlet is so remote that few of the 600 villagers ever visit a hospital, and just last week, Wang Xiaodong's mother told him that COVID-19 had arrived to infect "everyone in the village." A few people, mostly older folks, died, as did a 17-year-old girl, he told VOA Mandarin. Читать дальше...

The Taliban have said that a court on Thursday is expected to issue a ruling on whether licenses should be revoked for several media outlets. Abdul Haq Hammad, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture, told Voice of America the move is focused on 10 media outlets and news agencies deemed to be spreading “propaganda and rumors against” the regime. If the court rules to revoke the licenses, the media outlets will no longer be able to work in the country. “They will... Читать дальше...

Pope Francis will preside at a funeral Mass in St. Peter's Square on Thursday for his predecessor, former Pope Benedict, who died Saturday at 95. More than 60,000 people are expected to attend. There will be official delegations from Italy and Benedict's native Germany. Other leaders, including the king and queen of Belgium and the queen of Spain, and about 13 heads of state of state or government, will attend in a private capacity. Most countries will be represented by their ambassadors to the Vatican. Читать дальше...

President Joe Biden intends to visit the U.S.-Mexico border — his first visit there since taking office — in connection with his meeting next week in Mexico City with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.  "That's my intention. We're working out the details now," Biden told reporters Wednesday during a trip to Kentucky.  Biden said upon his return to the White House that he hoped to see "what's going on" at the border and also planned to make remarks about border security on Thursday.  There have... Читать дальше...

The United States has been assessing the impact of the Afghan Taliban's ban on the employment of women by nongovernmental organizations while pondering policy options that may be unveiled soon. "We're committed to standing up for women wherever their rights are threatened, including in Afghanistan, as unfortunately we continue to see deepen and get worse," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday at the launch of the first U.S. Strategy on Global Women's Economic Security. Senior... Читать дальше...

Nate Thayer, the larger-than-life American freelance journalist who scored a massive scoop with his 1997 interview with Pol Pot, the genocidal leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, has died at 62, his family said Wednesday. Thayer was discovered dead by his brother Rob Thayer at his Falmouth, Massachusetts, home Tuesday. "He had a lot of ailments. He was seriously ill for many months," the brother told Agence France-Presse. Nate Thayer spent years reporting on Cambodia politics and society, including the Khmer Rouge... Читать дальше...