Новости за 15.01.2023

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said Sunday unknown assailants shot dead a female former lawmaker alongside her bodyguard in her home in the capital, Kabul.  Mursal Nabizada, 32, had been elected as a member of the national parliament before the Islamist Taliban seized power from the internationally backed Afghan government in August 2021 as all U.S.-led NATO troops withdrew.  A Kabul police spokesman, Khalid Zadran, said that a brother of the slain parliamentarian was also injured in the attack, which took place early Sunday. Читать дальше...

The new Republican head of a key House committee assailed Democratic President Joe Biden and his aides Sunday for their handling of classified documents discovered at a Washington office Biden used after his vice presidency ended in 2017 and at his home in the eastern city of Wilmington, Delaware. Representative James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, asked Ron Klain, Biden’s White House chief of staff, in a letter for information on the searches for the documents at Biden’s office... Читать дальше...

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

President Joe Biden made a historical pilgrimage Sunday to "America's freedom church" to mark Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, saying democracy was at a perilous moment and that the civil rights leader's life and legacy "show us the way and we should pay attention." As the first sitting president to deliver a Sunday morning sermon at King's Ebenezer Baptist Church, Biden cited the telling question that King himself once asked of the nation. "He said, 'Where do we go from here?'" Biden said from the pulpit. Читать дальше...

The officially recognized baptism site of Jesus drew thousands to Jordan on Friday as COVID restrictions drop and the country is boosting religious tourism. The Catholic Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem was at the eastern bank of the Jordan River for the pilgrimage mass and said it "could be a place of unity" as tensions grow in the Middle East. Jordanian scouts played bagpipes as thousands of festive pilgrims and visitors descended on the site where John the Baptist is believed to have baptized Jesus. Читать дальше...

Tens of thousands of people marched through central Madrid on Sunday to demand an end to the cutbacks and privatization affecting the region's crisis-hit public healthcare services. Banging drums and chanting slogans, the protesters packed the main boulevard running past the city's El Prado museum as part of a so-called Marea Blanca, or 'white tide' demonstration that drew 30,000 people, according to a regional government spokesman. Primary care services in the Madrid area have been under huge... Читать дальше...

A suspected extremist attack at a church in eastern Congo killed at least 10 people and wounded more than three dozen, according to the country's army. A group linked to Islamic extremists was suspected of being responsible for a bomb that went off in the Pentecostal church in the North Kivu province town of Kasindi, military spokesperson Anthony Mwalushayi told The Associated Press by phone. A Kenyan national found at the scene was detained, Mwalushayi said. Congo’s government urged people to... Читать дальше...

A Myanmar-China border crossing vital to trade has partially reopened, an official said Sunday, after years of a pandemic-prompted closure. COVID-19 shuttered the Muse-Ruili checkpoint -- among the Southeast Asian nation's busiest -- in April 2020. One of Muse town's border gates opened Saturday at 7:00 am (1230 GMT), according to an official in Myanmar's northern Shan state. Six trucks made the short relay trip at the Mang Wein crossing, said U Min Thein, vice-chairman of the Muse Rice Commodity Exchange. Читать дальше...

Yousef Mesheh was sleeping in his bunk bed when Israeli forces stormed into his home at 3 a.m. Within moments, the 15-year-old Palestinian said he was lying on the floor as troops punched him, shouting insults. A soldier struck his mother's chest with his rifle butt and locked her in the bedroom, where she screamed for her sons. Yousef and his 16-year-old brother, Wael, were hauled out of their home in Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank. Yousef was in a sleeveless undershirt and couldn't see without his glasses. Читать дальше...

The U.S. has now collected 510 reports of unidentified flying objects, many of which are flying in sensitive military airspace. While there's no evidence of extraterrestrials, they still pose a threat, the government said in a declassified report summary released Thursday. Last year the Pentagon opened an office, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, solely focused on receiving and analyzing all of those reports of unidentified phenomena, many of which have been reported by military pilots. Читать дальше...

Astronomers have detected in the stellar halo that represents the Milky Way's outer limits a group of stars more distant from Earth than any known within our own galaxy - almost halfway to a neighboring galaxy. The researchers said these 208 stars inhabit the most remote reaches of the Milky Way's halo, a spherical stellar cloud dominated by the mysterious invisible substance called dark matter that makes itself known only through its gravitational influence. The furthest of them is 1.08 million light years from Earth. Читать дальше...

It began as a form of music chanted at wakes to comfort mourners -- now it is part of Cameroon's cultural mainstream, and a powerful form of expression for its frustrated youth. Mbole (pronounced "em-bo-lay") developed around a quarter of a century ago in poor districts of Yaounde, the central African nation's capital. It began as a sort of back-and-forth at funeral vigils between a chanter, who would devise lyrics and sing them, and "responders," who sang the lyrics back and provided rhythm using buckets, saucepans or other implements. Читать дальше...

After COVID-19 restrictions had wiped out Vienna's glamorous winter ball season for two years in a row, 50-year-old Wahyuni couldn't wait any longer to get dolled up and put on her dazzling floral-patterned ballgown to once again waltz the night away. "We love to come here, because the very nice decorations are made out of real flowers and it's very lovely," Wahyuni said, alongside her friend Deasy, who declined to give their full names, as both were attending the legendary Flower Ball in Vienna's neo-Gothic city hall. Читать дальше...

The American and Sydney Pen Associations have issued a joint statement calling for the release of Ali Asadollahi, an Iranian poet, and other writers imprisoned in Iran. “Asadollahi has been an inspiring and leading poet of his generation,”   the statement said, and his work has been translated into English, Italian and French. Ali Asadollahi, who is also a literary critic and secretary of the Iranian Writers’ Association, was arrested Nov. 21 without any charges. He is currently being held in... Читать дальше...

Israel's Cognyte Software Ltd won a tender to sell intercept spyware to a Myanmar state-backed telecommunications firm a month before the Asian nation's February 2021 military coup, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. The deal was made even though Israel has claimed it stopped defense technology transfers to Myanmar following a 2017 ruling by Israel's Supreme Court, according to a legal complaint recently filed with Israel's attorney general and disclosed Sunday. While the ruling was... Читать дальше...

A single winning ticket for a Mega Millions lottery jackpot of at least $1.35 billion, the second largest jackpot in U.S. history, was sold in Maine, lottery organizers said Saturday. "Congratulations to the Maine State Lottery, which has just won its first-ever Mega Millions jackpot," Ohio Lottery director Pat McDonald, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement. "It's the fourth billion-dollar jackpot in Mega Millions history." The winning ticket, which cost $2 and matched all six numbers... Читать дальше...

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Saturday rebuffed a renewed call by the United Nations to reverse rules blocking women’s access to work and education, insisting they are regulating “all matters” in line with Islamic law or Shariah. “Considering the responsibility it has towards the people and religion, the Islamic Emirate cannot allow acts against Shariah in the country,” chief Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said. His statement came in response to Friday’s private meeting by the 15-nation... Читать дальше...

New data from the United States government suggests holiday gatherings didn't spark surges in respiratory diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday that visits to doctors' offices for flu-like illnesses fell for the sixth straight week. Reports of RSV, a common cause of cold-like symptoms that can be serious for infants and the elderly, are also down. When flu and RSV surged in the fall, causing overloads at pediatric emergency rooms, some doctors feared that winter might bring a "tripledemic" of flu... Читать дальше...

A 56-year-old woman has been charged after an 18-year-old Indiana University student repeatedly was stabbed in the head on a public bus in an attack the school says was because the victim is Asian. The victim told investigators she was standing and waiting for the exit doors to open on a Bloomington Transit bus Wednesday afternoon when another passenger began striking her head, Bloomington police said in a release. Bus surveillance footage showed no interaction between the two women before the attack. Читать дальше...

In a fresh blow to Portugal's government, tens of thousands of Portuguese teachers and school staff poured into the streets of the capital Lisbon to demand higher wages and better working conditions in one of the biggest protests of recent years. During the peaceful demonstration, organized by the Union of All Education Professionals (STOP), protesters held banners and shouted slogans as they urged Education Minister Joao Costa to step down. Teachers on the lowest pay scale make around 1,100... Читать дальше...

Syria and key ally Iran agreed Saturday to renew an economic strategic arrangement between the two countries as Damascus prepares to welcome Iran's president in the near future. Since Syria's uprising turned into civil conflict in 2011, Tehran has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters to help President Bashar Assad stay in power amid fighting that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and displaced millions. Iran has also been a critical economic lifeline for Syria, delivering fuel and credit... Читать дальше...

The Australian cardinal who decried the papacy of Pope Francis as a "catastrophe" was given a funeral Saturday and hailed by some fellow churchmen at St. Peter's Basilica, with the pontiff imparting a final blessing for the once high-ranking Vatican prelate. Cardinal George Pell, 81, died on Tuesday, shortly after undergoing hip surgery in a Rome hospital. As the Vatican's finance minister for three years, Pell had been a key player in the early years of Francis' papacy, whose goals included reforming the Holy See's finances... Читать дальше...

Thousands of people demonstrated in the rain Saturday to protest the clearance and demolition of a village in western Germany to make way for the expansion of a coal mine. There were standoffs with police as some protesters tried to reach the edge of the mine and the village itself. Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg joined the demonstrators as they protested the clearance of Luetzerath, walking through the nearby village of Keyenberg and past muddy fields. Protesters chanted “Every village... Читать дальше...

Key dates related to the discovery of classified documents tied to U.S. President Joe Biden, based on statements from the White House, the president, and Attorney General Merrick Garland: Jan. 20, 2017: Biden's two terms as vice president to President Barack Obama end. Mid-2017-2019: Biden periodically uses an office at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank in Washington. Jan. 20, 2021: Biden is sworn in as president. Nov. 2, 2022: Biden's personal attorneys come across Obama-Biden administration... Читать дальше...

At least 20,000 people protested on Saturday in central Tel Aviv against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new hard-right government, which critics say threatens Israeli democracy. Protesters braved the rain for the rally, carrying signs with slogans decrying a "government of shame" and urging "bring down the dictator," Agence France-Presse correspondents said. Israeli police estimated that 20,000 people joined the rally, according to public radio, while the organizers said there were "several tens of thousands" of protesters. Читать дальше...