Новости за 28.01.2023

A senior U.S. official said Saturday that Eritrean troops are still in Ethiopia although they have moved back the border, contradicting Ethiopian authorities who say the Eritreans have already left. Eritrean troops fought alongside the Ethiopian military and allied militias in the two-year conflict that pitted the Ethiopian government against rebellious forces in the northern region of Tigray. In November, however, the Ethiopia government and the Tigray forces signed an agreement to end the hostilities. Читать дальше...

A Japanese whaling operator, after struggling for years to promote its products amid protests from conservationists, has found a new way to cultivate clientele and bolster sales: whale meat vending machines. The Kujira (Whale) Store, an unmanned outlet that recently opened in the port town of Yokohama near Tokyo, houses three machines for whale sashimi, whale bacon, whale skin and whale steak, as well as canned whale meat. Prices range from 1,000 yen ($7.70) to 3,000 yen ($23). The outlet features... Читать дальше...

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk is condemning the increasing brutality and wholesale repression of Myanmar’s military leaders to maintain their iron grip on power.  United Nations rights chief Volker Türk says Myanmar has plunged ever deeper into crisis since the military launched a coup against the country’s democratically elected government nearly two years ago, on February 1, 2021. Türk spokesman Jeremy Laurence says the country has undergone a wholesale regression in human rights. Читать дальше...

The U.N.’s main AIDS program says thousands of children are dying from HIV/AIDS because, unlike adults, they do not receive treatment for the deadly disease. HIV/AIDS is no longer an automatic death sentence. People infected with the disease can live a normal lifespan, provided they receive treatment and care. Unfortunately, there is a glaring disparity between the way children and adults with HIV/AIDS are treated. UNAIDS spokeswoman Charlotte Sector says 76 percent of adults have access to treatment... Читать дальше...

Two Indian Air Force jets have crashed while on a routine training operation.     The air force said one of the three pilots involved in the crash Saturday morning has died.     The crash occurred near Morena in Madhya Pradesh.   Local media reported the aircraft involved in the crash were a Sukhoi-30 and MIrage-2000 fighter jet.

Two people were wounded in a shooting Saturday in Jerusalem. Saturday’s shooting comes less than 24 hours after seven people were shot dead in a synagogue on Jerusalem’s outskirts by a Palestinian gunman. Ten people were wounded in the shooting Friday before police arrived and killed the gunman. The Associated Press reports that the shooter in Saturday’s attack was shot by the police, but his condition was not immediately clear. On Thursday, an Israeli military raid on a refugee camp in Jenin killed nine people... Читать дальше...

Authorities in Western Australia say they are looking for a missing radioactive capsule. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services said the capsule containing radioactive material was lost during transportation from north of Newman to Perth’s northeastern suburbs. Exposure to the material, used in gauges in mining, could cause radiation burns or radiation sickness, the department said. The small silver capsule measures 6 mm in diameter and is 8 mm tall. Workers are searching the Great Northern Highway for the capsule. Читать дальше...

A summary of Uyghur-related news around the world    A Kazakh woman in Xinjiang asks journalists to publicize her case A female Kazakh dissident who was released from a Chinese internment camp to her home in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang, talked to journalists and activists in the United States, asking them to publicize her plea to leave China. After Zhanargul Zhumatai’s words “Help Me, I Just Want to Leave China” were publicized in international media, Chinese authorities agreed to issue... Читать дальше...

Dedicated to an Indian goddess as a child, Huvakka Bhimappa's years of sexual servitude began when her uncle took her virginity, raping her in exchange for a saree and some jewellery. Bhimappa was not yet 10 years old when she became a "devadasi" -- girls coerced by their parents into an elaborate wedding ritual with a Hindu deity, many of whom are then forced into illegal prostitution. Devadasis are expected to live a life of religious devotion, forbidden from marrying other mortals, and forced... Читать дальше...

Editor's note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this week, as seen from the United Nations' perch. UN deputy chief says Taliban's desire for recognition is bargaining chip on rights U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said Wednesday that the international community’s best leverage to persuade the Taliban to reverse restrictions on Afghan women’s rights is the group’s desire for international recognition. She told reporters that the U.N. and the... Читать дальше...

The tragic shooting this week at a mushroom farm in northern California’s Half Moon Bay wasn’t the first time workers there witnessed gun violence. In fact, according to one of the former owners of the farm, the suspect at the center of Monday's mass shooting, Chunli Zhao, was there during the earlier incident and documented the aftermath on video. On July 3, 2022, a day after the incident, Zhao sent a video to his former boss Huizhong Li on WeChat, a Chinese social media app. Li, who no longer lives in the San Francisco Bay area... Читать дальше...

Video of the October hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was released Friday. In the police body camera footage, Pelosi, 82, and his alleged assailant, David DePape, answer the door when police arrive at the Pelosi home in San Francisco. Each man has a hand on opposite ends of a hammer. Struggling for control of the hammer, shortly after the police arrive, DePape, 43, is seen swinging the hammer above Pelosi’s head before he brings the hammer down to hit Pelosi. Читать дальше...

One of the lowest points in recent Sino-American relations came in July 2021 when U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, on a visit to Beijing, was scolded by her Chinese interlocutor and handed a "List of U.S. Wrongdoings that Must Stop." Sherman was also warned during the strained encounter about what the Chinese described as the Biden administration's "highly misguided mindset" and handed a second "List of Key Individual Cases that China Has Concerns With." The man who delivered those messages... Читать дальше...

This week India launched its first nasal COVID-19 vaccine, four months after it received approval for its restricted emergency use among adults in the country. The mucosal vaccine, made by India’s leading vaccine maker, Bharat Biotech, is based on technology licensed from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, in the U.S. It is administered in the form of drops in the nose and stimulates an immune response in the mucous membranes of the tissues lining the nasal cavity, upper airways and lungs. Читать дальше...

Authorities in New Zealand's biggest city, Auckland, began mopping up on Saturday, a day after torrential rain brought flooding and evacuations, shutting airports and forcing organizers to cancel a scheduled concert by Elton John.  A state of emergency remained in place in the city of 1.6 million people on New Zealand's north island as the rains eased after causing flooding in the north, northwest and west.  Auckland Emergency Management, part of the city's council, said daylight had revealed... Читать дальше...

Fears of widening Israeli-Palestinian violence have been realized, with attacks in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. The State Department is calling for de-escalation as Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to the region. VOA's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.

A comet is streaking back our way after 50,000 years.  The dirty snowball last visited during Neanderthal times, according to NASA. It will come within 42 million kilometers (26 million miles) of Earth on Wednesday before speeding away again, unlikely to return for millions of years.  Discovered less than a year ago, this harmless green comet already is visible in the northern night sky with binoculars and small telescopes, and possibly the naked eye in the darkest corners of the Northern Hemisphere. Читать дальше...

The United States and European Union announced Friday an agreement to speed up and enhance the use of artificial intelligence to improve agriculture, health care, emergency response, climate forecasting and the electric grid.  A senior U.S. administration official, discussing the initiative shortly before the official announcement, called it the first sweeping AI agreement between the United States and Europe. Previously, agreements on the issue had been limited to specific areas such as enhancing privacy, the official said. Читать дальше...

Police in the southern U.S. city of Memphis, Tennessee, released a video Friday evening showing five police officers beating to death Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, following a traffic stop. The graphic video shows the officers brutally beating Nichols for three minutes. Two officers can be seen holding Nichols down while others kick and punch him. At least one officer uses a baton. In one clip of the video footage, which runs over an hour and is taken from multiple cameras, Nichols can be heard crying out for his mother. Читать дальше...

The number of people making a perilous journey on foot through the Darien Gap jungle to reach the United States has dropped significantly since the U.S. government tightened its rules on migrants, the International Organization for Migration said. Earlier this month Washington expanded COVID-19 pandemic-era restrictions to include migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua and not just Venezuelans as people who can be expelled back to Mexico if caught crossing the border into the United States. The restrictions are known as Title 42. Читать дальше...

Dozens of indigenous children suffering from malnutrition and acute diseases have been hospitalized in northern Brazil, with relatives in hammocks holding their emaciated frames in scenes that underscore the gravity of a public health crisis. The health secretary of Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, said on Friday that 59 indigenous children were currently at the only pediatric hospital in the state, 45 of them from the Yanomami people. Eight were under intensive care. The secretary said children are suffering from acute diarrhea... Читать дальше...

As the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden seeks to secure NATO enlargement with the accession of Sweden and Finland, it is dealing with requests by Turkey and Greece to purchase fighter jets, the latter being less controversial and more likely to be approved. Analysts speaking to VOA said the outcome of the proposed sale of F-16s to Ankara and F-35s to Athens would impact the air defense capabilities of the two neighbors and the power balance in the region. Turkey requested to buy 40 F-16 Block 70 fighter jets... Читать дальше...

Cameroon journalists are calling for an investigation and say their profession is in danger after a popular radio host investigating government corruption was found dead. Emmanual Jules Ntap has more from Yaounde.

A celebration turned into a violent tragedy when 11 people were killed in a mass shooting at a Southern California dance studio on Lunar New Year’s Eve. One man describes how he left the studio just minutes before the massacre started.

The stepfather of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old man beaten to death following a traffic stop earlier this month, called for peace Friday, ahead of the release later in the day of the police bodycam and surveillance video of the violence. Memphis and other U.S. cities reportedly were preparing for possible protests following the release of video. Memphis police said Nichols, an African American, was stopped for alleged reckless driving on January 7. He was assaulted after the stop, and he died from his injuries three days later. Читать дальше...