Новости за 03.02.2023

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

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been released on bail after starting a hunger strike protesting his almost seven-month detention, supporters said Friday.  The director had been arrested months before the current anti-regime protests erupted, but his imprisonment became a symbol of the plight of artists speaking out against the authorities.  Panahi was released from Tehran's Evin prison "two days after starting his hunger strike for freedom," the U.S.-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said on Twitter... Читать дальше...

VOA Connect Episode 264 - Three innovative ways you can preserve the environment.

Pakistani authorities say most of the victims of the January 30 deadly suicide attack on a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, were local policemen. Over 100 people were killed and dozens more were injured in the attack. Iftikhar Hussain narrates this report from VOA's Deewa Service. Videographer: Riaz Hussain and Usman Khan

Social media images purported to be of an emaciated jailed Iranian physician who went on hunger strike in support of demonstrations against the compulsory wearing of the hijab have caused outrage and warnings that he risks death. Farhad Meysami, 53, who has been in jail since 2018 for supporting women activists protesting against the headscarf policy, began his hunger strike on October 7 to protest recent government killings of demonstrators, his lawyer said. But the Iranian judiciary denied... Читать дальше...

A judge in Kenya has sentenced a former police officer to death for the murders of three people, including a prominent human rights activist in 2016. Three other men received long prison sentences in connection with the case. In her verdict delivered Friday, Justice Jessie Lessit sentenced to death police officer Fredrick Leliman, who is believed to have been the mastermind behind the June 2016 murder of human rights lawyer and activist Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda, and their taxi driver, Joseph Muiruri. Читать дальше...

More than 200 years after Napoleon met defeat at Waterloo, the bones of soldiers killed on that famous battlefield continue to intrigue Belgian researchers and experts, who use them to peer back to that moment in history. "So many bones -- it's really unique!" exclaimed one such historian, Bernard Wilkin, as he stood in front of a forensic pathologist's table holding two skulls, three femurs and hip bones. He was in an autopsy room in the Forensic Medicine Institute in Liege, eastern Belgium... Читать дальше...

A British man who broke into Windsor Castle Christmas Day 2021 and threatened Queen Elizabeth with a crossbow has pleaded guilty to treason charges Friday in a London court. Appearing before London’s Old Bailey Court via video link, 21-year-old Jaswant Singh Chail of South Hampton pleaded guilty to an offense under the British Treason Act of 1842, and to threatening to kill the queen. Charges under the act are rare, the last person to plead guilty under the act was in 1981. Prosecutors say Chail... Читать дальше...

Nearly 200 years ago, the U.S. government promised the Cherokee people a seat in Congress in exchange for their homelands. So far, it has not delivered. Today, the Cherokee people are calling for Congress to fulfill that promise, but there is disagreement over which of three Cherokee tribes should get the delegate seat. Maxim Moskalkov has the story. Camera: Dana Preobrazhenskaya

Kenya has announced plans to re-open its Mandera border crossing with Somalia as part of efforts to improve border security and crack down on smuggled goods. Kenya says plans to re-open the Mandera border post with Somalia are nearing conclusion, after high-level consultations between the two countries. Speaking after a visit to the town of Mandera, Kenya’s Internal Security Minister Kithure Kindiki said reopening the crossing point will improve border security and stem the tide of smuggled goods used to fund terrorist activities. Читать дальше...

Police have arrested several people "strongly suspected" of involvement in the kidnap, torture and killing of a popular radio journalist, Cameroon's presidency announced. Martinez Zogo, 50, who spoke out against embezzlement and cronyism in the central African nation, was abducted on January 17 outside a police station in the suburbs of the capital, Yaounde. His heavily mutilated corpse was found five days later. President Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon with an iron fist for more than 40 years... Читать дальше...

America's employers added a robust 517,000 jobs in January, a surprisingly strong gain in the face of the Federal Reserve's aggressive drive to slow growth and tame inflation with higher interest rates. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.4%, a new half-century low. Friday's government report added to the picture of a resilient labor market, with low unemployment, relatively few layoffs and many job openings even as most economists foresee a recession nearing. Though good for workers, employers'... Читать дальше...

The northeastern region of the U.S. is experiencing an Artic blast and the frigid temperatures are expected to last into Saturday.   The National Weather Service said numerous low temperature records could be set in the New England area.   Weather forecasters predict the temperature Saturday in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, could get as low as 23 degrees below zero Celsius, which would set a new low record for the date.   Meteorologists are predicting 21 degrees below zero Celsius for Boston... Читать дальше...

Cameroon says separatists have killed and abducted villagers in the troubled South-West region in retaliation after the military this week killed a rebel leader and three of his men. The military blamed the self-declared general, nicknamed Transporter, for several atrocities, which the rebels deny. Videos of improvised bombs exploding was shared on social media platforms, including Facebook and WhatsApp, by Cameroon separatist groups. The separatists have been fighting since 2017 to carve out... Читать дальше...

The downfall of a convicted mafia killer, on the run since 2006, came about in a French pizza parlor. Edgardo Greco was so confident in his alias as Paolo Dimitrio that he felt free to do an interview with a local Saint-Etienne newspaper in 2021 and even allowed the paper to take and publish a photograph of him. Greco’s interview about the wonderful Italian cooking at his restaurant in the French newspaper was the beginning of the end for him. The 63-year-old mobster, alleged to be a member of the infamous ‘Ndrangheta organized crime mob... Читать дальше...

Australia's drugs watchdog on Friday announced that psychedelic substances MDMA and psilocybin -- more commonly known as ecstasy and magic mushrooms -- will soon be used in the treatment of depression and post-traumatic stress. Psychiatrists will be able to prescribe the two substances from July, the Therapeutic Goods Administration said after finding "sufficient evidence for potential benefits in certain patients." The two drugs are currently "prohibited substances" and can only be used in closely controlled clinical trials. Читать дальше...

A disgraced former South Korean politician, Cho Kuk, was sentenced to two years in prison Friday for forging documents to facilitate his children's school admissions in a scandal that has deepened political divides and frustrated many young voters. A star law professor, Cho was a key aide to former President Moon Jae-in and briefly served as a justice minister before resigning and being indicted on a dozen charges, including bribery and document fraud, in late 2019. The Seoul Central District... Читать дальше...

Pope Francis has arrived in South Sudan on his first trip to the world’s youngest country joined by the head of the Church of England and the Church of Scotland Moderator on a pilgrimage of peace. The pope arrived just a day after a regional official said 27 people were killed in communal violence. Pope Francis was received by top South Sudanese officials before heading to the residence of President Salva Kiir.  The 86-year-old leader of nearly 1.4 billion Catholics will meet with South Sudan’s... Читать дальше...

Liu Shihui, a human rights lawyer in California who grew up in Xishan Village in Inner Mongolia, learned of the dire situation in neighboring villages from his family when he called on January 23 with Lunar New Year greetings. “In previous winters, it was normal if one or two or three or five people died," he told VOA Mandarin. "This wave of epidemics killed more than 20 people in about a month in the neighboring village. It is quite alarming.” Jie Lijian, a human rights activist who also lives in California where he works in shipping... Читать дальше...

Myanmar’s youth have played a leading role in protesting and resisting the military coup of February 2021. In the Saffron Revolution of 2007, named after the color of the robes of the Buddhist monks who played a large part in the protests, youth participation lasted only for a short time before the movement was brutally quashed. This time, young people have kept involved in the anti-coup movement, continuing the resistance for two years. VOA’s Ingyin Naing interviewed Sithu Maung, one of Myanmar’s... Читать дальше...

The president of Taiwan's Legislative Yuan is calling China’s response to the possibility of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s visiting Taiwan “excessive,” saying that exchanges between Taiwan's unicameral legislature and the legislatures of the United States, Europe, Japan and other countries are the norm in democracies. Washington's Punchbowl News, which specializes in political news, reported on Jan. 23, citing officials familiar with the matter, that the Pentagon was making... Читать дальше...

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte has put forward a new bill to bring elections forward to 2023 in a bid to calm protests around the country as a fractured Congress has repeatedly failed to come to an agreement after weeks of political infighting. The bill, seen by Reuters, proposes holding congressional and presidential elections in October this year with elected officials taking power in late December. Elected officials would serve a five-year term until July 2028. The Andean country is in the... Читать дальше...

Will President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union speech be a rerun of the first, or will he cover new ground? Analysts lay out what they expect to hear from him. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington.

Chinese investments in commercial ports and other infrastructure around the world could pave the way for the expansion of its military footprint, U.S. analysts warned at a recent event in Washington. Chinese firms own or operate nearly 100 ocean ports in foreign jurisdictions, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted in a written statement provided to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Chinese navy warships have docked at more than one-third of these facilities, Isaac B. Читать дальше...