Новости за 06.03.2023

The United Nations secretary-general warned Monday at the start of a major women’s conference that at the current pace, gender equality is projected to be 300 years away. “Progress won over decades is vanishing before our eyes,” Antonio Guterres said at the start of the Commission on the Status of Women. The CSW, as it is known, is expected to draw more than 4,000 government ministers, diplomats and civil society members for the annual two-week-long gathering to discuss how to improve the lives of women around the world. Читать дальше...

Twitter users reported a string of problems with the social media site on Monday, including broken links and images not loading. The company's tech support account said in a tweet, "Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now. We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We're working on this now and will share an update when it's fixed." Twitter's billionaire owner, Elon Musk, tweeted Monday: "This platform is so brittle (sigh). Will be fixed shortly."... Читать дальше...

The director of a hospital in Las Anod, a disputed border town in Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland, says about 200 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded in weeks of intense fighting. For about a month now, the Somaliland army has been fighting with clan militias for control of Las Anod. Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia three decades ago, has controlled the town since 2008, but the local clans support Somalia's federal government and wish to be governed by it.  Despite... Читать дальше...

U.S. lawmakers will take an important step towards repealing a decades-old authorization of presidential war powers this week, as an effort to reassert Congress' authority appears to have growing support. "Both Democrats and Republicans have come to the same conclusion: we need to put the Iraq war squarely behind us once and for all. And doing that means we should extinguish the legal authority that initiated the war to begin with," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor last week, praising the bipartisan effort. Читать дальше...

In 2012, UNESCO, the U.N. body tasked with promoting arts and culture, identified the traditional xylophone known as the balafon as an important part of humanity’s cultural heritage. Today, in Ivory Coast, informal workshops with students are underway to promote the instrument and highlight its African origins. Alain Amontchi looks at this unique instrument in this story narrated by Salem Solomon. Video editor: Betty Ayoub.

Hundreds of supporters of Nigeria's opposition People's Democratic Party chanted as they marched to the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, on Monday to protest the official results of the recent presidential election. The demonstration, led by presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and other party officials, was organized to protest last week's declaration of ruling party candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential polls. Читать дальше...

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

A report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council Monday accuses Afghanistan’s de facto Taliban rulers of pursuing a policy “tantamount to gender apartheid." Richard Bennett, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, told the council that “the Taliban’s intentional and calculated policy is to repudiate the human rights of women and girls and to erase them from public life.” “It may amount to the crime of gender persecution, for which the authorities can be held accountable.”... Читать дальше...

A military court in Cameroon over the weekend charged a media mogul, a military officer, and a police commissioner with complicity in the January torture and killing of journalist Martinez Zogo. Cameroon laws state that crimes involving the use of weapons especially guns can be handled by a military court. Cameroon President Paul Biya also ordered the military court to carry out the investigation into Zogo's death which led to media owner Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, a police boss, and several officers being detained last month. Читать дальше...

Turkey's right wing IYI Party has proposed that the mayors of Ankara and Istanbul serve as vice presidents if the opposition wins the May election, a spokesperson said Monday, after the party left the main opposition alliance last week. The suggestion could pave the way for IYI to return to the bloc. IYI, which was the second-biggest party in the alliance of six parties, exited the group last week after its leader Meral Aksener rejected the expected nomination of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the... Читать дальше...

The U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria acknowledged in a statement Sunday that following the African nation’s recent election, “there are many angry and frustrated Nigerians as well as many who are celebrating victories.”  Mary Beth Leonard urged that “the legally established process for resolving challenges to the election be allowed to take its course.”  “As much as it can be unsatisfying to end an electoral process in a courtroom, in a constitutional democracy bound by the rule of law, “Leonard said... Читать дальше...

Country pop singer-songwriter Casi Joy released her new single, “Under The Hood,” in January  via her label Vere Music / ADA. The new single will be the title track to a full-length LP set to be released later in 2023. Country pop singer-songwriter Casi Joy released her new single, “Under The Hood,” in January  via her label Vere Music / ADA. The new single will be the title track to a full-length LP set to be released later in 2023.

Four American citizens were shot at and kidnapped by armed men after driving across the U.S. border into northeastern Mexico, the FBI said Sunday. The Americans crossed into Matamoros, in Tamaulipas state, on Friday, driving a white minivan with North Carolina license plates, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.  "Shortly after crossing into Mexico, unidentified gunmen fired upon the passengers in the [minivan]. All four Americans... Читать дальше...

Pakistan has imposed a complete ban on the broadcasting of speeches and news conferences by populist former prime minister Imran Khan, and swiftly suspended a mainstream satellite television channel for defying the order. The curbs, slapped on late Sunday, were swiftly condemned by critics as an assault on the country's freedom of speech and independent media, demanding the government remove them. The state-run Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority ordered all satellite television... Читать дальше...

The United Nations announced Monday that it had taken a significant step towards trying to fill a key gap in the fight against climate change: standardized, real-time tracking of greenhouse gases. The U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization has come up with a new Global Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Infrastructure that aims to provide better ways of measuring planet-warming pollution and help inform policy choices. The WMO's new platform will integrate space-based and surface-based observing systems... Читать дальше...

Four jihadist prisoners have escaped from a prison in Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital.   The prisoners engaged in gunfire with prison guards during the escape Sunday night, killing two of the guards and wounding two, according to the Interior Ministry.   "The National Guard has tightened its control over the prison and immediately started tracking down the fugitives in order to arrest them as soon as possible," the ministry said in a statement Monday. Two of the prisoners had been sentenced... Читать дальше...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Monday described a series of suspected poisonings at girls’ schools as an “unforgiveable crime.”  According to the state-run IRNA news agency, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said if authorities determine there were deliberate poisonings, “those behind this crime should be sentenced to capital punishment and there will be no amnesty for them.”  Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi ordered an investigation last week into the illnesses among schoolgirls at more than 30 schools dating back to November. Читать дальше...

Australian Air Force chiefs have revealed that pilots are being offered counseling after they encounter Chinese military jets over the South China Sea.  Under Operation Gateway, Australia carries out maritime surveillance patrols in the North Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.    Most patrols are routine, but some have caused alarm. In May 2022, a Royal Australian Air Force surveillance plane was intercepted by a Chinese military aircraft which released aluminum chaff, that was ingested into the engine of the Australian plane. Читать дальше...

Authorities in southwestern Pakistan said Monday a suicide bombing of a truck transporting police personnel had killed at least nine and wounded 13 others.    The early morning deadly attack occurred in Sibi, a central district in the province of Baluchistan.     No group immediately claimed responsibility for the violence in the natural resources-rich Pakistani province, where insurgents routinely target security forces.     Mehmood Notenzai, the district police chief, told reporters the truck was heading to Quetta... Читать дальше...

India's Supreme Court has dismissed a Hindu nationalist leader's petition to rename all cities and historical places of the country, which he said had been named after those he called "barbaric foreign invaders" several centuries ago.     In his petition, Ashwini Upadhyay, a lawyer and the leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), sought permission from the court to appoint a "renaming commission" to prepare a list of "ancient (Hindu) historical-cultural religious places" named after the... Читать дальше...

South Korea announced plans Monday to compensate victims of Japan's forced wartime labor, aiming to end a "vicious cycle" in the Asian powers' relations and boost ties to counter the nuclear-armed North.    Japan and the United States immediately welcomed the announcement, but victims' groups said it fell far short of their demand for a full apology from Tokyo and direct compensation from the Japanese companies involved.    Seoul and Tokyo have ramped up security cooperation in the face of growing threats from Kim Jong Un's North Korea... Читать дальше...

Tunisia's president denounced racism on Sunday and pointed to possible legal consequences for perpetrators 10 days after announcing a crackdown on illegal migration using language the African Union condemned as "racialized hate speech."  During a statement on February 21 telling security forces to expel all illegal immigrants, President Kais Saied called migration a conspiracy to change Tunisia's demographics by making it more African and less Arab.  Police detained hundreds of migrants, landlords... Читать дальше...

A special Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced four veteran human rights activists to prison terms up to 15 years for "terrorism," several rights groups said. Mohammed Abu Horayra, a lawyer, received a 15-year sentence, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and other groups. They said his wife, Aisha Khairat al-Shater, the daughter of former Muslim Brotherhood leader Khairat al-Shater, got 10 years in prison. Khairat al-Shater was arrested in a crackdown on the now-outlawed... Читать дальше...

"Creed III" punched above its weight at the domestic box office in its first weekend in theaters. The MGM release knocked "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" out of first place and far surpassed both industry expectations and the opening weekends of the first two movies in the franchise. Playing in 4,007 locations in North America, "Creed III" earned an estimated $58.7 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Going into the weekend, analysts expected the film to open in the $30 million range. Читать дальше...

Industrial action in France over the government's planned pensions overhaul will cause heavy disruption to public transport again on Tuesday, the transport minister and several public transport authorities said Sunday. For the sixth time since the start of the year, unions are calling for a nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations, aiming to repeat the large turnout seen on the first major protest Jan. 19 when more than a million people marched against the pension reform. "There will be very... Читать дальше...