Новости за 07.04.2023

Ghana has deployed 1,000 special forces to its northern border with Burkina Faso after gunmen this week shot at immigration officers in a border town, killing one. The attack has sparked fears that Islamist militants in Burkina Faso are stirring unrest to expand in the region. The 40-year-old ethnic conflict between the Mamprusi and Kusasi people over a chieftaincy seat in Bawku — an hour drive from Burkina Faso's border with Ghana — has escalated into a war, reportedly involving foreign combatants... Читать дальше...

Activists in Uganda are welcoming the rare prosecution of a government minister on corruption charges but are skeptical that other high-level officials will be charged in the scandal.  Karamoja Affairs Minister Mary Goretti Kitutu was charged Thursday with fraud and causing loss of public property in the theft of thousands of metal roofing sheets meant for poor residents in her community. She will remain in jail over the holiday weekend and was expected to remain in custody until her next court appearance Wednesday. Читать дальше...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Friday that he was not required to disclose the many trips he and his wife took that were paid for by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow.  Describing Crow and his wife, Kathy, as "among our dearest friends," Thomas said in a statement that he was advised by colleagues on the nation's highest court and others in the federal judiciary that "this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the court, was not reportable."... Читать дальше...

India's federal government asked states to identify emergency hotspots and ramp up testing for COVID-19 after the country recorded its highest daily case count since September, a Reuters tally showed on Friday. There were 6,050 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the federal Health Ministry said on Friday, continuing a sharp upward trend since a lull last year. At a meeting to review the degree to which the states are prepared, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya asked them to ramp up genome... Читать дальше...

Pakistan announced Friday its intelligence operatives had captured a "hardcore" separatist militant commander plotting terrorist attacks in southwestern Baluchistan province. An army statement identified the detainee as Gulzar Imam, also known as Shambay, saying he is the founder and leader of the so-called Baluch National Army or BNA. The banned group has been blamed for dozens of terrorist attacks targeting Pakistani security forces and civilians. The statement hailed Imam's arrest as a "serious... Читать дальше...

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

Health care workers in Zimbabwe have condemned the government's plan to criminalize their recruitment to work in other countries as part of efforts to reduce a medical brain drain.  Zimbabwe's vice president and health minister, Constantino Chiwenga, said the country will introduce a law to make it illegal for foreign nations to hire their health care workers.  Zimbabwe’s Association of Doctors for Human Rights says any attempt to prevent health care workers from leaving the country for better jobs would be illegal. Читать дальше...

More than 60 asylum-seeking members of a Chinese Christian church who were detained last week in Thailand are en route to the United States, a religious freedom advocate who has been helping them said Friday. A colonel in Thailand's police immigration division confirmed that the group left Thailand on Thursday night. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not his agency's spokesperson. Thai police on Wednesday said the 63 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, also known as the Mayflower Church... Читать дальше...

As the U.S. presses for Moscow to release detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich, Russian state media are pushing the official narrative that he is a spy. Gershkovich, a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, was detained in the eastern city of Yekaterinburg on March 29 and accused of espionage. He was formally charged with spying on Friday, according to Russian news agencies. Gershkovich, his lawyers and his employer deny the charges. But Russian audiences are being presented with... Читать дальше...

Food insecurity is a growing problem in America, with senior citizens particularly at risk. As VOA’s Ariadne Budianto reports, some in the Washington area’s Muslim community are responding by providing halal meals to those in need, regardless of religious affiliation. Videographer: Ariadne Budianto, Karlina Amkas

As Muslims in Tanzania observe the month of Ramadan, they are facing increased food prices and uncertainty of supplies. Charles Kombe spoke to residents in Dar es Salaam and has this story.

Celebrations marking World Health Day are taking place in the shadow of the coronavirus that has sickened more than 762 million people around the world and killed more than 6.8 million.  “For the past three years, [the World Health Organization] has coordinated the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the most severe health crisis in a century,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general. “And as COVID-19 has exposed so brutally, there remain serious gaps in the world’s defenses against epidemics and pandemics. Читать дальше...

An Iranian court has ordered the execution of a man accused of killing seven people during nationwide protests last year, the judiciary said Friday. Abbas Kurkuri was accused of using a military weapon to fatally shoot seven people in Izeh, in Khuzestan province, in November, and charged with the capital crimes of "moharebeh," or "war against God" and "corruption on earth," the judiciary's Mizan Online news website reported. The Islamic republic witnessed several months of civil unrest following... Читать дальше...

The Micronesian Congress has reaffirmed the Federated States of Micronesia’s diplomatic ties with China after outgoing President David Panuelo had urged a switch to Taiwan.   In a letter to Micronesia’s Congress in March, Panuelo accused Beijing of waging “political warfare” in his country and bribing his government’s officials. On recent trip to Fiji, the Micronesian president alleged he was followed by Chinese agents.  His claims are being investigated by Fijian authorities. Earlier this week... Читать дальше...

From the rows of massage parlors, pulsing night clubs and rowdy bars of Thailand’s gaudy red-light districts, the country’s billion-dollar sex trade operates all but in the open. Technically, the sex they sell is illegal, but a new government-led plan aims to change that. It calls for repealing the 1996 Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, which makes most sex work a crime, and replacing it with a new law, the Protection of Sex Work Act, affirming the rights of sex workers and their places of business to sell sex. Читать дальше...

Tensions brewing in region since clash at Al-Aqsa Mosque

On a Monday afternoon the streets of Rainawari neighborhood of Srinagar on the Indian side of Kashmir were soaked by heavy rainfall. Despite weather forecasts predicting a downpour, Khair Ullah Mughal and his brother Habeeb Ullah Mughal set out from their ancestral three-story house in the middle of the overcast night. Khair, 60, carried the drum on his shoulder, beating it all along the way through various areas of Rainawari, shouting “time for Suhoor.” However, Habeeb, 57, carried a long stick... Читать дальше...

Republican lawmakers in the Southern U.S. state of Tennessee made the rare move of expelling two Democratic lawmakers Thursday from the state legislature because they participated in a protest last week at the State Capitol calling for more gun control, following the recent deadly school shooting in Nashville that killed three adults and three 9-year-old students. A third lawmaker avoided the ouster by one vote. “We called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy,” Justin Jones... Читать дальше...

Japan’s Coast Guard is continuing search and rescue operations Friday for the Japanese military helicopter that disappeared from radar Thursday off the nation’s southwest islands near Taiwan.  Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, apparently struggling to hold back tears, said none of the aircraft’s missing crew members have been found, according to The Associated Press. Yasunori Morishita, head of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force, said at a news conference Thursday that the Black Hawk helicopter... Читать дальше...

Nigeria has secured an $800 million relief package from the World Bank to help cushion the impact of a plan to remove in June a long-held fuel subsidy.  Nigeria's finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, on Wednesday said the money would be disbursed to 10 million households as cash. She said authorities would also develop a mass transit system to ease the cost of daily commutes.  Ahmed made the announcement to journalists at the state house after a weekly Cabinet meeting with officials. She said the... Читать дальше...

A new report by researchers from Johns Hopkins University is giving China better than expected marks for its performance in helping to restructure the crippling debt loads carried by some African countries. The report is based on a detailed evaluation of Beijing's participation in the Debt Service Suspension Initiative, or DSSI, an international vehicle for developed nations to support struggling countries like Angola and Zambia. The DSSI was introduced in 2020 at the start of the global pandemic... Читать дальше...

Two people died and almost 900,000 were without power on Thursday after an ice storm hit Canada's two most populated provinces ahead of a holiday weekend, bringing freezing rain and strong winds that toppled trees and weighed down power lines. Almost 800,000 people in Quebec and more than 86,000 in Ontario did not have power as of 7 p.m. CDT, according to Poweroutage.com. Outages combined for both provinces had crossed at least 1.3 million earlier in the day. The two provinces account for more... Читать дальше...

The head of Sudan's army said on Thursday he remained committed to a plan for a new transition toward elections, despite disputes over the integration of a paramilitary force that have twice delayed the signing of a final deal. The agreement, which provides for the formation of a civilian government and is strongly supported by the international community, is meant to end the political vacuum that followed the October 2021 coup. But the signing was postponed for a second time late on Wednesday... Читать дальше...

Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria have handed over four women and 10 children to a Canadian delegation for their repatriation, a Kurdish official said. Western governments have faced mounting criticism for not taking back more of their citizens who traveled to Iraq and Syria to volunteer for the Islamic State group, and the Canadian government was successfully sued. Thousands of foreign women and children remain in overcrowded displaced-persons camps in Kurdish-administered northeastern Syria... Читать дальше...

The World Health Organization said Thursday that it was sure China had far more data that could shed light on the origins of COVID-19, demanding that Beijing immediately share all relevant information. "Without full access to the information that China has ... all hypotheses are on the table," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva. "That's why we have been asking China to be cooperative on this," he said, insisting that if Beijing does provide the missing data, "we will know what... Читать дальше...