Новости за 24.04.2023

A journalist is among four people detained by Myanmar's military this month over social media content related to an airstrike. Kyaw Min Swe was arrested at his home in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, on April 11, but details of the case were kept secret until late last week. Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said the editor was detained shortly after his Facebook profile photo was updated to show a black square in an apparent comment about an airstrike earlier that day on Pazi Gyi, a village in the center of the country. Читать дальше...

A survey of more than 1,000 global education agents from five continents found that there will be a surge in applications this year. However, students’ top concerns vary – Chinese students care most about rankings, while students from the Middle East and Africa worry more about costs. Dive into the research in this report from INTO University Partnerships. (April 2023)

The small town of Frankfort, South Africa, will face renewed power outages after a court ruled against the town’s use of an independent solar electricity producer instead of the national utility, Eskom. Eskom has struggled to keep the lights on across South Africa but threatened to cut off all power to Frankfort when the town sought alternative arrangements. Jan Bornman reports from Frankfort. Camera: Zaheer Cassim

The U.S. on Monday sanctioned four senior Iranian officials it said were responsible for the “brutal suppression” of protests that erupted last year against Tehran’s morality police for the arrest and death of a young woman detained for not properly wearing a hajib. The U.S. also sanctioned a fifth official it said has blocked popular online news sites and spying on journalists and dissidents. The Treasury Department action was the 11th time the U.S. has blacklisted Iranian officials linked to... Читать дальше...

Nigerian authorities say they are working to evacuate some of the 5,000 Nigerians stranded in Sudan amid fighting there. The National Emergency Management Agency, or NEMA, on Monday said authorities have concluded plans to begin evacuating the first group of 3,500 Nigerian students in Sudan, beginning Tuesday morning. The director of special duties at NEMA, Onimode Bandele, told VOA via phone that the plan is for students to be taken by bus to Cairo and then flown to Nigeria. Bandele did not... Читать дальше...

Environmental activists glued themselves to the asphalt in dozens of street blockades across Berlin on Monday to demand the government do more to tackle climate change, an action condemned by Germany's finance minister as "physical violence." "We no longer accept that the government has no plan to stop the destruction of the basis of our existence," Carla Rochel, a spokeswoman for Last Generation, the group behind the protests, said in a statement. The action was swiftly rejected by Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government... Читать дальше...

The European Union called on Kosovo's government and ethnic Serbs to start a "serious dialogue" to bring them back into state institutions after they boycotted local elections to press demands for more autonomy. The boycott underlined that a Western-backed plan verbally agreed to by the Kosovo and Serbian governments in March was not working. It aimed to defuse tensions by granting local Serbs more autonomy with Pristina retaining ultimate authority. "These elections do not offer a long-term... Читать дальше...

French pop superstar, Jain recently shared her highly anticipated first taste of new music "The Fool”. Her much-anticipated new album is imminent - I'd love to keep close about what might be possible and can share music soon!  While the new album draws on artistic influences such as Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks, much of Jain’s music originally blended a myriad of genres such as Arabic percussion, African rhythms, electro, reggae, soul and hip hop.

A majority of U.S. government personnel who were evacuated from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, will arrive in Washington Monday afternoon, an official who has knowledge of the operation but wishes not to be named told VOA. Meanwhile, a senior Pentagon official said the United States is looking for options to help other Americans who wish to leave the embattled central African country. "One of those ways is to potentially make the overland routes out of Sudan potentially more viable," said Chris Maier... Читать дальше...

U.S. President Joe Biden will host South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at the White House Wednesday. The state visit reflects the strength of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, which this year marks its 70th anniversary. But the allies also face unprecedented challenges, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Seoul.

Monday marks the tenth anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,000 people. The tragedy shined a light for all the world to see the horrific working conditions that the garment workers endured. Survivors of the collapse, some of them disabled, came out Monday in Dhaka to place wreaths at the site where so many lives were lost ten years ago. While their lives were changed forever, the factory owners and building owners have... Читать дальше...

As Muslims worldwide welcomed the Eid al-Fitr holiday, photojournalist Hamada Elrasam turned his lens to Cairo where communities sought relief in rituals, festivities, and causes, especially amid the country’s deepening economic crisis. Captions were written in collaboration with Elle Kurancid.

April 24 – April 30, is World Immunization Week. The theme of this year’s observance is “The Big Catch-Up.” The idea is for everyone, especially children, to catch up on the vaccinations they might have missed during the COVID outbreak. The ultimate goal of World Immunization Week, according the World Health Organization, is for more children, adults and their communities to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases, like polio and measles.

Men wearing Burkinabe military uniforms killed approximately 60 people last week in a village in northern Burkina Faso, a local prosecutor said Sunday, citing a police report.   Lamine Kabor said authorities have launched an investigation into the attack in the village of Karma in Yatenga province, near Mali.  The region has experienced an uptick in similar attacks by suspected jihadists.  Some information for this report came from Agence France-Press and Reuters.

Countries are rushing to evacuate their diplomats and citizens from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital as fighting between the two rival factions in the Northeastern African country’s capital continues.   Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United States are among the nations using aircraft and convoys to bring foreign nationals out of Sudan.  More than 420 people have been killed so far and thousands have been injured.  SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Veronica Balderas Sudanese... Читать дальше...

The Australian military will be rapidly transformed to prepare for a possible conflict between China and the United States.    An unclassified version of a major defense review published Monday recommends that Australia buy longer range missiles to counter China’s growing threat to “the global rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific”. The report outlines the biggest shake-up to Australia’s military in decades.              The defense review doesn’t identify China as a direct threat to Australia... Читать дальше...

On the 5th anniversary of the imprisonment of Iranian American citizen Emad Shargi in Evin Prison, the U.S. special envoy for Iran called Sunday for his immediate release.  Robert Malley said Iranian authorities arrested Shargi “on spurious charges” and that Shargi has been “wrongfully detained in Iran’s Evin prison.”  Malley, in his tweet Sunday, also called for Iran to release two other imprisoned Americans.  “We will not stop working until he is released, along with Siamak Namazi and Morad Tahbaz,” Malley said. Читать дальше...

Kenyan police say 47 cult members who were convinced by their minister that they would meet Jesus if they starved themselves have died.   Search teams found 26 bodies in shallow graves Sunday in the coastal town of Malindi, on their minister’s property, increasing the death toll from last week’s discovery.   Paul Makenzie Nthenge, the leader of the Good News International Church, told his members they could meet Jesus if they starved themselves to death and some believed him.   Police received... Читать дальше...

Humanitarian teams are deployed to the region following Sudan’s sudden collapse into warfare. On this year’s Earth Day, a stark reminder of the consequences of a warming planet. Greece is bracing for a record number of visitors and welcoming back Chinese tourists.

"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" continued to rack up coins at the box office, leading ticket sales for the third straight weekend, as the animation hit neared $1 billion after just 18 days in theaters. The weekend's top new release, the horror reboot "Evil Dead Rise" debuted solidly, launching with $23.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. But that was no match for Universal Pictures' "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," which grossed $58.2 million in its third weekend. "The Super Mario Bros. Читать дальше...

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has deployed a team of disaster response experts for Sudan in the region to coordinate the humanitarian response as fighting rocks the country, USAID head Samantha Power said on Sunday. In a statement, Power said the Disaster Assistance Response Team will operate out of Kenya for the initial phase, adding that the experts are working with the international community and partners to identify priority needs and safely deliver humanitarian assistance. Читать дальше...

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his government will begin negotiations with rebel group the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in Tanzania on Tuesday. This is the first time the Ethiopian government has formally said it would negotiate with the OLA, which has been battling the government on and off for decades. "A negotiation with Oneg Shene will start a day after tomorrow in Tanzania," Abiy said on Sunday, using another name for the OLA. OLA spokesman Odaa Tarbii did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Читать дальше...

The first group of Somali nationals who fled the conflict in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum have arrived in Ethiopia, Somali officials said.  Twenty-seven Somalis, including four women have arrived in Ethiopia after crossing at the border town of Metema on Friday, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told VOA Somali.  One of them was former BBC Somali service journalist Abdisalam Hereri, who went to Khartoum on April 5 to attend a memorial for the late legendary Somali singer Mohamed Suleiman Tubeec. Читать дальше...

A Sikh separatist leader accused of reviving a movement for a Sikh homeland was arrested in the north Indian state of Punjab Sunday after being on the run for weeks, authorities said.  Punjab police had launched a hunt for Amritpal Singh — who heads separatist organization Waris Punjab De or “Heirs of Punjab” — in March after hundreds of followers of the self-styled Sikh preacher stormed a police station in Punjab with sticks, swords and guns, demanding the release of a member of their group.  On Sunday... Читать дальше...

Afghanistan's Taliban have pushed back against a leaked American military assessment claiming the Islamic State is using the country to plan and coordinate international terrorist attacks against the United States and its allies. The secret document has reportedly portrayed the threat as a growing security concern. It noted that Afghan soil had become a base for the regional affiliate of the terrorist outfit, known as Islamic State-Khorasan or IS-K to conduct "aspirational plotting" against U.S. Читать дальше...