Новости за 16.06.2023

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat will visit Tehran, the latest step in the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two Mideast rivals, according to a statement from Iran on Friday.  The statement said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan would meet his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, on Saturday. Prince Faisal is also expected to officially inaugurate the kingdom's embassy in Tehran.  Each nation resumed the work of its diplomatic mission in the other country in recent weeks. Читать дальше...

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

The United Nations refugee agency has pledged its support of Malawi's move to resettle more than 50,000 refugees and asylum-seekers currently living at the overcrowded Dzaleka refugee camp in the central part of the country. Last week, Malawi’s government announced it had secured a new site in the northern part of the country to help reduce the number refugees at the Dzaleka camp, which was originally designed to accommodate 12,000 people. UNHCR Regional Director for Southern Africa Valentin Tapsoba... Читать дальше...

Extremist rebels killed at least seven farmers in northeast Nigeria, an attack that further threatens food security in the hard-hit region, local authorities told The Associated Press on Friday. The militants attacked the farmers on Thursday as they worked on their crop fields near Borno state's Molai area, the authorities said. Security forces deployed to the scene “were met with a horrifying sight; some victims had their throats slit while others were completely beheaded,” said Abudulmumeen Bulama... Читать дальше...

Cameroon has prohibited the broadcast of television programs that it says propagate homosexuality in the central African state. Joseph Chebongkeng Kalabubse, president of Cameroon's National Communication Council, which regulates media in the country, said this week media organizations that broadcast programs linked to homosexuality will be severely punished. "The National Communication Council can suspend a media outlet for promoting values that go contrary to our cultural practices and also the laws of our republic," Kalabubse said. Читать дальше...

NATO launched a new center Friday for protecting undersea pipelines and cables following the still-unsolved apparent attack on the Nord Stream pipelines and amid concern Russia is mapping vital Western infrastructure for energy and the internet in waters around Europe. "The threat is developing," Lt. Gen. Hans-Werner Wiermann, who heads a special cell focused on the challenge, said after NATO defense ministers gave the greenlight for the new center, located in Northwood, northwest London. "Russian... Читать дальше...

Pakistan is facing a debt crisis. It must pay billions in debt servicing, but the state's coffers are almost empty. At the same time, hopes of reviving a stalled 2019 International Monetary Fund bailout program are fading. Is Pakistan just days away from a default? VOA’s Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman reports from Islamabad. Camera/Edit: Naveed Nasim, Wajid Asad, Malik Waqar Ahmed

The expiration of COVID-19 restrictions means that Seattle Colleges’ international students, who'd been permitted to take fully online classes from either their home countries or their U.S. residences, have to go back to the classroom. And that, the student newspaper notes, is a problem. "This might leave international students in hot water because some classes are still only offered online, so they cannot enroll in classes they are required to take for their programs of study," The Seattle Collegian reports. Читать дальше...

After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, tens of thousands of girls were banned from attending school beyond sixth grade. Many found a way to continue their studies through informal tutoring centers, but those too have come under increased scrutiny as the government continues to crack down on women and girls’ access to education, according to The Hechinger Report. As a group of girls in Kabul have been grappling with all this, they’ve formed a connection with some other teens half a world away in California. Читать дальше...

Researchers have been exploring the presence of cancer in animals from elephants to mollusks to learn about cancer in wild animals. They also hope their research will help with human cancers. “Studying wildlife cancer, and more generally the evolution of cancer across the tree of life, is extremely promising to develop innovative therapies to treat cancer in humans,” Mathieu Giraudeau, a researcher at France’s La Rochelle University who has been focusing on cancer in wild animals since 2018, told VOA. Читать дальше...

Multi-platinum-selling band Finger Eleven’s “Greatest Hits” CD is out today, June 16 and the vinyl edition will be out in August.  The Greatest Hits highlights the group’s diverse range with fan favorites, including multi-platinum hit “Paralyzer” and Juno-nominated “One Thing,” plus chart-toppers like “Falling On” and “Living in a Dream.” As a bonus, the 12-track set also offers a previously-unreleased cover of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine” (a longtime live staple) as well as “Together Right.”

Nine people have been arrested in Greece in connection with the sinking of a boat off that country’s southern coast Wednesday that killed 78 people.  The suspects are being held on allegations of people smuggling and participating in a criminal enterprise. While 104 people were rescued, the trawler, which capsized and sank, was believed to have carried as many as 750 people, according to the International Organization for Migration, the U.N. migration agency. The Associated Press reports that 27 of those rescued remain hospitalized. Читать дальше...

Pope Francis has left a hospital in Rome, where he underwent an operation for a hernia more than a week ago.  Francis left the Gemelli Hospital in a wheelchair.  When asked by well-wishers how he felt, the pope said, “Still alive.”  When he arrived at the Vatican Friday, he got out of his car to individually thank members of his Italian police escort.  The 86-year-old pontiff has suffered a number of maladies since his election, including hip problems, knee pain, weight gain, an inflamed colon and respiratory infection. Читать дальше...

Cyclone Biparjoy knocked out power, uprooted trees and electrical poles and tossed about shipping containers Friday as it ravaged India’s western Indian coastline.   Biparjoy’s destruction has caused almost 200,000 people in western India and southern Pakistan to leave their homes and seek shelter from the further devastation that’s sure to come.   Pakistan’s Sindh province, ravaged by floods last year, will be hit again by more fallout in the days ahead by Biparyjoy’s drenching rains, according to weather forecasters. Читать дальше...

Canadian officials said Thursday at least 15 people were killed when a semitrailer truck collided w ith a small bus carrying mainly senior citizens to a casino in the Canadian province of Manitoba.Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Rob Hill said there were about 25 people aboard the bus. Ten people have been hospitalized, authorities said. The Associated Press reports that the drivers of both vehicles survived the crash and are in the hospital. “The news from Carberry... Читать дальше...

The first large-scale battery to be built at an Australian coal site has been switched on in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, east of Melbourne. The 150-megawatt battery is at the site of the former Hazelwood power station in the southern Australian state of Victoria. The station was built in the 1960s and closed in 2017. The new battery was officially opened Wednesday and has the ability to power about 75,000 homes for an hour during the evening peak. The decommissioned coal plant produced 10 times more electricity... Читать дальше...

After weeks of underwater scouring, South Korea’s military Thursday recovered a sizable chunk of a North Korean rocket that failed to send a spy satellite into orbit 15 days earlier. The 12-meter-long, 2.5-meter-wide cylindrical object, believed to be the second stage of the three-stage rocket, was pulled up from the seabed. It was salvaged from a depth of 75 meters, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, some 200 kilometers from an island off the west coast. Dozens of deep-sea divers, as well as ships and aircraft... Читать дальше...

Images of Lamborghini taxis, a beach along the Kowloon side of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor and red double-decker buses with airplane wings, a signature of Britain’s onetime ruling presence. These visions may be beyond the imagination of ordinary Hong Kongers, but for Tommy Fung, a photo editor made famous by the internet, the surreal images reflect his creativity. Fung manipulates photographs he has taken and almost all of his works carry his signature “SurrealHK” somewhere, such as on a taxi license plate or store sign. Читать дальше...

The U.S. Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed civil rights lawyer Nusrat Choudhury to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, making her the first Bangladeshi-American and female Muslim federal judge in the United States. Choudhury, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois, was confirmed on a 50-49 vote. She will also be the first Bangladeshi-American federal judge. Choudhury previously spent most of her professional career with the national ACLU... Читать дальше...

Ahead of International Day of the African Child on June 16, rights groups and officials in Cameroon are distributing birth certificates to 30,000 of several million children denied education for lack of the document. A majority of the children without birth registration are from western regions and Cameroon's northern border with Nigeria where separatist and Boko Haram conflicts have displaced several million people. The Cameroon government says thousands of children have been visiting district... Читать дальше...

U.S. security officials say the U.S. Energy Department and several other federal agencies have been hacked by a Russian cyber-extortion gang. Homeland Security officials said Thursday the agencies were caught up in the hacking of MOVEit  Transfer, a file-transfer program that is popular with governments and corporations. The Energy Department said two of its entities were “compromised” in the hack. The Russia-linked extortion group CI0p, which claimed responsibility for the hacking, said last... Читать дальше...

Thousands of Sudanese continue to flee the war in their country every day, with many making the long trek south to Kenya. While a fortunate few have friends willing to help them, most of the new refugees are forced to live at the Dadaab refugee complex. While the burden is heavy, analysts say it is in Kenya’s interest to help the new refugees, and make an effort to end the war in Sudan. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi.

The U.N. children's agency said it was holding discussions with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban over "timelines and practicalities" for a possible required handover of its education programs and that classes would continue in the meantime. Aid officials say that the Taliban had signaled international organizations could no longer be involved in education projects, in a move criticized by the U.N. but not yet confirmed by Afghan authorities. UNICEF said it had received assurances from the education ministry that its community-based classes... Читать дальше...

All state-funded colleges and universities in Texas will have to close their diversity, equity and inclusion offices under a measure signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The law, which one of its sponsors in the Texas state Senate called the most significant ban on diversity offices in higher education in the country, comes as the U.S. Supreme Court later this month is widely expected to ban colleges and universities from considering race as a factor in their admissions decisions. Under the Texas law... Читать дальше...

Greece has released more information about this week's migrant boat tragedy; Finland’s accession to NATO changes the dynamic in the region; and a look at the relationship between Israel and China. Plus a look at the upcoming meeting between President Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.