Новости за 17.06.2023

Human Rights Watch and other rights organizations have urged U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix to “publicly voice concerns” about rights abuses by Bangladesh's security forces when he visits the south Asian country later this month. Lacroix is set to visit Bangladesh on June 25-26 at the invitation of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as a state guest. In Dhaka, he will attend a conference organized by the ministry. Bruno Stagno Ugarte, the chief advocacy officer at HRW... Читать дальше...

A rapid collapse of state institutions may await Somalia when the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, or ATMIS, ends at the end of 2024, unless the United Nations' weapons embargo on the country is lifted, security experts warn.     Somali authorities and African Union officials said this week that ATMIS will draw down 2,000 soldiers by June 30 of this year to pave the way for the complete withdrawal of the African Union Mission in Somalia that started in 2007 with the African Union Mission to Somalia... Читать дальше...

The collapsed stretch of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia will reopen within two weeks, Pennsylvania's governor said Saturday, after joining U.S. President Joe Biden on a helicopter tour over the critical stretch of highway closed to East Coast traffic since last weekend.   “We are getting it done here in Philly,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a briefing at Philadelphia International Airport after the flyover that included members of Congress and the city's mayor.   Biden outlined the substantial... Читать дальше...

A Tunisian judge has barred radio and television news programs from covering the cases of prominent opposition figures accused of conspiring against state security in recent months, official news agency TAP said Saturday. The order fuels concerns over rights in Tunisia since President Kais Saied seized extra powers in 2021, moving to rule by decree and then assume authority over the judiciary. "The investigating judge of office 36 of the anti-terrorism branch issues a decision banning media coverage... Читать дальше...

King Charles III rode on horseback Saturday to take part in his first Trooping the Color ceremony as U.K. monarch, inspecting hundreds of soldiers and horses in a spectacular annual military display at central London's Horse Guards Parade. Charles, 74, the colonel in chief, received the royal salute and watched as the most prestigious regiments in the U.K. army paraded to mark his official birthday. It was the first time in more than 30 years that a U.K. monarch has taken part in the pomp-filled ceremony on horseback. Читать дальше...

An airstrike in Sudan’s capital Khartoum Saturday killed at least 17 people, including five children, health officials said, as fighting continued between rival generals seeking to control the country.  The attack was one of the deadliest of the clashes in urban areas of Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan between the military and a powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.  It was not clear whether the attack was by aircraft or a drone. The military’s aircraft have repeatedly targeted RSF troops... Читать дальше...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he supports South Korea's efforts to develop a "healthy and mature" cooperative relationship with China, South Korea's foreign ministry said Saturday.  Blinken, who arrives in Beijing on Sunday for the highest-level visit by an official of U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, discussed bilateral relations, relations between China and South Korea, and North Korea in a call with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, the ministry said Saturday in a statement. Читать дальше...

Cyclone Biparjoy knocked out power, uprooted trees and electrical poles, and tossed shipping containers around this week as it ravaged India’s western coastline.  Biparjoy means “calamity” in Bengali, and that is what it brought to India’s Gujarat state.    Brij Chauhan, a resident who returned home to Biparjoy’s aftermath, told Reuters, “Everything has blown away.”  About 100,000 people were evacuated before the cyclone made landfall.  Weather forecasters had warned that the devastation would be thorough. Читать дальше...

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan arrived in Iran Saturday amid a rapprochement between the two Middle East arch, Iranian state TV said.  Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed in March, in a deal brokered by China, to end a diplomatic rift and reestablish relations following years of hostility that had endangered regional stability including in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.  Iran officially reopened its embassy in Saudi Arabia on June 7.  The kingdom broke ties with Iran in 2016 after... Читать дальше...

Twelve Pakistanis were among survivors from a boat packed with migrants that capsized off the coast of Greece this week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Saturday. Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the government was unable so far to verify the number of Pakistanis who died, or their identities. People seeking missing relatives were urged to share with the ministry identity documents and DNA reports from authenticated laboratories, she said. The death toll in Wednesday's disaster... Читать дальше...

Malian Foreign Affairs Minister Abdoulaye Diop on Friday called for the immediate withdrawal of the United Nations peacekeeping mission from his country. Diop told the U.N. Security Council Mali wanted the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, or MINUSMA, the U.N. force in Mali, removed “without delay.” "Minusma seems to have become part of the problem by fueling community tensions exacerbated by extremely serious allegations which are highly detrimental to peace, reconciliation... Читать дальше...

Ugandan security officials say suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group killed 41 students and left eight injured late Friday night at the Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe, in western Uganda’s Kasese district, near the Congo border.    According to Ugandan security and district officials, other locals in the region  were also killed. The rebels torched two dormitories in the school and looted a food store during the attack.  Muhindi Bukonjo Eriphazi, the district chairman... Читать дальше...

New harmful illicit drugs are inundating a flourishing market for traffickers amid violence and corruption hurting local communities across Europe, the EU's agency monitoring drugs and addiction said Friday. The grim finding was part of the agency's annual report. It also said that drug users in Europe are now exposed to a wider range of substances of high purity as drug trafficking and use across the region have quickly returned to pre-COVID 19 pandemic levels. Cannabis remains the most-used illicit substance in Europe... Читать дальше...

High court's emergency docket accounts for a big part of its work

The current term of the U.S. Supreme Court is winding to a close, and in the next two weeks the justices are expected to issue nearly 20 opinions, some of them in cases guaranteed to stir controversy regardless of how the court rules. Cases as yet undecided include a challenge to affirmative action in college admissions, a case that will determine whether a designer of wedding websites is allowed to decline to serve a gay couple, a challenge to President Joe Biden’s decision to grant student debt relief to thousands of Americans... Читать дальше...

China is sending more ships to Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and the frequency and length of those trips, which have picked up since early May, is raising tensions in the South China Sea. After a nearly monthlong incursion of a survey ship and its large entourage, more Chinese vessels are sailing through sensitive locations within Vietnamese waters. Vietnam’s EEZ extends out 200 nautical miles from the country's coast. The presence of Chinese research, coast guard and civilian ships in these waters... Читать дальше...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Washington on Friday night for China. The trip, which was postponed after an incident in February over a suspected Chinese spy balloon, is being closely watched on Capitol Hill. Blinken is expected to focus on the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the two countries and discussing regional security issues, climate change and the global economy. State Department officials also said the issue of illegal fentanyl trafficking to the... Читать дальше...

The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf have long battled in court over competing claims affecting men’s professional golf. But in a surprise move last week, the groups announced they would merge commercially. Some U.S. senators are alarmed. VOA’s Laurel Bowman reports.

Those who would deliver humanitarian aid to Haiti need to take into account the influence of heavily armed gangs who control large parts of the country, the president of a regional bloc said ahead of planned talks with the European Union next month.  "If anybody wants to deliver humanitarian assistance to Haiti, they have to come to terms with the gangs," Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and current president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), said in an interview. Читать дальше...

The U.S. Department of Energy got ransom requests from the Russia-linked extortion group Clop at both its nuclear waste facility and the scientific education facilities that were recently hit in a global hacking campaign, a spokesperson said Friday.  The DOE contractor Oak Ridge Associated Universities, headquartered in Tennessee, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the New Mexico-based facility for disposal of defense-related radioactive nuclear waste, were hit in the attack, which was first reported Thursday. Читать дальше...

A prominent Sunni Muslim cleric in Iran called Friday for improved women’s rights. Leading Friday prayers in Zahedan, regional capital of Iran’s restive southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, prominent Muslim imam Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi praised the “significant historical role” of Iranian women, calling them “heroes of numerous accomplishments” whose voices government leaders should heed. Long known for his vocal support of Iran’s ultraconservative president, Ebrahim Raisi, Ismaeelzahi's... Читать дальше...

Italy's government said on Friday it had taken steps to limit the influence of Chinese investor Sinochem on tiremaker Pirelli, including a mandatory qualified majority for strategic decisions made by the company's board.  Rome's decision comes after Sinochem, Pirelli's largest shareholder with a 37% stake, notified the Italian government in March of plans to update an existing shareholder pact with Camfin, the holding company of Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera.  Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's... Читать дальше...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected reports Friday that Washington and Tehran were close to deals on limiting Iran's nuclear program and releasing U.S. citizens detained in the country.  "With regard to Iran, some of the reports that we've seen about an agreement on nuclear matters or, for that matter, on detainees, are simply not accurate and not true," Blinken said when asked about indirect talks via Oman.  Iran said Monday it was conducting indirect negotiations with the United States through the Sultanate of Oman... Читать дальше...