Новости за 08.07.2023

Six people died after a plane crashed over a Southern California field Saturday morning before bursting into flames. The plane was engulfed in fire along with about one acre of vegetation when deputies arrived. The plane crashed near an airport in the city of Murrieta, California, in southwest Riverside County, located between Los Angeles and San Diego. The flight had originally departed from the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas before crashing into the field, KTLA reported. The plane was a Cessna C550 business jet... Читать дальше...

Pakistan is optimistic Afghanistan's Taliban will effectively combat cross-border terrorism to emulate the kind of cooperation that U.S. President Joe Biden recently hinted at between the de facto Afghan rulers and Washington, a senior diplomat said Saturday. Asif Durrani, Pakistan's special representative on Afghanistan Affairs, told VOA in an exclusive interview that the Taliban government had recently initiated certain moves to address his country's cross-border terror concerns and those of other neighbors, including China. Читать дальше...

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday his country looked forward to cooperating with Switzerland on managing the effects of climate change and receiving an advanced weather warning system from the European country.  Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis and the head of Pakistan’s disaster management authority, Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik, signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Nathia Gali resort, located some 85 kilometers (53 miles) from Islamabad, to cooperate on ways to manage natural disaster risks. Читать дальше...

Iranian officials say four militants stormed an Iranian police station Saturday in restive Sistan and Baluchistan province near the Pakistan border, leaving two security officers dead along with the four attackers.     State television is reporting the attack occurred in Zahedan, a city in one of the country’s poorest provinces. The report quoted the province’s deputy governor, Alireza Marhamati, as saying the attackers used grenades, though he did not provide further details.    Molavi Abdul Hamid Ismaeelzehi... Читать дальше...

Iranian officials say four militants stormed an Iranian police station Saturday in restive Sistan and Baluchistan province near the Pakistan border, leaving two security officers dead along with the four attackers.   State television is reporting the incident occurred in Zahedan, a city in one of the country’s poorest provinces. The report quoted the province’s deputy governor, Alireza Marhamati, as saying the attackers used grenades, though he did not provide further details.    Human rights... Читать дальше...

Two very different films are set to come out on July 21. One is about the development of the world’s first nuclear weapons. The other is about Barbie.  Which one has proved to be contentious on the global stage? Surprisingly, it's not the Oppenheimer biopic.  Instead, the much-anticipated “Barbie” has stoked controversy in both Vietnam and the Philippines this week, with the former banning it outright and the latter considering a similar move.   Over the years, Barbie manufacturer Mattel has... Читать дальше...

In a signal that India-Taiwan economic ties are on the rise, Taipei this week announced it will expand its presence in the country by opening a representative office in Mumbai. While New Delhi has maintained a low profile on political contacts with Taiwan, business ties between the two countries have been expanding in recent years. India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesman, Arindam Bagchi, said Thursday that Taiwan’s plans to open the Mumbai center should be seen in the context of India’s policy... Читать дальше...

At least seven Rohingya refugees were killed in Bangladesh in recent days, as an International Criminal Court prosecutor visited the refugee camps to obtain testimony as part of its genocide investigation against the Myanmar military. Six of the victims were killed Friday. Five of them, all members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a Rohingya insurgent group, were killed in a gunfight with members of the rival Rohingya Solidarity Organization Friday morning. The sixth, Mohammad Sanaullah... Читать дальше...

These are some Native American-related news stories that made headlines this week: Justice Department to bolster support of regional MMIP investigations The U.S. Justice Department has announced a new Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Regional Outreach Program to help prevent or respond to cases of missing and murdered Indigenous men, women and children. DOJ will be sending five attorneys and five coordinators to offices across the U.S. to assist in investigations and promote communication and collaboration between federal... Читать дальше...

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog will meet South Korea's foreign minister and a top nuclear safety official on Saturday as part of a bid to calm fears over Japan's plan to discharge treated radioactive water from its tsunami-hit Fukushima plant. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in South Korea on Friday after wrapping up a trip to Japan, during which the watchdog approved the plan to release wastewater... Читать дальше...

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele stood before tens of thousands of roaring sports fans with a message: I am not a dictator. "They say we live in a dictatorship," Bukele said, but "ask bus passengers, people eating in restaurants, waiters. Ask whomever you want. Here in El Salvador, you can go anywhere and it's totally safe. … Ask them what they think of El Salvador, what they think of our government, what they think of our supposed dictatorship." In the opening ceremonies of the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games... Читать дальше...

TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN - Confidence in the reform agenda of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is at a low ebb in Uzbekistan ahead of an election Sunday in which the incumbent faces no real opposition and is expected to be returned to power with a huge majority. With his limited steps toward greater openness and accountability, Mirziyoyev is still seen as an improvement over his post-Soviet predecessor, the autocratic Islam Karimov. But his 2021 pledge to keep the country “on a democratic path” was followed... Читать дальше...

The U.S. citizenship test is being updated, and some immigrants and advocates worry the changes will hurt test-takers with lower levels of English proficiency. The naturalization test is one of the final steps toward citizenship — a monthslong process that requires legal permanent residency for years before applying. Many are still shaken after former Republican President Donald Trump's administration changed the test in 2020, making it longer and more difficult to pass. Within months, Democratic... Читать дальше...

Iran executed two men Saturday convicted of involvement in an attack in October on a Shi’ite shrine in which at least 13 people were killed. Stated media said the men were hanged early Saturday morning in Shiraz. Iran media reported that the men said during their trial they had been in touch with Islamic State in Afghanistan and helped to organize the assault on the shrine. CCTV footage from the attack on the Shah Cheragh shrine in Shiraz was shown on state TV.  A gunman seen in the footage... Читать дальше...

Mily Trevino-Sauceda was 9 when her mother fell as she worked to move irrigation pipes along rows of potato and alfalfa on an Idaho farm. Mily's 10-year-old brother splashed water over their mother's face and body while her children looked on, scared and crying. Their mother had fainted from the heat and could never again work as fast or as long in the sun. Decades later, the memory remains sharp for Trevino-Sauceda, who says few systemic changes have been made to safeguard farmworkers from extreme heat. Читать дальше...

MEXICO CITY — An explosion and fire destroyed an offshore gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico early Friday, while two workers died, eight more were injured and one was missing, officials said. The state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, said the disaster happened on the Nohoch gas transfer platform that it operates. It said the dead and missing workers were employed by a subcontractor and three of the injured were company employees and five worked for the subcontractor. The company, known as Pemex... Читать дальше...

NEW DELHI - India’s opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, suffered a setback Friday after a high court dismissed his plea to suspend his conviction in a criminal defamation case. The order by the Gujarat High Court means that Gandhi remains ineligible to run in next year’s national elections in which his Congress Party is the main challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Gandhi was expelled from Parliament in March after he was sentenced to two years in jail in connection... Читать дальше...

Cambodia’s seventh national election takes place July 23. Eighteen political parties are registered for the vote to elect members to the National Assembly. Because 17 have little funding and few followers, the ruling Cambodian People's Party is likely to take all the seats and form a new government. Many international organizations consider the vote a sham. VOA’s Chetra Chap reports. Camera: Pin Sisovann

The conflict between military factions in Sudan has caused a surge in cases of rape and the abduction of women and girls, some as young as 12, aid agencies and officials said.   Teenage girls are being sexually assaulted and raped by armed combatants in "alarming numbers," Save the Children said in a statement on Friday, while the United Nations reported a "marked increase" in gender-based violence.  The war that erupted on April 15 pits Sudan's army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)... Читать дальше...

A Florida man who U.S. prosecutors say is affiliated with the Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison for attacking police officers with pepper spray as they tried to defend the U.S. Capitol against supporters of then-President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.  Barry Ramey, an aircraft mechanic who was convicted of assault and other crimes in federal court in Washington, also tried to intimidate an FBI agent investigating him before his arrest. Ramey anonymously... Читать дальше...

HONG KONG — Chinese regulators are fining Ant Group 7.123 billion yuan ($985 million) for violating regulations in its payments and financial services, an indicator that more than two years of scrutiny and crackdown on the firm that led it to scrap its planned public listing may have come to an end. The People's Bank of China imposed the fine on the financial technology provider on Friday, stating that Ant had violated laws and regulations related to corporate governance, financial consumer protection... Читать дальше...

Russia launched a missile attack on an apartment building in Lviv early Thursday, leaving at least 10 people dead and 42 wounded. Rescuers are still searching for people in the rubble. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story.

WASHINGTON - Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry commemorated on Friday the second anniversary of President Jovenel Moise's assassination during a solemn ceremony in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. Moise was killed inside his home in a suburb of Port-au-Prince by armed gunmen on July 7, 2021. Haitian authorities have made 40 arrests in connection with the case, but the investigation has progressed slowly. Eleven of the accused are being held in a Miami federal prison while they await their trials. Читать дальше...

Friday marks 100 days since Russian authorities detained Evan Gershkovich and charged him with espionage — the first U.S. journalist to be accused of this since the Cold War. The Kremlin hinted this week that it would be open to negotiating a prisoner swap. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Friday on dozens of countries to work together to combat synthetic drugs, but China — facing blame in Washington over an addiction epidemic — denounced the effort.  Inaugurating a new U.S.-led "coalition" on the scourge, Blinken told ministers from more than 80 countries that the United States — where nearly 110,000 Americans died last year from drug overdoses, mostly from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids — was "a canary in the coal... Читать дальше...