Новости за 18.08.2023

A British nurse who described herself as a "horrible evil person" was found guilty on Friday of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill another six in the neonatal unit of a hospital in northwest England where she worked. Lucy Letby, 33, was convicted of killing five baby boys and two baby girls at the Countess of Chester hospital and attacking other newborns, often while working night shifts, in 2015 and 2016. The verdict, following a harrowing 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court... Читать дальше...

Editor's note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch. Security Council discusses DPRK human rights The U.N. human rights chief said Thursday that many of the severe and widespread rights violations in North Korea are directly linked to the regime’s pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile technology. Volker Türk told a special meeting of the Security Council on human rights in North Korea that the use of forced... Читать дальше...

The United Nations human rights chief on Friday called on Niger's generals to end their illegal takeover of the country, release the democratically elected president, and immediately restore constitutional order. In a prepared statement, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk noted that the people of Niger, "one of the poorest countries in the world," have been forced to endure even more misery following last month's military coup. "The people have already been through so much hardship over the years," he said. Читать дальше...

Violence erupted this week in a string of villages in remote southwest Niger, leaving at least 28 civilians dead, a source told AFP on Friday.  "For now we have recorded at least 28 dead, but the toll could go up," said the source, a senior official in the Tillaberi region close to Mali.  Some of the bodies had been "carried off" by the Niger River, he added.  The violence started at sunset Tuesday and ended midday Wednesday, the official said.  In Ayorou, one of four departments affected... Читать дальше...

Human rights in North Korea and gang violence in Haiti. VOA correspondent Margaret Besheer has more on the top stories this week at the United Nations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be in South Africa next week for a major summit as well as an official state visit, at a time of increasing South African concern about persistent trade imbalances in the countries' relationship, as well as worries about China’s domestic economy. Naledi Pandor, South African minister for international relations and cooperation, said last week that in 2022, trade with fellow BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China – accounted for 21%% of South Africa’s global trade, or $43 billion (830 billion rand). Читать дальше...

Fighting between two rival generals has spread to cities in Sudan's war-ravaged south, witnesses said Friday, raising concerns for hundreds of thousands who have fled violence in the Darfur region. The vast western region has seen some of the worst bloodshed since the conflict erupted on April 15 between the army under General Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Battles resumed late Thursday in the North Darfur state capital of El Fasher... Читать дальше...

Bangladesh’s parliament is poised to vote on the Cyber Security Act when it reconvenes next month. The law is intended to replace the Digital Security Act — a piece of legislation widely criticized for being used to harass and silence journalists and opposition voices. Dhaka announced earlier this month that it would repeal the law, in a move welcomed by the United States. A State Department spokesperson said that the law had been “used to arrest, detain and silence critics.” The proposed replacement... Читать дальше...

Six suspects were in custody Friday after five armed men stormed into a private dental clinic in Cambodia the day before to free a Chinese convict, Cambodian police said. The convict, Chen Hsin Han, 45, who was serving a 52-year sentence for drug trafficking, remains at large, said Teng Channath, the Siem Reap provincial police chief. Police did not explain why the suspects in custody outnumbered the people who stormed the clinic. Four prison guards had escorted the inmate Thursday morning to a dentist in Siem Reap city... Читать дальше...

VOA Connect Episode 292 - A look at how artists are using a variety of materials to express themselves in different ways.

We head to Coachella Valley in Southern California, where artists from all over the world gather to create art within the desert landscape for an exhibit called Desert X. Producer | Camera | Editor: Genia Dulot

This week we go to Lake Accotink in Springfield, Virginia to visit Canadian Geese at a reservoir. Producer | Camera | Editor: Philip Alexiou

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

With warming ocean waters threatening much of the world’s coral reefs, some ecologists are using simple technology to help restore them. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.

Angry Turkish Cypriots punched and kicked a group of international peacekeepers who obstructed crews working on a road that would encroach on a U.N.-controlled buffer zone in ethnically divided Cyprus, the United Nations said Friday. It said the attack happened as peacekeepers stood in the way of work crews building a road to connect the village of Arsos, in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, with the mixed Greek Cypriot-Turkish Cypriot village of Pyla, inside the buffer zone and abutting the Greek Cypriot south... Читать дальше...

Planning is underway for a possible U.S. military evacuation from Niger, even though a top U.S. general says any final decision is still "weeks away." The commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and U.S. Air Forces Africa told reporters Friday his headquarters is preparing for a range of scenarios that could force some 1,100 U.S. troops to abandon two airbases that have been critical to U.S. counterterrorism efforts. "We'll be ready if something happens," General James Hecker said during a virtual... Читать дальше...

Hurricane Hilary grew rapidly to Category 4 strength off Mexico’s Pacific coast on Friday and could reach Southern California as the first tropical storm there in 84 years, causing “significant and rare impacts” including extensive flooding. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said a tropical storm watch has been issued for Southern California, the first time it has ever done that. Hilary had sustained winds near 230 kph early Friday and was expected to strengthen a bit more before starting to weaken. Читать дальше...

In Malaysia, wrapping the wrong candy-colored watch around your wrist can now earn you a $4,300 fine, not to mention three years in jail. The penalties are laid out in an August 10 order from the Ministry of Home Affairs banning LGBTQ-themed watches from the popular Swatch brand for putting Malaysia’s “national interest” at risk. It comes three months after ministry staff raided a number of shops selling the watches and seized more than 170 of them. Rights groups say the government’s reaction... Читать дальше...

Hong Kong judges on Friday proposed a new delay until December in the trial of a prominent activist publisher who was arrested in August 2020 under a sweeping Beijing-imposed national security law. Jimmy Lai, the 75-year-old founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, faces up to life in prison if convicted under the law. He has already been sentenced to five years and nine months in a separate case. His trial, originally scheduled to begin last December, had already been... Читать дальше...

Three weeks into the coup in Niger, the military junta continues to cling to power while West African army chiefs hold a second day of talks in Ghana to determine whether their next course of action is diplomacy or a military intervention. West African defense ministers held a second day of talks on Friday in Ghana's capital, Accra, where they are mapping out a possible military intervention if diplomacy fails to reinstate Niger’s deposed President Mohamed Bazoum.  Rida Lyammouri, an analyst... Читать дальше...

Firefighters worked to keep open the only route out of the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories as a wildfire moved closer to the city of 20,000 and residents rushed to beat a noon Friday deadline to evacuate. Air tankers flew missions overnight to keep the highway out of Yellowknife open, and authorities were guiding a long caravan of motorists through fire zones, officials said. Meanwhile, a network of fire guards, sprinklers and water cannons was being established to try to protect the city from the fire... Читать дальше...

After a more ambitious relief plan was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Biden administration has announced it will forgive $39 billion in debt, held by about 804,000 people. Get the specifics in this explainer from Katherine Knott of Inside Higher Ed. (July 2023)

Firefighters battled overnight to try to bring under control the worst wildfire in decades on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife, a major tourist destination, officials said Friday. The fire in the north of the island, which started late Tuesday, has forced the evacuation or confinement of nearly 8,000 people in eight municipalities. Television images and videos posted on social media showed the flames coming down the hill close to houses in small neighborhoods and a massive cloud of smoke rising from the area. Читать дальше...

Officials in Cameroon suspended the work contracts of several thousand foreign workers, including Africans, Chinese and Europeans, and ordered them to obtain work permits and pay taxes within a month or leave the country. The Cameroon government said that only about 100 of more than 2,000 foreign workers from China, Nigeria, the Central African Republic and Chad are authorized to work in gold mines and export timber near Cameroon’s eastern border with the Central African Republic. More than 10,500... Читать дальше...

Two years after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, there is growing consensus that the country is again devolving into a hotbed of terrorism activity that is already beginning to affect the region, if not yet capable of reaching the West. Some of the more damning assessments have come from a United Nations sanctions monitoring team, which warned in a report in June that the Taliban “have not delivered on the counter-terrorism provisions” in the Doha Accords, the agreement that paved the way for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Instead... Читать дальше...