Новости за 02.12.2023

Unknown gunmen in northern Pakistan shot at a bus on Saturday, killing at least eight passengers and wounding 26 others.   No group immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly attack in the scenic Gilgit-Baltistan province.   Arif Ahmad, the area deputy commissioner, said the "cowardly act" targeted a bus traveling to the garrison city of Rawalpindi on the Karakoram Highway that connects Pakistan to China.   He said the driver lost control of the bus following the attack and it collided with an oncoming truck. Читать дальше...

French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday that France was "very concerned" by the resumption of violence in Gaza and that he was heading to Qatar to help in efforts to kickstart a new truce ahead of a cease-fire.  Macron also told a news conference at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai that the situation required the doubling down on efforts to obtain a lasting cease-fire and the freeing of all hostages.  A temporary truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed Friday after mediators were unable to extend the pause. Читать дальше...

Evacuations were underway in the Philippines after a quake of at least magnitude 7.5 struck the southern region of Mindanao on Saturday, triggering tsunami warnings in the country and in Japan, though a U.S. agency said the risk of large waves had passed.  The U.S. Tsunami Warning System, which initially warned of waves of up to 3 meters above the usual high tide level, later said there was no longer a tsunami threat.  Evacuations were continuing in the Philippines, where there were no initial... Читать дальше...

Israel faced growing calls from Biden administration officials on Saturday to do more to prevent the deaths of Palestinians civilians as a new day of fighting began Sunday in Gaza. While both U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Israel has a right to defend itself from attack, their remarks reinforced pressure from the Washington. "Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed," Harris said Saturday. "Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the... Читать дальше...

France and the Philippines are considering a defense pact that would allow them to send military forces to each other’s territory for joint exercises, the Philippine defense chief said Saturday after holding talks with his French counterpart. Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said in a joint news conference with French Minister for the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu that they were seeking authorization from their heads of state to begin negotiations. "We intend to take concrete steps into leveling up and... Читать дальше...

All flights were grounded at Munich's airport Saturday after a winter storm dumped snow across southern Germany and parts of Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, affecting travel across the region. After initially announcing a halt in air traffic until noon Saturday, the airport later announced flights would be canceled until 6 a.m. Sunday. Other airports in the region, including in the Swiss financial capital, Zurich, also announced weather-related delays and cancellations. Trains to... Читать дальше...

China has executed two Filipinos for drug trafficking despite high-level Philippine government appeals to commute their death sentences to life in prison, the Philippine government said Saturday. The Department of Foreign Affairs, or DFA, in Manila did not identify the two Filipinos, citing the wishes of their families for privacy. It added that it did not announce the November 24 executions until the Philippine government was formally notified by China. No other details were immediately given... Читать дальше...

Several thousand members of the Free Union of Iranian Workers went on strike Saturday against the Isfahan Steel Company, seeking higher wages and better working and living conditions. The scale and extent of the strike was significant, drawing attention even from state news agencies. The Free Union of Iranian Workers Telegram channel disclosed that the strike unfolded as part of an ongoing protest of the steel company and its failure to meet workers' demands. Workers assembled in front of the management... Читать дальше...

An earthquake of at least magnitude 7.5 struck Mindanao in the southern Philippines late Saturday, triggering evacuation orders for some areas there and on southwestern Japanese coasts because of warnings of tsunami waves of a meter or more. The Philippine Seismology Agency Phivolcs said the waves could hit the Philippines by midnight and continue for hours. The U.S. Tsunami Warning System said there could be waves of up to 3 meters (10 feet) above the tide level along some Philippine coasts. Читать дальше...

A prominent human rights defender in Burkina Faso has been abducted by unknown individuals, rights groups have announced, in what activists say could be the latest attempt by the military government to target dissidents using a controversial law. Daouda Diallo, a 2022 recipient of the Martin Ennals international human rights award, was abducted Friday in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou after visiting the passport department, where he had gone to renew his documents, according to the local... Читать дальше...

Torrential rain triggered flash floods and a landslide on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, leaving at least 12 people missing, officials said Saturday. Tons of mud, rocks and trees rolled down from a mountain late Friday, reaching a river that burst its banks and tore through mountainside villages, said Budiono, who heads the local search and rescue agency. Worst hit was Simangulampe, a village near the popular Lake Toba in North Sumatra province, where several people were buried under tons of mud and houses were damaged... Читать дальше...

Israeli air strikes killed two Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers and two pro-Hezbollah fighters when they hit sites Saturday belonging to the Lebanese group near Damascus, a war monitor said. The strikes near the Syrian capital came less than 24 hours after the end of a seven-day pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "Two Syrian fighters working with Hezbollah and two IRGC officers were killed in Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah sites near Sayyida Zeinab," south of Damascus... Читать дальше...

Seven miners were confirmed dead, and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. No bodies had yet been retrieved after the landslides late Thursday, police said. Many of the victims were believed to have drowned. The miners were digging for copper ore at the Seseli open-pit mine in the copper-belt city of Chingola... Читать дальше...

The Biden administration on Saturday issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming, as President Joe Biden seeks to advance his climate legacy. The Environmental Protection Agency said the rule will sharply reduce methane and other harmful air pollutants generated by the oil and gas industry, promote use of cutting-edge methane detection technologies and deliver significant public health benefits in the form of reduced hospital visits... Читать дальше...

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday laid out broad American objectives for when the Israel-Hamas conflict ends and stressed that the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank should ultimately be reunified under one governing entity. Harris made a series of appearances at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, after being asked by U.S. President Joe Biden to take his seat at the table as he focuses on the Israel-Hamas war. In talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, Harris... Читать дальше...

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Saturday in Dubai at the U.N. COP28 Climate Conference that the United States is pledging $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund — the world’s largest climate fund — created to help developing countries handle climate change. “Around the world, there are those who seek to slow or stop our progress. Leaders who deny climate science, delay climate action and spread misinformation,” the vice president said. The multibillion-dollar pledge to the climate fund... Читать дальше...

The number of Rohingya taking risky boat trips across the Andaman Sea to flee mounting hunger and hopelessness in the refugee camps of Bangladesh this year has topped last year’s numbers and could keep rising, rights groups and aid agencies told VOA. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement that a boat with 150 Rohingya on board landed in western Indonesia Saturday morning. Amnesty International’s Indonesia office told VOA it had confirmed the landing as well. ... Читать дальше...

The giant waves form in the storm belts of the Southern Ocean, off Antarctica, where whales roam. Supercharged by intense winds, the swells then roll on an ocean journey of thousands of kilometers to crash into Tahiti in the South Pacific. There, in the waters of the volcanic island that will host next year's Olympic surfing events, surfer Kauli Vaast waits. If the Tahitian-born 21-year-old catches one of the waves just right, he'll harness its awesome power as it rears up to become a furious, frothing wall of water. Читать дальше...

Nicaraguan police said Friday they want to arrest the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant, accusing her of intentionally rigging contests so that anti-government beauty queens would win the pageants as part of a plot to overthrow the government. The charges against pageant director Karen Celebertti would not be out of place in a vintage James Bond movie with a repressive, closed off government, coup-plotting claims, foreign agents and beauty queens. It all started Nov. 18, when Miss Nicaragua... Читать дальше...

When they first started climbing the Andes peaks, they could hear the ice crunching under their crampons. These days, it's the sound of melted water running beneath their feet that they mostly listen to as they make their ascents. Dressed in colorful, multilayered skirts, a group of 20 Indigenous Bolivian women — known as the Cholita climbers — have been climbing the mountain range for the past eight years, working as tourist guides. But as the glaciers in the South American country retreat as a result of climate change... Читать дальше...

International students who wish to study at a school in the United States must apply to the U.S. State Department for an F-1 visa, which allows them to live in the U.S. while studying. A July 2023 report from an alliance of higher education leaders found, however, that African students are denied these visas at a higher rate than those from other continents. Robin Guess reports. Camera: Matt Dibble.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will tackle two delicate tasks this weekend in Dubai: She'll try to demonstrate U.S. environmental leadership despite President Joe Biden's absence from an annual summit on climate change and she'll work to nudge forward fragile efforts to shape the next phase of the war between Israel and Hamas. A White House official, who insisted on anonymity to preview Harris' meetings, said she would sit down with regional leaders and outline proposals to "put Palestinian... Читать дальше...

The U.S. military unit that had a V-22 Osprey aircraft crash off the coast of Japan is not carrying out operations, but other aircraft will continue to fly after undergoing safety checks, the Pentagon said Friday, even as Tokyo has said it is concerned about continued Osprey flights.   Japan, a key U.S. ally, had sought the suspension of all nonemergency V-22 Osprey flights over its territory after one fell into the sea on Wednesday in western Japan. Japan's Coast Guard said one person was found and confirmed dead... Читать дальше...

More Americans now believe the death penalty, which is undergoing a yearslong decline of use and support, is being administered unfairly, a finding that is adding to its growing isolation in the U.S., according to an annual report on capital punishment.  But whether the public's waning support for the death penalty and the declining number of executions and death sentences will ultimately result in the abolition of capital punishment in the U.S. remains uncertain, experts said.  "There are some... Читать дальше...

Researchers in South Africa say they have rediscovered a species of mole with an iridescent golden coat and the ability to almost "swim" through sand dunes after it hadn't been seen for more than 80 years and was thought to be extinct. The De Winton's golden mole -- a small, blind burrower with "super-hearing powers" that eats insects -- was found to be still alive on a beach in Port Nolloth on the west coast of South Africa by a team of researchers from the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the University of Pretoria. Читать дальше...