Новости за 16.03.2024

sydney — Voting takes place Saturday for Australia’s first state-based First Nations Voice to Parliament. The body will advise the South Australian government and lawmakers on Indigenous issues. The state of South Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament will be a representative, elected body for the state’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and made up of members of those groups. In October, Australians overwhelmingly rejected a national proposal to change the constitution to... Читать дальше...

BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Israel on Saturday to allow humanitarian aid access to Gaza on a larger scale, ahead of a two-day trip to the Middle East.  Scholz will travel to the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba on Saturday to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah on Sunday before flying to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  "It is necessary for aid to reach Gaza on a larger scale now. That will be a topic that I also have to talk about," Scholz told journalists ahead of his trip. Читать дальше...

SHANGHAI — Two people were injured Saturday after a powerful blast at a barbecue shop in the eastern Chinese city of Huaian, local authorities said, the latest incident to spur calls for better restaurant-safety checks across the country.  Videos online posted by state media showed that the blast, which occurred at 4:20 p.m., ripped off the facade of the eatery's building, sending big black plumes of smoke into the air and spraying glass shards across the street.  The two people who were injured... Читать дальше...

New Delhi — Indian general elections, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third term, will be held over six weeks starting April 19, India’s Election Commission said Saturday. Billed as the world’s largest democratic exercise, nearly 1 billion voters will be eligible to choose the 543 elected members of the House of the People, the lower house of the Parlament; two other seats are appointed by the president. The election will be held in seven phases until June 1, and votes will be counted on June 4. Читать дальше...

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani authorities said Saturday a suicide truck bomb and gun attack on a regional army base near the Afghan border killed at least seven soldiers, including two officers, and wounded many more. The early morning raid occurred in the volatile North Waziristan border district, where militants linked to the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, routinely target security forces. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the raid as a “cowardly action of terrorists,” his office said. Читать дальше...

GENEVA — As Syria enters its 14th year of civil war with no political resolution in sight, United Nations aid agencies are appealing to the international community to remember the plight of millions of people who continue to suffer from violence, devastation, destitution and abuse. Thirteen years of crisis have taken an unimaginable toll on the Syrian people, and U.N. agencies warn the crisis continues to wreak havoc on the population, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation. In marking the grim anniversary... Читать дальше...

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN — Uzbek law enforcement officials this month confirmed to VOA that an Uzbek extradition request was behind the February 15 arrest in Kazakhstan of Karakalpak activist Akylbek Muratov, known as Aqylbek Muratbai on X and other social media. Karakalpaks are indigenous Turkic people of Karakalpakstan, since 1993 a sovereign republic within Uzbekistan with its own parliament, national symbols and language. This status has been a source of friction with the Uzbek government because it often stirs discussions of secession. Читать дальше...

WASHINGTON — Lori Shelton can't fathom ever having the money to buy a home — and that's a major reason why so many voters feel down on the economy ahead of this year's presidential election. Shelton, 67, drives an Uber to help pay rent in Aurora, Colorado. An advance on her pay covered her apartment's security deposit. But it also cut into her next paycheck, leaving her bank account dangerously low when the rent was due — a cycle that never seems to end. "I'm always one step behind," said Shelton, her voice choking up. Читать дальше...

Johannesburg, South Africa — The number of Chinese workers across Africa has hit its lowest level in more than a decade, new data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics show. From a record high of 263,696 workers on the continent in 2015, only 88,371 were recorded in 2022, the most recent year on record. The China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, which analyzed data from 2009 to 2022, attributed the drop in numbers partially to the pandemic as Chinese workers left during... Читать дальше...

cairo — The Islamist group Hamas on Friday criticized the "unilateral" designation by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of an ally and leading business figure as prime minister with a mandate to help reform the Palestinian Authority (PA) and rebuild Gaza.  Mohammad Mustafa's appointment comes after mounting pressure to overhaul the governing body of the occupied Palestinian territories and improve governance in the occupied West Bank where it is based.  Hamas said the decision was taken without consulting it... Читать дальше...

CAIRO — A Marshall Islands-flagged liquefied petroleum gas tanker reported two explosions near the ship as it traveled off the coast of Yemen's port city of Hodeidah, the third merchant vessel attack of the past 48 hours, British security firm Ambrey said  Friday. The master of a merchant vessel located in a similar area reported an explosion a distance off the vessel's starboard beam, according to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. Reuters was not immediately able to verify whether the same ship was the subject of the two reports. Читать дальше...

United Nations — The United Nations appealed Friday for Sudan's battling factions to allow delivery of humanitarian relief to fend off looming catastrophic hunger. About 5 million Sudanese could face calamitous food insecurity in coming months as a nearly yearlong war between rival generals continues to tear the country apart, according to a U.N. document seen Friday by AFP. The war between army chief Abdel Fattah Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has since April last year killed tens of thousands... Читать дальше...

The United States is sending an Army team to construct a floating pier for aid into Gaza, but as VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb reports, that mission will take weeks to complete.

new york — Donald Trump's New York hush-money criminal trial was delayed Friday until at least mid-April as the judge seeks answers about a last-minute evidence dump that the former president's lawyers said has hampered their ability to prepare their defense.  Manhattan Judge Juan Manuel Merchan agreed to a 30-day delay starting Friday and scheduled a hearing for March 25 after Trump's lawyers complained that they only recently started receiving more than 100,000 pages of documents from a previous federal investigation into the matter. Читать дальше...

SAO PAULO — Top Brazilian military leaders declared to police that former President Jair Bolsonaro presented them a plan to reverse the results of the 2022 election he lost, but they refused and warned him they would arrest him if he tried it, according to judicial documents released Friday.  The testimonies of Bolsonaro's former army and air force commanders to police, and released by the Supreme Court, include the first direct mentions of the right-wing leader as actively participating in a conspiracy... Читать дальше...