Новости за 03.08.2017

Rwanda goes to the polls Friday with President Paul Kagame widely expected to win a third term. Nine of the 11 registered political parties have endorsed the incumbent, but several candidates are still in the race. Zack Baddorf reports from Kigali.

The current U.S. Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse in history.  Nineteen percent of its members are racial minorities, according to the Pew Research Center, but only two Native Americans have seats in the House of Representatives. Republicans Thomas Cole, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, and Markwayne Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation, are from Oklahoma and serve in the House. They are among eight Native Americans who ran in the November 2016 election. Native Americans... Читать дальше...

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday it will provide an additional $169 million in humanitarian aid to the drought-stricken African countries of Ethiopia and Kenya. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said the funds, over $136 million for Ethiopia and almost $33 million for Kenya, would be used for emergency food aid, nutrition supplies and health services. USAID said nearly 8 million Ethiopians are in need of urgent humanitarian aid. Without it... Читать дальше...

Women in the United States are starting bushiness at one and a half times the rate of their male peers. Effective entrepreneurship could help cut the economic gap between women and men, which the World Economic Forum says could otherwise take decades to close around the globe.  As VOA's Jim Randle reports, experts say more than one-third of U.S. businesses are headed by women and they expect that percentage to grow.

U.S. President Donald Trump may soon attempt to increase pressure on China to change its trade practices and do more to stop North Korea's weapons programs.   Reports in the financial press say President Trump may sign an order as soon as Friday to start an investigation of Chinese demands that foreign companies share technology secrets in exchange for access to the massive Chinese market.  That investigation could, eventually, lead to higher tariffs on Chinese-made products headed for the U.S. Читать дальше...

Two phone calls described by President Donald Trump that didn't actually happen represent the latest chapter in a long-running series of disputes revolving around the president's rocky relationship with facts. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Wednesday found herself explaining that compliments Trump had described receiving in phone calls from the Mexican president and the Boy Scouts did happen — just not on the phone. "I wouldn't say it was a lie. That's a pretty bold accusation,'' she told reporters. Читать дальше...

In Cameroon, people have been supporting the war effort against Boko Haram by donating blood for the wounded, but officials say the country’s blood banks continue to run short. Hundreds of people have been gathering at the court yard of the city council in Yaounde to donate blood for Cameroonian soldiers fighting the Boko Haram insurgency. Among them is 50-year-old Anatol Bihina who is waiting to be tested to see if he can donate. He says he owes the military respect and encourages them to... Читать дальше...

One of the key lawyers in President Donald Trump's corner navigated a popular United States senator through crisis, produced a damning investigative report that drove a baseball star from the game and, early in his career, took on organized crime as a Justice Department prosecutor. John Dowd, a retired Marine Corps captain and longtime legal adviser to prominent people facing government investigations, has played a role in some of the defining legal quagmires of the last four decades — among them... Читать дальше...

New climate models show that parts of South Asia will become uninhabitable by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are not dramatically reduced. Under a high emissions scenario, where little action is taken to stop climate change, “the heat wave intensity will reach magnitudes that have not been observed before,” Elfatih Eltahir told VOA. Eltahir is a hydro-climatologist at MIT who co-wrote the report published Wednesday in the open-access journal Science Advances. Ironically, the water that attracted... Читать дальше...

The captain of a team of Afghan schoolgirls who captured the world's attention at a U.S. robotics competition has suffered the loss of her father in a deadly suicide attack on a Shi'ite mosque in the city of Herat, a provincial governor's spokesman said. Mohammad Asif Qaderyan was wounded and later died after two suicide bombers detonated grenades in a packed mosque. The attack, which was claimed by Islamic State, killed 32 other worshippers, including children, and wounded more than 60 others. Читать дальше...

U.S. President Donald Trump blamed Congress Thursday for creating new tensions with Russia by approving sanctions against Moscow, and the Kremlin agreed the penalties would thwart improved relations. "Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low," Trump said on his Twitter account, overlooking the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis a half century ago that brought the world to the brink of nuclear warfare. "You can thank Congress," he said, describing lawmakers as... Читать дальше...

Avon's CEO will leave the company in March as the struggling beauty products maker continues a turnaround campaign.   Sheri McCoy has led the company for five years and sits on the board, but there has been some external pressure from activist investors for a change in leadership.   Avon said Thursday that it has hired an executive search firm to help find McCoy's successor.   "The platform is in place for a new CEO to continue accelerating the pace of change and take Avon to sustainable profitable... Читать дальше...

Sixty years after she captured America's heart, six-year-old Eloise is still making trouble at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Eloise is the central character in a series of beloved children’s books, written in the 1950s by Kay Thompson, who died in 1998, and illustrated by Hilary Knight, who’s very much alive at 90. Thompson, who at various points in her life was a radio personality, a vocal arranger at MGM, and a popular cabaret performer, amused her friends with the voice of a little girl called Eloise. Читать дальше...

Natural gas is a clean-burning fuel that reaches homes through underground pipes. Unfortunately, older pipes often leak, wasting fuel and releasing unburned methane, a potent greenhouse gas. To find and measure leaks, Colorado scientists teamed up with the Environmental Defense Fund and Google Street View Cars to make “methane maps.” From Fort Collins, Colorado, Shelley Schlender reports.

The 17-year-old Indonesian girl made a persuasive case to her family: Lured by what she had read online, she told her parents, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins they should all move to Syria to join the Islamic State group. Each of her two dozen relatives found something in it for them. Free education and health care for the girls. Paying outstanding debts for her father and uncle. Finding work for the youngest men. And the biggest bonus: a chance to live in what was depicted as an ideal Islamic society on the ascendant. Читать дальше...

Father Carlo Ladicicco, a 65-year-old Catholic priest could be enjoying retirement after 35-years as a missionary in a remote region of Peru. Instead he is using his pension to subsidize his pastoral outreach to some of the poorest and most exploited African migrants in Italy — just a 40 minute drive from his birthplace in the country’s southern region of Campania. Sitting in his cramped, sparsely furnished rented bungalow decorated with keepsakes from his decades in the Peruvian jungle, the bustling... Читать дальше...

Al-Qaida's North Africa branch has freed a South African man who was held hostage for six years in Mali and he is now back home, South Africa's government announced Thursday.   Stephen McGown, who was released on Saturday, was the longest-held of a number of foreigners seized by Islamic extremists in Mali, where several armed groups roam the West African country's north. The extremists have made a fortune over the last decade abducting foreigners in the vast Sahel region and demanding enormous ransoms for their release. Читать дальше...

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission says its Induced Seismicity Department and the Oklahoma Geological Survey are investigating several earthquakes in the central part of the state. At least six quakes of magnitude 3.0 or stronger have struck since Tuesday in an area about 4 miles (6 kilometers) northeast of Edmond - about 15 miles (25 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City.   The strongest was a magnitude 4.2 quake Wednesday night. It knocked out two electric substations, leaving about 1,900 customers without power for about an hour. Читать дальше...

Jane keeps the well-worn sarong wrap neatly folded in her home in a Nairobi slum, a memento of a life-altering event a decade ago. She was draped with it after two policemen raped her and left her to rioters the officers had been deployed to stop during deadly post-election violence. "I lost consciousness after the first two civilians raped me. After that, I don't know how many people did it,'' she said. "All this while my 5-year-old daughter was hiding in an empty water container. She hid there... Читать дальше...

President Donald Trump's endorsement of legislation to restrict and reshape legal immigration is based on some shaky assumptions, such as the idea that low-wage green-card holders are flooding in to take jobs from Americans. Trump swung behind a bill from Republican Sens. David Purdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, calling it "the most significant reform to our immigration system in half a century" if made law.   A look at statements about the bill Wednesday: Trump: "The current, outdated... Читать дальше...

Rwandans living outside the country have started voting a day before the presidential election that longtime leader Paul Kagame is widely expected to win. The electoral commission for the East African nation says more than 44,000 people in the diaspora are expected to vote at nearly 100 polling stations. Political analysts say that's a small part of the millions of Rwandans living overseas.   Rwanda's 6.9 million registered voters can vote on Friday.   Kagame won the 2010 election with 93 percent of the vote. Читать дальше...

Chinese and U.S. Naval ships are working together in the South China Sea, in a search and rescue mission for a missing American sailor, the military said in a statement Thursday. The sailor, whose name is being withheld, was reported missing from the USS Stethem destroyer around 9:00am local time Tuesday. The ship was “conducting routine operations” in the South China Sea at the time, according to a Navy statement. The Chinese Navy said it was joining American and Japanese search and rescue efforts "in the spirit of humanitarianism". Читать дальше...

Two Indian soldiers and two rebels were killed in separate armed clashes Thursday in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. The two soldiers were killed during a shootout in the southern district of Shopian, where they were taking part in a raid to capture suspected rebels. Another soldier was critically wounded in the incident. The rebels were killed in the southern town of Kulgam when they walked into an ambush laid by government forces. The bloodshed comes just days after the death of Abu Dujana... Читать дальше...

Floods in Thailand’s northern and eastern regions have killed at least 23 people and left two missing with damage estimated around $300 million.  Ten provinces have been flooded by heavy rains, affecting 721,500 people, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.   It said that around 1,554 square kilometers (600 square miles) of rice farming land has been affected. The hardest hit is Sakon Nakhon province, around 640 kilometers (400 miles) east of Bangkok, which has recorded nine deaths. Schools and department stores in the province remain shut. Читать дальше...

Renowned American bead artist Joyce Scott is creating a piece of art one bead at a time. Scott finds beading relaxing, as she sits at a table with a dish of beads in an array of colors. “Beadwork is a very calming, meditative form,” she said, as she puts a small royal blue bead on a needle and thread at her home studio in Baltimore, Maryland. Scott said her mind is constantly going in many directions, and her studio and artwork reflect both.  The studio is packed with a hodgepodge of beads of various shapes, sizes, materials and colors. Читать дальше...