Новости за 14.01.2024

Iowa Republican voters gather this week to select the delegates they plan to send to their respective party’s national conventions ahead of presidential elections. But this year, Mother Nature may have other plans. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has this story.

The Congo Basin, which spans six African countries, is home to the world's second-largest rainforest. In one of the states, the Republic of Congo, burning basin wood for traditional fish smoking threatens to accelerate deforestation. Researchers are looking at ways to counter these effects. VOA’s Brice Kinhou has more from Pointe-Noire in this story, narrated by Vincent Makori.

Sunday marked 100 days since Hamas launched a terrorist attack into southern Israel. The Jewish state responded with a military operation in Gaza that is ongoing. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at the toll the war has taken on the Israeli and Palestinian civilian populations.

The voters of Taiwan picked their next president over the weekend. Lai Ching-te, currently vice president, says he aims to maintain the status quo and pursue a dialogue with China. Elizabeth Lee has more on reactions to the election from around the world. VOA footage by Lee and Stephen Boitano.

NAKIVALE, Uganda — Enock Twagirayesu was seeking sanctuary when he and his family fled violence in Burundi, and they found it in Uganda, the small East African nation that has absorbed thousands of refugees from unsettled neighbors.  Twagirayesu’s family has grown from two children when they arrived more than a decade ago to eight now, a boon for the family but also a marker of the immense pressure the Nakivale Refugee Settlement has put on the landscape near the Tanzania border.  What was wide... Читать дальше...

Islamabad — Pakistan's Supreme Court has upheld an electoral commission decision barring the party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan from using its iconic cricket bat electoral symbol to identify party candidates contesting the Feb. 8 national election. The decision has been criticized by his party as an effort to keep it off next month’s ballot. The caretaker government of Anwaar-ul Haq Kakar has distanced itself from the election commission's decisions, repeatedly stating that it does... Читать дальше...

Sydney — While Denmark was preparing to celebrate the coronation of a new king, there are festivities too, half a world away, in Australia. Crown Princess Mary was born on the Australian island of Tasmania and met Prince Frederik in a chance encounter in a busy Sydney bar during the 2000 Olympic Games. Before she was a princess, Mary Donaldson graduated with a degree in law and commerce from the University of Tasmania in Australia. A career in advertising and real estate followed. In 2000, she... Читать дальше...

Jerusalem — Two civilians were killed in northern Israel on Sunday after an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon hit their home in a town near the border, raising new concerns of a second conflict erupting against the backdrop of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The deadly strike came on the 100th day of a conflict between Israel and Hamas that has killed nearly 24,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swaths of Gaza, driven around 85% of its 2.3 million residents from their homes and pushed a quarter of the population into starvation. Читать дальше...

O'FALLON, Mo. — Icy winter weather blanketed the U.S. on Saturday as a wave of Arctic storms threatened to break low-temperature records in the heartland, spread cold and snow from coast to coast and cast a chill over everything from football playoffs to presidential campaigns. As the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend began, the weather forecast was a crazy quilt of color-coded advisories, from an ice storm warning in Oregon to a blizzard warning in the northern Plains to high wind warnings in New Mexico. Читать дальше...

NEW DELHi — India's main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday began a new cross-country march from a troubled northeastern state, aiming to generate political momentum to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in general elections due by May.    The "Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra," or Unite India Justice March, comes weeks after Gandhi’s Congress party suffered shock defeats in elections in three states, puncturing the mood of the opposition which intends to challenge Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Читать дальше...

Quito, Ecuador — All 136 hostages seized during prison riots in Ecuador were freed on Saturday night, prison authorities said. "Security protocols and the joint work of the police and the national army enabled the release of all the hostages who were being held in various prisons across the country," the SNAI prison authorities said in a statement on X. President Daniel Noboa celebrated their release. "Congratulations to the patriotic, professional and courageous work of the armed forces,... Читать дальше...

DAR ES SALAAM — The collapse of an illegal small-scale gold mine has killed at least 22 people in northern Tanzania following heavy rains, a senior government official said on Sunday.  The accident happened early on Saturday in the Simiyu region after a group of people aged between 24 and 38 years old started mining in an area where activity had been restricted due to ongoing heavy rains, Simon Simalenga, the region's Bariadi district commissioner, told Reuters. "Initially we were told that there... Читать дальше...

Moroni — Voting was under way in Comoros on Sunday in an election widely expected to hand a fourth five-year term to President Azali Assoumani, who faces five opponents in a vote some opposition leaders have boycotted. The polls opened across the Indian Ocean archipelago at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) for the 338,940 registered voters out of its 800,000 population. Voting ends at 6 p.m. Comoros has experienced around 20 coups or attempted coups since winning independence from France in 1975 and is a major... Читать дальше...

London — A volcano has erupted in southwestern Iceland for the second time in less than a month, sending semi-molten rock spewing toward a nearby settlement.  The eruption just before 8 a.m. Sunday came after a swarm of earthquakes near the town of Grindavik, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. The community was evacuated overnight, Iceland's RUV television reported.  "Lava is flowing a few hundred meters north of the town, this is 400 to 500 meters," Kristín Jónsdóttir from the Icelandic... Читать дальше...

BEIJING — China's foreign ministry and embassies around the world this weekend warned countries against supporting Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and condemned foreign governments that congratulated the island's president-elect Lai Ching-te. After the DPP's presidential candidate Lai won the election on Saturday, several ministers and politicians from countries that share warm, if in most cases unofficial, ties with the self-ruled island sent congratulatory messages to Lai and the DPP. Читать дальше...

TOKYO — Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Sunday the country's north-central region of Noto for the first time since the deadly Jan. 1 earthquakes to alleviate growing concern about slow relief work and the spread of diseases in evacuation centers. The magnitude 7.6 earthquake left 220 dead and 26 others still missing while injuring hundreds. More than 20,000 people, many of whom had their homes damaged or destroyed, are taking refuge at about 400 school gymnasiums, community centers and other makeshift facilities... Читать дальше...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — The Tyrannosaurus rex seemingly came out of nowhere tens of millions of years ago, with its monstrous teeth and powerful jaws dominating the end of the age of the dinosaurs.  How it came to be is among the many mysteries that paleontologists have long tried to solve. Researchers from several universities and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science say they now have one more piece of the puzzle.  On Thursday, they unveiled fossil evidence and published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports. Читать дальше...

BOSTON — Several Jewish students have filed a lawsuit against Harvard University, accusing it of becoming "a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment." The lawsuit filed Wednesday mirrors others filed since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, including against The Art Institute of Chicago, New York University and the University of Pennsylvania. In the Harvard lawsuit, the plaintiffs include members of the Students Against Antisemitism, Inc. They accuse Harvard of violating Jewish... Читать дальше...

Washington — More than a week after Iran experienced its deadliest terror attack in decades, its Islamist rulers said one of the suicide bombers trained in Afghanistan with the Islamic State group that claimed responsibility for the attack. Iranian leaders have vowed to retaliate against the IS perpetrators of the January 3 suicide bombings that killed at least 90 people in the city of Kerman as they attended a memorial for top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his... Читать дальше...

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — Companies chaired by a prominent Cambodian tycoon are quietly starting the approval process for two dormant hydropower dam projects in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province, according to documents reviewed by VOA, alarming environmentalists who say the projects could disrupt Indigenous people’s livelihoods and the Mekong River ecosystem. Lower Srepok 3 and Lower Sesan 3 are named for the major Mekong tributaries where they would be built and have been part of Cambodia's dam pipeline since 2003... Читать дальше...

WASHINGTON — Two U.S. Navy SEALs are missing after conducting a nighttime boarding mission Thursday off the coast of Somalia, according to three U.S. officials. The SEALs were on an interdiction mission, climbing up a vessel when one got knocked off by high waves. Under their protocol, when one SEAL is overtaken the next jumps in after them. Both SEALs are still missing. A search and rescue mission is under way and the waters in the Gulf of Aden, where they were operating, are warm, two of the... Читать дальше...