Новости за 02.03.2024

helsinki — King Harald V of Norway was implanted with a temporary pacemaker Saturday at a hospital in Malaysia's resort island of Langkawi, where Europe's oldest monarch was being treated for an infection during a vacation this week, the Norwegian royal house said.  "The pacemaker was implanted due to a low heart rate," the Royal House of Norway said in a brief statement, adding that the procedure conducted at Hospital Sultanah Maliha was successful.  Following the operation, Harald, 87, would... Читать дальше...

N'DJAMENA, CHAD — Chad's interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby said Saturday he plans to run in this year's long-awaited presidential race.   Deby's confirmation came at the end of a chaotic week in which opposition politician Yaya Dillo was shot and killed in the capital, N'Djamena.  Dillo's death on Wednesday in disputed circumstances has further exposed divisions in the ruling elite at a politically sensitive time as the Central African country prepares for the promised return to democratic rule via the ballot box. Читать дальше...

WASHINGTON — The United States on Saturday began airdrops of emergency humanitarian assistance into Gaza. President Joe Biden, who announced the operation Friday, said the U.S. was looking into additional ways to help Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled territory as the Israel-Hamas war goes on. Here is a look at what to know: When did the airdrops start? Three C-130 cargo planes from Air Forces Central dropped 66 bundles containing about 35,000 meals into Gaza at 8:30 a.m. EST Saturday. The bundles were dropped in southwest Gaza... Читать дальше...

ANTALYA, TURKEY — Armenia is ready to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan if Baku shows the same political will and is keen to make progress on normalizing relations with Turkey, a senior Armenian official said on Saturday.  Yerevan and Baku said in December they wanted to reach a peace deal after decades of being at odds, but no agreement has been signed yet.  The most divisive issue has long been the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan. Baku's forces recaptured the mountainous area in September after years of ethnic Armenian control... Читать дальше...

STINNETT, TEXAS — Wildfires may have destroyed as many as 500 structures in the Texas Panhandle, Governor Greg Abbott said Friday, describing how the largest blaze in state history scorched everything in its path and left ashes in its wake. Texas officials warned that the threat was not yet over. Higher temperatures and stronger winds forecast for Saturday elevated worries that fires in the Panhandle could spread beyond the more than 4,400 square kilometers (1,700 square miles) already chewed up this week by fast-moving flames. Читать дальше...

WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA — Reactions have been mixed on Namibia’s call last month for an international boycott of Israeli goods and companies in response to Israeli policies and practices in the Palestinian territories. If implemented, such a boycott could harm Namibia’s economy, as Israel is a key trading partner with the nation’s diamond mining industry. Diamonds are Namibia’s largest export earner, bringing in at least 10% of the country’s gross domestic product. Trade figures from 2022 show Namibia... Читать дальше...

Bangkok, Thailand — Myanmar’s youth leaders are determined to avoid the military’s conscription law that could see them fight against the very resistance they are part of. The Myanmar’s People Military Service Law, which was enacted in 2010 but activated in February, means men ages 18 to 45 and women ages 18 to 35 can be drafted into the armed forces for two years. People in certain professions, such as doctors, must serve for three years. In the case of a national emergency, the military service could be extended to a total of five years. Читать дальше...

GENEVA — A United Nations report finds nearly 11 months of conflict in Sudan has resulted in mass killings, displacement, destruction of property and rampant human rights violations that have caused immeasurable harm and distress to millions of people, whose plight has been all but forgotten by the rest of the world. “The crisis in Sudan is a tragedy that appears to have slipped into the fog of global amnesia,” Volker Turk, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said during an interactive dialogue... Читать дальше...

Washington — Thirty-one members of the U.S. Congress recently signed a letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging them to not recognize a new government in Pakistan until an investigation into allegations of election interference has been conducted. Voters in Pakistan went to polls on February 8. On election day, mobile services were blocked by Pakistani authorities and there were cases of violence. Many political leaders and activists were arrested in the weeks before the elections. Читать дальше...

WASHINGTON — French journalist Antoine Galindo, who was detained for a week in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, was released Thursday ahead of his scheduled second appearance in court Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said. Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, told VOA that Galindo, a reporter for Paris-based news site Africa Intelligence, left for France immediately after his release. “Unfortunately, the local politician whom he was interviewing when he was arrested... Читать дальше...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — On October 7, when Hamas militants attacked numerous targets in Israel, killing hundreds and abducting others, Marina Degtiar felt she had traveled back in time, to July 18, 1994. What happened in Buenos Aires 30 years ago broke her apart. A bomb-laden van exploded inside a Jewish community center where her 21-year-old brother, Cristian, worked. It was the worst such attack in Argentina's history, killing 85 — Degtiar´s brother among them — and injuring 300. The destruction... Читать дальше...

BUENOS AIRES — On July 18, 1994, an explosion destroyed the Buenos Aires headquarters of the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association, a Jewish community center. The worst such attack in the history of Argentina left 85 dead and more than 300 injured.  Official reports established that the attack on the center, known by its Spanish initials AMIA, was carried out with a car bomb. Prosecutors blamed former Iranian officials who would have operated through Hezbollah and a local contact.  Authorities have maintained these conclusions... Читать дальше...

PHOENIX — An Apache group that has fought to protect land it considers sacred from a copper mining project in central Arizona suffered a significant blow Friday when a divided federal court panel voted 6-5 to uphold a lower court's denial of a preliminary injunction to halt the transfer of land for the project. The Apache Stronghold organization has hoped to halt the mining project by preventing the U.S. government from transferring the land called Oak Flat to Resolution Copper. Wendsler Nosie... Читать дальше...

BOSTON — Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and upended child care, the CDC says parents can start treating the virus like other respiratory illnesses. Gone are mandated isolation periods and masking. But will schools and child care centers agree? In case you've lost track: Before Friday, all Americans, including school children, were supposed to stay home for at least five days if they had COVID-19 and then mask for a set period of time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Читать дальше...

MOANDA, DR Congo — The oil drills that loom down the road from Adore Ngaka's home remind him daily of everything he's lost. The extraction in his village in western Congo has polluted the soil, withered his crops and forced the family to burn through savings to survive, he said. Pointing to a stunted ear of corn in his garden, the 27-year-old farmer says it's about half the size he got before oil operations expanded nearly a decade ago in his village of Tshiende. "It's bringing us to poverty," he said. Читать дальше...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Iditarod, the annual sled dog race celebrating Alaska's official state sport, is set to get under way Saturday with a new focus on safety after five dogs died and eight were injured in collisions with snowmobiles while training on shared, multiuse trails. For the first time, mushers who line up for the ceremonial start in Anchorage will have the chance to snag light-up, neon harnesses or necklaces for their dogs before they begin the days-long race that takes the dog-and-human... Читать дальше...

The Chinese community in Seattle, Washington, took time from Lunar New Year celebrations to mark the Seattle riot of 1886, when mobs started to forcibly expel most Chinese from the city. Organizers of a commemoration march say lessons from then are relevant today. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya reports.

washington — Four years after the signing of the Doha agreement, the U.S. and Taliban accuse each other of violating its terms, while analysts say that the agreement was “flawed” and has had “disastrous” outcomes for Afghans. “The Taliban have not fulfilled their commitments in the Doha agreement,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday in a news briefing in response to a question from VOA’s Afghan Service. “The Taliban have also not fulfilled their Doha commitment to engage... Читать дальше...

Idlib, Syria — Hundreds took to the streets across Syria's rebel-held northwest Friday in rare protests against its jihadi rulers, as anger simmered a week after a man died in their custody.  About half of Idlib province and parts of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia are controlled by former al-Qaida affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).  The rebel-controlled region hosts about 3 million people, many of whom fled other parts of the country held or recaptured by the Russian- and Iranian-backed government of President Bashar al-Assad. Читать дальше...

washington — A key U.S. lawmaker highlighted Friday the "shocking" rise in imports under a trade exemption for small packages, amid heightened scrutiny on Chinese-founded online retailers Shein and Temu.  Both platforms, known for selling items at low prices, have been said to use a rule that allows products to enter the country duty-free via shipments valued at less than $800.  Some 1.05 billion shipments entered tax-free under the provision known as the de minimis exemption in 2023, said Mike Gallagher... Читать дальше...