Category: Євросоюз

Myanmar troops deployed to flood-hit parts of the country Sunday to help with relief efforts after the death toll from a deadly landslide jumped to 48. Every year monsoon rains hammer Myanmar and other countries across Southeast Asia, submerging homes, displacing thousands and triggering landslides. But the disaster Friday in southeastern Mon state was the worst in recent memory, and hundreds of emergency response workers were still pulling bodies out of the muddy wreckage early Sunday. Paung, Myanmar “The total death toll reached 48. Search and rescue is still ongoing,” Paung township administrator Zaw Moe Aung told AFP. Heavy rains …

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A powerful typhoon left at least 28 people dead in southeastern China, after a landslide backed up a river that broke through debris and inundated homes, state media reported Sunday. Another 20 people remained missing in Zhejiang province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Typhoon Lekima made landfall at 1:45 a.m. Saturday in Wenling city, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) south of Shanghai, the China Meteorological Administration said. The deaths occurred in Yongjia county on the outskirts of Wenzhou, a major port city. The river blocked by a landslide rose to a level of 10 meters (30 feet) within 10 …

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A gunman armed with multiple weapons opened fire in a mosque near Oslo Saturday, injuring one person before being overpowered by an elderly worshipper and arrested, Norwegian police and witnesses said. Hours after the attack, the body of a young woman related to the suspect was found in a home in the suburb of Baerum where the shooting took place earlier in the day, police said Saturday evening. Investigators are treating her death as suspicious and have opened a murder probe. The head of the mosque described the assailant as a young white man dressed in black and said he …

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Jacqueline Kennedy, the former first lady of the United States would have turned 90 years old this summer. On the occasion of the anniversary, Maksim Moskalkov visited the house where she first met John F. Kennedy more than half a century ago.   …

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The Associated Press contributed to this report. The apparent suicide in federal custody of well-connected U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein is being investigated by the FBI and the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.  Epstein, who had friendships with U.S. President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, was facing the possibility of 45 years in prison if convicted on charges of orchestrating a sex trafficking ring and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. Several of Epstein’s accusers said Saturday they’re disappointed that the financier won’t have to face them in court or serve a long prison …

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Malta says it is willing to take in 39 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea early Saturday by a Spanish NGO’s ship. Malta said, however, it would not take the 121 people who were already on the vessel who were plucked from the sea last week. Malta said its military had already mounted an effort to rescue the 39.   Proactive Open Arms, the migrant rescue group, recovered the 39 instead and has refused to disembark the group if Malta does not take the group of 121 migrants. Malta said in a statement that the larger group was rescued in …

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A landslide buried more than a dozen village houses in southeastern Myanmar, killing at least 10 people and injuring nearly 30, media reported Saturday. Rescuers were using backhoes and bulldozers to clear the mud and debris from the village in Paung township. The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that some residents were still missing. The top official in Mon state, Aye Zan, visited the site and villagers who were evacuated to a relief camp to escape floods following torrential rains. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that monsoon flooding had displaced more than 7,000 …

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Indian officials say at least 42 people have been killed in landslides and flooding caused by heavy rains.   Emergency officials say 100,000 people have been evacuated. The Indian state of Kerala has been worst hit, but Karnataka and Maharashtra states are also affected. June to September is India’s monsoon season which brings the heavy rains that farmers depend on, but the rains also bring heavy death and destruction. …

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In the 4½ months since U.S.-backed forces declared victory over the Islamic State terror group’s last shred of territory in Syria, there has been a steady drumbeat of doubt. One by one, military leaders, diplomats and experts began raising concerns, aiming to convince policymakers that for all of the success in rolling back IS’s self-declared caliphate, the group was far from dead. “This is not the end of the fight,” U.S. Special Representative for Syria Ambassador James Jeffrey warned, just days after the victory celebrations in Syria in late March. “That will go on,” he said. “It is a different …

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A fuel tanker exploded in Tanzania on Saturday, killing 57 people and injuring 65, many of whom were siphoning petrol from the vehicle, which had crashed, state broadcaster TBC Taifa said. The explosion occurred around 200 km (120 miles) west of the capital Dar es Salaam. “We have been saddened by reports of an accident involving a fuel truck in Morogoro, which caught fire and burnt several people,” government spokesman Hassan Abbasi said on Twitter.   …

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An envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Friday that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s unwillingness to boost defense spending might give the United States no choice but to move American troops stationed in Germany to Poland. The comments by Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, signal Trump’s impatience with Merkel’s failure to raise defense spending to 2% of economic output as mandated by the NATO military alliance. “It is offensive to assume that the U.S. taxpayers continue to pay for more than 50,000 Americans in Germany but the Germans get to spend their [budget] surplus on domestic programs,” Grenell …

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President Donald Trump said Friday he believes he has influence to rally Republicans around stronger federal background check laws as Congress and the White House work on a response to last weekend’s mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. At the same time, Trump said he had assured the National Rifle Association that its gun-rights views would be “fully represented and respected.” He said he was hopeful the NRA would not be an obstacle to strengthening the nation’s gun laws. Trump has promised to lead on tougher gun control measures before, including after the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting, but little …

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday unveiled a proposal that would curb state powers to block pipelines and other energy projects, as part of the Trump administration’s effort to boost domestic oil, gas and coal development. The move, swiftly criticized by an organization representing progressive states, comes four months after President Donald Trump ordered the EPA to change a section of the U.S. Clean Water Act that states like New York and Washington have used in recent years to delay pipelines and terminals. “When implemented, this proposal will streamline the process for constructing new energy infrastructure projects that are …

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Shortly after the top military leaders in the U.S. and South Korea preached closer cooperation on multiple issues confronting Asia, U.S. President Donald Trump sided with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his opposition to U.S.-South Korean war games. Speaking to reporters Friday outside the White House, Trump said he received a “very beautiful letter” from Kim that said the North Korean leader “wasn’t happy with the war games.”  Trump added, “You know, I’ve never liked it [them] either.” U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to New York and New Jersey from the …

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Nearly half of all Americans expect another mass shooting will happen soon in the United States, according to a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll released on Friday, as the nation reels from rampages in California, Texas and Ohio. The Aug. 7-8 survey found that 78% of Americans said it was likely that such an attack would take place in the next three months, including 49% who said one was “highly likely.” Another 10% said a mass shooting was unlikely in three months and the rest said they did not know. The poll was conducted after two mass shootings earlier in August …

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U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon M. Huntsman Jr. will resign from his post effective Oct. 3 — capping a tumultuous two-year tenure in Moscow defined by sinking bilateral relations, despite efforts to stem the damage. “American citizenship is a privilege and I believe the most basic responsibility in return is service to country,” wrote Huntsman in a resignation letter delivered to President Donald Trump on Tuesday and first published in The Salt Lake Tribune, a paper owned by Huntsman’s brother. “To that end, I am honored by the trust you have placed in me as United States Ambassador to Russia during …

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Security forces killed at least 17 suspected militants in raids in Cairo and in another province, Egypt officials said Thursday, four days after a car filled with explosives wrecked outside the county’s main cancer hospital, killing at least 20 people in the ensuing explosion. The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said in a statement that eight of the militants were killed when security forces stormed their hideout in the town of Atsa in Fayoum province, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Cairo. It said another seven were killed in the Cairo suburb of Shortouk. The remaining two, including …

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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Thursday that Joseph Maguire, the current chief of the National Counterterrorism Center, would become the acting director of national intelligence.    Trump said in a tweet that Maguire would take over the post Aug. 15, when Dan Coats, the current director of the agency overseeing civilian and military intelligence, steps down.    “Admiral Maguire has a long and distinguished career in the military, retiring from the U.S. Navy in 2010,” Trump said on Twitter. Maguire has led the National Counterterrorism Center since December.    Earlier Thursday, the agency’s No. 2 official, Sue Gordon, resigned. She …

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President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Joseph Maguire, the current chief of the National Counterterrorism Center, will become the acting director of national intelligence. Trump said in a tweet that Maguire will take over the post on Aug. 15, when Dan Coats, the current director of the agency overseeing civilian and military intelligence, steps down. “Admiral Maguire has a long and distinguished career in the military, retiring from the U.S. Navy in 2010,” Trump said on Twitter. Maguire has led the National Counterterrorism Center since December. Earlier on Thursday, the agency’s No. 2 official, Sue Gordon, resigned. She said …

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LAS VEGAS – Apple Inc. is offering cybersecurity researchers up to $1 million to detect flaws in iPhones, the largest reward offered by a company to defend against hackers, at a time of rising concern about governments breaking into the mobile devices of dissidents, journalists and human rights advocates.  Unlike other technology providers, Apple previously offered rewards only to invited researchers who tried to find flaws in its phones and cloud backups.  At the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, the company said it would open the process to all researchers, add Mac software and other targets, and offer a range of rewards, called “bounties,” for the …

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