новини

STOCKHOLM — Swedish authorities said on Tuesday that Iran hacked into a text messaging service last year and sent thousands of messages urging Swedes to take revenge against Koran burners.   In 2023, individuals in Sweden on several occasions set fire to Islam’s holy book in public, prompting outrage in the Muslim world and raising fears of attacks by jihadists.  “The security police is able to establish that a cyber group acted on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to carry out an influence campaign,” the Swedish Security Service said in a statement.   “The purpose was, among other things, to …

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Berlin — Germany’s leading economic institutes have downgraded their forecast for 2024 and now see Europe’s largest economy shrinking by 0.1%, people familiar with the figures from the autumn joint economic forecast told Reuters on Tuesday.  Germany’s economy was the weakest among its large euro zone peers last year with a 0.3% contraction.   Even with inflation on a downward trend, consumption remains weak and high energy costs, feeble global orders and high interest rates are still taking their toll.   The latest economic data paint a gloomy picture. German business morale fell for a fourth straight month in September and …

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ROME — Pope Francis has called for the liberation of Myanmar’s detained former leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and offered the Vatican as a safe haven, the pontiff said in a recent conversation with Jesuits in Asia. “I asked for the Ms Aung San Suu Kyi’s release and received her son in Rome. I offered the Vatican to receive her in our territory,” he said in a private conversation during a recent 12-day tour across Southeast Asia. The 87-year old pontiff visited Myanmar in December 2017. Italian daily Corriere della Sera published the comments on Tuesday in an …

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Pentagon — The U.S. military is expected to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine this week valued at up to $375 million, the largest aid sent to Kyiv since May. According to several U.S. officials, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity to discuss the package ahead of the announcement, the aid for Kyiv is expected to be announced as soon as Wednesday. One official told VOA the package is likely to include air-to-ground munitions for F-16 fighter jets, which would allow Ukrainian pilots to operate away from the front lines and Russia’s air defenses.  The package also …

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paris — After more than two months without a functioning government, France’s new cabinet got to work Monday. How long it will remain in office is unclear. French politics have been in limbo since inconclusive snap legislative elections in late June and early July. The elections saw a leftist coalition win the most votes and the far-right National Rally emerging as the largest party. Only now, after the Paris Olympics, has a new center-right government been named, which doesn’t include either of these two blocs. On national TV Sunday night, conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier outlined some broad priorities. He called …

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Moscow — A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russians and one American from the International Space Station landed Monday in Kazakhstan, ending a record-breaking stay for the Russian pair. The capsule landed on the Kazakh steppe about 3 1/2 hours after undocking from the ISS in an apparently trouble-free descent. In the last stage of the landing, it descended under a red-and-white parachute at about 7.2 meters per second (16 mph), with small rockets fired in the final seconds to cushion the touchdown. The astronauts were extracted from the capsule and placed in nearby chairs to help them adjust to gravity, then …

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geneva — United Nations investigators are accusing the Belarusian government of Alexander Lukashenko of instilling “a pervasive climate of fear by quashing all avenues of dissent” by systematically oppressing its perceived political opponents. “Measures of repression and intimidation aimed at suppressing dissent continue unabated in Belarus, particularly in the lead-up to the presidential election scheduled in 2025,” Karinna Moskaleko, chair of the Group of independent Experts told the U.N. human rights council Monday. Moskaleko presented a searing account of widespread human rights violations, abuse, and horrific cases of cruelty and deprivation in this first oral update of the human rights situation …

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