UNITED NATIONS — The number of children worldwide who died before age 5 reached a record low in 2022, the United Nations said in a report published Tuesday, as for the first time fewer than 5 million died. According to the estimate, 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2022, a 51% decrease since 2000 and a 62% drop since 1990, according to the report, which still warned such progress is "precarious" and unequal. "There is a lot of good news, and the major one is that we have... Читать дальше...
Sanhe, China — A suspected gas leak caused a blast at a restaurant in China's northern province of Hebei that ripped facades from buildings, damaged cars and scattered debris to kill two people and injure 26, state media and authorities said on Wednesday. The blast happened at about 8 a.m. in the county of Sanhe, state broadcaster CCTV News said, roughly 30 kilometers from the center of Beijing. Videos on social media platform Weibo showed a large orange fireball over the site, followed by billows of grey smoke... Читать дальше...
Before a presidential election can be held, political parties must choose their nominees. That is done either through primaries or caucuses.
WASHINGTON and PHNOM PENH — Climate change and upstream dams, most of them controlled by China, are threatening Cambodia's enormous Tonle Sap Lake and its surrounding communities, putting the nation's protein supply and the greater Mekong River ecosystem at risk. The three-year stretch from 2019-2021 was the driest on record. The Tonle Sap's vital flood pulse appeared to be dying, along with much of the lake's bountiful fish stocks. Water typically flows into the Tonle Sap Lake for 120 days during the wet season... Читать дальше...
BANGKOK — Thailand's Election Commission is asking the country's Constitutional Court to dissolve the main opposition Move Forward Party, citing the party's campaign promises last year to amend a strict law that prohibits criticism of the country's monarchy. The Thai monarchy is central to society and is enshrined in the country's constitution, with the king enthroned in a "position of revered worship." Thailand's Move Forward Party won the most seats in last year's general elections in part... Читать дальше...
VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb on U.S. military highlighting importance of interdicting Iranian weapons supplies to Yemen’s Houthis. German Institute for Global and Area Studies researcher Sara Bazoobandi on why many Iranians are resorting to desperate methods to obtain food as inflation soars. Former University of Mazandaran professor Farshid Nowrouzi-Roshnavand on how he was pushed out of his job last year as part of Iran’s purge of dissent in academia and forced into exile in France. France24... Читать дальше...
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress on Tuesday turned a hearing about President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents into a charged referendum on a question central to the upcoming presidential election: the 81-year-old's mental fitness. The Biden administration and their main challengers, the backers of presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump, emerged from the House Judiciary Committee's five-hour grilling of Special Counsel Robert Hur with radically different answers to that question. Читать дальше...
Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced his resignation Tuesday, the day after the United States pledged another $100 million to a United Nations-backed multinational security force intended to assist Haitian police in combating gangs, along with $33 million in humanitarian aid. VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching reports.
united nations — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on all stakeholders in Haiti to “act responsibly” and take steps toward implementing the agreement reached late Monday for the establishment of a transitional government and the subsequent resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. “The secretary-general takes note of the agreement reached yesterday by Haitian stakeholders on a transitional governance arrangement, including the establishment of a presidential council and... Читать дальше...
