Новости за 16.04.2024

"The Olympic flame that we are lighting today symbolises this hope for a better future," said International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach. Owing to cloudy weather, Greek actresses in the role of ancient priestesses used a flame lit in a rehearsal Monday in the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, near the stadium where the Olympics were born in 776 BC. Carrying the flame in a pot, Greek actress Mary Mina lit the torch for the first bearer, 2020 Olympic rowing champion Stefanos Ntouskos. Retired swimmer Laure Manaudou... Читать дальше...

France and its allies on Monday drummed up aid pledges of over two billion euros ($2.1 billion) for Sudan a year after civil war erupted sparking one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 8.5 million more forced to flee their homes since fighting broke out on April 15 last year between rival generals. FRANCE 24's Jean-Emile Jammine reports.

During a livestreamed church service Monday, a 16-year-old suspect slashed wildly at Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel as he gave a sermon in Sydney, one of the safest cities on Earth. The suspect was quickly subdued and no one was gravely hurt, but the incident incited riots that lasted hours and shattered a community's sense of peace. "For community members who escaped war-torn countries, witnessing something like that was triggering, and brought back memories they'd tried to bottle up and don't want to remember," said Ramsin Edward... Читать дальше...

Leaders of the resource-rich Gulf monarchies engaged in a rapid round of diplomacy after last weekend's Iranian drone and missile strikes on Israel raised the spectre of a regional conflagration. The desert countries lie across the Gulf from Iran, placing them on the doorstep of the latest crisis after months of tensions generated by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. US military facilities are scattered around the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates... Читать дальше...

Sunrisers Hyderabad broke their own IPL all-time record score by bludgeoning 287-3 on Monday against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, only three weeks after they set the previous benchmark with 277-3 against Mumbai Indians. Travis Head led Hyderabad's charge with a 39-ball century, the fourth-fastest in the tournament's 17-season history, before Heinrich Klaasen slogged seven sixes his 67 off 31 balls. "Impact player makes a big difference," Klaasen said after his team's 25-run victory in Bengaluru. Читать дальше...

British-American author Salman Rushdie recounts the 2022 stabbing at a public event that left him blind in one eye in "Knife", his first memoir since the near-fatal attack, which hits English language bookstores on Tuesday. The French edition, "Le Couteau", will be released Thursday.

"It's continuing at a pretty stable rate at the moment and we don't see any real signs that it will end in the near future," Benedikt Ofeigsson, geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), told AFP. On March 16, lava burst out of a crack in the ground at Sundhnukagigar, on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland, and has flowed ever since. The volcano was pumping out some 3.6 cubic metres of lava per second in the most recent measurements taken on April 9, according to the IMO. Читать дальше...

The only naked bar in Amsterdam catering for the LGBTQ+ community, Free Willie's punters and managers see it as a safe haven in a city where tolerance -- and fun -- is in decline. Located in a beautiful canalside house, the interior decor is unashamedly phallic. Brass penis-shaped knobs jut proudly out from walls to hang hats and clothes. The bar area is illuminated with neon penis lights. Almost everyone wears shoes and more prudish customers can sport underwear, but "we discourage that," laughed owner Richard Keldoulis... Читать дальше...

Foster has not coached since leading the All Blacks to last year's World Cup final, where they lost 12-11 to South Africa. Toyota's director of rugby is former All Blacks head coach Hansen, whom Foster worked under as an assistant from 2011 to 2019. Foster said he was "determined to make a difference" at Toyota, who are sixth in the 12-team Japan Rugby League One table after 13 games this season. The club declined to say exactly what coaching role he would take on. "I have been very impressed... Читать дальше...

The 52-year-old American, an 11-time world champion, had hoped to go the Paris Olympics this summer but did not make the grade. "This feels like the end," he said following elimination from a World Surf League event at Margaret River, near Perth. "Everything comes to an end," added Slater, who was visibly emotional afterwards. "If you don't adapt, you don't survive. "My motivation just has not quite been there to really put in that 100 percent that everyone is doing now."

For 33 years marine biologist Anne Hoggett has lived and worked on Lizard Island, a small slice of tropical paradise off Australia's northeast tip. She affectionally dubs it "Blizzard Island". The only relief from the wind and teeming showers is in the powder blue waters, where sea turtles and tiger sharks rove along the Great Barrier Reef. As Hoggett snorkels, schools of fish swim gracefully, feeding on the coral or darting between it. Some are as small as her little finger, others the colour of fire. Читать дальше...

Israel’s foreign minister on Tuesday said he was urging countries to place sanctions on Iran's missile programme and proscribe its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation. Israel’s armed forces chief on Monday vowed to respond to Iran's missile and drone attack against the country, even after appeals for restraint poured in from world leaders fearing wider regional conflict. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates on the situation in the Middle East.

Sunday's 2-0 loss brought back uncomfortable memories for Mikel Arteta's side, who led the way for most of last season before buckling in the home straight, allowing Manchester City to overtake them. Long-suffering fans fear the worst again, with City now top of the pile once more and favourites to seal an unprecedented fourth straight top-flight title. Defeat at the Emirates -- Arsenal's first league loss of 2024 -- felt all the more galling after Liverpool's shock defeat by Crystal Palace earlier... Читать дальше...

The big-hitting all-rounder has scored just 32 with the bat in six games and skipped the defeat on Monday in a record run-fest against Sunrisers Hyderabad. It was Bengaluru's sixth defeat in seven matches and Faf du Plessis's side are bottom of the 10-team table. "I think now is actually a good time for me to give myself a bit of a mental and physical break, get my body right," the 35-year-old Maxwell said after playing no part in his side's 25-run defeat. "If I'm required to get in during the tournament... Читать дальше...

The sacred flame for the Paris 2024 Olympics is to be lit Tuesday in ancient Olympia, birthplace of the ancient Games, for an epic torch relay stretching from the Acropolis to the South Pacific.

Beijing has set a target of around five percent growth for the year, a goal officials last month admitted would "not be easy" and which analysts said was ambitious given the headwinds the country is confronting. For the first three months of the year, gross domestic product rose 5.3 percent, compared with 5.2 in the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The figures well exceeded analysts' expectations, with those pooled by Bloomberg having estimated the figure would come in... Читать дальше...

Donald Trump's New York criminal trial opened Monday in a historic first for a US ex-president -- and a seismic twist to an already explosive 2024 election where the Republican is seeking to defy multiple scandals and return to power.

But these days, she and her partner Piotr are imbibing less booze: "I felt like drinking more took away from the festival experience," she says. "I feel like now I'm enjoying myself a lot more this year, not drinking as much." The Biegajs aren't alone: alcohol consumption among millennials and Gen-Z is down, a number of recent studies have shown, for a variety of reasons including concern over mental and physical health. It's a life choice made easier by the growing availability of non-alcoholic spirits... Читать дальше...

Adding to the excitement of fans, they will see Shanghai native Zhou Guanyu drive at his home track in Formula One for the first time. "I'm extremely excited, in these 5,000 years of (Chinese) history there has only been one Zhou Guanyu," said fan Wang Xiaotian. Shanghai last witnessed an F1 race in 2019, before Covid and China's travel restrictions put a halt to almost all major international sport in the country. Tickets for the action-packed Formula One weekend -- which begins with Friday morning practice... Читать дальше...

A movie weapons supervisor was sentenced to 18 months in prison in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film “Rust,” during a hearing Monday in which tearful family members and friends gave testimonials that included calls for justice and a punishment that would instill greater accountability for safety on film sets.

Australian police on Tuesday said a brutal live-streamed knife attack at a church service in Sydney was a religiously motivated "terrorist" act, as they urged calm from the angered local community.