Новости за 02.04.2017

A lawsuit has been filed in the state of Hawaii claiming that prison guards coerced inmates into having sex, in exchange for contraband goods and preferential treatment.

The 17-year old Russian youth powerlifting champion Maryana Naumova, who bench presses nearly 150 kilos and who is often regarded as the world’s strongest girl, has recently returned from her voyage to war-torn Syria and shared her experience with Sputnik.

The Har Lake, a body of water located in the Gobi Desert in Gansu province of China, and which dried up over 50 years ago, has reappeared thanks to an ambitious infrastructure project by Chinese authorities.

On the eve of next week's much-anticipated summit between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, observers have picked up on an interesting trend: the lack of a firm response from Beijing to US criticism over China's policies. China watchers suggest that Beijing has gained a pretty good grasp of Trump's hard-bargaining negotiating strategy.

US former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that Moscow was defining success of its foreign policy as thwarting Washington, which made it difficult to strategically align with.

A massive monument to Vladimir Lenin was purchased by an anonymous buyer during an auction in Western Ukraine.

Donald Trump's executive orders are likely to be an example of "tough rhetoric" rather than any substantive change to US trade policy, trade policy analyst Simon Lester told Radio Sputnik.

Russian engineers have developed a unique device capable of jamming torpedoes' target-seeking heads and blinding the sonar equipment used by submarines; the device is due to add significantly to the combat capability of the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet.

Speaking to Sputnik Belarus, Russian Ambassador to Belarus Alexander Surikov said that Western powers haven't been able to tear Belarus away from its special relationship with Russia, but that this hasn't stopped them from trying. Moscow is monitoring the situation, and taking steps to prevent Belarus from being ripped out of its orbit, he added.

Chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU) Horst Seehofer stated that it is not yet a settled issue that Alternative for Germany (AfD) will enter German Bundestag.

According to reports, at least 10 militants of Taliban radical movement, outlawed in Russia, were killed in an attack on Durqad district of northern Afghan province of Takhar.

This US washing machine was apparently a drum and bass musician in its previous incarnation.

Greece Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras stated that a decision on reforms in Greece will be approved and parliament will vote on measures and countermeasures, which will be implemented after 2019, only after sufficient measures on state debt emerge and are implemented.

Turkey has developed for its armed forces a new laser-guided missile, L-UMTAS, in the framework of the project of anti-tank missiles of distant radius of action, local media reported Sunday.

The BoogelWoogel alpine carnival kicked off at the Rosa Khutor skiing resort near Sochi on March 30.

Russia's April Fools' joke got a good reception in the US, despite the propensity of journalists there to endlessly repeat baseless stories about alleged Russian hacking, analyst Aleksey Martinov told the Russian newspaper Vzglyad.

Last week, officials from over a dozen countries gathered in Arkhangelsk, Russia for the international forum 'The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue'. Among the forum's senior participants was Russian nuclear energy giant Rosatom. Officials from the company and from the government previewed Rosatom's role in the new wave of intensive Arctic development.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party keeps losing public support, dropping from 13 percent in December 2016 to 8 percent, poll published on Sunday revealed.

It seems that despite the warnings of the UN and US, Israel is poised and ready to continue its construction of settlements for years to come, according to RIA Novosti political analyst Vladimir Ardayev.

A total of 543 Iraqi civilians have been killed with another 561 wounded as result of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in the country, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said Sunday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Unity of Peoples of Russia and Belarus Day and noted good results of integration cooperation of the two countries in the political, economic and other spheres, the Kremlin press service said Sunday in a statement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry explained the crucial difference between its operation in Aleppo and the US-led coalition's actions in Mosul.

Iraqi government forces continue to liberate the city of Mosul from Daesh militants block by block, and the terrorists are forcing civilians to act as human shields, the city's residents told RIA Novosti.

A new monument has been installed in the Aleppo Citadel. It symbolizes the resilience of the Syrian people.

The first round of the Serbian presidential election kicks off on Sunday, with a potential second round scheduled for April 16.