Новости за 31.12.2016

John Marshall, chief surgeon at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center, was found in the Spokane River Jan. 26, a day after he left on a morning run and didn’t show up for work. His death investigation has been suspended with no conclusion.

Judge John Roach Jr. said the court is a first of its kind, and he hopes it will be replicated in other rural areas without public transportation, where getting to hearings can be a challenge.

Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to stay calm in the face of Islamist terrorism and criticized nationalists for offering false hopes of security, signaling she’ll count on voters to opt for stability when she runs for a fourth term in 2017.

Seven homeless veterans could start the new year with a roof over their heads and a chance at a fresh start thanks to a motorcycle club’s years-long efforts.

As people nationwide prepare to pour into the streets on New Year’s Eve, law enforcement officials are preparing for possible terrorist attacks, a concern amplified by recent attacks at public celebrations overseas.

The Obama administration’s move to shut down a Russian diplomatic retreat over meddling in the presidential election cast a small patch of light on the normally shadowy job of battling foreign spies on American soil — all in the seemingly unlikely location of small waterfront community on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

A persistent reality for some of Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods, violence unnerved far reaches of the city in 2016 as shootings and homicides soared. Not since the drug-fueled bloodshed of the mid-1990s had the city witnessed such a toll.

Unlike leap years, leap seconds are not a regular occurrence. Instead, they are decreed by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service in Paris, which measures the Earth’s rotation and compares it with the time kept by atomic clocks.

As 2016 draws to a close, revelers around the world are bidding a weary adieu to a year filled with political surprises, prolonged conflicts and deaths of legendary celebrities.

Ousted during the Arab Spring uprisings, one of the Middle East's wiliest politicians has risen up again. He is taking advantage of the chaos of conflict and the political inexperience of the rebels to deepen his influence, officials and analysts say.

These photos, selected by our European staff, are comprised of photos taken this year and range from military family-led events to operational engagements.

The sixth annual list of the year's top 20 notable foreign-policy quotes presented in chronological order with some context and commentary added.

Our downrange reporters include servicemembers, military veterans and seasoned war reporters. See some of their favorite photos from Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and other spots in the Middle East.

View some of our top photos from the U.S., including veteran protests in North Dakota, the Invictus Games in Florida and Medal of Honor recipients in our nation’s capital.

Syrian rebels warned on Saturday that cease-fire violations by pro-government forces threatened to undermine a two-day-old agreement intended to pave the way for talks between the government and the opposition in the new year.

The 60 or so travelers disembark and gather up their backpacks and bags. “Africanos!” murmurs one of the bicycle rickshaw drivers on the Mexican side, waiting for the fresh arrivals from Guatemala to reach shore. Three Somali women make their way hastily up the slippery incline, passing trash heaps, scurrying rats and campfires warming coffee and tortillas.

On a chilly April night in the desert outside Phoenix, Rasel Ahmed, his wrists and ankles bound in cuffs, shuffled onto a bus at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement airfield with a pit in his stomach. For 18 months he bounced among detention centers in San Diego, Louisiana and Alabama, praying for an immigration judge to let him remain in the country, get a job and support his family 8,000 miles away. Now it appeared his time had run out.

One morning in January, five men from Nepal showed up at the Casa del Migrante in Tijuana, looking for a bed for the night. This border city has been a gateway for generations of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Mexico and Central America, people dreaming of a better life in the United States. But Nepal was 8,000 miles away. What were they doing here?

The flow of migrants arriving in Colombia without visas has increased dramatically over the last three years. Some 9,500 of them transited the country in the first half of 2016, more than double last year’s levels and four times the number detained in 2014. They are part of an unprecedented wave of global migration that has seen millions of refugees descend on Europe, fleeing poverty, persecution and war.

In a video posted on YouTube, Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau says, "I am here, well and alive. The battle is just beginning." He then urges his fighters to "kill, slaughter and abduct ... and detonate bombs everywhere," in an effort to deny Nigerian government claims that his Islamic extremist group has been crushed.

Even on New Year's Eve, large crowds of South Koreans gathered to join another rally demanding the ouster of impeached President Park Geun-hye, who's determined to restore her powers through a court trial.

The chilly December wind whipped rain across the strewn wreckage of a city that, nearly 3,000 years ago, ruled almost the entire Middle East. Rivulets of water ran through the dirt, washing away chunks of ancient stone.

The nonprofit Wounded Warrior Project entered 2016 with a more than $400 million budget and reason to believe its meteoric growth would continue. It ended the year with detrimental losses following a scandal that led to the ouster of its two top executives in March.

Activists say besieged opposition pockets around the Syrian capital of Damascus have seen no reprieve in fighting despite a nationwide cease-fire agreement that went into effect over 36 hours ago.

A pair of bomb blasts targeting a market in central Baghdad Saturday killed at least 28 people and wounded at least 54, according to police and medical officials.