Новости за 22.02.2024

Pakistan’s media regulators have blocked the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, with users across the country enduring the sixth day of sweeping disruptions, partial and complete shutdowns. There was no comment on the outage by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on Thursday and government officials have not responded to repeated queries from The Associated Press for comment. Human rights activists have demanded a full restoration of internet services and access to social media platforms. Читать дальше...

Two more in vitro fertilization providers in Alabama have paused parts of their treatment after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are legally considered children. Alabama Fertility Services said in a statement Thursday that has “made the impossibly difficult decision to hold new IVF treatments due to the legal risk to our clinic and our embryologists." The Center for Reproductive Medicine at Mobile Infirmary also decided to pause IVF treatment because of the ruling. The decisions... Читать дальше...

A New Hampshire man has been convicted of second-degree murder in the death of his 5-year-old daughter. Police believe Harmony Montgomery was killed nearly two years before she was reported missing in 2021. A jury returned its verdict Thursday after a two-week trial. Adam Montgomery's attorneys previously acknowledged his guilt on two lesser charges but said he didn't kill his daughter. They did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. Adam Montgomery’s estranged wife testified that the body... Читать дальше...

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose in January as homebuyers seized upon easing mortgage rates and a modest pickup in properties on the market. Existing home sales rose 3.1% last month from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s the strongest sales pace since August. The modest sales increase is an encouraging start for the housing market, which has been mired in a slump the past two years. Sales fell 1.7% compared with January last year, however. Читать дальше...

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has set a target to further increase aquaculture production to meet rising demand for seafood and to fight global hunger and undernourishment. A report adopted at the end of a three-day Asia and Pacific regional conference in Sri Lanka’s capital on Thursday says the FAO hopes to see 35% growth in the aquaculture sector by 2030. Officials said the world’s aquaculture production has increased by 54% since 2011 and remains one of the fastest growing agricultural producing sectors. Читать дальше...

A number of Americans are dealing with cellular outages on AT&T, Cricket Wireless, Verizon, T-Mobile and other service providers, according to data from Downdetector. AT&T had more than 64,000 outages this morning, in locations including Houston, Atlanta and Chicago. Cricket Wireless had more than 13,000, the outage tracking website said Thursday. Verizon had more than 4,000 outages and T-Mobile had more than 1,900 outages. Boost Mobile had about 700 outages.

A new report says activists want stricter regulations of short-term rentals in Puerto Rico as the U.S. territory sees a growing number of displaced renters and a spike in housing costs. The report says the number of units operating as short-term rentals in Puerto Rico jumped to more than 25,000 in 2023 from about 1,000 in 2014. Renters have faced evictions, the cost of goods have increased and some ecological areas have been destroyed during new construction. A key factor in the increase of short-term... Читать дальше...

President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “crazy SOB” during a fundraiser for his reelection campaign Wednesday night. Biden also took aim at former President Donald Trump’s comments comparing himself to the Russian opposition leader who died last week in an Arctic prison. Biden is in California on a three-day swing to raise money for his reelection campaign. He has been warning voters what is at stake should Trump, his likely Republican challenger, win in November.

A suspected missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has set a ship ablaze in the Gulf of Aden. Meanwhile Thursday, Israel intercepted what appeared to be another Houthi attack near the port city of Eilat. The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the ship was attacked by two missiles and that the vessel is now ablaze. Ship-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press identified the vessel as a Palau-flagged cargo ship named Islander. Sirens sounded early Thursday morning over Eilat... Читать дальше...

The Dubai-based budget carrier FlyDubai has seen record earnings of $572 million in 2023, boosted by carrying the most passengers ever across its network. That's according to a company announcement on Thursday. The state-owned carrier, based in the business and tourism hub of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, reported revenue of $3 billion, compared to $2.5 billion the year before. It also carried 13.8 million passengers, beating its prior pre-pandemic record of 11 million in a year. It saw a profit of $327 million in profit in 2022. Читать дальше...

The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission has rejected a proposed settlement between the city and former CBS executive Les Moonves. The commission says a tougher penalty is warranted than the $11,250 he agreed to pay. Moonves is accused of interfering with a police investigation into sexual assault allegations against him. He allegedly worked closely with a department official to obtain information about an assault victim’s confidential police report. A Moonves representative declined to comment on Wednesday's action.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index has surged past the record it set in 1989 before its financial bubble burst, ushering in an era of faltering growth. The index closed Thursday at 39,098.68, up 2.2%. It had been hovering for weeks near 34-year highs. The Nikkei 225's previous record was 38,915.87, set on Dec. 29, 1989. That’s more than a generation ago, at the height of Japan’s post-war economic boom. Stock prices have been rising in recent months, even as the economy slipped into recession. Foreign investors... Читать дальше...

The head of a renewable energy subsidiary of Japan’s top oil company, Eneos Holdings, has been fired for sexual harassment as awareness of the #MeToo movement grows in the country. Japan Renewable Energy Corp. says it dismissed chairperson Shigeru Yasu after an internal investigation confirmed sexual harassment at a social gathering in December. The company launched the probe after a whistleblower reported the case. Yasu is the third executive with the Eneos group to be fired over sexual harassment in two years. Читать дальше...

A group of United States Congress members are praising Taiwan's democracy during a visit to the island. The show of support is certain to draw scrutiny from China, which sees such displays as a challenge to its claim of sovereignty over the island. A visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan two years ago resulted in China dispatching warships and military aircraft to all sides of the self-governing island democracy. On Thursday, the bipartisan delegation praised Taiwan as a robust democracy... Читать дальше...

Attorneys are prepared to make opening statements at the first trial related to the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal for the Western film “Rust.” Before Baldwin’s case progresses, the weapons supervisor is on trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Oct. 21, 2021, on a movie ranch outside Santa Fe. Opening statements are scheduled for Thursday. Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded... Читать дальше...

Chinese police are investigating an unauthorized and highly unusual online dump of documents from a private security contractor linked to China’s top policing agency and other parts of its government. It's a trove that reveals and catalogs apparent hacking activity and tools to spy on both Chinese and foreigners. Among the apparent targets of tools provided by the impacted company, I-Soon, are ethnicities and dissidents in parts of China that have seen significant anti-government protests like Hong Kong or Xinjiang. Читать дальше...

Japan's Nikkei 225 share benchmark has surged to an all-time high, bypassing its previous record set in December 1989 on heavy buying by global investors. By early afternoon Thursday it was up 1.9% at 38,997.23. Its previous record was 38,915.87, set just before Japan's bubble economy collapsed in the early 1990s. Shares elsewhere in Asia were mixed. On Wednesday, stocks ended mostly higher on Wall Street after a listless day of trading. The S&P 500 edged up 0.1%. The Dow also added 0.1% after turning slightly higher just before the close. Читать дальше...

A large Alabama hospital has paused in vitro fertilization treatments as health care providers weigh the impact of a state court ruling that frozen embryos are the legal equivalent of children.

China is planning to send a new pair of giant pandas to the San Diego Zoo after nearly all the iconic bears in the U.S. were returned to the Asian country in recent years. Megan Owen of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance says the zoo has been working with China and expects to get a pair by summer's end if the permits are approved. The black-and-white bears have long been the symbol of friendship between U.S. and China, but only four remained in the U.S. as relations began to cool between the two nations. Читать дальше...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Israeli sabotage attack on an Iranian natural gas pipeline last week caused multiple explosions on the line, Iran's oil minister alleged Wednesday, further raising tensions between the regional archenemies against the backdrop of Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Whales sing loud enough that the sound travels through the ocean. But how they do that has been a mystery. A new study says whales have a specialized voice box that isn't seen in other animals. The study was too tiny to be definitive, but experts say the discovery will direct future research into how whales communicate. The research looked at voice boxes from three dead, stranded whales. Lab experiments showed the whales use a cushion of fat and tissue to sing.

Federal prosecutors say the explosive allegations at the center of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden were false and came from an ex-FBI informant who said he was in touch with Russian intelligence. Prosecutors said in court documents Wednesday that informant Alexander Smirnov is “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections." They are appealing to a judge to keep him behind bars ahead of trial on charges alleging he lied to the FBI. Republicans in Congress, meanwhile... Читать дальше...

The White House is considering using provisions of federal immigration law repeatedly tapped by former President Donald Trump to unilaterally enact a sweeping crackdown at the southern border. That's according to three people familiar with the deliberations. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing White House deliberations. The administration has been exploring options that President Joe Biden could deploy on his own without congressional approval after... Читать дальше...

A U.S. appeals court has struck down a moratorium on coal leasing from federal lands. Wednesday's ruling could open the door to future coal sales from publicly owned reserves of the fuel that’s a major source of climate-changing greenhouse gases. It marks a setback for environmentalists and was hailed by industry representatives who said the move could allow some mining projects to advance. Yet the demand for new coal leases is uncertain: Coal production from federal lands dropped sharply over the... Читать дальше...

Pennsylvania’s highest court is ruling that Republican state lawmakers can no longer try to enforce a subpoena for election records that they issued in 2021. Their quest had been inspired by former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, but the court said Wednesday that the subpoena became “unenforceable” when the state Legislature’s two-year session ended in 2022. It dismissed three appeals and vacated a lower court order that said the Senate could enforce its subpoena. Читать дальше...