Amazing Sports
NBA notebook: Durant doubtful for Game 1
Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant is unlikely to play in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday against either the Toronto Raptors or Milwaukee Bucks. Durant has missed the past five games with a right calf injury and he told reporters on Friday that he was initially worried that he had torn his…
Entertainment
Tarantino is top dog at Cannes – at least in the pooch department
CANNES, France (Reuters) – Twenty-five years after taking the festival by storm with “Pulp Fiction”, Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie has already clinched an award at Cannes – thanks to a dog in a show-stealing fight scene. “Brandy”, which was actually played by three different pitbulls, won the unofficial “Palm Dog” prize at the cinema showcase…
‘Off the scale’ excitement for fans as Spice Girls reunion opens
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Fans from near and far got what they really really really wanted on Friday night when the ultimate 1990s girl band, the Spice Girls, opened their long awaited reunion tour at last in Dublin. “We have been fans for 20 years at least…but we have only been to see impersonators. This is…
On Cannes red carpet, ‘go big’ is this year’s fashion buzzword
CANNES, France (Reuters) – Enormous bouffant dresses decked out in lace or feathers ruled the red carpet at this year’s Cannes film festival, one of the of the world’s most glamorous stages for actors as well as fashion designers. As well as oversized gowns, more classic monochrome looks also scored design points for some fashion…
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Health
Groups sue over Alabama abortion law; judge blocks Mississippi ban
(Reuters) – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging a law enacted by Alabama last week that bans nearly all abortions and makes performing the procedure a felony punishable by up to 99 years in prison. The lawsuit is one of several the groups have filed or…
Mexico budget cuts hit patient care and delay kids’ surgeries, doctors warn
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s hospitals are reeling under steep budget cuts by the country’s new government, with surgery delays for children, reductions in testing and staffing shortages, hospital directors said on Friday, fanning anger over President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s austerity measures. In its first budget in December, the government slashed the budget from…
Novartis $2 million gene therapy for rare disorder is world’s most expensive drug
ZURICH/NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Novartis on Friday won U.S. approval for its gene therapy Zolgensma for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the leading genetic cause of death in infants, and priced the one-time treatment at a record $2.125 million. The Food and Drug Administration approved Zolgensma for children under the age of two with…
New Technology
First American says product defect could have caused customer data exposure
(Reuters) – U.S. real estate title insurance company First American Financial Corp said on Friday it had learned of a design defect in one of its production applications that had made possible unauthorized access to customer data. The statement was sent in response to a report by security news website Krebs on Security, which said…
Mexico tax plan for riding hailing firms may soon be mandatory: Cabify
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A tax withholding plan in Mexico for drivers at ride-hailing firms envisaged as voluntary when it was unveiled earlier this week could become obligatory in 2020, Spanish company Cabify said on Friday. Mexico’s government on Monday outlined the scheme due to be implemented on June 1, and Cabify, Uber Technologies and…
Amazon facial recognition ban won just 2% of shareholder vote
(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that the company stop selling facial recognition technology to government agencies, while a resolution to audit the service drew more support, a regulatory filing on Friday showed. Some 2.4% of votes were in favor of the ban. A second proposal that called for a study of…
Uber’s first employee, Ryan Graves, resigns from board
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Uber’s first employee and one-time chief executive Ryan Graves will step down from the company’s board of directors, Uber said on Friday. Graves this week informed the company of his intention to resign from the board, beginning Monday. Graves started at Uber in 2010 as the first employee and held a…
Musk’s SpaceX raised over $1 billion in six months: filings
(Reuters) – Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX has raised more than $1 billion in financing in the last six months as it aims to roll out an ambitious high-speed internet service by using a constellation of satellites to beam signals from space. The company raised here $486.2 million in an equity offering, starting December, and…
Science
First satellites for Musk’s Starlink internet venture launched into orbit
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – SpaceX, the private rocket company of high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, launched the first batch of 60 small satellites into low-Earth orbit on Thursday for Musk’s new Starlink internet service. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the satellites blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at about 10:30 p.m. local time…
NASA executive quits weeks after appointment to lead 2024 moon landing plan
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – A top NASA executive hired in April to guide strategy for returning astronauts to the moon by 2024 has resigned, the space agency said on Thursday, the culmination of internal strife and dwindling congressional support for the lunar initiative. Mark Sirangelo, named six weeks ago as special assistant to NASA…
