Beijing looks fair bet for 2022 Winter Games, despite lack of enthusiasm
Beijing looks like an improbable front-runner to win the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
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Olympics-Beijing looks fair bet for 2022 Winter Games, despite lack of enthusiasm
Beijing looks like an improbable front-runner to win the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. With Oslo dropping out of the race last year, citing worries over costs and the lack of popular support, Beijing, which hosted the 2008 Summer Games to wide acclaim, is left facing the Kazakh city of Almaty. Almaty previously bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics, but did not make the final shortlist of three cities.
Read moreTop choice blocked for U.N. digital privacy investigator post
By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) – The Estonian picked as the U.N.'s first digital privacy investigator was blocked on Friday by the German president of the Human Rights Council after activist groups said she would not be a strong enough critic of U.S. surveillance. Katrin Nyman-Metcalf was the candidate ranked first by a “consultative group” of five ambassadors – from Poland, Chile, Greece, Algeria and chaired by Saudi Arabia
Read moreRussian parliament approves Internet privacy bill
Russia's parliament gave its final approval on Friday to a law that would require Internet search engines to remove users' personal information from their results. The bill, passed by the State Duma lower house in its third reading, seeks to emulate European Union rules on the “right to be forgotten”, under which search engines must take down certain results that appear under a search of a person's name.
Read moreUberPOP halts service in France after clampdown, protests
By Mark John PARIS (Reuters) – Uber Technologies will suspend its UberPOP ride-hailing service in France, the U.S. company said on Friday, after it faced sometimes-violent protests and local authorities denounced it as an illegal taxi service. After fierce protests last week by licensed French taxi drivers who argue it threatens their livelihood with unfair competition, France took two executives from California-based Uber into custody and said they will face trial in September
Read moreCuba, an Internet laggard, opens Wi-Fi hotspots across country
By Jaime Hamre Havana (Reuters) – Cuba has opened 35 Wi-Fi access points nationwide, offering unprecedented online access in a country that until now has restricted use of the Internet to an elite few. Before the Wi-Fi signals became available on Wednesday, broadband Internet access had been limited to largely to desktops at state Internet parlors and pricey hotels
Read moreCalifornia cancer patient with amnesia identified by sister: NBC
(Reuters) – A woman with amnesia who has been undergoing cancer treatments since she was found semiconscious in Southern California has been identified by her sister after turning to social media in a bid to rekindle her memory and find her family, an NBC affiliate in San Diego reported on Thursday.
Read moreAmadeus to buy Navitaire from Accenture for $830 million
(Reuters) – Spanish travel technology company Amadeus said it would buy Navitaire, a subsidiary of Accenture Plc , for $830 million, to focus mainly on digital services for airline passengers. Amadeus said it expects the deal, which is projected to close in the fourth quarter, will have a minimal impact on its financial performance this year.
Read morePayPal to buy digital money transfer provider Xoom
By Mari Saito SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – PayPal Inc said it would buy digital money transfer provider Xoom Corp for $890 million as it muscles into a growing international remittance market and expand in countries like Mexico, India and China ahead of a spinoff from eBay Inc . The offer price of $25 per share in cash represents a premium of about 21 percent to Xoom's Wednesday closing price of $20.70. Xoom shares surged on the announcement and were trading around the offer price in extended trading
Read moreCalifornia cancer patient with amnesia faces identity crisis
By Marty Graham SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – A woman with amnesia who has been undergoing cancer treatments since she was found semiconscious in Southern California has turned to social media and law enforcement as she struggles to rekindle memory of her own identity and any family she may have. “The amnesia I have is called retro amnesia, and doctors have said they have seen this before with the kind of antibodies from the volleyball-sized tumor that was on my ovary,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “I have been getting chemotherapy treatments, and have lost all of my hair ..
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