Science & Technology News

REUTERS – “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Walt Disney Co’s offbeat space adventure featuring extraterrestrial misfits and a talking raccoon, took $94 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales this weekend, setting a record for a film opening in August. “Lucy” stars Scarlett Johansson as a woman with a super-powered brain. “Get On Up,” a biography of the soul singer James Brown, finished third with $14 million during its first weekend in theaters. Chadwick Boseman, who played Jackie Robinson last year in “42,” portrays Brown.

By Anshuman Daga SINGAPORE (Reuters) – P2i, a technology spin-off from Britain’s Ministry of Defence, is looking to raise as much as 10 million pounds ($17 million) from Singapore investors as it readies the launch of its “Dunkable” or waterproof technology for smartphones and tablets. The fundraising by the nanotechnology company follows an expanding list of overseas firms tapping Singapore’s pool of high net worth individuals. P2i’s technology applies a thin, transparent, splash-resistant polymer coat to products ranging from clothing to mobile phones. The company is in the process of introducing a new version of the technology, which it calls “Dunkable”, that will allow devices to survive being immersed in water.

By Roberta Rampton KANSAS CITY Mo (Reuters) – President Barack Obama took his criticism of congressional Republicans to a higher pitch on Wednesday, appealing to them to “stop just hatin’ all the time” even as Republicans prepared to sue him over charges he has overstepped the bounds of his office. Republicans in the House of Representatives were expected to vote on Wednesday to authorize a lawsuit against the president for exceeding his presidential authority while implementing the Affordable Care Act, his signature health care law. Stop — stop — stop just hatin’ all the time,” he said of Republicans, drawing loud cheers from a raucous crowd of about 1,500 in an ornate theater in Kansas City. While the lawsuit would focus on the health law, Republicans have complained that Obama’s use of executive actions to take other steps, such as raising the minimum wage for federal workers, risks giving him “king-like authority.” Obama disparaged the expected lawsuit as nothing but election-year political theater and a distraction from issues such as highway construction or the southwestern border crisis.

By Tim Cocks KADUNA Nigeria (Reuters) – In classrooms facing a sandy courtyard in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, Maska Road Islamic School teaches a creed that condemns the violent ideology of groups like Boko Haram. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, known as the “Pants Bomber”, spent his youth in this school – and ended up trying unsuccessfully to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day 2009 with explosives hidden in his underwear. “We teach them that what they (Boko Haram) are doing is a total misunderstanding of the Islamic religion, that Prophet Mohammed was compassionate, he even lived together with the non-Muslims in Medina,” said headmaster Sulaiman Saiki. Koranic schools like Maska Road will be a pillar of the strategy being launched in September to counter Boko Haram’s ideology.

Indian Grand Prix – The rrim road ahead

Indian Grand Prix – The rrim road ahead

Louis van Gaal has confirmed Manchester United’s interest in Roma midfielder Kevin Strootman

By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top White House adviser said on Friday Republicans might try to impeach President Barack Obama over his go-it-alone immigration strategy, as Obama prepared to talk about the U.S. border crisis with Central American presidents. Dan Pfeiffer, one of Obama’s longest-serving advisers, told reporters that the executive actions Obama will approve at the end of the summer aimed at tackling illegal immigration will likely generate ire from Republicans who have blocked comprehensive immigration legislation.

By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gun-toting thugs and a vicious Asian mob boss are no match for the brawn and brain of French director Luc Besson’s super-powered heroine in his sci-fi, action thriller “Lucy.” Besson is known for creating strong female characters in “La Femme Nikita” and “The Fifth Element.” But he goes a step further in “Lucy,” which opens in theaters in the United States on Friday, with an American student in Taipei who becomes invincible after the full power of her brain is unleashed. Scarlett Johansson (“The Avengers”) is Lucy, a woman tricked by a boyfriend into delivering a suitcase and becomes one of several unwilling drug mules dispatched around the globe by Asian mobsters. After a brutal beating, the powerful synthetic compound implanted in her stomach seeps into her body and gradually lets her access more and more of her brain power. “I think it is such an interesting imagination Luc has going on there,” said Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”), who as Paris-based neurologist Professor Norman helps Lucy cope with the startling changes in her mind and body.

An Israeli cabinet minister said on Thursday that a pullout of troops from Gaza was not imminent and that Israel’s army would continue hunting Palestinian cross-border tunnels under any humanitarian truce. Egyptians mediating between Israel and Gaza’s dominant Hamas Islamists have said hostilities could be suspended, perhaps by the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival early next week, to allow aid to reach the territory and to faciliate more permanent truce talks. “I do not see a ceasefire in the coming days where the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) leave,” Science Minister Yaakov Peri, a former security chief, told the Walla news site, adding that troops needed more time to complete their mission of destroying cross-border tunnels used by Gaza guerrillas.