Adam West, the actor who played the title role in the kitschy 1960’s “Batman” television series, has died at age 88, Variety reported on Saturday, citing a family statement. West, who was so closely identified with his tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the cartoon superhero that he had trouble landing other roles when the show ended, died on Friday evening after a struggle with leukemia, his representative told Variety. His representatives did not immediately return calls or emails seeking comment. … From: MeNeedIt

U2 turned their first headlining appearance at a U.S. music festival into Bono-roo.   The Irish rockers performed a two-hour set Friday night at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, as part of their world tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of their Grammy-winning The Joshua Tree album.   They played the full album, as well as some of their other hits, including New Year’s Day and Beautiful Day, to tens of thousands of music fans.   Toward the end of the performance, lead singer Bono asked if …

The hosting rights for both the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games should be awarded at the same time, the International Olympic Committee’s executive board recommended on Friday. Paris and Los Angeles are the only candidates left in the race for 2024 and, if passed, the recommendation would almost certainly mean that each would host one of the next two summer Games, with only the order still to be decided. IOC president Thomas Bach said the recommendation would be put to an extraordinary IOC session in Lausanne in July. Decision in …

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is likely to impose a new sugar trade deal with Mexico even if final revisions to it fail to win support from the U.S. industry, trade lawyers and experts say. After announcing a deal this week that would dramatically cut the amount of refined sugar that Mexico ships to the United States, officials from the two countries are working with their industries on final language that would govern its operation. At issue is a new right of first refusal granted to Mexico to supply all …

It’s another week of smooth sailing, with only the tiniest of changes in the hit list from the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending June 10, 2017. Number 5: Ed Sheeran “Shape of You” Let’s start in fifth place, where Ed Sheeran backs off a slot with “Shape Of You.”  This song’s a force to be reckoned with: it opened at number one back in January, one of less than 30 songs to accomplish that feat. It held the top slot for 12 non-consecutive weeks, and …

New, lighter, cheaper, sustainable and recyclable building materials are entering the market every day as developers try to lower costs and shrink their carbon footprint. But how safe are those materials? Are they resistant to fire? VOA’s George Putic visited a new U.S. government facility that can provide scientific answers to such questions. … From: MeNeedIt

Kenya has become the latest African country to introduce HIV self-testing kits in a bid to get more people to know their status and seek treatment. The government estimates that there are as many as half a million people in Kenya who are HIV-positive but don’t know it. Lenny Ruvaga reports for VOA from Nairobi. … From: MeNeedIt

From a Peruvian trout farm manager to the head of an Indonesian meatball company, a list of 500 women entrepreneurs in emerging markets was launched Thursday to challenge the stereotype of a typical company boss and inspire women globally. The “Foundation 500” list features the portraits and careers of 500 female entrepreneurs in 11 emerging markets where women are often refused the same access to education, financial services and bank loans as men. The list, an initiative of humanitarian agency CARE and the nonprofit H&M Foundation, mirrors the Fortune 500 …

SpaceX is taking recycling to a whole new realm — all the way to orbit. On this week’s supply run to the International Space Station, SpaceX will launch a Dragon capsule that’s already traveled there. The milestone comes just two months after the launch of its first reused rocket booster for a satellite. “This whole notion of reuse is something that’s very, very important to the entire space industry,” NASA’s space station program manager Kirk Shireman said at a news conference Wednesday. While the concept is not new — the …

An Indian charity is using big data to pinpoint human trafficking hot spots in a bid to prevent vulnerable women and girls vanishing from high-risk villages into the sex trade. My Choices Foundation uses specially designed technology to identify those villages that are most at risk of modern slavery, then launches local campaigns to sound the alarm. “The general Indian public is still largely unaware that trafficking exists, and most parents have no idea that their children are actually being sold into slavery,” said Elca Grobler, the founder of My …

Nearly 40 years ago, a respected doctor wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine with some very good news: Out of nearly 40,000 patients given powerful pain drugs in a Boston hospital, only four addictions were documented. Doctors had been wary of opioids, fearing patients would get hooked. Reassured by the letter, which called addiction “rare” in those with no history of it, they pulled out their prescription pads and spread the good news in their own published reports. And that is how a one-paragraph letter with …

The head of a New York-based advocacy group has called on President Donald Trump and his older daughter to help secure the release of three men who reported labor violations at a Chinese company that makes shoes bearing the Ivanka Trump brand. “We appeal to President Trump, Ivanka Trump herself, and to her related brand company to advocate and press for the release of our activists,” Li Qiang, executive director of China Labor Watch, the men’s employer, said Wednesday. The Ivanka Trump brand has declined to comment.  The White House …

In the hot and humid town of Caicara, in the heart of Venezuela, some 20 piers jutting out of the vast Orinoco river gather mildew and rust. Brazilian construction company Odebrecht was meant to build an 11-km (seven-mile) bridge in the town — the longest in the South American country — in 2011, but the project ground to a halt a year ago. Now, a handful of workers do basic maintenance work. The bridge, meant to link the towns of Caicara and Cabruta, is just one of several abandoned Odebrecht …