PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - May 23

May 23 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The New York Times business pages on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* A sensor is being tested by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to detect "foreign object debris," that can damage airplane engines on takeoff or even lead to plane crashes.

* Rising gas prices and falling truck sales prompted U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co (F.N) to announce production cuts and retreat on its goal to become profitable by 2009.

* Kyphon, a unit of Medtronic Inc (MDT.N), defrauded Medicare of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a civil lawsuit that was unsealed Thursday and simultaneously settled with the Justice Department. Two insiders said Kyphon improperly persuaded hospitals to keep people overnight for a simple outpatient procedure to repair small fissures of the spine.

* Avastin, already widely used to treat other types of cancer, is leading a pack of new drugs that look promising as treatments for brain cancer, one of the deadliest and least treatable forms of cancer.

* In what has become a regular show in the hearing rooms on Capitol Hill, oil company executives took a second day of lashings over the rising price of gasoline.

* As the crucial summer travel season starts amid rising gasoline prices and airfares, tourism marketers are changing their pitches. The familiar commercials with cute, funny tales about travelers whose lives are changed by trips to Las Vegas have been supplanted by spots with a fast-talking pitchman who urges the world to "do Vegas right now."

* The eighth-longest strike ever for the United Automobile Workers union ended as workers at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc (AXL.N) approved a four-year contract that the UAW's president had described as subpar but "the best we can do."

* Japan says it wants to send at least 220,000 tons of rice to the Philippines, and possibly Africa to help the poor. But critics are pointing to a trade issue.

* Serious management failures by superiors allowed a rogue trader at French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) to commit the biggest fraud in financial history, according to an internal report to be released.

* The British Bankers' Association is trying to determine whether some of the 16 banks that it polls each day to set the rate at which banks borrow money from each other provided false or misleading rates.

* Standard & Poor's indicated it was likely to cut the credit ratings of nine big airlines in the latest sign that the outlook for the airline industry is darkening.