What is Nike's role in the FIFA corruption scandal?

Nike may not be an official FIFA sponsor. But that hasn't stopped the company from being caught up in the scandal involving allegations of tens of millions of dollars worth of bribes paid to FIFA officials.

Nike rival Adidas is one of the top FIFA sponsors, paying the body that oversees the World Cup an estimated $31.6 million a year. But Nike has its own separate deals with national teams and soccer organizations, including Brazil. And that contract puts NIke squarely in the middle of the FIFA criminal case.
 
The indictments unsealed Wednesday don't name Nike by name. Instead they refer to "sportswear company E" in one indictment and "sportswear company A" in another indictment as having gotten the Brazilian team sponsorship deal in 1996. And Nike is the company that got the deal in 1996 to sponsor the team and supply it with soccer shoes and uniforms.

Pearl Harbor memorial closed after accident

(CNN)The USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, will be closed to visitors until at least June 4 after a dock to the memorial that sits atop the sunken battleship was damaged in an accident Wednesday, the National Park Service says.

The damage occurred when tugboats were "assisting" the USNS Mercy, an 894-foot-long, 69,000-ton hospital ship, inside the harbor, the U.S. Navy Region Hawaii said in a statement on its Facebook page.

"Initial visual assessments show that the dock was moved about 10 feet toward the Memorial. A small area of concrete was damaged where the dock's ramp joined the Memorial. The dock's ramps and railings were also damaged," the statement said.

Singapore Airlines jet loses power in a storm

Hong Kong (CNN)A Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 with more than 180 passengers on board temporarily lost power to both of its engines as it passed through a storm, the airline has said.

Flight SQ836 was en route to Shanghai from Singapore on Saturday when it "encountered bad weather at 39,000 feet about three and a half hours after departure," a spokesperson for the airline told CNN Wednesday.

"Both engines experienced a temporary loss of power and the pilots followed operational procedures to restore normal operation of the engines. The flight continued to Shanghai and touched down uneventfully at 10:56pm local time," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that both engines were thoroughly inspected and tested upon arrival in Shanghai with no anomalies detected.

Secret Service preps to add spikes to White House fence

Washington (CNN)Secret Service and National Park Service officials are prepping for upgrades to the White House fence after several embarrassing security lapses in recent months.

Authorities are preparing to add 7-inch steel spikes to the top of the fence to deter climbers. The actual installation work won't begin until this summer, but officials on Thursday were checking the specifications for the spikes.

Bill Clinton: 'I'm officially Ebola-free'

New York (CNN)Former President Bill Clinton said at a United Nations event Thursday that he underwent Ebola screening from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after a recent visit to Liberia, but that he was never exposed to the deadly virus.

"This morning, I'm officially Ebola-free," Clinton told the United Nations' Economic and Social Council Partnership Forum during a speech that focused on using partnerships to combat global issues like Ebola, poverty and education.

Through his family's foundation, Clinton and a delegation of Clinton Foundation donors traveled to Tanzania, Kenya, Liberia and Morocco during a nine-day Africa trip earlier this month.

Liberia celebrates beating Ebola with farewell party 01:10

In old photo, ex-Chicago cops with rifles pose over black man who's in antlers.

Cops pose with black man wearing antlers in old photo.

(CNN)It's a racially charged photograph.

In it, two former Chicago cops, both of them white, pose as if on a hunting trip. They're down on one knee holding rifles. A black man is lying on the floor between them with antlers on his head.

The message is clear: The officers are the hunters. The man is their prey.

Cook County Judge Thomas Allen released the Polaroid this week over the objections of the Chicago Police Department and Tim McDermott, one of the former officers in it. They said they wanted to protect the identity of the African-American man in it.

The CPD fired McDermott in October, but he wants his job back. A court hearing on the matter is scheduled for next month.

The text you never want to get on your iPhone

 

You can crash someone's iPhone with a mere text message.

A nasty computer bug in Apple's iOS allows anyone who sends an iPhone a certain text message to shut it down.

The worst part? You don't even need to open the text message. Your device just needs to receive it.
That means anyone can pull off this prank -- and anyone whose mobile number is known by someone else is susceptible.
The nonsensical message includes two English words, a string of Arabic characters that appears to have no meaning, and a Japanese character. 

Windows 10 May Head To PC Makers In July 2015

Some Russian guy on the internet says Windows 10 release to manufacturing has been confirmed for July. Who are his sources? No one knows. Yay for internet rumors!!

In a tweet on Wednesday, known Russian leaker Wzor said that the release of Windows 10 RTM has been confirmed for July 2015. RTM, or release to manufacturing, is the version of operating system software sent to PC makers and other manufacturers to test and install on their devices before it officially rolls out.

OCZ to Unveil New TLC-based SSD Series at Computex 2015

OCZ Storage Solutions, a Toshiba Group Company and the most awarded solid state drive (SSD) brand of all time, today announced plans to showcase the all-new Trion 100 series, a new SSD based on Triple-Level Cell (TLC) NAND flash, at this year’s Computex in Taipei, Taiwan held June 2 - 6. As OCZ’s new value-oriented option, Trion 100 SSDs are built to provide an easy and affordable way for entry-level users to optimize their mobile or desktop systems.

Russia masses heavy firepower on border with Ukraine - witness

KHUTOR CHKALOVA, Russia (Reuters) - Russia's army is massing troops and hundreds of pieces of weaponry including mobile rocket launchers, tanks and artillery at a makeshift base near the border with Ukraine, a Reuters reporter saw this week.
Many of the vehicles have number plates and identifying marks removed while many of the servicemen had taken insignia off their fatigues. As such, they match the appearance of some of the forces spotted in eastern Ukraine, which Kiev and its Western allies allege are covert Russian detachments.
The scene at the base on the Kuzminsky firing range, around 50 km (30 miles) from the border, offers some of the clearest evidence to date of what appeared to be a concerted Russian military build-up in the area.
Earlier this month, NATO military commander General Philip Breedlove said he believed the separatists were taking advantage of a ceasefire that came into force in February to re-arm and prepare for a new offensive. However, he gave no specifics.
Russia denies that its military is involved in the conflict in Ukraine's east, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting forces loyal to the pro-Western government in Kiev.

Police Dog Rescues Deputy After He's Ambushed By 3 Men

A police K-9 came to the rescue of an officer who was being ambushed by three men and the dog most likely saved his life, authorities said today.

Deputy Todd Frazier was traveling along a remote stretch of Highway 90 in Pearlington, Mississippi, on Monday when he saw a blue Lincoln Town Car at a deserted rest stop, said Sheriff Ricky Adam of the Hancock County Sheriff's Department.

The driver of the vehicle looked as if he wasn't moving, so Frazier, a three-year veteran of the department, pulled over in order to check on him, Adam told ABC News.

If U.S. Interferes In China’s Land Grab, "War Is Inevitable"--The Global Times

The Chinese government on Tuesday took a step the U.S. government has long been calling for when it released a white paper outlining its general military strategy. However, while the Obama administration may be pleased with more transparency from Beijing, it surely wasn’t pleased by the plans the Chinese government outlined, particularly its stated intention to continue development of man-made islands in the South China Sea.

The white paper asserted that the Chinese military “will not attack unless we are attacked, but we will surely counterattack if attacked” and that “China will never seek hegemony or expansion,” according to China Daily.
Related: What’s Pushing Russia and China into Each Other’s Arms
The assurances sound fine, but there is a definitional problem that makes some of the Chinese government’s promises unsatisfying to its neighbors and, indeed to the United States. China’s definition of its sovereign territory – meaning the areas of land and sea that it has the right to defend – doesn’t mesh with most other countries’ understanding of China’s territory.
China has been steadily creating what it claims is new sovereign territory in the middle of the South China Sea by reclaiming land on artificially enlarged reefs and nearly submerged islands. The Chinese military has installed ports and airstrips, and has begun treating them as sovereign territory with regard to air defense and shipping traffic.

China to extend military reach, build lighthouses in disputed waters

BEIJING (Reuters) - China outlined a strategy to boost its naval reach on Tuesday and announced plans for the construction of two lighthouses in disputed waters, developments likely to escalate tensions in a region already jittery about Beijing's maritime ambitions.

In a policy document issued by the State Council, the Communist-ruled country's cabinet, China vowed to increase its "open seas protection", switching from air defence to both offence and defence, and criticised neighbours who take "provocative actions" on its reefs and islands.
China has been taking an increasingly assertive posture over recent years in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, where it has engaged in extensive land reclamation in the Spratly archipelago.
China claims most of the South China Sea and criticised Washington last week after a U.S. spy plane flew over areas near the reefs. Both sides accused each other of stoking instability.
A U.S. State Department spokesman declined to make a specific comment on the Chinese strategy paper, but said Washington urged Beijing "to use its military capabilities in a manner that is conducive to maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region."

3D Printing 3D Printers With 3D Printers

Yo dog, I heard you like 3D printers, so I 3D printed a 3D printer with a 3D printer.

I Bought an Island in Cambodia and Changed My Life

Melita Koulmandas Hunter, her husband Rory, and their son Naryth. (Photo: Melita Koulmandas Hunter)

Who: Melita Koulmandas Hunter, co-owner of Song Saa, a stunning private-island resort in Cambodia

Where: Cambodia

Why: My husband and I moved to Cambodia in 2005 for a 12-month adventure and ended up staying 10 years. We are both originally from Sydney, Australia, and met in Auckland, New Zealand, where Rory was working at Saatchi and Saatchi, and I had my own organic design business. We fell in love and planned on moving to New York City together. Just before we moved, Rory was offered an opportunity to run an advertising agency in Phnom Penh. As a designer, I have always been drawn to Southeast Asia, so we decided to take 12 months out and have an adventure, before taking on the bright lights of New York City. Ten years later, we haven’t moved to NYC…yet.

An aerial view of Song Saa, the resort that Melita Koulmandas Hunter built with her husband in Cambodia. (Photo: Song Saa)

IRS says thieves stole tax info from 100,000

APNewsBreak: IRS says thieves used online agency service to get access to 100,000 tax returns.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sophisticated criminals used an online service run by the IRS to access personal tax information from more than 100,000 taxpayers, part of an elaborate scheme to steal identities and claim fraudulent tax refunds, the IRS said Tuesday.

The thieves accessed a system called "Get Transcript," where taxpayers can get tax returns and other filings from previous years. In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address, the IRS said.

"We're confident that these are not amateurs," said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. "These actually are organized crime syndicates that not only we but everybody in the financial industry are dealing with."

Koskinen wouldn't say whether investigators believe the criminals are based overseas — or where they obtained enough personal information about the taxpayers to access their returns. The IRS has launched a criminal investigation. The agency's inspector general is also investigating.
Identity thieves, both foreign and domestic, have stepped up their efforts in recent years to claim fraudulent tax refunds. The agency estimates it paid out $5.8 billion in fraudulent refunds to identity thieves in 2013.

Drought turns Californians against water bottling companies

As California residents are forced to cut back their water use, some are outraged that companies bottling water there aren't asked to do the same.

They've made a scapegoat of big names like Nestle, which operates five water bottling plants in California. Dozens of activists protested outside two of the plants last week and online petitions have garnered thousands of signatures demanding Nestle (NSRGF) halt its bottling operations.


In fact, there are 110 water bottling plants in the state. In addition to Nestle, others big bottlers include Pepsi (PEP), which bottles Aquafina; Coca-Cola (CCE), which bottles Dasani; and Crystal Geyser.
But the thing is, the amount of water bottled in California is a tiny fraction of what the entire state uses.
"It's a pretty small amount," said Tim Moran, a spokesman for the state's Water Resources Control Board. The state doesn't actually track how much water is bottled there.

China to extend military reach, build lighthouses in disputed waters

and announced plans for the construction of two lighthouses in disputed waters, developments likely to escalate tensions in a region already jittery about Beijing's maritime ambitions.
In a policy document issued by the State Council, the Communist-ruled country's cabinet, China vowed to increase its "open seas protection", switching from air defence to both offence and defence, and criticised neighbours who take "provocative actions" on its reefs and islands.
China has been taking an increasingly assertive posture over recent years in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, where it has engaged in extensive land reclamation in the Spratly archipelago.
China claims most of the South China Sea and criticised Washington last week after a U.S. spy plane flew over areas near the reefs. Both sides accused each other of stoking instability.
A U.S. State Department spokesman declined to make a specific comment on the Chinese strategy paper, but said Washington urged Beijing "to use its military capabilities in a manner that is conducive to maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region."

A Linux company that spent 17 years competing with Windows is officially over

In a "sad" event for people who love Linux, French tech company Mandriva is being liquidated, according to a notice posted by the company.

Although Mandriva generated €553,000 in revenue in 2013, that wasn't enough to make it thrive in  2015.
For decades, Mandriva has been trying to take on Microsoft Windows with a Linux version of a desktop PC. Its claim to fame was a deal in 2007 with the Nigerian government in which it beat out Microsoft to put its flavor of Linux on 17,000 PCs used by Nigerian schoolchildren.
It also had some success in Malaysia.
But by 2012, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, a situation that had happened several times since its early days, in 1998.

Kylie Jenner Has Some Questions About Chemtrails

If Kim Kardashian is Mother Gaia and Khloé Kardashian is your kooky aunt, then Kylie Jenner is your weird cousin who won't stop asking if jet fuel can melt steel beams on Facebook.

During a marathon session of tweeting with fans and followers Monday night, Kylie took a break to make us think.

New flood warning for Houston after deadly storms kill 17

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The National Weather Service issued a new flash flood warning on Wednesday for Houston as the fourth most-populous U.S. city searched for bodies from deadly storms that turned neighborhoods into lakes.

Near Dallas, police evacuated residents living near a dam that was poised to burst on Wednesday due to surging floodwaters as emergency officials searched for bodies from storms that killed at least 17 in Texas and Oklahoma.

Water was topping the Padera dam, about 25 miles (40 kms) southwest of Dallas, and police in Midlothian said they have called on people living downstream to evacuate and move livestock to higher ground in case the structure gives way.

Amazon Targets Etsy With ‘Handmade’ Marketplace

Pretty soon, Amazon will have a marketplace for everything...with one hour delivery...by drones.

Having vanquished scores of brick-and-mortar retailers, Amazon.com Inc. has a new target: Etsy Inc. The Seattle Web retailer is prepping a marketplace for artisan goods it is calling Handmade. Etsy sellers received invites reviewed by The Wall Street Journal over the past few days to sign up for the new section of the Amazon site.

WD Redesigns World's #1 Selling Portable Hard Drive

WD®, a Western Digital company, and world leader in storage solutions, today introduced the new, redesigned My Passport® Ultra portable hard drives and My Passport for Mac drives. With the My Passport line now in its 7th generation, the My Passport Ultra and My Passport for Mac portable hard drives are now available in capacities up to 3 TB and in four stylish colors - Classic Black, Brilliant White, Wild Berry and Noble Blue. WD is also introducing a new optional accessory – WD Grip Pack – a soft band, available in a variety of colors, which encircles the drive, offering consumers an easy way to personalize their My Passport drives.

New study: More disturbing findings about campus rape of freshmen women

(CNN)A new study about the incidence of rape involving college freshmen women will likely add to the ongoing debate about whether enough is being done on campuses to keep students safe.

The study, conducted at a large unnamed private university in upstate New York and published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that 19% of women, nearly one in five, said they had been a victim of attempted or completed rape, either by force or while they were incapacitated due to alcohol or drugs, during their freshman year.

"What this says to me is a lot of our young women are dealing with this sexual violence and we all probably know young women" who have been victims, said lead author Kate Carey, professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown University's School of Public Health.

The study, conducted by researchers at Brown and Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, involved surveys with 483 first-year women who ranged in age from 18 to 21.

They were recruited to take part in a survey about women's health and answered questions on a range of issues including alcohol consumption, suicidal ideations and sexual behavior. They recorded their responses before they started their first year, and at the end of the fall, spring and summer during their freshman year.

While it is not the first study to try to study rape involving college women during their freshman year, researchers believe their methodology -- asking women during their freshman year -- might minimize "recall bias," which would be skewed results when women are asked about what happened during their freshman year several years later, said Carey.

HTTPS-crippling attack threatens tens of thousands of Web and mail servers

Tens of thousands of HTTPS-protected websites, mail servers, and other widely used Internet services are vulnerable to a new attack that lets eavesdroppers read and modify data passing through encrypted connections, a team of computer scientists has found.
The vulnerability affects an estimated 8.4 percent of the top one million websites and a slightly bigger percentage of mail servers populating the IPv4 address space, the researchers said. The threat stems from a flaw in the transport layer security protocol that websites and mail servers use to establish encrypted connections with end users. The new attack, which its creators have dubbed Logjam, can be exploited against a subset of servers that support the widely used Diffie-Hellman key exchange, which allows two parties that have never met before to negotiate a secret key even though they're communicating over an unsecured, public channel.

Few signs of life in 'China's Manhattan'

As the wind whistles through half-finished skyscrapers and over empty boulevards, a development billed as China's answer to Manhattan at times bears out the "ghost town" label some have given it.

Chinese officials hope the towers of the Yujiapu Financial District will one day house a trading centre to rival New York's Wall Street or London's Canary Wharf.

But more than three years after construction began, all but one of the buildings planned for the development in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin appear unfinished, alongside vacant spaces where others should stand.

The Navy's Giant New Electric Railgun

The Navy is giving you another look at its massive railgun that can accelerate projectiles from zero to Mach 6 in ten milliseconds!

LG Display Unveils Wallpaper OLED Panel

This super-thin OLED screen that sticks to your wall using magnets looks kinda neat.

LG Display is hoping you'll do just that. The company has unveiled a 55-inch OLED screen that's so thin and light (0.04 inches and 4.2 pounds) that you can put it on your wall using a magnetic mat.

The cool video of the day is brought to you by the European Space Agency and Mother Nature.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau On PayPal Credit Enforcement Action

Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is filing a complaint and a proposed consent order against PayPal for illegally signing up and billing tens of thousands of consumers for its online credit product, PayPal Credit. The Bureau alleges that PayPal lured in consumers to this product with deceptive advertising, signed up people without them knowing it, and then mishandled billing disputes when they arose. This kind of conduct has no place in the consumer financial marketplace. Under our proposed order, PayPal would return the $15 million that it illegally took from consumers and it would pay a $10 million penalty for its wrongful actions.

Motorcycle gang shootout started with parking dispute - Biker runs over someone's foot

WACO, Texas (AP) — A deadly weekend shootout involving rival motorcycle gangs apparently began with a parking dispute and someone running over a gang member's foot, police said Tuesday.

Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said an uninvited group appeared for the meeting of a loose confederation of biker gangs Sunday at a restaurant.
One man was injured when a vehicle rolled over his foot. That caused a dispute that continued inside the restaurant, where fighting and then shooting began, before the melee spilled back outside, Swanton said.

Authorities offered few details. It was not clear which gang was responsible for running over the biker's foot, or which gang the aggrieved biker belonged to.When the shootout was over, nine people were dead and 18 wounded.

About 50 weapons were confiscated, mostly knives and firearms, and Swanton said more than 100 weapons may be found once authorities are done analyzing the crime scene at the Twin Peaks restaurant, which is part of a national chain that features waitresses in revealing uniforms. VIDEO

Police want bikers off streets after deadly Texas shooting - May 18, 2015

WACO, Texas (Reuters) - The local Harley Davidson dealership was closed, motorcycle riders were asked to stay off the roads and police snipers took to rooftops to watch Waco streets after a deadly gangland shooting caused many to cast a colder eye on bikers.
Police did not say how long the request would last.
Riders asked the public to take a breath, relax and realize that criminality is the rare exception for members of motorcycle clubs.
Waco Police said they have been threatened by motorcycle gangs after a Sunday shoot out between rivals at a Twin Peaks restaurant that left nine dead and 18 injured. They asked bikers to stay off the streets because it was difficult to distinguish between law-abiding riders and those bent on criminality.

Nine dead, 170 arrested in Waco biker brawl - Waco Biker Shooting - May 17,2015

WACO, Texas -- The investigation continues after nine people were killed and multiple others were injured in a shooting at Twin Peaks on Sunday.
Police originally said 192 people were arrested but reduced that number Monday morning.
Shortly after noon, Waco police were at Twin Peaks monitoring at least two motorcycle clubs gathering there. The two groups had reportedly planned to meet in the safety of a public place to mediate a previous fight between two members of the rival gangs.
The conflict began with an argument inside the restaurant, which then escalated and moved into the parking lot. Multiple weapons were involved in the conflict, including chains, knives, bats, clubs, and firearms.
A total of eight people were shot and killed at the scene and another died at the hospital. Eighteen people were transferred to local hospitals with gunshot and stab wounds. Two of them were transported to other hospitals due to the severity of their injuries.

Exclusive: North Korea would use nukes if 'forced,' official says

Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN)When officials informed us that we'd be granted a sit-down interview with a high-ranking member of North Korea's inner circle with no preconditions, it was a real surprise.

Senior figures in Pyongyang don't do interviews, especially not with the international press.

"I do not like talking to foreign media," Park Yong Chol said frankly as we shook hands ahead of our meeting. He said that we report rumor and fabrication about his country.

Park is the deputy director of the DPRK Institute for Research into National Reunification -- a think tank with links to the highest levels of North Korea's government.

TSA to return $100,000 watch lost at Newark airport

A traveler left this gold and diamond watch valued at more than $100,000 at a TSA security checkpoint.

(CNN)This watch was no ordinary Timex.

The owner of a diamond-covered gold Cartier watch valued at more than $100,000 forgot the watch at a Newark Liberty International Airport security checkpoint on Tuesday.

Wendy's to sell 640 restaurants

Wendy's announced plans Wednesday to sell 640 of its company-owned restaurants in the United States and Canada.

The sales are a part of the burger chain's plan to reduce the number of company-owned locations.
The company hopes to sell the restaurants to franchisees. Wendy's stock rose 7% on the news.
It intends to sell 380 restaurants this year and another 260 in 2016. The company is working with a private equity group to manage the sale, which will be directed at existing Wendy's franchise owners.