Posts

Blatter and Platini were handed 90-day suspensions by the Ethics Committee in October in relation to an alleged payment made by FIFA to the former France captain in 2011. PHOTOS: FIFA World Cup winners through the years | World soccer rivals The Ethics Committee last week rejected respective appeals against the bans from both men, who deny any wrongdoing, before submitting its final reports Saturday. Blatter and Platini will have formal hearings into the allegations that they breached FIFA’s ethics code....

The latest financial report issued by world football’s governing body projects a deficit of $489m in 2017, although it expects a bumper year in 2018, with the television deals for the World Cup in Russia forecast to help the FIFA meet its target for the 2015-18 period of a $100m profit. WATCH: Balotelli’s airport knee slide Legal costs rose, related to the scandal that engulfed the organisation in May 2015, when US and Swiss authorities arrested top football officials at a luxury Zurich hotel as part of an investigation into allegations of criminal misconduct, bribery and corruption....

The 2002 FIFA World Cup provided one of the most discussed moments in the history of what has become the great North American rivalry - Mexico vs USA. And this week FIFA are offering you the chance to relive it all with FIFA Rewind – a ground-breaking mobile and social series, which will bring a selection of the greatest games in World Cup history right up into the 21st century....

“The business for independent film is so good right now,” says Bob Berney, president of Picturehouse, which released this summer’s “La Vie en Rose.” “Even the multiplexes are playing these kinds of films now.” Why? Since 2004, the number of movie tickets sold to teenagers has dropped by 82 million, presumably because today’s teens have built entertainment empires in their bedrooms. Meanwhile, “there’s a generation of filmgoers who are coming back to the movies after staying away because they were raising families,” says revered indie exec Bingham Ray....

Newsweek’s Sam Hill talked with Bandele from his home in New York City about being a part of the nation’s artistic diaspora and his country’s future. Edited excerpts: Why does Nigeria have what seems like an inexhaustible supply of great writers and artists? Because over the last forty years to survive we’ve had to rely on ourselves. Nollywood came into being because in the late 1980’s, state TV simply stopped....

That feeling is soon replaced with awe when a super champ gets on a roll and clocks up multiple wins, giving them the opportunity to showcase the true breadth of their quizzing prowess. Over the course of the year, there have been so many standout stars that fans are gleefully relishing the approach of 2022’s Tournament of Champions, where the best of 2021 get to face off against one another in a battle of the elite....

NEWSWEEK: If one of our readers confronted you in a CompUSA and said, “Bill, why upgrade to Vista?” what would be your elevator pitch? Bill Gates: The most effective thing would be if I could sit down with them and just take them through the new look for a couple of minutes, show them the Sidebar, show them the way the search lets you go through lots of things, including lots of photos....

The study involved 1,042 adults aged 21 to over 100-years-old living in San Diego. The participants completed surveys on their perceptions of the meaning of life, their health, and also spoke to researchers on the phone to test their cognition. The authors found a U-shaped relationship between having meaning in life and age. People developed this attitude with age, peaking at around 60 years of age before declining. The search for meaning hit its lowest point at around this age, too, and then increased....

The Stara Baba crew is one reason that Hillary begins the Pennsylvania political polka with a lead—and why Obama has to contest the primary with all his might, even at the risk of a fight with Clinton that leaves them both damaged for the fall. The Democratic nominee will need the Polish Hills of America, and Obama may as well begin the sales effort now. John McCain’s military heritage and antitotalitarianism could resonate in places such as Polish Hill, where Stars and Stripes hang from windows year-round....

Representatives from both Nordic governments joined Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden to mark the 100th anniversary of the autonomy of the Swedish-speaking islands of Finland on Thursday located at the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia. The celebrations included a concert and a visit to the ruins of Bomarsund fortress and Kastelholm Castle northeast of the capital Mariehamn, Finnish newspaper Ilta Sanomat reported....

Diallo featured only 11 times for Leonardo Jardim’s men last season and Goal understands that the Italian outfit could seek to sign him for between €3-5 million. ‘Mbappe is a freak!’ The France Under-21 captain, who recently turned out for his country against Albania and Cameroon, has a contract with the Stade Louis II outfit until 2021 but wants more playing time – something he could be offered in Florence....

“You never know what the day is going to hold when you show up for your shift as a firefighter,” the post reads. “Sure, there may be the occasional cat needing to be rescued from a tree, but a raccoon? That’s a new one.” Chief Todd Pangle told Newsweek that a homeowner called the fire department’s business line Monday night after hearing a strange coming from behind the refrigerator. When they arrived, the crew, not knowing what to expect, shined a light behind the appliance and found two little eyes staring back at them....

B. Pagels-Minor, a former program manager at Netflix was let go from the streaming service last week amid growing tensions with the company over its treatment of transgender employees and the Dave Chappelle comedy special, The Closer. Netflix confirmed that it had fired a worker last week for “sharing confidential, commercially sensitive information outside the company” that was published in a Bloomberg article. The company said in a statement: “We have let go of an employee for sharing confidential, commercially sensitive information outside the company....

Robert Olson, 44, was taken into custody on November 20 and charged with second-degree sexual assault of a child, according to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. The criminal complaint said the 14-year-old victim told investigators Olsen had touched her sexually on three separate occasions at his home between September 1 and November 22, WAOW reported. Olson, who is a lieutenant with the Milwaukee Fire Department, allegedly stopped his assaults against the girl when he met his current girlfriend, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel....

An Australian firm, Passout Marketing, says it’s already stamping about 5 million hands a year there for clients including Boost Juice and IKEA. In the United States, Orange County start-up Handvertising USA is building a network of venues that it sells to advertisers. including a real-estate company, a radio station and an alcohol brand. Handvertising charges advertisers about 50 cents a hand, and pays a dime of that to the venue....

Enough with the SEC bias and my conference is better than your conference nonsense. You want true bias? Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the Florida State bias: it’s real and it’s revealing — and the ‘Noles have no one to blame but themselves. FSU’s problem this fall isn’t Jameis Winston’s off-field antics or his on-field regression; or its soft ACC schedule or that the SEC West Division has sucked the life from the college football room....

However, it is beginning to rise from the ashes, thanks in part to a young hitter in Phoenix. Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt shattered career highs across the board last year in his true breakout season. The 26-year-old hit .302 with 36 homers, 125 RBIs, 103 runs and even stole 15 bases. He has emerged as a rare five-category Roto threat at a position typically devoid of speed and, as a result, will be a universal first-round pick in 2014....

The executions mark the first time the federal government has enacted the death penalty since 2003. Barr announced an addendum to the Federal Execution Protocol in July 2019, which proposed a nationwide standard for the drugs used in lethal injections. Originally, the four executions were announced in December, but inmates filed lawsuits against the addendum. Although a lower court is still reviewing some aspects connected to the litigation, the first federal execution is scheduled for July....

Health officials in Harris County, Texas, reported on Monday that a man aged between 50 and 60 had died after testing positive for Omicron. The man, who was not named, had previously been infected with COVID-19, health officials said. They added that the patient was “at higher risk of severe complications from COVID-19 due to his unvaccinated status and underlying health conditions.” Harris County Public Health Director Barbie Robinson said the man’s death was “a reminder of the severity of COVID-19 and its variants....