FIFA is electing a president in the middle of a scandal. It’s a tie again at the National Spelling Bee. And Vladimir Putin is especially busy these days.
It’s Friday and here are the 5 things to know for your New Day
FIFA ELECTION
A shoe-in: This has been a rocky week for FIFA. Word soccer’s governing body is under siege with allegations of fraud, racketeering and money laundering. Still, little is likely to change at the top, at least not right away. Sepp Blatter is the odds-on favorite to continue his 17-year reign as FIFA president in today’s election. Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan is his only remaining challenger and he doesn’t have enough support to unseat Blatter.
SPELLING BEE
Out of words: Now it’s happened twice in two years. The Scripps National Spelling Bee has ended in a tie. Vanya Shivashankar, a 13-year-old from Olathe, Kansas, and 14-year-old Gokul Venkatachalam of Chesterfield, Missouri, were declared co-champions. Why a tie? Simply put, they ran out of words. There weren’t enough of them left on the competition’s list for them to keep facing off until only one was left standing.
NATALEE HOLLOWAY
New clues: Police aren’t convinced, but 10 years after Natalee Holloway went missing, a Dutch man says he knows where to find her. Jurriën de Jong said the teen’s body is buried in a crawl space at a Marriott vacation property in Aruba. According to de Jong, he was near Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club when he saw a young man drag a young woman by her ankles into the crawl space and then close it up. De Jong said he didn’t tell police about it, because he was involved in “illegal activities” at the time.
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Flexing his muscles: Vladimir Putin makes moves that make other world leaders take note – and this week has been a busy one for him. In the last five days, the Russian President has appeared to particularly pick up the pace – a massive surprise military exercise near NATO borders; new repressive laws and lashing comments against the U.S. investigation against soccer world governing body FIFA.
MUHAMMAD CARTOON CONTEST
Rally planned: Hundreds could show up for tonight’s “Freedom of Speech” rally outside the Islamic Community Center in Phoenix. It’s a confrontational move. A Prophet Mohammed drawing contest is part of the event. The two gunmen who shot up another cartoon contest in Texas this month attended the Arizona mosque for a time.
Those are your five biggies for the day. Here are a couple of others that are brewing and have the Internet buzzing.
Lose Yourself: You don’t have to understand sign language to know that this rendition of Eminem’s song is beautiful.
Owl Cafe: This is where you go when you’ve tried everything else. It’s a real hoot!