While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, June 5 edition

South Korea confirms death of fourth Mers patient

SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korea confirmed the death of one more victim of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) on Friday, the fourth fatality in an outbreak of the often-deadly virus in the country.

The patient was a 76-year-old man and had been the third person to contract the illness after sharing a ward with other Mers patients, the ministry said in a press release.

The ministry said five more people were confirmed to be carrying the disease, bringing the total of South Koreans with Mers to 41 - the highest number outside the Middle East.

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Leaked documents show US widened Internet spying: NY Times

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Documents leaked by Edward Snowden show that the US government has widened the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of Americans' international Internet traffic in the hunt for hackers, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

The classified documents came from Snowden, the former NSA contractor who lives as a fugitive in Russia, and were shared with the Times and the investigative journalism non-profit ProPublica, the newspaper reported.

In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos allowing the NSA to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and inside the United States, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad, the Times reported, citing the documents. It said the data included traffic that flows to suspicious Internet addresses or contains malware.

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Mazda is latest automaker to expand recall of killer Takata air bags

DETROIT (REUTERS) - Mazda Motor Corp has expanded to 444,907 a recall of US cars equipped with potentially defective Takata air bags, the automaker said in a notice posted on Thursday with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Mazda is the latest automaker to announce an expansion of an earlier air bag recall since Takata Corp told the NHTSA in mid-May that nearly 34 million air bag inflators in the United States had the potential to rupture, spraying metal fragments inside vehicles. At least six deaths and hundreds of injuries are linked to ruptured inflators.

Since Takata's May 18 disclosure, eight of 10 automakers that use Takata air bags have either expanded earlier recalls or initiated a new recall, and one other has said potentially defective parts are covered by previous recalls.

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Former Texas Governor Perry launches bid for US president

ADDISON, Texas (Reuters) - Former Texas Governor Rick Perry announced on Thursday he will pursue the Republican presidential nomination again in 2016, seeking redemption for a fumbled White House bid in 2012 and adding to a crowded field of conservative candidates.

Perry said at a rally in Addison, a Dallas suburb, that he would boost the US economy and improve homeland security, and he pointed to his record in Texas as proof he could do it.

"We will unleash an era of economic growth and limitless opportunity," Perry said. "It can be done because it has been done in Texas."

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Football: Fifa paid Ireland's FA $6.7m to stop legal action

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Fifa paid Ireland's FA (FAI) US$5 million (S$6.7 million) to avoid a legal case over a controversial World Cup playoff defeat in 2009, world soccer's governing body confirmed on Thursday.

Ireland were knocked out by France in a two-legged playoff to qualify for the 2010 South Africa tournament, with the decisive goal in the second leg coming after a handball by French striker Thierry Henry in extra time.

With moral outrage over the goal in Ireland and beyond growing, world soccer's governing body came to a financial agreement with the FAI not to proceed with legal action.

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