THE WORLD - Nov. 26, 2009

THURSDAY

European Union leaders named Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the bloc’s first president.

An audit of the $787 billion U.S. stimulus plan by the federal Government Accounting Office shows the program is riddled with errors and inaccuracies. As of September 30, $173 billion of the $787 billion in the plan had been paid out, but only $47 billion worth of activity had been reported. There were 3,978 reports that showed no money received or spent, but included more than 50,000 jobs created or retained.

Scientists dig up the fossils of a half-dozen species of crocodiles in a once swampy world that is now the Sahara desert. They new species were named BoarCroc, RatCroc, DogCroc, DuckCroc and PancakeCroc, and some had massive brains. The fossils are from the Cretaceous period of 145 million to 65 million years ago.

FRIDAY

Global health officials said the swine flu pandemic may be hitting a peak in the Northern Hemisphere. At least 6,770 deaths have been recorded worldwide since the swine flu virus emerged in April. Officials always stress the confirmed count represents only a fraction of the actual cases, as most patients never get tested.

A Harvard University report showed new electronic systems installed in U.S. hospitals have been ineffective in reining in skyrocketing healthcare costs. A review of roughly 4,000 hospitals from 2003 to 2007 found that while many had moved away from paper files, administrative costs rose in the most high-tech institutions.

Vampire romance movie “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” raked in $26.3 million at North American box offices in midnight showings, breaking the record set by “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

Peruvian police broke up a gang that allegedly killed dozens of people and sold their fat to buyers who used it to make cosmetics.

WEEKEND

University of Texas scientists published a report that showed melting of East Antarctica’s ice speeded up dramatically in 2006, and has been melting rapidly since.

Michael Jackson’s famous white glove sold for $350,000 at an auction of the King of Pop’s memorabilia on Saturday. A black jacket he wore during a 1989 world tour fetched $225,000.

Randy Bresnik became the second astronaut to become a parent in space when wife Rebbeca Burgin gave birth to the couple’s second child, Abigail Mae, Sunday morning. Bresnik was out on his first spacewalk when his wife gave birth.

Eduardo Garcia, 67, has filed a lawsuit against a Bronx hospital for allegedly tossing his ear in the trash after it was ripped off by a dog. The ear was put on ice soon after Garcia’s son’s pit bull bit it off, but hospital officials said reattaching the ear would have been too risky.

MONDAY

More than 80 people have been arrested in a sweep targeting gangs in Yakima and the Tri-Cities.

Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research smashed together proton beams for the first time in a 27-kilometre tunnel under the French-Swiss border in an initial step toward discovering how the universe came into existence.

A first edition of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” was put on the Christie’s auction block, after it was found in a family’s toilet in southern Britain. The book, one of 1,250 copies in the first print run, is expected to go for $108,277.

TUESDAY

The Washington Post closes its remaining domestic bureaus in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles in a money-saving move.

Norway opened the world’s first osmotic power plant. The plant is driven by osmosis that naturally draws fresh water across a membrane and toward the seawater side. This creates higher pressure on the sea water side, driving a turbine and producing electricity.

Rains soaked parts of Texas, heralding the end of the worst drought on record in at least nine counties and bringing relief to the state’s withered cattle industry. Drought-related losses for 2009 are expected to exceed $4 billion.

WEDNESDAY

Philippine security forces found 11 more bodies at the site of an election-related massacre, taking the toll to 57 dead.

At least 15,000 buffalo and “countless” goats and birds were sacrificed in a temple in southern Nepal, a ritual billed as the single biggest animal slaughter on earth.

A 16th Century classical scroll by Ming dynasty painter Wu Bin fetched $24.8 million at a Beijing sale, the highest price ever paid for a Chinese painting at auction.