The World - April 1, 2010

THURSDAY

Rodan, a male stork, made his fifth annual journey of more than 8,000 miles, from South Africa to eastern Croatia, to be with his mate Malena, who can no longer fly after being shot through her wing by hunters.

After years of acting as mayor, postmaster and sole citizen of Wauconda, in the Okanagon National Forest, Daphne Fletcher has decided to put the town up for sale on eBay. Fletcher owns the post office, the zip code, a restaurant, a gas station and a 4-acre ranch. She is looking for a “starting” bid of $359,000. The “buy it now” price is just less than $500,000.

Three robbers dressed as Ninjas tied up a woman and ransacked her home in West Linn, Ore., and forced her husband to drive them to his jewelry store so they could rob it. Police have no suspects in the case.

FRIDAY

A South Korean naval ship sank near the disputed maritime border with North Korea, killing some of the more than 100 crews on board. Officials downplayed suggestions that the North had attacked the ship.

Russian prosecutors banned Adolf Hitler’s 1925 semi-autobiographical book “Mein Kampf” as extremist in an attempt to combat the growing allure of far-right politics. The book outlined Hitler’s vision of racial supremacy. At least 60 people were killed and 306 injured in hate attacks in Russia last year.

Residents of Columbus, Ohio, made a mad cash grab after more than $100,000 fell out of the back of an armored truck. Workers at a nearby flower shop helped police gather the remaining money in boxes, but only about $10,500 was recovered.

Loggers discovered the wing, tail section, and landing gear of a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver airplane under heavy brush near the coastal town of Wheeler, Ore. Investigators determined the plane, the Navy’s primary WWII attack plane, wrecked around 1945 and was hidden by the dense forest surrounding Wheeler.

WEEKEND

A reported 153 Chinese workers were trapped when underground water gushed into the pit of a coal mine under construction in the Shanxi province. More than 2,600 were killed in mine accidents in China last year, as the nation hurries to meet growing energy demands.

Russia, the world’s largest country, reduced the number of its time zones to nine from 11 in a move to make the nation more manageable.

A U.S. missile strike from a pilotless drone aircraft in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border killed four people in a suspected al Qaeda and Taliban hideout on Saturday.

MONDAY

At least 34 people died and more injured when a pair of blasts ripped through a metro train station in Moscow. No group immediately took responsibility for the blasts but suspicion is likely to fall on groups from Russia’s North Caucasus, where Moscow is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency.

Nine members of a Christian militia group in Michigan were indicted on charges of conspiring to wage war against the U.S. government. According to the grand jury indictment, the group planned to kill a police officer and then ambush law enforcement officers who attended his funeral.

Daniel Cowart, 21, of Bells, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to carry out a killing spree targeting African Americans, including then-presidential candidate Barack Obama.

TUESDAY

Physicists in the European Center for Nuclear Research smashed sub-atomic particles into each other with record energy, creating thousands of mini-Big Bang explosions. The Large Hadron Collider slammed beams of particles together at a collision energy of 7 million electron volts.

The Mississippi River was reopened near Vicksburg, Mississippi, after being shut for 12 hours due to a barge collision. One barge was carrying scrap steel, the other petroleum coke. No injuries and no pollution resulted from the accident.

Colombian rebels freed Pablo Emilio Moncayo, a government soldier who was held hostage in the jungle for more than 12 years and symbolized those left behind in a war against Latin America’s oldest insurgency.

WEDNESDAY

President Barack Obama announced a plan to permit exploration for oil and natural gas off the coast of Virginia. Drilling off the U.S. coast has been band for more than 20 years because of concerns that spills could harm the environment.

Compiled from a variety of sources by Gazette staff.