The world - May 13, 2010

THURSDAY

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 1,000 points in morning trading after a trader accidentally sold a billion shares, instead of a million. The mistake triggered automated sales which resulted in the exchange of more than 29.4 billion shares of stock held in markets across the U.S. The error was corrected and the Dow average had rebounded by the afternoon.

The Pentagon banned four journalists from future sessions of the Guantanamo war crimes court for reporting the name of a disgraced former U.S. Army interrogator.

NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, 51, is arrested on charges of third-degree rape of a 16-year-old girl brought to him in a New York suburb by a pimp.

FRIDAY

Neanderthals and modern humans interbred, probably when early humans first began to migrate out of Africa, according to a genetic study released Thursday.

Phil Pagano, chief executive of Chicago’s commuter rail system, committed suicide by stepping in front of a commuter train. Pagano was under investigation for paying himself a $56,000 bonus on top of his $270,000 salary.

Mudslides in Tajikistan killed seven people and left 40 missing when heavy rain hit the Central Asian republic. The mudslides destroyed 200 houses in the town of Kulyab.

WEEKEND

BP suffered a setback on Saturday in an attempt to contain oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico with a metal box when crystallized gas filled the four-story structure. The slushy methane gas blocked the opening through which the company was hoping to siphon oil to stop the leak which has been gushing for more than a week.

Oakland Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden threw the 19th perfect game in Major League Baseball history in a 4-0 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays on Mother’s Day. Braden’s mother died of breast cancer when he was a teenager.

A U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles into a Taliban compound in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region on the Afghan border on Sunday, killing nine militants. The strike was the second since a failed car bomb attack by a Pakistani man last weekend in Times Square.

The Indonesian archipelago was under a tsunami alert after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Sumatra.

MONDAY

President Barack Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace the retiring John Paul Stevens the U.S. Supreme Court, calling her a consensus-builder who has championed the rights of ordinary citizens. Kagan would be the third women on the current court, and only the fourth ever.

New York’s Apollo Theater, the famed Harlem auditorium, began installing its own Walk of Fame with plaques that will honor entertainers including late singers James Brown and Michael Jackson.

Zhao Zhenshang, a Chinese man who was supposedly hacked to death in a fight 10 years ago reappeared in his hometown. Zhao Zuohai, the supposed killer, was acquitted of the crime and released from a 29-year sentence by a Henan court.

TUESDAY

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown left his home at Number 10 Downing Street after conceding defeat to conservative David Cameron following a razor-thin margin in last week’s election to name the Britain’s top legislator.

Thirty Siberian coal miners are still buried too deep for rescuers to reach after two explosions rocked the mine. Rescue crews used up most of their oxygen trying to get to the bottom of the 1,600-foot deep mine. Death toll rose to 60 today, after eight more bodies were found.

Communications company Intelsat said it lost control of the Galaxy 15 satellite, which is now drifting out of control thousands of miles above the Earth, threatening to interfere with cable programming across the United States.

WEDNESDAY

A 10-year-old Dutch boy was the lone survivor of a Libyan Airbus crash Wednesday morning. The plane crashed as it tried to land at the Tripoli airport, killing 103 people on board.

After weeks of delay because of ash emitted by an Icelandic volcano, continental air traffic agency Eurocontrol said all European flights had finally returned to normal.

A Swedish fisherman found a nearly 12-foot herring off the nation’s west coast, the first find of the giant “king of herrings” in more than 130 years.

Compiled by Gazette staff from a variety of sources.