The world - Oct. 14, 2010

THURSDAY

Peruvian writer and one-time presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa, a chronicler of human struggles against authoritarian power in Latin America, won the 2010 Nobel prize for literature.

Paris japonica, a striking plant native to Japan, was identified by researchers as the species with the largest genome ever recorded. Paris japonica has 15 percent more DNA than the previous record holder, the marbled lungfish. Larger genomes increase a species risk of extinction.

Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay pitched the second no-hitter in Major League Baseball post-season history. Yankee Don Larsen tossed a perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series.

FRIDAY

Jailed Chinese democracy activist Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize for two decades of non-violent struggle for human rights, infuriating China, which called the award “an obscenity”.

The Obama administration released $727 million to help fix up 143 community health centers across the country, the first of $11 billion for the centers promised by the U.S. healthcare reform law.

Russian spy Anna Chapman waved off astronauts at a launch pad in Kazakhstan. Chapman was deported by the United States with nine other people in July as part of the biggest spy swap since the Cold War.

WEEKEND

Former Dutch Caribbean colonies Curacao and St. Maarten became autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands on Sunday in a change of constitutional status dissolving the Netherlands Antilles.

Nearly half a million Bangladeshis were left homeless on Saturday after three days of storms which killed at least 15 people and left 50 missing.

Kyrgyzstan voted Sunday to create the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia, in an election its interim leaders hope can unite the country only four months after the worst bloodshed in its modern history.

MONDAY

U.S. doctors began treating the first patient to receive human embryonic stem cells. Geron Corp has the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration license to use the controversial cells to treat people, in this case in a patient with spinal cord injuries.

A South African community has asked rapper 50 Cent to become “godfather” to a black rhino who survived two poaching attacks despite being shot nine times. 50 Cent was also shot nine times while dealing drugs on the streets of New York before beginning his music career.

GAP Inc scrapped a new logo just a week after launching it following an “outpouring of comments” online and from customers in support of the original blue box design it has had for more than 20 years.

Hungary’s police detained Zoltan Bakonyi, head of aluminum producer MAL Zrt, for the damages done when the company’s red sludge reservoir burst last week, flooding villages in western Hungary and killing seven people.

TUESDAY

China has become the world’s largest energy user, having overtaken the United States, according to the head of the International Energy Agency.

Paul Henry, a New Zealand television host has quit after sparking a diplomatic row when he intentionally mispronounced the name of Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of the Indian capital, New Delhi.

Canada was forced to withdraw from the race for a seat on the prestigious U.N. Security Council, conceding victory to Portugal in the annual election.

Researchers at Bristol University were able to determine dogs are capable of optimism or pessimism by placing half-full (or half-empty) bowls of food in a room. Optimistic dogs sprinted toward the bowl, expecting to find food, while pessimistic dogs hesitated.

WEDNESDAY

The first several of Chile’s 33 trapped gold and copper miners were hoisted to safety in a capsule barely wider than a man’s shoulders, cheering, punching the air and hugging their families after two months deep underground. Florencio Avalos, a father of two, was the first to emerge to breathe his first fresh air in 69 days after being trapped in the mine for more than two months.

Tanzanian Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, 36, was put on trial at Manhattan federal court in the first criminal trial of a terrorism suspect from Guantanamo Bay. Proceedings began with prosecutors calling him a militant while the defense said he was a naive associate of extremists who bombed U.S. embassies.