The world - Nov. 11, 2010

THURSDAY

Shi’ite Nuri al-Maliki was re-nominated as Iraqi prime minister as fractious politicians ended an eight-month deadlock that raised fears of renewed secretarian warfare.

Animal rights activists protested South Korea officials for using goldfish to ensure the purity of restroom water supplies as part of elaborate security measures for the G20 summit.

The world’s first floating Starbucks pulled into a Florida port aboard the world’s largest cruise liner, Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas.

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Virginia Tech and Princeton University released a study in which they found cat’s lapping defies the laws of gravity. The curvature of cats tongues use reverse inertia to create a backward waterfall effect.

FRIDAY

Wal-Mart and Sears announced they will take the commercialization of Thanksgiving one step further by opening for business on Thanksgiving Day, once considered a holiday for family gatherings, gorging on turkey and pumpkin pie, followed by a nap or walk.

Overwhelmed with requests for exorcists, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are putting together a special training workshop in Baltimore to teach clerics the esoteric rite. Possible signs of demonic possession include scratching, cutting, biting of the skin, profound displays of strength and a strong or violent reaction to holy water.

France agreed to return on a permanent lease basis a collection of royal court protocol documents considered national treasures by South Korea and seized by the French navy in the 19th century.

WEEKEND

A bumper audience of 4.96 million people turned out for Tea Party darling Sarah Palin’s new reality TV show about life in Alaska Sunday night on cable channel TLC. Sunday’s episode showed the 2008 Republican vice presidential contender hiking glaciers, baking cakes with some of her five children and encountering wild bears on a family fishing trip in her home state.

Death toll from Haiti’s cholera epidemic topped 900 and the disease is present in six of the 10 provinces of the earthquake-battered Caribbean country.

Manny Pacquiao, recently elected to the Phillipine national congress, became the first boxer ever to obtain world titles in eight weight classes when he defeated Antonio Margarito in a judges decision at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.

Israel decided on Sunday to allow 8,000 Ethiopians who claim Jewish descent to enter the country and obtain Israeli citizenship, including some who have waited for years in transit camps.

Pirates hijacked a Chinese ship carrying 29 sailors in the Arabian Sea and told the ship’s owner that they were sailing the vessel to Somalia.

MONDAY

The number of U.S. households that received emergency food from a food pantry almost doubled between 2007 and 2009, at the height of the recession. The Department of Agriculture said the number of households jumped to 5.6 from 3.9 million.

Astronomers for the first time spotted a developing black hole from supernova SN 1979C at the edge of a galaxy called M100.

U.S. and British meteorologists reported four decades of data show greenhouse gases trapped in the troposphere - the lowest level of the atmosphere, where weather occurs - have caused the earth to warm.

An employee with the Department of Immigration was reprimanded but not fired for sending an e-mail to every employee in the department in search of a colleague whom he met and fell in love with at a party.

TUESDAY

A flock of African pink pelicans en route from Kazakhstan to their native Africa landed in Siberia, astounding local residents after Russia’s abnormally warm weather threw them off course.

A pinball-sized rectangular step-cut pink diamond weighing 24.78 carats sold for $45.75 million at an auction in Geneva.

WEDNESDAY

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he will not sign an execution order for Tareq Aziz, the former deputy of dictator Saddam Hussein sentenced to death last month for crimes against humanity.

Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout arrived in New York from Thailand to face U.S. terrorism charges.The 43-year-old former Soviet air force officer, dubbed the “Merchant of Death,” faces U.S. accusations of trafficking arms since the 1990s to dictators and conflict zones around the world.

Economists predicted merchandise and other products to commemorate the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton will give a $985 million boost to the British retail sector. Buckingham Palace Tuesday announced the proposal, which the prince made last month.

Compiled by the Gazette from a variety of sources