The world - Feb. 10, 2011

THURSDAY

Police in Las Vegas arrested Anthony Carleo, 29, son of municipal court judge George Assad, for riding a motorcycle up to the upscale Bellagio casino in December and stealing about $1.5 million in gambling chips.

An Alabama police officer shot and wounded a defendant in a small town Alabama courtroom after he tried to grab a gun and attack a judge. Witnesses said the officer used unnecessary force in twice shooting a defendant they said became unruly but did not attempt to get a gun and was anyway on crutches with a broken hip sustained in a car accident.

FRIDAY

Russian scientists are on the brink of breaking through a frozen Antarctic lake that has remained sealed by ice for 15 million years to see if it is hiding prehistoric or unknown life forms. The lake is where the coldest temperature ever found on Earth - minus 128.6 degrees - was recorded.

The Congo set up its first rehabilitation center for victims of violence, weeks after a wave of mass rapes struck the country’s east region. The UN estimates at least 160 women are being raped every week in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu.

Malawi’s government outlawed breaking wind in public. The African nation’s justice ministry says the legislation is part of a wider campaign to “mould responsible and disciplined citizens”. Local media questioned how the proposed law will be enforced when it is so easy to blame the offence on others.

WEEKEND

TV ratings showed a record 111 million people tuned in to watch the Green Bay Packers’ 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. Last year, 106.5 million watched the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts, surpassing the 106 million who tuned in for the finale of the comedy “M*A*S*H” in 1983. Advertisers paid up to $3 million for 30-seconds of commercial air time.

Andreas Toepfer was judged the world’s best deer calling champion in a German contest that has been taking place for centuries. This year Hildegard Zervos became the first female to participate in the 13-year-old competition.

Thousands of Japanese gathered outside of Tokyo to vie for top prize in the national Hole Digging championship. The Golden Shovel award and the 100,000 yen top prize this year went to a team which dug a 10-foot eight-inch hole.

MONDAY

Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, was charged with a 48th count of murder in connection with the remains of a young woman found in December in the woods near Seattle. Skeletal remains identified Rebecca Marrero after her body was found by a group of children. Ridgway was sentenced in 2003 to a life term with no possibility of parole.

A Russian-led expedition announced it will leave next week in an attempt to make the first ever crossing from Russia’s Arctic shore into Canada over the North Pole, a 5,000-mile voyage over precarious shifting ice floes. Eight explorers will set out in two specially-designed vehicles with overinflated tires that allow for travel over the snowdrifts and dangerous Arctic ice cap.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said the city, contrary to internet rumors, has no plans to erect a RoboCop statue to honor the 1987 science fiction movie based in Detroit.

Ahmed Zaafan and Ola Abdel Hamid were wed in a ceremony held in the middle of thousands of Egyptian protestors in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Flowers and sherbet were passed around the crowd after the sheikh concluded the marriage rituals.

TUESDAY

Pirates using guns and rocket propelled grenades hijacked an Italian oil tanker with a $63 million cargo in the Indian Ocean, Italian Navy and European Union officials said, adding the medium-sized ship was heading toward Somalia. An Italian navy frigate was heading to the scene but was some 600 miles away.

The defense lawyer for former Liberian president Charles Taylor defied the Sierra Leone war crimes court, walking out in protest ahead of closing arguments in the case and calling it a farce. Taylor, the first African ruler to stand trial for war crimes, is charged with instigating murder, rape, mutilation, sexual slavery and conscription of child soldiers during a brutal civil war in Sierra Leone. He denies the charges.

WEDNESDAY

Egyptian-owned satellite company Nilesat restored transmissions by Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera. Nilesat cut Al Jazeera off on February 1 at about the same time as supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak began counter demonstrations and launched physical attacks on the protest movement holding Tahrir Square in central Cairo.

An average of two children per day were killed in Afghanistan last year, with areas of the once peaceful north now among the most dangerous, according to a report by the Afghanistan Rights Monitor.

Compiled by the Gazette from a variety of sources.