The World - March 10, 2011

THURSDAY

Harvard will welcome the Reserve Officer Training Corps program back on campus, some 40 years after banning military recruiting during the Vietnam War. The action was taken in response to December’s repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law by Congress, which had disqualified gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military.

Wyoming Governor Matt Mead signed a bill that would allow residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit. The bill also makes it so gun owners no longer have to undergo a criminal background check or show proficiency with a firearm.

Britain’s National Archives released previously classified files documenting sightings of UFOs dating back to the 1950s. One of the files reveals how the RAF mobilized to fight off an alien invasion in 1967 after receiving calls that six small beeping UFOs were lined up in the sky over the Bristol Channel. The event was later revealed as a student prank.

FRIDAY

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared “an unusual mortality event” in response to finding some 80-plus dead bottle-nose dolphins along the U.S. Gulf Coast since January. Scientists are debating whether the deaths were a result of last year’s oil spill or a winter cold snap.

Buckingham Palace announced Queen Elizabeth, 84, is to travel to Ireland this year in the first official visit by a British monarch since before the Irish state gained independence from Britain in 1921. The last British monarch to visit Ireland was King George V in 1911.

Missouri lawmakers plan to name a stretch of highway for Rabbi Ernest Jacob, a Holocaust survivor, three years after a neo-Nazi group “adopted” it in a litter-clearing program.

WEEKEND

NASA reported the detection of tiny fossilized blue-green algae bacteria on three meteorites that are not native to Earth.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said the federal government could save $5.5 billion over the next 30 years by replacing $1 bills with coins of the same amount. Savings would come from replacing bills with more durable coins.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game forecasts 203 million salmon will be caught this year, the fifth largest haul since statehood, thanks to a combination of good environmental conditions over the past few years as well as careful management by the state.

Workers for defense contractor Lockheed Martin ratified a three-year labor pact that provides 8.5 percent pay increases over the next three years and a $2,500 ratification bonus. Negotiations had stalled last week and a strike was expected before the ratification vote.

MONDAY

U.S. retail gasoline prices soared another 13.7 cents over the last week to a national average of $3.52 a gallon, rising 33.1 cents during the last two weeks. It was the second biggest jump in pump prices during a two-week period ever.

Scientists were closely monitoring heightened activity at Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, after a fissure sent lava spewing 65 feet in the air.

Actor Charlie Sheen was “winning” the title of most popular tweeter after his Twitter account reached two million followers less than one week after he launched his account. “We gobbled the soft target that was 2.0 mil, like a bag of a troll-house zombie chow,” he tweeted Monday.

TUESDAY

The Idaho legislature stripped the state’s 12,000 public school teachers of many of their collective bargaining rights. The bill also eliminates teacher tenure, limits the duration of teacher labor contracts to one year and removes seniority as a factor in determining the order of layoffs.

Permission was given to airports in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas/Fort Worth, New Orleans, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Tampa and San Juan, Puerto Rico to end a 49-year-long embargo on flights to and from Cuba.

The oldest known free-flying bird in the United States, a roughly 60-year-old albatross named Wisdom, hatched a new chick on Sand Island at Midway. A tag on Wisdom has recorded her flying about 3 million miles since she was five years old.

Fola Adeola, vice-presidential candidate for the Action Congress of Nigeria, accused his political rivals of sabotage after his plane was forced to make an emergency landing due to a runway invasion by rams and goats.

WEDNESDAY

U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King called for investigations into radicalization in the American-Muslim community, threatening to call in Muslims who have not spoken out against al Qaeda and its affiliates.

Millions of dead sardines washed up in a foot-deep layer around dozens of private boat slips in King Harbor Marina in Redondo Beach south of Los Angeles. Experts blamed the deaths on oxygen depravation after being driven into a closed-off pier area by rough seas and heavy winds.

Compiled by the Gazette from a variety of sources.