The world - March 31, 2011

THURSDAY

Two flights landed without incident after being stranded in the air when the lone air traffic controller working Ronald Reagan National Airport fell asleep on the job.

Robert Rizzo, the former city administrator for Bell, California, at the center of a pay scandal over his $1.5 million in annual salary and benefits, pleaded not guilty in court to 50 counts of fraud, including misappropriation of public funds, falsification of records by an official custodian and conflict of interest.

A vampire sex film starring famed Mexican wrestler El Santo filmed in the 1960s was unearthed and will debut at next week’s International Film Festival in Guadalajara.

FRIDAY

The U.S. Census Bureau declared Plato, Missouri, as the new population center of the United States. The village, which is so small that its employees are volunteers and the town board meets in the bank basement, will create a 12-inch Missouri stone marker to celebrate its census distinction. Plato is the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless and rigid map of the U.S. would balance perfectly if all 308,745,538 residents were of identical weight.

Broadway darkened its lights for one minute at the traditional 8 p.m. curtain time in tribute to actress Elizabeth Taylor who died in Los Angeles Wednesday at the age of 79.

Two Denver police officers were fired for the 2009 beating of a gay man that was captured on a city surveillance camera and then lying about the incident.

A tanker truck loaded with 8,000 gallons of fuel exploded in Oklahoma City when it collided with a car driven by a teenage girl on her way to school, fire officials said. Neither the truck driver nor the teenager were seriously injured, to the surprise of firefighters and police.

WEEKEND

Black-clad, masked youths battled riot police and attacked banks and luxury stores in central London on Saturday, overshadowing a protest by more than a quarter of a million Britons against government spending cuts.

A weeping Libyan woman made a desperate plea for help Saturday, slipping into a Tripoli hotel full of foreign journalists to show bruises and scars she said had been inflicted on her by Muammar Gaddafi’s militiamen. She was covered in a tablecloth by security and hotel staff and whisked away in a car.

Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic congresswoman who became the first woman on a major party presidential ticket as Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984, died in Boston of blood cancer on Saturday at the age of 75.

MONDAY

Smoke was spotted billowing from a New Hampshire nuclear power plant, but was deemed not serious by authorities. There were no injuries, no evacuation and no impact to ongoing operations.

A series of blasts at a bullet factory in south Yemen killed at least 110 people when residents broke in to steal ammunition a day after clashes between militants and the army in the town.

Pirates in the Gulf of Aden hijacked a Sudanese oil tanker bound for Singapore.

Henson Chua, a 47-year-old Manila man, was indicted by U.S. authorities for attempting to sell a Raven spy plane on Ebay. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of smuggling and violating the Arms Export Control Act. The Raven is a four-pound plane equipped with three cameras that U.S. troops use for battlefield surveillance.

TUESDAY

Three inmates and their families were charged with attempting to smuggle drugs into a New Jersey jail on the pages of a children’s coloring book. The drug, Subozone, normally used to treat heroin addiction but itself classified as a controlled dangerous substance, was dissolved into a paste and then painted into the coloring book. Pages with “To Daddy” scribbled on top were sent to the prisoners at the jail.

Tweets about sightseeing in New York began appearing from an Egyptian cobra that has escaped from the Bronx Zoo. “Holding very still in the snake exhibit at the Museum of Natural History,” read one message from BronxZoosCobra. “This is gonna be hilarious!” The highly poisonous snake went missing from the zoo’s Reptile House Saturday. Sticking to Twitter’s limit of 140 characters per blast, the cultured reptile has announced plans to take in a Broadway musical, listen to some jazz and attend the taping of a late-night talk show. The snake had 30,000 followers by midday Tuesday.

WEDNESDAY

Candy maker PEZ unveiled a pair of special new dispensers bearing the likeness of Britain’s Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton ahead of next month’s royal wedding. The smiling figure of Kate wears blue while William dresses in black with a red tie.

U.S. private employers added 201,000 jobs in March, according to the report by ADP Employer Services.

Nine patients in Alabama died after receiving intravenous nutrition that authorities say was contaminated.

Compiled by the Gazette from a variety of sources.