The world 4/28/11

THURSDAY

Kevin Harpham of Colville, the alleged Spokane Martin Luther King bomber, was newly charged with committing federal hate crimes.

An Austrian museum returned a valuable Gustav Klimt painting worth around $30 million to the grandson of its original owner, a Jewish victim of the Nazis.

This month, tech firm Greenlight found internet posts about the April 29 wedding of Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton have been appearing 9,000 times a day, or about every ten seconds.

Spanish soccer team Real Madrid had to make a replica King’s Cup trophy after the real trophy was dropped from the top of a bus by star defender Sergio Ramos and driven over in the team’s celebration parade.

FRIDAY

Wasatch Presbyterian Church in Utah gave away free copies of the Koran in an Easter gesture to counter the recent burning of the Islamic holy book by a controversial Florida pastor.

A virtual forest sprouted on the world-famous billboards in Times Square as New York marked Earth Day.

Sixteen state attorney generals urged the Pabst Brewing Company to reduce the alcohol content of its controversial fruit-flavored drink Blast. The drink is sold in 23.5-ounce containers and has 12 percent alcohol content, more than twice most beers.

Russian space officials said cosmonauts in their 50 years of space travel have never had sex in space.

WEEKEND

Search teams Sunday recovered the body of Larry Marek, a silver miner, from a Hecla Mining Co. mine near Mullan, Idaho. Marek was trapped inside the mine when it collapsed April 15.

Air Travel was halted at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport after a tornado tore through the terminal Friday night. Tornadoes swept through much of the Midwest and the South over the weekend.

Thousands of pilgrims traveled to El Santuario de Chimayo outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, for Easter, believing the miraculous soil outside the church will heal their pains and cleanse their sins. Legend says Bernardo Abeyta in 1810 found a glowing crucifix in the dirt outside the church. Abeyta took it to a nearby church, but it soon re-appeared in its original spot.

A small plane filled with bundles of cocaine crashed into a lake in northern New Mexico Sunday, killing all aboard and leaving cocaine floating on the lake.

Former British Air Force pilot Douglas Cairns set a world speed record by landing his twin engine light plane at the North Pole. Cairns, 47, flew from Barrow to the North Pole in his Beechcraft Baron, completing the 1,300-mile trip in eight hours and 20 minutes.

MONDAY

Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez announced a 25 percent increase in the the nation’s minimum wages and pensions to counter runaway inflation in the oil-rich state. The new minimum legal salary will be $360 per month and will be augmented with food coupons.

The Trinidad Scorpion Butch T chili was submitted by its Australian breeders as the hottest chili on earth. Trinidad is a bright red pepper that requires handlers to wear gas masks and thick protective clothing.

A sword fight erupted at a Sikh temple in New York as a result of a dispute between two men who each claim to be the temple’s rightful president.

TUESDAY

A federal appeals court ruled high profile death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal should get a new sentencing hearing. Abu-Jamal was convicted in 1982 for shooting and killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. The court ruled the original jury believed anything less than the death sentence would set Abu-Jamal free.

New Jersey’s Secretary of State ruled Olympic track star Carl Lewis could not run for the state Senate because the nine-time gold medal winner did not meet state residency requirements.

Cuban cigar roller Jose “Cueto” Castelar began rolling a 70-meter cigar he hopes to finish to almost double his Guiness world record of a 43.38-meter-long stogie.

Sally Gordon, 102, retired from her job as the Nebraska legislature’s sergeant at arms.

A group in San Francisco submitted 12,000 signatures to put a measure to ban male circumcision on the city’s November ballot.

Minnesota father Dan McKeague topped some 12,500 applicants to become the new voice of the Aflac duck, taking over from fired comedian Gilbert Gottfried.

WEDNESDAY

Tibetan exiles elected Harvard law scholar Lobsang Sangay, 42, as their new political leader after the Dalai Lama relinquished his political role in Tibet’s efforts to become autonomous from China.

A North Korean patrol boat retreated from South Korean waters after the south’s navy fired warning shots when the north boat crossed the disputed Northern Limit Line of the peninsula’s west coast.

Compiled by the Gazette from a variety of sources.