The World - 8/18/11

THURSDAY

Israel's interior minister gave final approval for a plan to build 1,600 settler homes in East Jerusalem. The announcement could weigh on U.S.-led efforts to dissuade Palestinians from seeking United Nations endorsement of statehood in the absence of peace talks they suspended over Israeli settlement construction.

The Falcon HTV-2, an arrowhead-shaped unmanned experimental aircraft designed to glide down from the upper atmosphere at 20 times the speed of sound, lost contact with ground control on its second test flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Scientists from the Geological Survey began an expedition to monitor acidification trends in the Arctic Ocean linked to carbon emissions.

FRIDAY

President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law suffered a setback when The U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit ruled it was unconstitutional to require all Americans to buy insurance or face a penalty.

The U.S. Postal Service would eliminate about 220,000 full-time jobs and shutter about 300 processing facilities by 2015 under a proposal to bring its finances in order. The agency reported a $3.1 billion net loss in its most recent quarter. It expects to be insolvent next month and default on a $5.5 billion retiree health payment.

Victoria Hill, 35, Boise, could face up to 10 years in prison for stealing a can of low-cost, high-alcohol beer from a store. Clerks told officers she slipped a $1.50 24-ounce can of Steel Reserve beer into her purse and left without paying for it. Intent to commit theft is punishable in Idaho by a prison sentence of no less than one year and a maximum of 10 years.

Daniel Wells Herriman, 40, of Konawa, Oklahoma, was arrested and charged with trying to destroy a natural gas pipeline with a homemade bomb. Herriman called Seminole County 911 and said he had put it under the above-ground pipeline about 75 miles east of Oklahoma City, and set the timer.

Panic over nighttime assaults blamed on "grease devils" - thieves who wear only underwear and cover their bodies in grease to elude capture - has struck across rural Sri Lanka, leading to the deaths of at least three people this week. Two men whom villagers identified as "grease devils" were hacked to death by a mob in the central Sri Lankan village of Kotagala.

WEEKEND

Michele Bachmann, a representative from Minnesota, edged out Ron Paul, another representative, and rolled over the rest of the Republican field to win the Iowa straw poll of Republicans on Saturday in the first big test of the 2012 presidential campaign. Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor, said Sunday he was dropping out of the 2012 U.S. presidential race a day after a disappointing finish in the Iowa straw poll.

The collapse of an outdoor concert stage in heavy wind just before a weekend concert by "country" duo Sugarland killed five and injured 40 at the Indiana State Fair. Concert officials informed spectators prior to the show that the concert might have to be postponed due to the weather, but a strong gust blew the stage over before any official evacuation order was issued.

Libyan rebels raised their flag over Zawiyah, a strategic town near Tripoli, on Sunday after their most dramatic advance in months cut off Muammar Gaddafi's capital from its main link to the outside world.

Investigators were examining hotel surveillance video on Sunday for clues to the disappearance of a 17th century pen-and-ink drawing known as "The Judgment" by Rembrandt from a private exhibit near Los Angeles. The drawing is valued at $250,000 and measures about 11 by 6 inches.

MONDAY

A 19-year-old international student from Japan who overstepped a safety railing fell into Niagara Falls over the weekend and searchers looking for her body on Monday found an unidentified male body instead.

A dangerous amoeba that thrives in warm, freshwater bodies in the heat of summer caused the recent death of a 16-year-old Central Florida girl, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed. The amoeba, officially known as Naegleria fowleri, is a single-cell, microscopic organism found in such freshwater bodies as lakes, rivers, hot springs and, occasionally, in neglected, unchlorinated swimming pools.

Minnesota Twin Jim Thome became just the eighth major league player to hit 600 home runs after blasting a pair of long balls. Unlike recent 600-club members Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez, Thome’s name has never been linked to performance enhancing drugs.

TUESDAY

The Illinois Department of Revenue denied property-tax exemptions for three hospitals, saying it needed to determine whether the nonprofit hospitals operate as businesses or as charities.

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann wished Elivs Presley "happy birthday" on the 34th anniversary of his death at a stump speech in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She later corrected herself by saying, "He’s still alive. He’s alive in our hearts."

from a variety of sources.

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