The World - Nov. 17, 2011

THURSDAY

Thousands of Penn State University students took to the streets to protest the sacking of their beloved football coach, Joe Paterno, in the fallout from a child abuse scandal and cover-up.

Missouri woman Dorothy Desjardins, 87, pleaded not guilty to charges she shot her 88-year-old husband because she thought he was having an affair with her hairdresser.

Paroled felon Raymond Harris proposed to his girlfriend, presenting her a ring he stole from a 73-year-old woman who he beat to death last month.

The wedding album of Irish couple Nigel and Gillian Stewart, stolen some 17 years ago, mysteriously returned to their home.

A 35-year-old man was shot and wounded at a protest encampment in a downtown park in Burlington, Vermont.

FRIDAY

Scientists found responsiveness in the brains of vegitative people. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI, researchers instructed 16 people in a vegetative state to imagine they were making a fist with their right hand or wiggling their toes, and then measured brain activity while electrodes were attached to their scalp.

Steve Levy, county executive in New York’s Suffolk County, decided to sack Santa Claus to eliminate the $600 expenditure from the county’s $2.7 billion budget.

An elderly Amish man had his hair and beard chopped off by his son and grandsons in the latest Ohio incident believed to be connected to a breakaway Amish group.

WEEKEND

Silvio Berlusconi resigned to make way for an emergency government Italians hope will save them from financial ruin. Thousands of jeering protesters shouted “clown, clown,” at Berlusconi. The euro zone’s third largest economy came close to disaster this week when yields on 10-year bonds soared over 7.6 percent, the kind of level which forced Ireland, Portugal and Greece to seek international bailouts. Yields on Italian bonds dropped below seven percent after the announcment.

More than 300 police officers were deployed to clear out the more than 1,000 Occupy protestors from parks in downtown Portland. More than 50 people were arrested. Another 27 Occupy protestors were arrested Saturday in St. Louis for curfew violations.

Pop icon Justin Timberlake escorted Corporal Kelsey De Santis to the Instructor Battalion Marine Corps Ball in Richmond, Virginia, after being invited by her via a YouTube video in July.

Russian police arrested a man described by local media as the “cemetery collector” for digging up 29 corpses and dressing the remains in female clothing to display around his flat.

MONDAY

Police cleared out anti-Wall Street protesters from Oakland’s City Hall plaza, arresting 32 people.

Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, accepted a job as a special correspondent on NBC’s news magazine show “Rock Center with Brian Williams.”

Thousands signed an online petition at GoPetition.com urging E! Entertainment to remove the Kardashian family from its programming. That address, once again, is GoPetition.com.

TUESDAY

New York Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman upheld New York City’s right to evict Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park, where they have been for the past two months. Protestors were evicted by police in riot gear in a pre-dawn raid, but were allowed back 16 hours later provided they do not bring back their tents and sleeping bags.

Federal agents raided state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries across western Washington, targeting storefronts deemed to be engaged in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering.

Police in Massachusetts arrested a 15-year-old boy in connection with the stomping death of a city park’s beloved mascot duck, Ozzie, near a popular pond.

Police in suburban Atlanta arrested a 17-year-old boy who was trying to rob a home by entering through its chimney before getting stuck and spending more than 10 hours trapped in the brick smokestack.

WEDNESDAY

Arab League leaders suspended Syria from the consortium, saying besieged President Bashar al-Assad has failed to honor a peace plan to stop the eight-month popular uprising in the nation.

In defiance of officials at UC Berkely, thousands of protestors camped on the university campus to carry over the anti-Wall Street protests that had been shut down by Oakland police.

New Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti was set to meet with politicians to form a new central government.