The World

THURSDAY

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported the nation could soon be a net exporter of refined fuel for the first time in 62 years.

President Barack Obama and his family lit a new National Christmas Tree, a 26-foot-tall Colorado blue spruce decorated with white lights and snowflakes.

Animal control officers in Plattsmouth, Neb., put out a bait cow to lure in a young heifer that has been wandering loose in town for two months. The wandering bovine is one of two that tumbled off a semi-tractor trailer livestock truck after a rear panel door fell off in mid-September.

A Utah duck hunter is recovering from minor wounds he suffered when he was shot in the buttocks by his partner’s dog over the weekend.

Officials at the Paris cemetery where author Oscar Wilde is buried have encased his tomb behind a glass screen. Wilde fans for more than a decade have flocked to his grave and left it covered with red and pink kiss marks.

FRIDAY

The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League criticized Apple when Siri - one of the most popular features of Apple’s new iPhone 4S - could not locate abortion clinics when asked.

Residents of Medicine Lodge, Kansas, home town of anti-liquor crusader Carry A. Nation - famed for smashing up saloons in the early part of the 20th Century - voted to allow Sunday service of alcoholic drinks.

A body found stuffed in a Maine freezer in October was identified as that of a 29-year-old woman who went missing nearly three decades ago after a fight with her boyfriend.

WEEKEND

Facing several accusations of sexual misconduct, former Godfather’s Pizza chief Herman Cain withdrew from his bid to win the Republican nomination for President.

German bomb disposal experts successfully defused a 1.8-ton unexploded World War II bomb in the river Rhine, as thousands of residents were evacuated from homes, hospitals and even a prison.

Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, serving a two-game suspension after appearing to stomp on a Green Bay Packers player, lost control of his car and crashed into a tree in his hometown Portland. Alcohol was not a factor.

In the wake of its sex abuse scandal Penn State University earned a berth in the lowly TicketCity Bowl in Dallas, a far less prominent game than the team’s 9-3 record would have suggested, but still - a bowl game.

MONDAY

Scientists announced the finding of Kepler-22b, the most Earth-like planet ever discovered. Kepler circles a star 600 light years away, and likely has liquid water on its surface - among the ingredients necessary for life on Earth.

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon region fell to its lowest in 23 years as government officials enforce tougher laws against illegal logging. Destruction of the Brazilian portion of the world’s largest rain forest dropped to 2,400 square miles.

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service moved forward with plans to end next-day delivery of letters, postcards and other First Class mail.

A national survey found more than a third of U.S. shoppers are already done with most of their holiday shopping.

TUESDAY

Shares of stock in the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers went on sale for the fifth time in the team’s 92-year history. The stock issuance was to raise $143 million for an expansion of iconic Lambeau Field. The Packers are the only publicly-owned major professional sports team in the United States. Before the offering, the team had about 112,000 stockholders with a total of 4.75 million shares.

The world’s three biggest polluters, China, the United States and India, refused to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s only legal pact to tackle climate change.

Jesus Leon Jr., 30, was accused of making more than 100 prank emergency calls over a year and a half to New York City 911. Leon said he was also angry with the police and fire departments for failing to respond to his requests for help dealing with a water leak from his upstairs neighbors’ apartment.

A 38-year-old woman woman in the border city of Laredo, Texas, who was denied food stamps, killed herself and shot and critically wounded her two children.

WEDNESDAY

Australian Mansor Almaribe, a 45-year-old father of five, was sentenced to 500 lashes in Saudi Arabia for breaking the country’s strict blasphemy laws during a Haj pilgrimage last month.

Russian officials refused to sign on to an EU ban on importing crude oil from Iran. Russia is the world’s biggest crude oil producer and does not import any Iranian oil.

Workers at a foreign-owned factory in China went on strike against a planned factory relocation, capping a week of industrial disputes in coastal manufacturing hubs.

Compiled by Gazette staff from a variety

of sources.