The World

THURSDAY

Bill Lee, chief of the Sanford, Fla., police department, resigned after national outrage over his department’s handling of the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, 28. Zimmerman, who has claimed the shooting was in self-defense, was not arrested under tenents in the state’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law.

Canadian officials spotted an empty Japanese “ghost ship” off the coast of British Columbia. Officials estimated the ship was the first piece of 1.5 million tons of debris heading toward North America from Japan’s tsunami last March.

Kazakhstan’s shooting team demanded an apology after the national anthem from the comedy film Borat was played instead of the country’s real one at a medal ceremony in Kuwait. The spoof anthem praises Kazakhstan for its superior potassium exports and for having the cleanest prostitutes in the region.

FRIDAY

White supremacist Shaun Patrick Winkler, former staffer for late Richard Butler, the leader of Aryan Nations, announced a campaign to become sheriff of Bonner County, Ida.

State regulators closed two banks; Covenant Bank & Trust of Rock Spring, Georgia, and Premier Bank in Wilmette, Illinois.

Former “The Price is Right” host Bob Barker is spending $880,000 to fly three elephants to PAWS Sanctuary in San Andreas, California from the Toronto Zoo after growing concerned that Canada’s chilly climate was unsuitable for them.

The Texas Rangers unveiled the new Champion Dog, a 2-foot-long, one-pound hot dog topped with sauteed onions, shredded cheese, jalapenos and chili which will be on sale fo $26 during home baseball games this summer.

A man delivering medical marijuana in West Covina, Calif., claimed that two ninjas attacked and robbed him of his stash and cash.

WEEKEND

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, 71, underwent a heart transplant (not implant) Saturday. Cheney has suffered several heart attacks, the first at age 37.

In what has been dubbed a “tantorum,” Republican hopeful Rick Santorum cursed a New York Times reporter who had asked him about a quote at a rally in Wisconsin in which Santorum called rival Mitt Romney, “the worst Repbulican” the party could pit against President Barack Obama.

“Look out, Ladies!,” proclaimed the New York Post in a headline marking golf icon Tiger Woods’ first PGA tournament win since his sex scandal two-and-a-half years ago. Woods topped the field by five strokes to claim the Arnold Palmer Invitational title.

MONDAY

Arguments opened before the U.S. Supreme Court over the health care law passed in 2010 that require people obtain health insurance or face a penalty. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy appear to be the two swing votes on the nine-member court.

The U.S. Senate voted 92 to four to pass a bill to eliminate $24 billion worth of tax breaks for major oil companies.

A U.S. federal agent shot dead one of four men facing arrest in South Texas for being part of a murder-for-hire squad enlisted by undercover agents posing as members of the Mexican drug cartel Zetas.

Columbia University sued gene-mapping company Illumina, Inc., for allegedly infringing five patents related to DNA sequencing.

An unemployed Austrian man sawed his foot off with an electric saw in preparation for an appointment with the national labor office to check on his physical ability to resume work.

TUESDAY

A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas was diverted to Texas after the plane’s captain became incoherent and had to be subdued. Passengers told the Amarillo Globe-News the captain “went to a restroom, then emerged, shouting, ‘Iraq, al-Qaida, terrorism, we’re all going down.” The captain, whose name has not been released, was removed from the aircraft and taken to a medical facility.

A group spear-headed by former basketball great Earvin “Magic” Johnson agreed to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team for a record $2 billion from bankrupt owner Frank McCourt, capping a two-year drama that started with McCourt’s divorce and the collapse of the national real estate market.

Derailment of a freight train in Indiana dumped carloads of hazardous molten sulfur or toluene into the Elkhart River. Environmental officials did not know if foam seen on the river is a result of the derailment.

A referee held up red cards to five players in the locker rooms after a post-match brawl at an English League Two game between Bradford City and Crawley Town.

WEDNESDAY

European Astronomers announced there may be tens of billions of rocky planets with the right temperature to support life surrounding red dwarf stars in the Milky Way. There are around 160 billion red dwarfs in the galaxy.

Compiled by Gazette staff from a variety

of sources.