The World

THURSDAY

Pennsylvania widow Alda Collins, 110, received a boost in benefits she receives from her husband William’s service in WWI. Mrs. Collins now receiveds $1,000 a month instead of $36.

Dr. Melvin Morse, 58, was arrested on charges he disciplined his 11-year-old daughter with a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding.

Abraham Garcia-Perguero, 38, and his common-law wife, Maria Isabel Rodriguez-Olivo, 36, received sentences of 33 and 27 months for possessing 27,000 rounds of assault rifle ammunition destined for Mexico.

David Bates, president of the union that represents pilots at American Airlines, resigned after members soundly rejected a tentative contract from the bankrupt carrier.

FRIDAY

China released corn and rice from state reserves to help tame inflation and reduce imports as the U.S. drought pushes corn prices to global records.

Boeing named former aerospace engineer John Wojick, 55, as the airliner’s top salesman, giving him the task of leading the U.S. plane maker’s efforts to outsell rival Airbus in the fiercely contested $100 billion a year global market.

The New Mexico Finance Authority, which issues debt to help local government with public works, suspended two executives following the arrest of the agency’s chief operating officer on charges of submitting a fake audit to cover up $40 million in losses to the state.

WEKEEND

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s announced Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, chair of the House budget committee and a Tea Party fave, as his vice presidential running mate.

An oil tanker collided with a U.S. Navy ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday but no one was hurt and shipping traffic in the waterway, through which 40 percent of the world’s seaborne oil exports pass, was not affected.

London’s 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium was filled to capacity for the closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics. Another 300 million people watched on television as a children’s choir sang with the filmed ghost of John Lennon. Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend blasted out classic Who tunes and, to top the list, the Spice Girls reunited to “zigga-zig ahh” while speeding around the track in classic Brit cars.

Buddy, a chimpanzee who rampaged through a Las Vegas neighborhood last month, made a second escape from his backyard enclosure. A police officer shot and killed him after police say he veered too closely toward onlookers.

MONDAY

Daniel Casillo, 31, swam ashore and walked undetected into New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport over the weekend, prompting an investigation into why the approximately $100 million security system was breachable.

The bodies of three people were discovered in a burning car parked outside an industrial park in Bangor, Maine. The vehicle had Rhode Island license plates and was believed to have been a rental car.

A Burmese python found in Florida set records as the largest such snake ever captured in the state at 17-feet, 7-inches and the most prolific reproducer carrying a record load of 87 eggs.

TUESDAY

The United States population turned into American Pi, as the Census Bureau found the country had 314,159,265 residents, or the mathematical ratio pi times 100 million, shortly after 2:29 p.m. EDT. Pi, or 3.14159265, is the mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

A new study analyzing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that Mississippi has the highest rate of obesity in the nation, with 34.9 percent of its residents clocking in as obese. Twelve states report more than 30 percent of their population as overweight. Colorado is the slimmest state, with 20.7 percent of its residents falling into the obese category.

President Barack Obama cracked open a bottle of White House Honey Ale, a beer brewed and tapped right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

A 56-year-old man in Sparks, Nev., accidentally shot himself in the buttocks at a showing of “The Bourne Legacy.”

WEDNESDAY

Firefighters continued to battle the Taylor Bridge Fire, a massive wildfire that has destroyed at least 60 homes, burned more than 28,000 acres and forced evacuations of some 400 homes between Cle Elum and Ellensburg. Governor Christine Gregoire declared a state of emergency in two counties.

Security guards scuffled with masked protesters outside Moscow’s main cathedral as the dissidents rallied in support of three members of the Pussy Riot punk band who are on trial for staging an irreverent protest at the same church.

Spain is facing its worst wildfires in a decade, but firefighters are struggling with a shortage of breathing equipment as budgets have been slashed by up to a half as part of the drive to cut public spending.

Compiled by Gazette staff from a variety

of sources.