The world

THURSDAY

A Norwegian driver who swerved his car on a rural road to avoid running into a moose died after his maneuver ran him into a massive brown bear.

A massive galaxy cluster, one of the largest structures in the universe, has been discovered about 5.7 billion light years from Earth. The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said cluster SPT-CLJ2344-4243, or Phoenix, is the largest cluster ever seen.

FRIDAY

Twenty-six active-duty soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in July, more than double the number reported for June and the most suicides ever recorded in a single month. Twelve reserve soldiers who were not on active duty also killed themselves in July.

A Russian court sentenced the riot girl trio Pussy Riot to two years in prison for what it deemed hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for performing a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in which they called on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.

The federal government filed suit against the Florida Department of Corrections, accusing the state of violating prisoners’ religious rights by ending kosher meal service. Some 250 prisoners had ordered kosher meals prior to 2007, costing the state about $146,000 a year.

Located on Lake Weir, the lakefront Florida home where “Ma” Barker was shot dead by the FBI in 1935 was put up for sale, bullet holes and all. Suggested starting price on bids is $1 million.

Smoke, the Iraqi donkey who became a mascot of the U.S. Marines after he showed up malnourished and wounded at Camp Taqaddum in Anbar province in 2008, died at his home in Nebraska.

WEEKEND

Authorities on Saturday ordered the evacuation of Featherville, Idaho, as firefighters braced for the possibility that the Trinity Ridge Fire in the Boise National Forest that has charred 82,000 acres could scorch the town.

The Mars rover Curiosity zapped its first Martian rock on Sunday with a high-powered laser gun designed to analyze its mineral composition.

Police were investigating as a possible hate crime the discovery of uncooked bacon scattered on the grounds of a New York City park where Muslims gathered to celebrate the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

A lightning strike on a Lake Superior beach in Minnesota injured five people in a family party on a sailboat, including a 9-year-old Wisconsin boy who later died.

Miss China Yu Wenxia, a 23-year-old music lover who wants to work with the poor, was crowned Miss World 2012 at a ceremony in Inner Mongolia.

MONDAY

A lotion that cures male-pattern baldness could be for sale in the United States in as little as two years. The cure would also extend to men of all ages who have already lost their hair.

Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is likely to shrink to a record small size sometime next week according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. Ice is expected to retreat to less than 1.5 million square miles, breaking the 2007 low mark of 1.66 million square miles.

Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters golf tournament, ended an all-male policy that had endured for 80 years when it announced it would admit Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and financier Darla Moore as its first women members.

The U.S. Coast Guard said 97 vessels were stranded by low water on the Mississippi River near Greenville, Miss., after it closed an 11-mile stretch of the drought-parched waterway for dredging and to replace missing navigation buoys.

TUESDAY

Congressman Todd Akin, under fire for saying it was extremely rare for women to get pregnant from “legitimate rape” insisted he would not leave the Missouri Senate race, despite pressure from fellow Republicans including presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Lois Ann Goodman, 70, a prominent professional tennis referee who was preparing to officiate at the U.S. Open in New York was arrested on a felony murder warrant accusing her of bludgeoning her elderly husband to death with a coffee mug in their Los Angeles home.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent about $5 million for conferences that are drawing scrutiny from Congress and the agency’s internal watchdog amid concern about potentially lavish government conferences and improper gifts to planners.

WEDNESDAY

Alaska sued to overturn federal oversight of state elections, saying that Voting Rights Act provisions aimed at protecting African Americans in southern states are not applicable in the far north.

Syrian army shells killed at least 40 people in southern Damascus during an assault to shore up President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on the capital.

Compiled by Gazette staff from a variety

of sources.