The World - Nov. 1, 2012

THURSDAY

A two-pound leopard shark dropped from the sky and flopped around the 12th tee box at the San Juan Hills Golf Club in southern California. The fish was apparently dropped by a bird which had plucked it from the ocean.

Researchers at Italy’s Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research announced in a new study that there are trace amounts of cocaine and marijuana in the air of eight Italian cities.

Ross Winton, an entomology graduate student at Montana State University, discovered a new species, a headless ladybug, in a sand dune in Montana. The insect, which can extend a mouth from its body may prey on aphids and other plant pests.

FRIDAY

Hurricane Sandy tore through the Carribean, killing 41 people.

Farmland prices in Iowa hit a new record high on Thursday when an 80.47-acre parcel in Sioux County near Boyden sold for $21,900 an acre. The buyers were neighboring farmers.

A British man named Ronald McDonald admitted to violating a restraining order when he followed his wife into a McDonald’s. He was given an 86-day sentence for violating the restraining order.

New York City police officer Gilberto Valle III, 28, was charged with conspiring to kidnap, torture, cook and eat women whose names he listed in his computer.

A New York jury has ruled an obstetrician is not liable for his former patient’s abdomen catching fire during a Caesarean section in an incident that left her with a third-degree burn.

WEEKEND

Closer Sergio Romo blew a fastball past triple crown winner Miguel Cabrera to give the San Francisco Giants the World Series title in the 10th inning of a 4-3 win. Giants slugger Pablo Sandoval, who slammed three homers in Game One, was voted the Series most valuable player.

Greek police are seeking to arrest the editor of a weekly magazine for publishing a list of more than 2,000 names of wealthy Greeks who have placed money in Swiss bank accounts.

A Russian cargo ship with some 11 crew on board went missing in a storm on the Sea of Okhotsk.

Another Tibetan set himself on fire, the seventh in the past week to self-immolate in protest against what they claim is heavy-handed Chinese rule in the Himalayan region.

The crown of the Statue of Liberty re-opened to the public Sunday - the 126th anniversary of its dedication - after a year-long $30 million renovation to make the New York landmark safer and more accessible to people in wheelchairs.

A suicide bomber drove a jeep full of explosives into a Catholic church during morning mass in northern Nigeria Sunday, killing at least eight people, wounding more than 100 and triggering reprisal attacks that killed at least two more.

A magnitude-7.7 earthquake hit British Columbia Saturday, setting off a small tsunami, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

MONDAY

Superstorm Sandy struck the Northeast U.S., causing some $50 billion in damage and lost economic activity and cutting power to more than 8.2 million homes and businesses. The storm touched off a six alarm fire that destroyed dozens of homes in Queens. It also shut down 70 percent of East Coast oil refineries. New York City was closed off for car, train and air. Federal government offices were closed in D.C. Monday and Tuesday, as was the New York Stock Exchange. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued 14 of the 16 crew members who abandoned the replica tall ship HMS Bounty in rough seas off North Carolina.

A new study published in the British journal Nature Geoscience found the “Man in the Moon” appears to have been created by a giant asteroid the size of Austria that hit the moon’s surface 3.9 billion years ago.

Karen Wright, 60, was arrested after exceeding her allotted three minutes of speaking time at a Riverside, Calif., city council meeting.

TUESDAY

Disney purchased LucasFilm for $4 billion, taking ownership of the Star Wars franchise and threatening immediately to make “Star Wars: Episode 7” for release in 2015.

Surfers in Florida, Maryland and Connecticut hit the beach to take advantage of the massive Atlantic Ocean waves caused by Hurricane Sandy.

New Haven, Conn., police said superstorm Sandy uprooted an ancient oak tree to reveal a skeleton beneath the town green that may have been there since Colonial times.

WEDNESDAY

New York power company Consolidated Edison Inc. said only about 764,000 people are still without power knockedout by Sandy.

A gas pipeline feeding Yemen’s only liquefied natural gas export terminal was blown up again. The 100-mile pipeline supplying the $4.5-billion plant has been attacked several times by suspected al Qaeda-linked gunmen.

Celebratory gunfire at a wedding party in eastern Saudi Arabia brought down an electric cable, killing 23 people.

Compiled by Gazette staff from a variety

of sources.