The World - April 15, 2010

THURSDAY

Federal Reserve officials again reiterated their commitment to low interest rates for “an extended period,” given the fragile nature of the economic recovery, and suggested a reduction in the size of the central bank’s balance sheet could take as long as two decades.

Disgraced golf superstar Tiger Woods returned to the golf course, shooting a four-under-par 68 in the opening round of the U.S. Masters in Augusta, Ga. Fifty-year-old Fred Couples, the 1992 champion, staked the first round lead with a 66.

Florida’s top court has taken on a high-stakes environmental dispute over a proposed $536 million deal between the state and U.S. Sugar Corp to purchase 73,000 acres of farmland for Everglades restoration.

FRIDAY

China and Nepal settled a long-running disagreement over the height of Mount Everest. They agreed the world’s highest mountain, which traverses the border of the two countries, should be recognised as being 8,848 metres tall. Chinese officials had argued it should be measured by its rock height, but Nepal said it should be measured by its snow height, which is four meters higher.

Owing more than $27 million in settlement costs, the Milwaukee diocese of the Catholic Church puts its downtown headquarters up for sale. Settlement agreements on sex abuse cases involving priests in the U.S. have cost the church $1.97 billion.

Rebel gunmen in Ethiopia killed a British geologist working for state-run Malaysian energy firm Petronas and two soldiers protecting him in the long-fought-over Warder zone in eastern Ethiopa.

WEEKEND

Thirteen-year-old Jordan Romero of California announced his plans to climb Mount Everest, pick a small rock from the top of the world and wear it as a necklace. If the experienced rock climber succeeds, he will be the youngest to do so. Currently, a 16-year-old Nepali boy, Temba Tsheri Sherpa, holds the record of being the world’s youngest climber of Mount Everest.

Poles were in deep mourning Sunday after President Lech Kaczynski and many of the country’s ruling elite were killed in a plane crash near Smolensk in western Russia.

Management of Seattle’s Lusty Lady announced they were going out of business and would permanently close their doors in just two months. Managers blamed increasing rent costs and declining revenues, as the club’s customer base has begun accessing pornography on the internet.

MONDAY

The Seattle Times won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for coverage by reporters Jennifer Sullivan and Steve Miletich of the November shooting deaths of four Lakewood police officers and the 40-hour manhunt for the suspect, Maurice Clemmons.

Five people suffering serious burns were hospitalized in West New Delhi from contact with radioactive material in a Delhi scrap market identified as Cobalt-60 which may be used for making a dirty bomb.

Ice deposits at least 6 feet thick can be found in some small craters on the moon, researchers reported in one of two studies showing more evidence of water on the moon and Mars.

TUESDAY

Kerry Killinger, the former CEO of Washington Mutual, the biggest U.S. bank ever to fail, tells a U.S. Senate panel the bank had adequate capital and shouldn’t have been seized by the government in September 2008. Former WaMu executives are appearing before Congress to answer to charges bank officials knew the thrift was destined for failure.

About 200 employees at a Carlsberg warehouse on the outskirts of Copenhagen returned to work, ending a five-day strike over a decision to cut their daily ration of free beer. About 50 drivers for the brewery had joined the work action in solidarity with their thirsty colleagues.

WEDNESDAY

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake killed about 400 people in the mountainous Tibetan Plateau in southwest China and left more than 8,000 injured as houses, schools and offices collapsed.

A cargo aircraft crashed near the airport in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, killing five people.

The aircraft, operated by privately held AeroUnion, crashed near a major road leading to the airport, killing as many as two people on board the aircraft and three on the ground.

Compiled by the Gazette from a variety of sources