Current Events #4

A Girl’s Best Friend

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/oklahoma-teen-finds-yellow-canary-diamond-dirt-article-1.1492936

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend — especially if you’re a sharp-eyed 14-year-old.

Oklahoma teen Tana Clymer made a stunning discovery Saturday when she came across a 3.85-carat canary diamond while touring Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park.

The yellow diamond is teardrop-shaped and about the size of a jellybean.

Hang ‘Em Again—Are We in TX?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/world/middleeast/after-man-survives-hanging-iran-plans-a-second-attempt.html?_r=0

Death penalty opponents pleaded with Iran on Thursday to spare a convicted drug felon who survived a hanging and was sent from the morgue to a hospital to recuperate so he could be rehanged. It appeared to be the first time that the judicial authorities in Iran, one of the world’s top users of the death penalty, twice ordered a hanging carried out.

Iran carries out more executions than any country except China. So far in 2013, the authorities are believed to have executed a total of 508 people, Amnesty International said.

NSA is Always

Listening

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2022098021_apxnsasurveillance.html

The sweep and scope of National Security Agency snooping abroad forced President Barack Obama once again to hear complaints from a U.S. ally angry about the surveillance net that has sparked an international debate over the limits of American spying.France is the latest in a growing list of nations -- Germany, Brazil and Mexico included -- demanding explanations from Washington. A report published on Monday said the U.S. swept up 70 million French telephone records and text messages and recorded some private conversations.

Girls Just Want to…Drive?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/26/saudi-arabia-woman-driving-car-ban

More than 60 Saudi women got behind the wheels of their cars as part of a protest against a ban on women driving in the kingdom, activists have claimed.

Though no specific Saudi law bans women from driving, women are not issued licenses. They mostly rely on drivers or male relatives to move around.

Cough, Cough, Hack, Wheeze

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/china-pollution

BEIJING, Oct 14 (Reuters) - China said on Monday it would give rewards amounting to 5 billion yuan ($816.91 million) for curbing air pollution in six regions where the problem is serious, underscoring government concern about a source of public anger.

Australia is Burning

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/23/world/asia/australia-fires/

Blue Mountains, Australia (CNN) -- Firefighters battling blazes that menaced the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia's largest city, are concerned about Thursday's weather conditions.Fitzsimmons reported 24 of the 66 active fires are uncontained and raging across a wide swath of Australia's most populous state destroying at least 193 homes in the Blue Mountains area.

It is Not for Paddling

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/15/us/california-18-foot-oarfish/

(CNN) -- A marine science instructor's late-afternoon snorkel off the Southern California coast last Sunday was first met with shock and soon excitement when she discovered a gigantic oarfish, a deep-sea creature that remains little known to the science world and people outside.Jasmine Santana was about 15 feet underwater when she found the 18-foot-long, silvery fish with reddish fins and eyes the size of a half-dollar staring at her from the sandy bottom.

Is That in My Drinking Water?

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/25/cnn-heroes-top-10-chad-pregracke/?hpt=ac_mid

Chad Pregracke has made it his life’s work to clean up the Mississippi River and other American waterways. Since 1998, nearly 70,000 volunteers have helped Pregracke and his nonprofit remove more than 7 million pounds of garbage from 23 rivers across the country.

Can’t That Get You Prison Time?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/us/florida-officials-say-2-prison-escapees-were-not-the-first-to-use-forged-documents.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

MIAMI — Florida law enforcement officials, already embarrassed by the revelation that two convicted killers were released from a state prison after forging documents that allowed them to walk free, acknowledged Tuesday that they had discovered at least five previous instances of such forgeries.

Candles Burned Out Too Soon

http://www.oregonlive.com/forest-grove/index.ssf/2013/10/forest_grove_fatal_crash_for_t.html

Garcia-Cisneros purposely drove through a large leaf pile on Main Street, according to court records, and felt a significant bump. At her home, blocks away, she asked Echeverria to check the SUV for damage. Her 17-year-old brother returned to the scene on Main Street and told his sister she had “run over a child,” records say.

Police say step-sisters Abigail Robinson, 11, and Anna Dieter-Eckerdt, 6, were struck while apparently lying in the leaf pile on Sunday. Anna died at the scene. Abigail died the next night at a Portland hospital.

Gold Does Grow on Trees

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/22/world/gold-growing-on-trees/

According to the paper, eucalyptus and acacia trees, such as the ones studied at the Freddo and Barns Gold prospects in Western and South Australia respectively, have deep and extensive root systems. In times of drought, their roots dig deep in search of water. So deep, in fact, that some trees have literally struck gold.

While it's not new that plants and trees absorb minerals such as gold through their leaves, scientists had previously been unable to prove that the minerals in question came from deeper underground and not from surface soil deposits.

Prejudice Starts With a Blonde

http://world.time.com/2013/10/25/mystery-blonde-girl-is-roma-after-all/

NA tests confirmed Friday that the mystery blonde girl who was taken from a Roma couple caring for her in Greece is in fact of Roma descent, just not related to the family who raised her.

The 6- or 7-year old, named Maria, is the daughter of a Bulgarian Roma woman who gave the girl away because she was too poor to provide for her, the Associated Press reports.

The discovery is a vindication to many Roma after the high-profile case provoked prejudiced allegations of child-snatching.

Lucky #13

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/books/alice-munro-wins-nobel-prize-in-literature.html

Alice Munro, the renowned Canadian short-story writer whose visceral work explores the tangled relationships between men and women, small-town existence and the fallibility of memory, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.Related

Announcing the award in Stockholm, the Swedish Academy said that Ms. Munro, 82, who has written 14 story collections, was a “master of the contemporary short story.” She is the 13th woman to win the prize.

Fixing Digital Health Care

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/1028/Obamacare-website-Is-one-month-enough-time-to-fix-it-video

The Obama administration has announced an ambitious self-imposed deadline for fixing its operationally challenged health care website.The “tech surge” team is tasked with getting the Obamacare site running smoothly “for the vast majority of users” by Nov. 30.Dec. 15 is when people need to be signed up in order to have coverage begin on Jan. 1. Even if the website works well by Dec. 1 for virtually all users that would leave two weeks for a potentially large flow of signups.

Motor City Runs Out of Gas

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/1018/Detroit-s-bankruptcy-woes-five-key-things-to-know/How-did-Detroit-s-financial-situation-get-so-dire-and-does-it-hold-lessons-for-other-cities

Even though emergency manager Kevyn Orr announced in July he planned to have Detroit declare Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the city still needs federal court approval to do so. The process has not been a smooth one, as many vested interests involved in the potential restructuring – namely the city’s public sector unions and creditors – have pushed back significantly. Bondholders and other creditors are fighting the prospect of receiving pennies on the dollar, and unions say a bankruptcy would violate the state constitution, which protects retiree benefits.