SWITZERLAND - It's one of the most expensive and technologically-complex machines in the world, but that didn't prevent the Large Hadron Collider from coming a cropper thanks to our feathered friends. The £4.4 billion 'God Machine' overheated after a passing bird dropped a piece of bread into a high voltage installation which was powering a cooling unit.
CALIFORNIA, USA - Buildings may topple and lives may be lost if the Big One shakes the wrong part of California but another catastrophic consequence of an enormous earthquake in the San Francisco area may involve water.
CHINA - China on Friday accused the US of protectionist and biased trade policies less than a week before president Barack Obama's first visit to Beijing. In a stinging rebuke to Washington, China's commerce ministry promised to take measures to protect its domestic industry after the US slapped anti-dumping duties on $2.6bn of Chinese steel pipe imports.
USA - Talk about bad timing. As Washington reels from the news of 10.2 percent unemployment, the Center for Responsive Politics is out with a new report describing the wealth of members of Congress.
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - US military officials sent a medical team to a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan this week to take blood samples from members of an Army unit after a soldier in the unit died from an Ebola-like virus.
USA - Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (Republican - Michigan) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (HR 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.
UK - The British mission in Afghanistan could end in failure, Gordon Brown will warn in a speech following the death of seven soldiers in six days.
UN/ISRAEL - A doctor from Israel dramatically confronted United Nations Human Rights Council Judge Richard Goldstone with critical comments on his report's accusations against Israel and its virtual disregard of her own testimony. He ignored most of her questions.
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - Civil liberties and consumer groups are furious at President Barack Obama for supporting secret international trade negotiations that could wind up rewriting US copyright law.
UK - Parents are taking a back seat in their child's education, with almost two-thirds saying they have little contact with their teacher, a survey has found.
UK - Parents are to lose the right to withdraw their offspring from sex education classes, once the child reaches the age of 15. The move means all teenagers will receive at least one year's worth of lessons covering sex, contraception and relationships before the age of consent.
UK - An executive has won the right to sue his employer on the basis that he was unfairly dismissed for his green views after a judge ruled that environmentalism had the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs.
NEW YORK, USA - Central banks with trillions of dollars in reserves that are already stepping up euro and yen purchases will likely continue doing so in coming years, driven by worries over the stability of the greenback.
USA - Health care reform should not be used as an opportunity to use federal funds to pay for elective abortions. Health reform should be an opportunity to protect human life - not end it.
WASHINGTON, USA - A key US Senate environment committee approved a Democratic climate change bill on Thursday that would require industry to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.