The Night Note: 8/19/09

News you need to know

The following stories are brought to you by the fine folks on the News4 assignment desk.

OFFICIALS: SPRING VALLEY WON'T KILL YOU
House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton assured skeptical residents Wednesday that the Spring Valley neighborhood is a safe place to live.  Residents in the wealthy Northwest neighborhood have dealt with the Army Corps of Engineers cleanup of World War I-era munitions for 16 years. Of about 1,600 homes in the neighborhood, almost 150 homeowners have had their driveways and yards excavated as part of the cleanup of remnants of weapons and traces of dangerous chemicals like mustard gas and arsenic, News4's Tom Sherwood reported. (NBC Washington)

DC COULD USE A FEW OF THESE RAT-EATING PLANTS
A carnivorous pitcher plant big enough to gobble up rats has been named in honor of British TV naturalist David Attenborough. "It's just a compliment," Attenborough told The Times of London, "but it's very nice to receive compliments."  The plant, discovered on the Philippine island of Palawan during a 2007 scientific expedition and now dubbed Nepenthes attenboroughii, is not so nice: Rodents and insects that fall into the "pitcher" can be trapped and slowly consumed by its flesh-eating enzymes. That ability has led some headline-writers to dub the plant a "Venus Rat-Trap." (MSNBC)

GENDER QUESTIONS SURROUND WORLD-CLASS RUNNER
A female runner accused of being a man tonight took gold in the 800m World Athletics Championship.  South African Caster Semenya, 18, had to take a gender test after doubts were raised about her sex.  But despite the furore, she easily took gold in the final in Berlin.  The teenage sensation has sparked controversy over her strikingly muscular physique. Today officials at the world athletics body, the IAAF, revealed that it ordered her to take a gender test three weeks ago. (The Daily Mail)

THE LAND OF NEUTRALITY BENEFITS FROM GLACIER MELT
Switzerland has expanded its border at Italy's expense because of melting glaciers in the high Alps. The Swiss government on Wednesday approved shifting the border up to 164 yards into Italian territory in some areas.  The changes were made after the Swiss Federal Office of Topography found that the watershed which determined the border in 1942 had moved because of melting glaciers and snow fields. (USA Today)
 

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