Thailand’s former prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, stepped down Tuesday after a constitutional court ruled he had violated the constitution by appearing several times as a guest on the cooking show he once hosted before becoming prime minister. For nearly two weeks prior, thousands of protesters had occupied the prime minister’s office, calling Samak a corrupt proxy for deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinowatra and demanding his resignation.

The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, was tested for the first time early Wednesday. The test involved sending beams of protons around the collider’s 17-mile loop of tunnel, which is buried 300 feet underground. The $8 billion project is designed to smash subatomic particles together so that scientists can search through the wreckage for clues about the fundamental building blocks of matter that make up the universe.

An extremely rare female frog has been spotted for the first time in 20 years. The tiny amphibian, Isthmohyla rivularis, is carrying eggs, suggesting that the species is doing well. The discovery was filmed by the BBC in the Costa Rican jungle as part of a scientific expedition with a team from Manchester University and Chester Zoo as they work on conservation programs for rare frogs.

Texans have begun to evacuate in preparation for Hurricane Ike, right now traveling through the Gulf of Mexico; about one million people have been advised to leave their homes. Meteorologists warned it could develop into a major hurricane before hitting the Texas coast late on Friday. Ike has killed more than 70 people in the Caribbean, with Haiti and Cuba particularly badly hit.

The Channel Tunnel was closed Thursday after a fire broke out on a freight train about seven miles from Calais. The blaze broke out on a lorry on board the shuttle train at about 2 p.m., about seven miles from the French entrance. Thirty-two people on board were led to safety, 14 of whom had suffered minor injuries, including smoke inhalation. All trains were suspended until the fire was under control, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

President George W. Bush led commemorations of the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Thursday, which left nearly 3,000 people dead. Moments of silence were held at the times four hijacked passenger planes hit the Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field.