Portal:Current events/2009 October 16
October 16, 2009 (Friday)
- Voters in Botswana take part in a general election. (IOL) (Al Jazeera)
- The United States records a budget deficit of $1.42 trillion. (Bloomberg)
- Stephen Gately:
- The surviving members of Boyzone fly to Majorca to escort the body of Stephen Gately home to Dublin. (RTÉ) (BBC) (The Belfast Telegraph) (The Irish Times)
- The UK Press Complaints Commission's website crashes after receiving hundreds of complaints about a Jan Moir article in the Daily Mail concerning her views on the singer's death. Retailer Marks & Spencer withdraws advertising and Nestlé disassociates itself from her writing. (Daily Mail Primary Source) (The Guardian) (BBC) (The Irish Times) (The Huffington Post)
- Treaty of Lisbon:
- Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer says President Václav Klaus's disruption of the Treaty of Lisbon is harming the country's credit. (Ceske Noviny)
- An opinion poll shows that 65% of Czechs support President Václav Klaus’ refusal to sign the Lisbon Treaty. (Wall Street Journal)
- A strong earthquake hits Indonesia, causing mass panic and evacuations in Jakarta. (CNN)
- The United Nations Human Rights Council endorses the Goldstone report on the Gaza War, accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes. (Jerusalem Post) (AFP) (Al Jazeera)
- Five men are convicted in Sydney, Australia of plotting a terrorist attack. (news.com.au) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- One part of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) ends a three-month ceasefire and resumes attacks on the oil industry in Nigeria. (BBC) (Reuters) (IOL)
- Guinea
- Guinea's civil service minister Alpha Diallo resigns after a massacre of opposition supporters, following agriculture minister Abdourahmane Sanoh who resigned days earlier. (IOL)
- The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon announces plans to establish a commission into the killing of unarmed protestors in Guinea last month. (AP via Google News)
- Australian pop singer, songwriter, and actress Kylie Minogue makes her Hindi cinema debut in Blue, thought to be the most expensive Bollywood production ever. (The Times)
- At least seven people are killed and at least ten are injured in an explosion at a mosque, police station and passenger bus in Peshawar, Pakistan. (Xinhua) (RTÉ) (BBC)
- In Berlin, the reconstructed Neues Museum officially reopens after 70 years. (Deutsche Welle) (The Times)
- Zimbabwe:
- The MDC partially pulls out of the unity government with Zanu PF in Zimbabwe after one of their members, Roy Bennett is detained on terrorism charges. (Zim Online) (Associated Press) (Xinhua)
- Roy Bennett is later released from jail on bail, ordered by the High Court. (Reuters) (Associated Press)
- North and South Korea fail to agree on further family reunions, after the North linked the prospect with humanitarian aid deliveries. (Korea Times) (Straits Times)
- Controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders arrives in the UK amid protests from the Netherlands, proclaiming "a victory for the freedom of speech". (CNN) (The Guardian) (Reuters)
- Uruguay becomes the first country to provide a laptop for every child attending state primary school. (BBC)
- German heavy metal band Rammstein releases their seventh album, Liebe ist für Alle Da in Germany.