Portal:Current events/2009 October 7

October 7, 2009 (Wednesday)

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz, and Ada E. Yonath, "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". (Nobel Foundation)
European Union leaders again warn the Czech Republic of the costs which will be imposed by the further delaying of the Lisbon Treaty. (RTÉ)
The discovery of a new ring around Saturn is announced. (BBC) (The Times) (Xinhua) (NASA)
The Somali junior Defence Minister Youssuf Mohamed Siad, mistakenly detained in Uganda yesterday, is released. (Daily Monitor) (AFP)
Typhoon Melor, forecast to be the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Japan for a decade, approaches the country. (Al Jazeera) (Japan Times) (euronews)
The opposition in Guinea urges Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, head of the ruling junta, to resign. (Bloomberg) (CBC)
A Saudi man, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, is sentenced to five years imprisonment and 1,000 lashes after bragging about sex on a TV talk show. (Associated Press) (IOL)
Burmese National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi meets for a second time with the ruling junta after her offer to lobby for nations to lift sanctions on the country. (Reuters) (Associated Press) (New Light of Myanmar)
Somali pirates attack the French Navy replenishment tanker Somme (A631) in error, believing it to be a cargo ship. (BBC) (The Times)
More than a million people are affected in one of the worst droughts to affect Syria in decades. (BBC)
Taiwan's National Palace Museum refuses to display two artifacts stolen from China 150 years ago. (Taiwan News) (AFP)
The Constitutional Court of Italy overturns a law offering Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office, ruling it unconstitutional. (Adnkronos) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
Ambassadors from Ireland and Uganda, along with the Sudanese minister overseeing negotiations, visit Al-Fashir in a renewed effort to win the freedom of aid workers Sharon Cummins and Hilda Kawuki, kidnapped since 3 July. (RTÉ)
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Vanuatu, followed 15 minutes later by a 7.3 magnitude aftershock. A tsunami warning is issued. (USGS)
The Red Book by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung is displayed for the first time in public. (BBC)