Portal:Current events/2009 December 19

December 19, 2009 (Saturday)

The North American blizzard of 2009 produces record snowfall, causing power outages, deaths, and impacting retail sales. (The Weather Channel) (BBC)
Iraq deploys troops on its border with Iran to monitor a disputed oil well seized by Iranian troops, while an arbitration commission is established to resolve the dispute. (Al Jazeera) (AP) (Press TV)
NASA releases the first ever photo of liquid outside of Earth, in the form of sunlight reflecting on a lake on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. (CNN)
Serbians, Macedonians, and Montenegrins are able to travel to continental Europe without a visa from this day on. (The Independent)
Pope Benedict XVI declares two of his predecessors, John Paul II and Pius XII to be Venerable, the second step toward sainthood. (BBC) (The New York Times) (Deutsche Welle)
A 6.4 M_w earthquake strikes Taiwan collapsing one building. (Central News Agency)^{[permanent dead link‍]} (Reuters)
Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina dismisses his Prime Minister, Eugène Mangalaza, whom he appointed in October. (Al Jazeera)
The Fatah movement in the West Bank rejects local mediation between itself and Hamas. (Xinhua)
Iran's military prosecutor charges three officials with killing three people at a detention centre used to house post-election protesters. (AFP) (BBC)
A faction from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says it carried out an attack on an oil pipeline, breaking a ceasefire agreed upon with the Nigerian government. (Times of Nigeria) (BBC) (Xinhua)
The Cambodian government expels 22 Chinese Muslim Uyghurs who arrived in the country back to China, despite criticism from the UN. (Press TV) (BBC) (The Straits Times)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
Freezing conditions cause electrical faults in the Channel Tunnel between Great Britain and France, isolating 2,000 passengers in five trains. The situation is coupled with disruptions at London Heathrow Airport and traffic delays due to snowy conditions in the south-east of England. (BBC) (Sky News) (The Financial Times)
Police recruit sniffer dogs and detectives in their hunt for the Arbeit macht frei sign missing from Auschwitz as appeals for its return are made by Israel, Poland and the European Union. (BBC) (The Times)
Scientists announced the discovery of GJ 1214 b, an ocean planet orbiting a star in the Ophiuchus constellation. (Nature)
In association football, FC Barcelona sets a new record by winning all 6 possible competitions (The Sextuple) in one year. (The Guardian)