Portal:Current events/2009 July 17

July 17, 2009 (Friday)

Footage of FARC leader Jorge Briceño saying he financed Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's 2006 campaign is broadcast on Colombian television. (BBC) (AFP)
Timothy Kirkhope MEP defends alleged homophobic remarks made by European Conservatives and Reformists' leader Michał Kamiński in a television interview. (BBC)
Pope Benedict XVI slips in the bath in his mountain chalet and is treated for a fractured wrist in Aosta, Italy. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Irish Times) (RTÉ) (The Telegraph)
A second person dies from the collapse of a stage being built in Marseille for Madonna's forthcoming tour to France. (AFP) (BBC) (Daily Mail) (The Guardian) (The Times)
Irish President Mary McAleese announces her intention to convene a meeting of the Council of State on 22 July. (The Irish Times)
Brazil complains of 64 containers with over 1,400 tonnes of British used condoms, syringes and rotting nappies located in three of the country's ports. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Sky News)
Two journalists from South Africa and the United Kingdom are due in court after being allegedly attacked and then arrested while filming seal hunters in Namibia. (BBC)
Hong Kong appoints a new chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. (SCMP)
Ruslan Balayev, Ingushetia's minister for sport, is shot dead in his car. (The Irish Times)
Ghana is set to receive a US$600 million three-year loan from the International Monetary Fund. (BBC) (Reuters)
The World Bank approves a US$76 million loan for Mozambique. (Reuters Africa)
An argument between the National Portrait Gallery and online encyclopedia Wikipedia over use of images escalates. (BBC)
Bombings at the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia, kill at least nine people and injure at least 50 others. (AP) (Herald Sun) (Reuters) (The Times)
Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani holds Friday prayers in Tehran and calls for the release of political prisoners from the election protests. (BBC) (Associated Press) (Press TV)
At least 14 people, including 11 Serbian tourists, are killed and at least 10 tourists are injured in a bus collision with a lorry on a road near Port Safaga, Egypt. (BBC) (Jang Group)^{[permanent dead link‍]} (Reuters UK) (Reuters Africa)
22 prominent figures, including Poland's Lech Wałęsa and the Czech Republic's Václav Havel, warn in an open letter to the Barack Obama administration against developing closer ties with Russia. (The New York Times)
BBC staff's expenses claims are revealed to include candles, flowers, champagne and a hamper. (The Daily Telegraph)
49 members of a Sicilian Mafia syndicate are jailed in Italy in what the government describes as a landmark case. (BBC)