Portal:Current events/2009 November 13

November 13, 2009 (Friday)

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo signs a law banning torture, making it a criminal offence punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment. (Philippine Inquirer) (Bangkok Post)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
The Turkish government unveils a plan to improve rights of the Kurdish minority to end the decades long ethnic conflict in the southeast of the country. (Today's Zaman) (AFP) (Xinhua)
Cambodia detains a Thai man on charges of spying for Thailand. (Bangkok Post)^{[permanent dead link‍]} (Times Live South Africa) (Sina)
Microsoft admits that the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool contains code that is covered by the GNU General Public License and offers to make it available under the terms of that license. (PC Magazine)
American politician William J. Jefferson, former Democratic Party Congressman from the U.S. state of Louisiana, is sentenced to 13 years in prison for corruption. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
NASA claims to have discovered water after the LCROSS satellite crashes near the South Pole of the Moon. (New York Times)
South African President Jacob Zuma says the police do not have a "licence to kill" after recent incidents of innocent people being killed by police. (Eyewitness News) (BBC)
Two people are killed and 43 rescued from a bomb shelter in a fire that triggered multiple explosions at an arms depot near Ulyanovsk, western Russia. (BBC)(RIA Novosti) (Al Jazeera)
At least 240 villages in southwestern Saudi Arabia are evacuated due to fighting between Yemeni Houthi rebels and Saudi forces along the border. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
Chinese nationals in Angola say they are increasingly being targeted in "mafia-style" attacks by Angolan gangs. (AFP) (BBC)
Four members of Algeria's national football team are injured when their bus comes under attack by stone throwers in Cairo, Egypt. (BBC) (Taiwan News)
38 people are killed in collapsed school buildings and road accidents caused by heavy snowfall in China, the heaviest in 60 years. (BBC) (China Daily) (Times of India)
Czech Prime minister Jan Fischer deposits the Treaty of Lisbon ratification instrument at the Italian foreign ministry in Rome. (Foreign ministry of Italy)
Tens of thousands of Maoist supporters in Nepal block the headquarters for the Nepali government for a second day. (AP) (Al Jazeera)
The diaries of Gareth Jones, a British reporter who exposed the 1933 famine in Ukraine, are put on public display for the first time. (AP) (BBC)
A bomb hits the Peshawar office of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency with at least seven people dead and 35 injured. (BBC)
Jersey's Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur hosts the 13th summit of the British–Irish Council. (RTÉ)
The Japan Coast Guard evacuates 28 passengers and crew from the Ariake commercial ferry after it rolls over onto its side in rough seas off Mie Prefecture in the Pacific Ocean. (Mainichi Shimbun) (IOL)
Kosovo prepares for historic elections after a flare-up earlier this week targeted Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in the western town of Deçan. (CNN)
Actor and film director Clint Eastwood is made a commander of the Légion d'honneur. (Xinhua) (ABC News) (Gulf Daily News)
A court in Buenos Aires declares Argentinean law restricting marriage to a man and a woman unconstitutional, allowing a same-sex couple to marry; the city government announces it will not appeal. (Reuters) (CNN)
The United States opens its first marijuana cafe. (Reuters)