Portal:Current events/2009 October 20

October 20, 2009 (Tuesday)

Afghanistan's election commission orders a run-off election for November 7 in the Afghan presidential election. (AP via Jamaica Observer)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
In a set of canon laws, the Vatican welcomes groups of Anglicans as "personal ordinariates" into the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI announces. (BBC) (CNN)
A court in Yemen sentences 10 Shi'ite Houthi rebels to death and jailed five others over clashes which killed hundreds of people last year. (Al Jazeera) (Al Bawaba)
Nine North Koreans who entered the Danish embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, last month leave for South Korea. (The Copenhagen Post)
Richard Herman resigns as the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign as a result of an admissions scandal. (Chicago Tribune)
Sun Microsystems announces plans to lay off up to 3,000 workers as it prepares for a merger with Oracle Corp. (Market Watch)
The entire government of Kyrgyzstan resigns as President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announces a new reform campaign. (AFP) (BBC) (Taiwan News)
Niger is suspended by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) after its President Tandja Mamadou went ahead with a parliamentary election it had asked to be postponed over boycotts. (BBC) (Reuters)
At least four students are killed and many injured in bomb explosions at an Islamic university in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP via Google)
China pledges to rescue the crew aboard the Chinese ship De Xin Hai after it is hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. The pirates threaten to kill the crew if there is any attempt to rescue them. (Xinhua) (CNN) (The Guardian)
Detectives arrest a man in Belfast in connection with the Massereene Barracks shooting in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, in March 2009. (RTÉ) (BBC) (Press Association)
Iran buries its dead members of the Revolutionary Guard, killed in a suicide attack two days ago. Thousands of people attend the funerals. (BBC) (Press TV)
The Supreme Court of the United States agrees to decide whether federal courts have the power to order prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay to be released into the country. (The New York Times)
Nearly 100,000 Italian women sign a petition after Silvio Berlusconi says a female politician is "more beautiful than intelligent" on live television. (BBC) (Reuters)
Rare footage of the abuse of suspected witches causes controversy in India. (BBC)
The United States observes the National Day on Writing, sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) [1].
Jay-Z and Alicia_Keys released the song "Empire State of Mind",about New York, making it one of the greatest hits and a symbol of the city.