Portal:Current events/2009 October 26

October 26, 2009 (Monday)

President of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali wins 90% of votes, his fifth term and a new five-year mandate in the country's general election. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (CBC)
Jurelang Zedkaia is elected the 5th President of the Marshall Islands, following the ouster of Litokwa Tomeing in a no confidence vote last week. (Bernama)
At least seven people are killed and at least four others are injured when a three-story building falls down in Palma, Majorca. The dead include at least three from Colombia. (BBC)
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić boycotts his own trial as it begins in The Hague. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Australian)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
The UN's court in Freetown, Sierra Leone sees its final case after seven years of investigating the country's civil war. (BBC) (Reuters Africa) (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation)
The trial of Japanese singer and actress Noriko Sakai begins in Tokyo. (Xinhua) (BBC) (Japan Today)
South Korean cloning scientist Hwang Woo-Suk is convicted of fraud over his stem cell research. (BBC) (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (The New Zealand Herald)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia removes the sentence of 60 lashes for Rosanna Yami, female journalist involved in the Red Lines sex scandal. (BBC) (Al Arabiya) (CBC)
A Sri Lankan court in Colombo releases Vetrivel Jaseeharan, the publisher of North Eastern Monthly, and his wife after they were charged with conspiracy against the government in March 2008. The editor was given a twenty year jail sentence in August 2009. (BBC) (Khaleej Times)
It is announced that Silvio Berlusconi will stand trial on 16 November. (BBC)
A court in Milan rules that Mediaset run by Silvio Berlusconi is being anti-competitive against News Corporation run by Rupert Murdoch. (BBC)
The five surviving Conway sextuplets, the first sextuplets born on the island of Ireland, return home. (BBC)
At least 10 patients from thirty-four operated on partially lose their sight after free cataract operations in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. (BBC)
A crater found in northern Latvia, believed at first to be a meteorite strike, is revealed to be a hoax perpetrated by telecom operator Tele2. (Fox News)
Uldis Nulle, a scientist at the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre, said: "This is not a real crater. It is artificial." (The Sun).
Prof. Salamat Akhtar demands a repeal of blasphemy laws in Pakistan. (Pakistan Christian TV)
Silvio Berlusconi has been diagnosed with scarlet fever. (The Times)
Singer-songwriter Elton John cancels his third concert in several days due to flu. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (CBC)
Yahoo! discontinues its free web hosting service GeoCities, ten years after purchasing it from David Bohnett and John Rezner. (The Los Angeles Times)
Australian authorities offer a Aus$1 million reward in their search for a man suspected of ordering the murder of a vampire. (BBC)
A police officer in Liverpool, England is hospitalised in a life threatening condition after undergoing a homophobic attack by a gang of twenty youths. (Sky News) (BBC)
Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes reaches a deal to sale the team to the National Hockey League for $140 million. (Bloomberg.com)