Portal:Current events/2013 October 18
October 18, 2013 (Friday)
Business and economy
International relations
- The Prime Minister of Canada and the European Union tentatively sign a free trade and copyright agreement. CBC
- Japanese cabinet minister Yoshitaka Shindō visits the controversial Yasukuni Shrine potentially causing conflict with the Philippines, South Korea and the People's Republic of China. (AFP via Google News)
Law and crime
- Former Tijuana Cartel leader Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix is killed in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur. (Terra México)
- Thirty-five members of the US owned MV Seaman Guard Ohio are arrested in the Indian port of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu for alleged illegal possession of arms and ammunition. (Zee News)
- The Constitutional Council of France rules that the country's mayors cannot refuse to officiate at same-sex marriages. (France 24)
- In London, the High Court dismisses a lawsuit against former directors of the London branch of Bernard Madoff's operations, including his one living and one deceased son. The judge, Mr. Justice Popplewell, spoke rather harshly of the plaintiffs, praising the "commendable dignity and restraint" of certain of the defendants.(Financial Times)
Politics and Elections
- Saudi Arabia announces it will decline to accept a seat on the United Nations Security Council after being elected for it, citing the UN's inability to the stop the Ghouta chemical attack. (BBC)
- Republican U.S. House of Representatives member Bill Young of Florida dies in office. (AP via ABC News)
Science
- Asteroid 2013 TV135 is discovered with an approximately 1 in 63,000 chance of colliding with the earth in 2032. (CNN)