Portal:Current events/2007 October 20
October 20, 2007 (Saturday)
- Bobby Jindal of the Republican Party is elected as the next Governor of Louisiana and becomes the first Indian American governor in the history of the United States. With 53% of the vote, he defeats five Democrats, a Libertarian and five independents without requiring a runoff. (NYT)
- Riots erupt in the immigrant quarter of Amsterdam for the sixth night in succession after the death of a Moroccan man the previous weekend. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
- Hundreds of thousands of left wing Italians march in Rome putting increased pressure on the Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
- Thousands flee a fresh outbreak of fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Turkish Press)
- South Africa defeats England to win the 2007 Rugby World Cup. (BBC)
- Karachi police release a photograph of the suicide bomber who killed at least 130 people in the 2007 Karachi bombings. (BBC)
- J.K. Rowling has revealed that Dumbledore of the Harry Potter books is homosexual. (CNN)
- Myanmar's State Peace and Development Council lifts the curfew it imposed in Yangon and Mandalay on September 26. (BBC)
- French trains resume service after a two-day strike against President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposed welfare reform. (BBC)
- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani criticizes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for his support of a possible Turkish attack against Kurdistan Workers Party fighters in the Iraqi Kurdistan. (BBC)
- Mikhail Gorbachev founds a new political party in Russia, called Union of Social-Democrats. (BBC)
- Saeed Jalili replaces Ali Larijani as Iran's nuclear negotiator. (Reuters via News Limited)
- At least seven people die in a bomb blast in the town of Dera Bugti in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. (BBC)