Portal:Current events/2009 July 8
July 8, 2009 (Wednesday)
- The European Commission fines GDF Suez and E.ON €553 million each over arrangements on the MEGAL pipeline. (Financial Times) (The Wall Street Journal) (Bloomberg) (Reuters)
- Taoiseach Brian Cowen announces that the second referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon in Ireland will be held on October 2. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il makes a rare public appearance to mark the 15th anniversary of his father's death. (BBC) (CTV) (The Guardian) (MSNBC) (The Times)
- The 35th G8 Summit begins in L'Aquila, Italy. (BBC News) (CNN)
- July 2009 Ürümqi riots
- Chinese President Hu Jintao leaves the 35th G8 Summit and returns to Beijing to deal with the ongoing riots in Ürümqi. (Xinhua) (BBC)
- Turkey is to ask the United Nations Security Council to discuss ways to end the violence in Xinjiang. (Reuters)
- Debris and bodies from Yemenia Flight 626, which crashed off the Comoros in the Indian Ocean, wash up on Mafia Island, Tanzania. (BBC)
- Indonesian presidential election, 2009
- Indonesians go to the polls for the first round of the presidential election. (Al Jazeera)
- President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is projected to win a second term. (KOMPAS) (Jakarta Post)
- Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's trial on sodomy charges of engaging in sexual intercourse with a male aide is delayed after his main defence lawyer falls ill. (BBC)
- July 2009 Mindanao bombings
- The UN Development Program suspends feeding operations for Mindanao refugees. (GMA News)
- Increased security, particularly in Manila, leads many to speculate the return of martial law. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
- Strikes by 70,000 workers in South Africa halt work on the World Cup 2010 stadiums. (BBC) (AFP)
- South Korea says North Korea is behind a number of cyber attacks on the websites of government agencies, banks and businesses in South Korea and the United States. (Yonhap) (BBC) (The Times)
- Exiled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and interim President Roberto Micheletti agree to talks under mediation by Costa Rica. (The Guardian)
- Iran says two thirds of protesters have already been released and another 100 will be freed in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election. (Reuters)
- Germany defends its response to the stabbing of pregnant Egyptian Marwa El-Sherbini, saying Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet the Egyptian President to discuss the affair. (BBC) (CBC) (CNN) (The Guardian) (The Irish Times)
- Four Rio Tinto executives accused of espionage are detained by Chinese Authorities amid iron ore negotiations. (News.com.au)
- Two car bombs blow up in Mosul, the second of them killing at least nine people. (BBC)
- Undercover investigators smuggle bomb-making materials into government buildings in the United States, assembling bombs within, on ten occasions. (BBC)
- The Guardian claims that rival English newspaper, the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid, paid £1 million in court costs after its journalists were accused of involvement in phone tapping celebrities and politicians. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- It is claimed that the drug rapamycin, discovered in the soil of Easter Island in the 1970s, may help to fight the ageing process. (BBC)