Portal:Current events/2009 December 13
December 13, 2009 (Sunday)
- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair states in an interview that he would have gone to war in Iraq even if he had known that it had no weapons of mass destruction. (The Times) (The Daily Telegraph)
- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to support British forces deployed as part of the International Security Assistance Force and to hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. (BBC)
- 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- Danish police arrest 200 protesters heading for Copenhagen harbour, on the second day of demonstrations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference. (The Times) (AP)
- Campaigners in Copenhagen criticise "heavy handed" tactics by Danish police after 968 people are arrested as a result of protests surrounding the United Nations Climate Change Conference (BBC) (BBC:In Pictures)
- Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei accuses the pro-reform opposition of breaking the law after state television allegedly showed opposition supporters destroying images of founder Ruhollah Khomeini.
- Joe McElderry wins the sixth series of the UK version of ITV's The X Factor produced by FremantleMedia's talkbackTHAMES and Simon Cowell's Syco TV. This meant that Cheryl Cole was the first mentor to win two consecutive series. (AP) (Press TV) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
- Voters in Chile go to the polls in presidential and parliamentary elections. (Xinhua) (Reuters)
- Over 100 suspected Islamic militants break into a prison in the Philippine city of Isabela, freeing at least 31 inmates and killing two, including a prison guard. (Philippine Star)[permanent dead link] (BBC)
- Chinese President Hu Jintao opens the Kazakhstan–China oil pipeline connecting central Asia to China. (Press TV) (BBC)
- The Sarejevo-Belgrade rail link resumes between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia after 18 years. (BBC) (AP)
- Violence erupts in Turkey after the Constitutional Court of Turkey bans the Democratic Society Party over its alleged terrorist links. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
- India successfully test fires its nuclear-capable "Dhanush" missile off the Orissa coast. (Press Trust of India) (China Daily) (The Hindu)
- Global consulting firm Accenture and multinational corporation Procter & Gamble end their endorsement deals with golfer Tiger Woods following a marital infidelity controversy. (Wall Street Journal) (BBC News) (Bloomberg)
- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is hit in the face and knocked to the ground after a political rally in Milan. (BBC News) (CNN)
- Leaders of north and south Sudan reach a deal on a referendum for the south's independence in 2011. (AFP) (Reuters)