Portal:Current events/2009 December 24

December 24, 2009 (Thursday)

Pope Benedict XVI is knocked down by a woman during a procession before the Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. He is uninjured, but Roger Cardinal Etchegaray suffers a hip fracture. (Sky News) (BBC)
At least 40 people are killed and many injured after a tour bus plunges into a ravine near Cuzco, Peru. (CNN) (UPI) (Xinhua)
Iran says it is to invalidate banknotes which have been pasted with slogans in the name of the Opposition by 8 January 2010. (BBC)
The Indian Army kills nine members of the Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak and Kanglei Yana Kan Lup during three incidents in Manipur. (Times of India) (BBC)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signs a decree ordering a 20% cut of staff at the Interior Ministry after a series of scandals involving the police. (RIA Novosti) (Reuters)
China sentences a further five people to death over riots in Ürümqi, Xinjiang in July, bringing the total number of people sentenced to death to 22. (Al Jazeera) (IOL)
Vietnamese authorities charge human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh with attempts to "overthrow the state". (BBC) (MSN Malaysia)
Turkish police arrest over 43 campaigners and members of the banned Kurdish Communities Union in raids. (Today's Zaman) (Deutsche Welle)
At least three bodies have been recovered and 23 are missing after a collision between a ferry and a fishing boat in the Philippines. (Philippine Star)^{[permanent dead link]} (CBC)
A suicide bomb attack kills at least eight people in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (BBC)
Bomb attacks in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Hilla leave 23 dead. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
Thousands of Christian pilgrims gather in Bethlehem in the West Bank to mark Christmas. (BBC) (Reuters) (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Niger issues arrest warrants for three opposition leaders including a former President, as it condemns the Economic Community of West African States' refusal to recognise the legitimacy of President Mamadou Tandja. (BBC) (African Press Agency)^{[permanent dead link]} (allAfrica.com)
The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu speaks out against a bill being debated in Uganda that would outlaw homosexuality. (BBC)
The United States Senate passes a health-care bill expected to extend insurance coverage to 30 million additional Americans, in a party-line vote, 60-39. (BBC)(CNN)
An Israeli man is shot dead by Palestinian gunmen in the northern West Bank. (The Jerusalem Post)
At least 30 suspected Al-Qaeda militants are killed in an airstrike in Shabwah Governorate, Yemen. (Yemen News Agency) (AFP) (BBC)
Venezuela orders businesses to cut electricity consumption by 20% as droughts threaten generation capacity at the 10.2 gigawatt Guri hydroelectric power station. (BBC News) (Merco Press)
The Greek parliament approves emergency cuts in government spending for 2010 in an attempt to reduce the country's budget deficit. (Financial Times) (BBC News)
A lawsuit is threatened against the Indonesian Navy and International Organization for Migration after a 29-year-old Sri Lankan asylum seeker is allowed to die through medical negligence after vomiting blood and having a seizure in Indonesia. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Hewlett-Packard admits face detection software on its laptops has trouble detecting dark-skinned faces, leading to casual claims of racism by some. (Christian Science Monitor) (BBC) (TechWeb)