Portal:Current events/2009 September 1

September 1, 2009 (Tuesday)

European leaders remember the victims of World War II at ceremonies marking the start of the conflict 70 years ago. (RTÉ) (BBC) (CBC) (Time) (Japan Today)
Muammar al-Gaddafi:
- Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi celebrates the 40th anniversary of the coup d'état which brought him to power. (RTÉ)
- Tripoli's streets are decked with thousands of multicolored lights, and hundreds of Gaddafi portraits and placards paying tribute to the leader, with celebrations attended by African, Arab and Latin American leaders but largely ignored by the West. (Al Arabiya)
- Gaddafi is hailed as a knight of revolution as celebrations get underway in the country. (The Guardian)
- Gaddafi dedicates the first mass performance of a week of celebration to his adopted daughter Hannah, who was killed in an U.S. air raid on Tripoli in 1986. (The Daily Telegraph)
President Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay shuffles his cabinet, with Gonzalo Fernández, drafter of all major legislation, moving from Foreign Affairs to Defence. (MercoPress)
Former heavyweight world champion boxer Muhammad Ali visits the birthplace of his great-grandfather in Ennis, Ireland. (RTÉ) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian)
Speaking in Lima's El Comercio in response to some ironic quotes by Peruvian President Alan García, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez says his country will continue to export oil to the United States because it is "in interest". (MercoPress)
Fiji is suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations, only the second full suspension in the organization's history. (BBC) (Times of India)
Alain Robert scales Tower Two of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, using no safety equipment. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (New Straits Times)
The unemployment rate across the Eurozone reaches a ten-year high of 9.5%. (BBC)
Chile's government sets aside 4 billion pesos for the purchase of more fuel-efficient trucks for citizens through its “Cambia tu Camión” (“Change your Truck”) program. (MercoPress)
The European Union bans the manufacture or import of 100 watt incandescent light bulbs, beginning a phase-out in favour of energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps. (BBC)
The Pakistani Army claims to have killed at least 20 suspected militants in clashes across north-west Pakistan. (BBC)
An outbreak of diarrhoea in Orissa, India, kills at least 26 people and hospitalises 237. (BBC)
A ban on samurai swords comes into effect in Ireland in an effort to reduce increasing crime rates. (RTÉ)
Ali Ben Bongo, Pierre Mamboundou and Andre Mba Obame each declare victory in the Gabonese presidential election. (Voice of America)
91 countries agree to the first ever global treaty focused specifically on the problem of IUU fishing. (MercoPress) (Associated Press) (UN News Centre)
Documents released by the British government show that the United Kingdom gave in to Libyan demands that the Lockerbie bomber be eligible for transfer home to serve his sentence there. (CNN) (Xinhua)
A Sri Lankan journalist is jailed for 20 years on charges of "inciting racial hatred" and "supporting terrorism" for writing articles critical of the government's military operations. (The Independent)
A Guatemalan court sentences Felipe Cusanero, an ex-paramilitary officer, to 150 years in prison for the forced disappearance of civilians in the 36-year Guatemalan Civil War. (BBC) (Boston Globe) (The Irish Times) (Reuters)
A plane carrying South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe back from an African Union summit in Tripoli, Libya makes an emergency landing on an unlit runway in northern Congo after missing a fuel stop. (IOL)
A diarrhea epidemic kills 34 people in Ethiopia and infects more than 5,000, with 500 hospitalised in Addis Ababa in one day alone. (IOL)
Saba threatens to secede from the Netherlands Antilles in a letter to Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. (NRC Handelsblad)