Portal:Current events/2005 November 9
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- Facing the world's highest HIV infection rate, Swaziland is drafting a Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill proposing the death penalty for child rape, incest and the intentional transmission of HIV. (IRIN)
- Amir Peretz is elected leader of the Labour Party in Israel, narrowly defeating the incumbent, Shimon Peres. (BBC)
- A gun battle between the Indonesian police and militants in East Java kills seven militants, including suspected Bali bombings mastermind Azahari Husin who is believed to have blown himself up. (Reuters) (Reuters)
- Three explosions rock the city of Amman, Jordan, killing at least 67 and injuring more than 300 other people, mostly Westerners. (BBC)
- In Israel, archaeologists discover two lines of a Phoenician or Hebrew alphabet on a stone dating to the 10th century BC, suggesting that literacy existed in ancient Israel earlier than had been thought. "All successive alphabets in the ancient world, including the Greek one, derive from this ancestor at Tel Zayit," says the excavation's director. (IHT) (AP)
- In the United States, the visit of Iraqi Deputy Premier Ahmed Chalabi to the Department of State and Department of the Treasury arouses controversy. (BBC)
- In the United Kingdom, the Government loses a key House of Commons vote on detaining terrorism suspects for 90-days without charge, in the report stage of the Terrorism Bill. This is Tony Blair's first ever commons defeat and has been described a serious blow to his authority. Michael Howard advises him to resign now. (BBC)
- Venus Express, the first mission to Venus in over a decade, lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (BBC)
- U.S. General Election, 2005
