Portal:Current events/2009 August 9

• South African opposition parties call on President Jacob Zuma to withdraw Sandile Ngcobo as Chief Justice because he failed to consult the opposition and Judicial Service Committee. (The Times)
• Sri Lanka's governing coalition wins in Jaffna but suffers a surprise defeat in Vavuniya in the country's first post-war local elections. (BBC) (AFP)
• A million people are evacuated in southeastern China as Typhoon Morakot approaches. (The Daily Telegraph) (Xinhua) (AFP)
• A 6.9 magnitude earthquake hits Tokyo and eastern Japan. (Nikkei) (Press Association) (Reuters)
• Tonga raises the death toll from the MV Princess Ashika sinking to 93. (Bloomberg) (Matangi Tonga)
• Three bombs explode on the island of Majorca, Spain. (Bloomberg) (BBC) (RTÉ)
• At least 43 people are feared dead after a massive mudslide sweeps away three hamlets in northern India. (CNN) (RTÉ)
• A Kam Air plane bound for the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in northwestern China is diverted to Kandahar, Afghanistan after an earlier alleged bomb threat. (Associated Press) (Xinhua) (BBC)
• Former Taoiseach of Ireland Garret FitzGerald is among twenty Irish nationals who are quarantined at a French chateau due to swine flu. (Irish Examiner) (Expatica)
• A senior General from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard calls for opposition leaders Mohammad Khatami, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi to stand trial. (Gulf Times) (Press TV)
• A same-sex marriage demonstration occurs outside the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in Dublin. (The Irish Times) (RTÉ)
• The last of three men who escaped from a Belgian jail on board a hijacked helicopter are recaptured in Morocco. (BBC) (People's Daily online) (The New York Times)
• Seventeen people, including five children, are killed when a crowded bus crashes into a ditch after being side-swiped by an oncoming heavy truck in Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe. (IOL)

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