2009 CHRONOLOGY: Major world events in 2009: Part 3

Dec 31, 2009, 16:16 GMT

SEPTEMBER

3 - Ali-Ben Bongo, son of late president Omar Bongo, wins Gabon's presidential election, prompting riots by opposition activists.

4 - German colonel orders two hijacked tankers bombed in Afghanistan, killing or wounding up to 142 Taliban and civilians. German defence minister at time and army's top general forced to resign amid allegations of a cover-up.

14 - A US raid in Somalia kills Saleh Ali Nabhan, an al-Qaeda member wanted for his alleged role in several terror attacks against Israeli and US interests in East Africa.

15 - Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's red-green alliance wins a second four-year term in office.

15 - A UN commission headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone charges both Israel and Palestinian militant groups with committing war crimes in Gaza.

16 - Japan's new government under Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama takes office.

17 - US President Barack Obama informs the Czech Republic and Poland that his administration has shelved Bush-era, Moscow-opposed plans to build missile shield bases on their territories.

17 - Twenty-one people, including 17 African Union peacekeepers, die in suicide bomb attack on an AU base in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

18 - A methane explosion at a coal mine in Ruda Slaska, southern Poland, left 17 dead and 35 injured in the worst accident in years in the coal-rich region.

21 - Ousted Honduran President Zelaya secretly returns to Honduras, takes refuge in Brazilian embassy.

21 - Iran admits to building secret second uranium enrichment plant of Fordu near Qom.

23 - UN General Assembly opens its 64th annual session.

24-25 - World leaders declare G20 the chief forum for global economic cooperation and promise financial regulatory reforms in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

26 - Typhoon Ketsana hits Philippines, killing 464 people and affecting 5 million. Death toll in Vietnam hits 163.

27 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel re-elected to second term at head of new, centre-right coalition.

27 - Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates wins second term in parliamentary elections. New cabinet takes office October 28.

28 - At least 157 people die when police in Guinea open fire on an opposition rally at a stadium in the capital Conakry. Many victims are bayoneted to death and sexually abused, rights groups say.

29 - Powerful earthquake in South Pacific sparks tsunami which kills 183 in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.

30 - Earthquake strikes West Sumatra, Indonesia, kills thousands.

30 - European Union report on August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia concludes that Georgia broke international law by attacking separatists in South Ossetia, but that Russia had also broken the law by invading Georgia in reply.

OCTOBER

2 - IOC chooses Rio de Janeiro to host 2016 Olympics.

5 - More than 300 people die in floods in southern India.

7 - Italy's Constitutional Court overturns a law shielding Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and other top officials from prosecution, reactivating several legal proceedings against the premier.

9 - US President Barack Obama named winner of 2009 Nobel Peace Prize 'for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,' Norwegian Nobel Committee says.

10 - Turkey and Armenia sign historic pact that could pave the way for restoring relations and opening their common border.

22 - Over 20 people die following a failed assassination attempt on Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, with African Union peacekeepers accused of indiscriminately shelling civilian areas.

22 - Microsoft launches Windows 7, a new operating system for personal computers to replace the unpopular Windows Vista.

26 - UN war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia opens genocide trial of Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

26 - Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, 73, elected to a fifth term with almost 90 per cent of the vote.

28 - Car bomb kills at least 119 in Peshawar, making it the deadliest terror attack in Pakistan in two years.

28 - Suicide attack in Kabul kills five UN workers, forces UN to relocate 600 staff out of Afghanistan.

29 - Likely end of US recession: US government says economy grew 3.5 per cent in third quarter (later revised down to 2.8 per cent). Unemployment rate tops 10 per cent for the first time in 26 years.

30 - A flu epidemic strikes Ukraine's western provinces. Hundreds die and hundreds of thousands are infected before quarantines and international medical assistance bring the outbreak under control.

31 - Longest known Olympic torch relay in history, 45,000 kilometres, starts in Victoria, Canada, leading up to Winter Olympics in February in Vancouver. Athletes carry flame by foot, sled, canoe and airplane.

NOVEMBER

3 - General Motors cancels plans to sell its European arm, Opel, to a Russian-Canadian consortium after months of negotiations.

3 - Czech President Vaclav Klaus ratifies the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, allowing the 27-member bloc to begin an ambitious overhaul of its institutions from December 1.

3 - British mercenary Simon Mann, convicted of attempting to overthrow Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in a failed coup in 2004, receives a presidential pardon and is released.

4 - China executes eight Uighurs, one Han Chinese for crimes in Urumqi riots.

5 - Gunman opens fire on soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people. Army psychiatrist charged with shootings.

5 - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announces he will not seek re-election as president and intends to quit politics.

9 - Germany marks 20th anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall with spectacular ceremony attended by European leaders.

9 - Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri finally succeeds in forming a government of national unity, five months after his alliance won a parliamentary majority in elections.

11 - India, Canada clinch civil nuclear deal to enable New Delhi to access Canadian nuclear technology and uranium.

12 - Algerian football players injured by Egyptian football fans during violence ahead of a World Cup qualifying match. Attacks and riots in both countries strained Egyptian-Algerian relations.

13 - Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to be held in federal court in New York, Obama administration says.

15 - US President Barack Obama meets Myanmar junta leaders in Singapore, first meeting in 43 years.

15 - The leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pavle, dies at 95.

17 - Iran sentences five critics of President Ahmadinejad's re- election to death, 81 others to prison terms.

19 - Oprah Winfrey signals end of her signature daytime talk show on network television in September 2011. Winfrey is expected to launch a new show on a cable channel that she partly owns.

23 - 57 people are killed in a political massacre in the Philippines.

26 - Dubai World, the state-owned real-estate and ports giant, asks for a six-month moratorium on its debt, shaking financial markets from Shanghai to New York.

27 - Trial of former Khmer Rouge cadre, Comrade Duch, ends at the UN- Cambodian court in Phnom Penh.

29 - Honduras elections won by Conservative Porfirio Lobo, but results not widely accepted in the region because ousted President Zelaya had not been restored to power.

30 - John Demjanjuk, 89, who was deported from the US to Germany on May 12, goes on trial in Munich as accessory to murder. Prosecutor say he served as a guard at Sobibor Nazi death camp in 1943.

DECEMBER

1 - Afghanistan: Obama announces deployment of 30,000 more US troops while pledging to begin withdrawals in 18 months.

4 - More than 140 people killed when indoor fireworks set alight a nightclub in Russian city of Perm.

5 - An Italian court convicts US student Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito for the 2007 murder of her roommate, Briton Meredith Kercher, in the university town of Perugia.

6 - Evo Morales elected to second term as president in Bolivia

6 - Romanian President Traian Basescu wins election run-off.

8 - Four coordinated bomb attacks in central Baghdad kill at least 100 and wound hundreds more.

11 - Turkey's Constitutional Court bans the country's largest Kurdish political party the DTP, ruling that it supported terrorism.

13 - Assailants hit Italian Premier Berlusconi in face with souvenir replica of Milan cathedral, putting him in hospital for four-days with a broken nose, cuts and two damaged teeth.

19 - Mammoth UN climate change conference in Copenhagen ends with a statement of intention, but without a binding pledge to begin taking international action to limit global warming.

24 - The US Senate passes legislation designed to bring sweeping reforms to the health care system for the first time in decades, extending insurance to up to 30 million Americans.

24 - Pope Benedict XVI dragged to the ground by a mentally disturbed woman who threw herself at him as he entered St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican for the traditional Christmas midnight mass.

25 - Airline passenger foils attempt by Nigerian man to set off explosive device aboard a packed US airliner on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Al-Qaeda claims credit for plot.