Portal:Current events/2010 January 17

January 17, 2010 (Sunday)

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Computer modelling shows that the Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier, once described as a major "tipping point" for the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the embayment of the Amundsen Sea, has reached their own tipping points for eventual collapse, likely to lead to a sea level rise of up to 52 cm over the next century. New Scientist
Aftermath of 2010 Haiti earthquake: Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade offers "voluntary repatriation" to each of his Haitian "sons and daughters of Africa". (BBC)
Indian communist patriarch Jyoti Basu, the longest-serving Chief Minister of West Bengal who declined the post of Prime Minister in 1996, dies at the age of 95. (Reuters) (Indian Express) (The Hindu) (Hindustan Times) (The Canadian Press) (BBC)
Iran suspends pilgrimages to holy sites in Saudi Arabia after it called on the Saudi religious police to stop their "appalling behaviour" towards Iranian Shiite pilgrims. (Times of India) (Ennahar)
Former Iraqi minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, is sentenced to death for the Halabja poison gas attack. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
Pope Benedict XVI makes a controversial visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome. (BBC)
Ukrainian voters go to the polls to elect a new president. (Kyiv Post) (BBC)
Sebastián Piñera is elected President of Chile in the second round of the presidential election. (BBC) (UPI)
Former Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, tells The Sunday Times that the conduct of his wife, politician Iris Robinson, with her young lover has led him to shake hands with deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) for the first time. (BBC) (Ireland Online) (RTÉ)
Prince William of Wales arrives in New Zealand for a three-day tour, including the opening of its new Supreme Court building, his first official overseas trip representing Queen Elizabeth II. (BBC) (The Independent) (The Daily Telegraph)
A U.S. drone attack kills 15 alleged militants in the Pakistani region of South Waziristan. (BBC)