October 7, 2009 (Wednesday)
- The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz, and Ada E. Yonath, "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". (Nobel Foundation)
- European Union leaders again warn the Czech Republic of the costs which will be imposed by the further delaying of the Lisbon Treaty. (RTÉ)
- The discovery of a new ring around Saturn is announced. (BBC) (The Times) (Xinhua) (NASA)
- The Somali junior Defence Minister Youssuf Mohamed Siad, mistakenly detained in Uganda yesterday, is released. (Daily Monitor) (AFP)
- Typhoon Melor, forecast to be the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Japan for a decade, approaches the country. (Al Jazeera) (Japan Times) (euronews)
- The opposition in Guinea urges Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, head of the ruling junta, to resign. (Bloomberg) (CBC)
- A Saudi man, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, is sentenced to five years imprisonment and 1,000 lashes after bragging about sex on a TV talk show. (Associated Press) (IOL)
- Burmese National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi meets for a second time with the ruling junta after her offer to lobby for nations to lift sanctions on the country. (Reuters) (Associated Press) (New Light of Myanmar)
- Somali pirates attack the French Navy replenishment tanker Somme (A631) in error, believing it to be a cargo ship. (BBC) (The Times)
- More than a million people are affected in one of the worst droughts to affect Syria in decades. (BBC)
- Taiwan's National Palace Museum refuses to display two artifacts stolen from China 150 years ago. (Taiwan News) (AFP)
- The Constitutional Court of Italy overturns a law offering Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office, ruling it unconstitutional. (Adnkronos) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Ambassadors from Ireland and Uganda, along with the Sudanese minister overseeing negotiations, visit Al-Fashir in a renewed effort to win the freedom of aid workers Sharon Cummins and Hilda Kawuki, kidnapped since 3 July. (RTÉ)
- A 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Vanuatu, followed 15 minutes later by a 7.3 magnitude aftershock. A tsunami warning is issued. (USGS)
- The Red Book by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung is displayed for the first time in public. (BBC)