October 17, 2011 (Monday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 2011 Libyan civil war: National Transitional Council forces gain control of Muammar Gaddafi's former stronghold of Bani Walid, after a bloody six-week siege. (The Guardian)
- 2011 Yemeni uprising: At least 12 people die in another major outbreak of fighting in the Yemeni capital Sana'a between supporters and opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. (AP via Washington Post) (BBC)
- Somali militant group Al-Shabab threatens a counterattack against Kenya in response to the entry of Kenyan Army forces into Somalia. (Al-Jazeera)
Business and economy
- Apple Inc. releases its sales report for the iPhone 4S smartphone, which has reportedly sold over 4 million units worldwide in under four days, breaking company sales records. (Computer World)
Politics and elections
- The Donostia-San Sebastián International Peace Conference is held in the city of Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque Country, aimed at promoting a resolution to the ongoing Basque conflict. (BBC News)
- Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announces a law banning all forms of discrimination, in the wake of recent violence between Coptic protesters and security forces. (Al-Jazeera)
- Thousands of protesters demonstrate in the Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia against the coal seam gas industry. (Sydney Morning Herald)
- Occupy Wall Street protests take place in hundreds of cities worldwide. (CNN)
Science
- Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson opens the world's first commercial spaceport, Spaceport America, in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The SpaceShipTwo spaceplane is expected to begin commercial flights from the spaceport by 2013. (BBC)