Headlines from Around the World

Italy: Italy’s top court has awarded a man the right to disconnect the feeding tube that has kept his comatose daughter alive for 16 years. His daughter, who is now 37, has been in a coma since a car crash in 1992. Catholic politicians and the Vatican are opposing the move, saying that it amounts to euthanasia – which is illegal in Italy. The court in Milan which delivered the July ruling, however, said that doctors had proved Ms Englaro’s coma was irreversible. It was also accepted that, before the accident, she had expressed a preference for dying over being kept alive artificially. The father has been battling with the courts to end her life since 1999.

Gaza: The UN has no more food to distribute in the Gaza Strip, according to head of relief efforts John Ging. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) distributes emergency aid to about half of Gaza’s 1.5 million population. According to the BBC, Ging warned that handouts for 750,000 Gazans would have to be suspended until Saturday at the earliest, and called Gaza’s economic situation “a disaster”. Israel has prevented the transfer of all goods into Gaza for nearly a week, blaming continuing rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

United States: The G-20 is meeting in Washington, D.C. this week to discuss global economic stability. Formed in 1999 as a response to the financial crises of that decade, the G-20 is comprised of 20 of the world’s largest economies: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. At past meetings, only finance ministers and central bankers from the 20 countries gathered; the Nov. 15 meeting will be the first head of state G-20 summit.

United States: In California, protesters have been marching for more than a week after voters approved a change in the state constitution to ban gay marriage. Critics have filed a stack of lawsuits hoping to overturn the measure, known as Proposition 8. They’re also turning up the heat on some individuals who supported it. When Proposition 8 passed, it amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to one man and one woman. Almost immediately, gay rights activists and sympathetic politicians launched a legal challenge. They say because Proposition 8 would revise existing law, it has to be decided by two-thirds of the Legislature, not by voters.

South Africa: Smuts Ngonyama, the former head of communications for South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has resigned from the ANC to join a breakaway party, led by former Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and the former premier of Gauteng Province, Mbazima Shilowa. This ANC split follows a bitter power struggle between party leader Jacob Zuma and former President Thabo Mbeki; the ANC forced Mr Mbeki to step down as president in September — a move which angered some of his allies. Observers expect a number of other senior ANC members to resign ahead of the launch of the breakaway party, which is scheduled for December.

India: A crucial round of state elections begins on Friday, which experts say will test the political temperature before general elections in early 2009. The elections will take place over the next six weeks and will be held mostly in central and western India; key issues include rising prices and security, following a spate of bomb attacks blamed mostly on Islamist militants. The voting begins amid growing signs of economic slowdown in the country.