Template:In the news
- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger is elected pope on the second day of voting in the papal conclave, and takes the name Benedict XVI.
- Lost writings by Sophocles, Euripides, Archilochus and others from classical antiquity, and possibly lost Christian gospels, are being recovered from papyrus texts found at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt.
- Sino-Japanese relations erode as the People's Republic of China rejects Japan's demand for an apology for the massive demonstrations in several cities in China regarding the Japanese history textbooks controversy.