Portal:Current events/2009 September 20
- Precious wins the People's Choice Award at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. (BBC) (Cape Times) (CBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (CNN)[permanent dead link]
- 61st Primetime Emmy Awards
- Toni Collette wins the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for playing Tara Gregson on United States of Tara. (AP via Google News)
- Alec Baldwin wins the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock. (AP via Google News)
- Glenn Close wins the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for playing Patty Hewes on Damages. (AP via San Francisco Chronicle)
- Bryan Cranston wins the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for playing Walter White on Breaking Bad. (AP via San Francisco Chronicle)
- Mad Men wins the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. (AP via Google News)
- 30 Rock wins the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. (AP via Google News)
- Trafigura oil trading firm agrees to pay more than $46 million compensation to more than 30,000 people in Côte d'Ivoire who say they were made ill by dumped waste in 2006. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Reuters) (France 24) (The Times)
- More than 140 Shiite Houthi rebels are killed in northern Yemen after they attempt to take over the government palace in the city of Sa'dah. (Yemen News Agency) (AFP) (Press TV)
- In Havana's Plaza de la Revolución, Juanes, Silvio Rodríguez and Miguel Bosé headline Cuba's largest open-air concert since the 1959 Revolution. (Granma) (BBC) (Associated Press)
- Colombian President Álvaro Uribe eases the terms for the release of 24 police and soldiers being held by Marxist FARC rebels. (BBC)
- Democratic Republic of Congo transfers Grégoire Ndahimana to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to stand trial for the massacre of at least 2,000 Rwandan Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. (Reuters)
- The Government of Ireland approves the introduction of a national postal code. (RTÉ)
- Tribesmen attack a village in south Sudan, overwhelming soldiers guarding the settlement and killing an unknown number. (IOL)
- Somalia's al-Shabaab insurgents warn schools not to use textbooks provided by United Nations agencies and other donors they accuse of being un-Islamic. (IOL) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Washington Post)
- The bust of a Sumerian king is among eight stolen antiques recovered in an undercover operation by Iraqi police. (BBC)