Timeline 2008 October-December
Return to home
2008 Oct 1,
The
US Senate voted 74-25 for its version of a $700 billion rescue of
the
nation’s banking system. A 2nd House vote was set for Oct 3. The
451-page bill was larded with earmarks adding billions of dollars in
tax breaks with little to do with restoring confidence in financial
markets.
(SFC, 10/2/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 1, The US Senate voted
overwhelmingly in favor of overturning a three-decade ban on atomic
trade with India, allowing American businesses to begin selling
nuclear
fuel, technology and reactors in exchange for safeguards and UN
inspections of India's civilian nuclear plants. In response
Pakistani
PM Yousaf Raza Gilani said: "Now Pakistan also has the right to
demand
a civilian nuclear agreement with America. We want there to be no
discrimination. Pakistan will also strive for a nuclear deal and we
think they will have to accommodate us."
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 1, Africom, a US
command
structure created one year ago, took over all US military operations
in
Africa. Many on the continent feared that the program has a hidden
agenda skewed by the war on terror and a self-interested scramble
for
resources.
(AP, 9/30/08)(www.africom.mil/AboutAFRICOM.asp)
2008 Oct 1, US officials said
they
have seized almost two tons of cocaine from a Panama-flagged cargo
ship
in international waters off Puerto Rico. The cocaine was hidden on a
ship, which was loaded with coal and had launched from Colombia.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, Warren Buffett’s
Berkshire Hathaway agreed to invest $3 billion in preferred shares
of
GE and the right to buy another $3 billion in stock at $22.25 a
share
for 5 years.
(WSJ, 10/2/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 1, In Oakland, Ca.,
Mayor
Dellums, officials from developer Shorenstein Co. and the
Metropolitan
Life Insurance Co. broke ground on a new $240 million, 23-story
office
tower. 601 City Center was expected to open in 2 years.
(SFC, 10/2/08, p.B3)
2008 Oct 1, Two days of
torrential
rains in the Algerian desert created flash floods. 43 deaths were
later
confirmed.
(AP, 10/2/08)(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 1, In Australia a
7-year-old boy broke into the popular Alice Springs zoo, fed a
string
of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to
death with a rock. By the time he was done, 13 animals worth around
$5,500 had been killed, including a turtle, bearded dragons and
thorny
devil lizards.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 1, In Australia a
major
report to the government on global warming suggested that
Australians
should eat kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, The Bank of England
offered 40 billion dollars (22.6 billion pounds) to banking
institutions on a one-week tender amid ongoing world economic
turmoil.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, Fifteen more
Chinese
dairy companies were identified as producing milk products
contaminated
with an industrial chemical, further broadening a scandal affecting
products ranging from baby formula to chocolate.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, Berhe
Gebreegziabher,
the head of Ethiopia’s animal health in the agriculture ministry,
said
an outbreak of African horse sickness has killed more than 2,000
horses, mules and donkeys in Ethiopia since March.
(AFP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, The EU imposed one
of
its highest ever cartel fines on a "paraffin mafia" accused of
fixing
prices and markets for everyday household products like chewing gum,
tires and candles.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, EU monitors began
patrolling Georgian territory and Russian troops allowed some of
them
into a buffer zone around the breakaway region of South Ossetia
despite
earlier warnings from Moscow they would be blocked.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1-2008 Oct 3, In India
over 100,000 Bollywood actors, technicians and cameramen began an
indefinite strike protesting irregular pay and the hiring of
non-union
members. The strike was called off Oct 3 after unions and producers
announced they had thrashed out a deal for better pay and working
conditions.
(WSJ, 10/2/08, p.A14)(AFP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 1, The Iraqi
government
took responsibility for paying some 54,000 members of Sunni Arab
groups
fighting al-Qaeda. A bombing in a car parked outside a kebab
restaurant
in the mostly Shiite commercial district of Karradah in central
Baghdad
killed at least three people.
(AP, 10/1/08)(WSJ, 10/2/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 1, In Japan a pre-dawn
fire raged through an adult video theater in the western city of
Osaka,
killing at least 15 people and injuring 10 others.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, Kenyan police
arrested
Andrew Mwangura, a maritime watchdog official, on suspicion of
criminal
activity just days after the official gave reporters sensitive
information about a hijacked arms freighter off Somalia's coast.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 1, The Russian Supreme
Court declared the last czar and his murdered family to be victims
of
political repression, a decision that helps Russia move toward
closing
a chapter in its tortured history.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, In Somalia at least
seven civilians were killed in a mortar fire exchange that erupted
when
an African Union (AU) plane landed at Mogadishu airport in defiance
of
a "ban" by an Islamist militia. 28 Somali migrants died after their
boat capsized off the town of Shabwa because of strong wind and high
waves. A Yemen coast guard patrol reached the boat and rescued 23
other
migrants.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 1, Spanish police said
they have staged their biggest ever operation against Internet child
pornography, arresting 121 people suspected of involvement in a
network
that reached 75 countries. Some 800 police took part in Operation
Carousel, an investigation that began last year in cooperation with
Brazilian police.
(AFP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, In central Tanzania
a
stampede at an overcrowded dance hall in Tabora killed 20 children
and
left 50 others injured as they celebrated the Islamic Eid al-Fitr
festival.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 1, In Venezuela Julio
Soto, a student leader at the University of Zulia, was killed by
unidentified gunmen in the western city of Maracaibo. Assailants
sprayed his vehicle with gunfire and then fled without taking
anything.
Soto had helped organize protests against constitutional amendments
proposed by President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 2, US vice
presidential
candidates held their only debate prior to elections. Alaska’s Gov.
Sarah Palin often spoke in generalities. Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was
generally focused and forceful, and seemed to take painstaking care
not
to appear disrespectful in the least.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 2, The US FBI arrested
Puerto Rico Sen. Jorge de Castro Font (45) for providing political
favors in exchange for cash and services totaling roughly half a
million dollars. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on 31
criminal
counts including bribery, wire fraud and money laundering.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 2, A new report
suggested
that HIV, the AIDS virus, originated in Africa between 1884 and
1924.
Earlier estimates had put the date around 1930. A new estimate of
how
many Americans have the AIDS virus put the number at about 1.1
million.
(SFC, 10/2/08, p.A3)(Reuters, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 2, Bolivian state
media
reported that President Evo Morales has rejected a request from the
US
Drug Enforcement Administration to fly anti-narcotics missions over
the
South American nation's territory.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 2, Britain’s Beckley
Foundation, a charity which numbers senior experts and other
academics
among its advisors, reported that cannabis is less harmful than
alcohol
or tobacco, and called for a "serious rethink" of drug policy.
(AFP,
10/2/08)(www.beckleyfoundation.org/aboutus/)
2008 Oct 2, General Vladimir
Zagorec was extradited from Austria to Croatia on charges of
stealing
gems used a collateral in an arms deal during the Balkan wars of the
1990s. 4 days later his lawyer’s daughter Ivana Hodak (26) was
murdered.
(Econ, 11/1/08, p.61)
2008 Oct 2, Suicide bombers
targeted Shiite worshippers as they left morning prayers at two
Baghdad
mosques, killing 24 people and injuring 50 others. Gunmen fatally
shot
six Sunnis as they traveled in a minibus in the mainly Shiite town
of
Wajihiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad. A suicide bomber in western
Baghdad wounded four American soldiers and 2 Iraqis.
(AP, 10/2/08)(WSJ, 10/3/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 2, India’s ban on
smoking
in public places became effective, leaving public health officials
with
a much tougher task: get the nation's estimated 120 million smokers
to
stub out their cigarettes.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 2, In northwest
Pakistan
a suicide bomber blew himself up near the house of politician
Asfandyar
Wali Khan, who was receiving guests to mark the end of the Islamic
fasting month at his home in Charsadda, killing at least four
people.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 2, Choi Jin-sil (39),
one
of South Korea's most popular actresses, was found dead in an
apparent
suicide after suffering from post-divorce depression and harassment
by
online rumors about her allegedly irregular financial dealings.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 2, Sri Lanka’s air
force
bombed the offices of the rebel peace secretariat, the headquarters
for
its negotiating team in long-defunct peace talks. Scattered battles
killed 42 rebel fighters and two soldiers.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 3, Pres. Bush signed
the
Child Soldiers Accountability Act, making it a federal crime
in
the US to recruit and use soldiers under 15 years even if they
operate
outside the US. Rebel groups and government-armed militias using
child
soldiers in the Philippines and 16 other strife-torn countries faced
prosecution in the United States under the new law.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 3, The US House of
Representatives voted 263-171 for the $700 billion economic rescue
plan
and Pres. Bush quickly signed the bill. Wall Street fell 157 points
to
10,325.38, its lowest close since October 2005, as more economic bad
news was made public. The $700 billion represented about 6% of
American
GDP.
(AP, 10/4/08)(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.B1)(Econ, 9/27/08,
p.17)
2008 Oct 3, United States
Protection and Investigations, a Houston security company, was
indicted
on charges of defrauding the US government for work done during the
Afghanistan war and rebuilding efforts.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 3, The Great Lakes
Governors (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) applauded President George W. Bush for
signing
a joint resolution of Congress providing consent to the Great
Lakes-St.
Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. It barred new
diversions beyond the Great Lakes Basin.
(www.cglg.org/projects/water/CompactConsent.asp)(Econ, 5/22/10,
p.36)
2008 Oct 3, Thomas Petters
(51),
founder of Petters Co., was arrested in Minnesota on charges of mail
and wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Over 20
investors and investment groups were thought to have been bilked of
over $100 million and losses claimed by funds could top $2 billion.
(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.B7)
2008 Oct 3, O.J. Simpson was
found
guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a
Las
Vegas hotel room on Sep 13, 2007. This was 13 years to the day after
being acquitted of killing his wife and her friend in Los Angeles.
Four
other men charged in the case struck plea bargains that saved them
from
potential prison sentences in return for their testimony.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 3, Wachovia said it
agreed to be acquired by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co.
in a
$15.1 billion all-stock deal. But Citigroup demanded that Wachovia
abide by the terms of its earlier deal to buy Wachovia's banking
operations.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 3, In Alabama a
collision
on a rural highway between an 18-wheeler and a state van killed 6
applicants for prison jobs and their driver.
(SFC, 10/4/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 3, NATO launched an
airstrike near the Afghan border with Pakistan. A jet fighter bombed
two houses in different parts of Datta Khel. Intelligence officials
in
the region said 2 women and one child were killed and 5 men wounded.
A
militant attack on a US patrol in eastern Kunar province killed an
Afghan civilian and wounded four others.
(Reuters, 10/3/08)(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 3, Soldiers from both
Cambodia and Thailand were wounded in a brief clash along their
volatile border.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 3, India's Tata Group
announced it was abandoning a plant in eastern India which was
slated
to turn out the world's cheapest car after weeks of violent
demonstrations triggered by a land dispute.
(AFP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 3, Iraq's presidential
council officially approved a law that paves the way for US-backed
provincial elections to be held by the end of January. Iraq's
parliament had approved the law unanimously on Sept. 24 following
months of deadlock centering on a Kurdish-Arab dispute over the city
of
Kirkuk. Kurdish legislators agreed to the latest proposal after all
sides accepted a UN compromise to put off the vote in Tamim
province,
which includes Kirkuk, and form a committee to recommend separate
legislation for elections there by March 31. The US military killed
Mahir Ahmad Mahmud al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Assad or Abu Rami,
an
al-Qaida in Iraq leader. He was suspected of masterminding the Oct 2
attacks in Baghdad as well as recent bombings and the 2006
videotaped
execution of a Russian official. American troops also killed the
man's
wife in a firefight as they tried to capture him in the northern
neighborhood of Azamiyah in Baghdad.
(AP, 10/3/08)(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 3, Mexican police
clashed
with hundreds of villagers who seized the entrance to a Mayan
archaeological site and six protesters were killed. Hundreds of
villagers had occupied the entrance to the Chinkultic ruins for
nearly
a month, saying they were protesting excessive entrance fees and a
lack
of investment in the area. 2 men were found shot to death in Tijuana
in
the same empty lot near the elementary school where the 12 bodies
were
found on sep 29.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 3, US missiles hit a
house in Mohammadkhel near the Afghan border. Two Pakistani
intelligence officials, citing reports from field agents and
informants, said 14 Taliban militants and 8 Arabs died in the attack
about 28 miles west of Miran Shah. 2 people wounded in the attack
died
later bringing the toll to 24.
(AP, 10/4/08)(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 3, Russian share
prices
dropped sharply despite a nearly $200 billion Kremlin rescue plan.
Oleg
Deripaska, billionaire tycoon, was reported to have given up his 20%
stake in Magna Int’l., a Canadian auto parts maker, to creditors.
(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 3, A car exploded
outside
the Russian military's headquarters in South Ossetia, killing 7
people
and wounding 3. The South Ossetian government said a car, that had
been
confiscated in an ethnic Georgian village after weapons were found
in
it, exploded near a building where leaders of the Russian
peacekeeping
force were located.
(AP,
10/3/08)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432172,00.html)
2008 Oct 3, The United Nations
said fighting has killed at least 80 civilians in Somalia's capital
over the last two weeks. More than 100 people have been injured. UN
humanitarian office spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said nearly half of
Somalia's 8.3 million people were in need of food and other
assistance.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 3, Sri Lankan air
force
jets bombed the offices of the Tamil Tiger political chief
Balasingham
Nadesan.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 3, Fighting between
Kurdish rebels and Turkey's army and air force in southeastern
Turkey
and northern Iraq killed 15 soldiers and at least 23 insurgents, in
the
deadliest battle between the longtime enemies this year.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 3, Officials said
Vietnam's health ministry has discovered the industrial chemical
melamine in 18 food products imported from China and three other
countries and has ordered them recalled and destroyed.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 4, The fight over
control
of Wachovia intensified, as a judge temporarily agreed to block the
sale of the bank to Wells Fargo, Citigroup announced in a news
release.
The next day the battle for control of Wachovia tilted toward Wells
Fargo as a state appeals court blocked a lower court ruling that had
favored rival bidder Citigroup.
(AP, 10/5/08)(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 4, In SF the 8th
annual
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, backed by financier Warren
Hellman,
continued or its 2nd day in Goldengate Park with an audience of some
40,000. The next day the festival drew some 100,000 fans. SF also
celebrated its annual LoveFest, begun in 2004, with a downtown
parade
that drew tens of thousands of spectators.
(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.B1,B3)(SFC, 10/6/08, p.E1)
2008 Oct 4, In the Porter Ranch
area of Los Angeles County Karthik Rajaram (45), an unemployed
financial adviser despondent over his troubles, shot and killed his
wife (39), mother-in-law (69), and 3 sons (7,12,19), before taking
his
own life.
(SFC, 10/7/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 4, Luis Santos
(b.1986),
a Concord, Ca., resident, was stabbed to death after a party near
the
San Diego college campus. Esteban Nunez (19), the son of former
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, was later arrested along with three
others in connection with the stabbing death. In 2010 Esteban Nunez
pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and on June 25, 2010, he
and a
co-defendant were sentenced to 16 years in prison.
(SFC, 5/6/10,
p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/2eaav49)(SFC,
6/26/10, p.A4)
2008 Oct 4, The US coalition
says
its forces have killed five militants in two operations targeting
al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 4, The leaders of
Britain, France, Germany and Italy began meeting in Paris at a
summit
on the world financial crisis threatening banks, growth and jobs
across
the continent. They vowed to do all they could to prevent Wall
Street's
turmoil from destabilizing their banking systems. Germany's No. 2
commercial property lender, Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, said its
$48
billion rescue plan had unraveled when private banks pulled out.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 4, A ceremony in
Diwaniyah marked the departure of Polish troops from Iraq. Poland
sent
combat troops into Iraq as part of the US-led coalition and had
2,500
troops deployed there at its peak. The last 900 were being pulled
out
this month. Two US helicopters collided while landing at a base in
Baghdad. One Iraqi soldier was killed.
(AP, 10/4/08)(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 4, In Mexico gunmen
killed Salvador Vegara, the mayor of Ixtapan de la Sal, a resort
town
southwest of Mexico City. Vegara was in a car with two other people
when the gunmen opened fire from another vehicle. The bodies of 5
men
were found asphyxiated in a car in the eastern part of Tijuana. The
men
were beaten and had their hands bound. The bodies of two beheaded
men
were found wrapped in blankets on a road elsewhere in the city. The
heads were in black plastic bags nearby.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 4, In Sri Lanka heavy
fighting near the rebels' administrative capital of Kilinochchi left
20
guerrillas and 4 soldiers dead. Soldiers overran five rebel bunkers
in
the Mullaitivu district, killing 5 rebels. 4 rebels and a soldier
were
killed in clashes in the Vavuniya and Welioya regions.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 4, Taiwan's president
welcomed a US decision to sell the island up to $6.5 billion in
advanced weaponry, while China warned the move would damage
relations
between Beijing and Washington.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 5, The United States
opened a trade office in Libya to boost economic ties with the
oil-rich
state.
(AFP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 5, The Illinois
attorney
general's office said that Bank of America was modifying loans for
customers in 11 states.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 5, In northern
California
8 people were killed when a passenger bus, carrying 41 senior
Laotian,
casino-bound gamblers, ran off a rural road near Williams. Police
the
next day arrested driver Quintin J. Watts (52) on suspicion of
driving under the influence. Daniel E. Cobb (68), owner of the bus,
was
among the dead. The bus had invalid plates and identification
numbers
and a lapsed corporate registration. A 9th victim died on Oct 10.
(SFC, 10/6/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/7/08, p.A1)(SFC,
10/11/08, p.B3)
2008 Oct 5, Abu Dhabi’s
Mubadala
Development Co. and Texas-based ConocoPhillips said they have signed
a
deal with Kazakhstan’s national oil company to drill in a
potentially
lucrative region in the Caspian Sea.
(SFC, 10/6/08, p.D1)
2008 Oct 5, Afghan and US
troops
clashed and called airstrikes on a group of insurgents in southern
Zabul province, killing 43 militants.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 5, Isolated shootings
in
Brazil soured municipal elections that President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva's allies hope will give them a leg up on 2010's presidential
vote.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 5, In Egypt 13 people
were killed and 24 injured when a bus and a truck collided head-on
south of Cairo.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 5, Germany joined
Ireland
and Greece in guaranteeing all private bank accounts, putting
Europe's
biggest economy at odds with calls for a unified European response
to
the global financial meltdown.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 5, Hong Kong said it
found two Cadbury chocolate products contained considerably more of
the
industrial chemical melamine than the city's legal limit in a
growing
scandal over Chinese tainted food. China attempted to contain
the
fallout from the tainted milk scandal, announcing a new survey of
dairy
products showed no traces of melamine and promising to subsidize
farmers hit by the scare.
(AP, 10/5/08)(AFP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 5, A Georgian Interior
Ministry official said Russian troops have begun dismantling
positions
in the so-called security zones inside Georgia that they have
occupied
since August's brief but intense war.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 5, Iceland’s
government
and banks scrambled to rescue the country’s banking system. Its
economy
was one of the hardest hit by the global financial crises.
(WSJ, 10/5/08, p.A13)
2008 Oct 5, Clashes between
Hindus
and Muslims in Dhule, a western Indian town left at least four
people
dead and 80 injured, forcing police to impose a curfew.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 5, Ahmed Abul Gheit,
the
first Egyptian foreign minister to visit Iraq in nearly two decades,
arrived in Baghdad and promised to help Iraq face its challenges. 11
people, including women and children, were killed after US forces
came
under attack by gunfire and a suicide bomber during a raid in Mosul.
There were no casualties among American forces. Elsewhere in the
northern city, gunmen opened fire on mourners in a funeral tent,
killing 5 people and wounding 7 others. American troops acting on a
tip
killed Abu Qaswarah (also known as Abu Sara), the No. 2 leader of
al-Qaida in Iraq in a raid in the northern city of Mosul. The
Moroccan
was known for his ability to recruit and motivate foreign fighters.
(AP, 10/5/08)(SFC, 10/6/08, p.A3)(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 5, In Israel PM
Olmert's
Cabinet agreed to hand over to Russia a small tract known as
Sergei's
Courtyard. The area, which once accommodated Russian pilgrims
visiting
the Holy Land, now houses offices of Israel's Agriculture Ministry
and
the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 5, A 6.6-magnitude
earthquake struck the mountains of Central Asia, destroying Nura
village in Kyrgyzstan and killing at least 75 people including 41
children.
(AP, 10/6/08)(AP, 10/7/08)(SFC, 10/11/08, p.B6)
2008 Oct 5, In southern Mexico
5
state police officers were arrested in connection with a deadly raid
to
dislodge protesters from a Mayan archaeological site. Mexican
authorities seized 7 million pills of pseudoephedrine, the main
ingredient used to make methamphetamine, at the Guadalajara airport.
More than 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of the pills were found
packed
in 24 boxes on a shipment from Calcutta, India. Three separate
shipments of more than a ton each were confiscated last month at
Mexico
City's airport. Those also originated in Calcutta.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 5, MEND, the main
militant group in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, said it had
released around 19 Nigerian oil workers kidnapped last month but was
still holding two Britons and a Ukrainian.
(Reuters, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 5, In Pakistan a
three-day ultimatum from the government for Afghans living illegally
in
Bajur to leave was due to expire today. But of an estimated 80,000
Afghans, only about 15,000 had left.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 5, Iba Ndiaye
(b.1928),
Senegalese modernist painter, died in Paris.
(SSFC, 10/19/08, p.B6)
2008 Oct 5, Apirak Kosayodhin,
the
leader of Thailand's opposition Democrat Party, won re-election as
governor of Bangkok, defeating the ruling party candidate as well as
a
one-time sex tycoon. Thai police arrested Chamlong Srimuang, a key
protest leader and one-time Bangkok mayor, on charges of
insurrection
in a continuing crackdown against an anti-government movement that
spearheaded the ouster of a prime minister last month.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 5, In western Turkey a
truck packed with illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Myanmar
overturned, killing 18 people and injuring 23.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 5-2008 Oct 17, Arab
militia attacked at least 15 Sudanese villages. Aid workers and a
rights watchdog later said the violence near Muhagariya, a south
Darfur
flashpoint has displaced 12,000 people and killed more than 40
civilians.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 6, The United States
and
Lebanon set up a joint military commission to bolster military
cooperation, a move that follows the first visit by the newly
elected
Lebanese president to Washington.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 6, Stock markets
around
the world fell on fears that the global financial crises will
worsen.
The DJIA fell 800.06 intraday ending down 369.88 to close at
9555.50.
Oil prices closed at $87.81, its lowest settlement since February 6.
(SFC, 10/7/08, p.D3)(WSJ, 10/5/08, p.C3)
2008 Oct 6, The US Supreme
Court
declined a patent appeal from Dish Network forcing the company to
pay
TiVo $104 million.
(SFC, 10/7/08, p.D6)
2008 Oct 6, It was reported
that
Atherton, Ca., philanthropist Lorry Lokey (81) had pledged $75
million
to the Stanford Univ. School of Medicine for a major stem cell
research
center. In 2007 he had pledged at least $33 million.
(SFC, 10/6/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 6, Three European
scientists shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine for separate
discoveries of viruses that cause AIDS and cervical cancer,
breakthroughs that helped doctors fight the deadly diseases. French
researchers Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier were cited
for
their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV; while
Germany's Harald zur Hausen was honored for finding human papilloma
viruses that cause cervical cancer.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 6, Bank of America
said
it will modify troubled mortgages with up to $8.4 billion in
interest
rate and principal reductions for nearly 400,000 customers of
Countrywide Financial Corp., the troubled mortgage lender it
acquired
last summer.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 6, Eli Lilly & Co.
said it would pay $70 per share for New York’s Imclone. The offer
put
about $1 billion into the pocket of Bristol-Myers for its stake in
Imclone and still allowed it to share in revenue from Erbitux, a
cancer
medication.
(SFC, 10/7/08, p.D6)
2008 Oct 6, Mother’s Cookies,
an
Oakland, Ca. institution for 92 years, filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy
in Delaware. Owner Catterton Partners, a private equity firm based
in
Connecticut, cited failed efforts to obtain credit financing.
(SFC, 10/9/08, p.C1)
2008 Oct 6, G7 president Robert
Zoellick said the Group of Seven is outmoded and should be replaced
with a new entity that would include growing economies in Asia and
Latin America.
(SFC, 10/7/08, p.D5)
2008 Oct 6, European
governments
struggled to find a coordinated approach to the crisis sweeping
financial markets, as Denmark became the latest country to guarantee
bank deposits, putting more pressure on Britain and other countries
to
follow.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 6, In France
Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of a late French president, an
Israeli-Russian billionaire and 40 other people charged with
trafficking arms to war-riven Angola or taking kickbacks faced
judges
in a long-awaited trial in Paris. Prosecutors alleged that French
businessman Pierre Falcone and Arkady Gaydamak, an Israeli tycoon
based
in France at the time, organized the sale of Russian arms to Angola
from 1993-2000, for a total of US$791 million, in breach of French
government rules. In 2009 Falcone and Gaydamak were sentenced to 6
years in prison.
(AP, 10/6/08)(Econ, 10/31/09, p.62)
2008 Oct 6, In France traders
at
Groupe Caisse d’Epargne bank, founded in 1818, began trading in
equity
derivatives hoping the market would rise. The irregular trades were
unwound at a loss of some $808 million.
(WSJ, 10/18/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 6, Clashes between
ethnic
groups in India's remote northeast killed 19 more people, bringing
the
death toll from four days of violence to 49, including 15 people
shot
by police. Another 100,000 people have fled their homes.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 6, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert
visited Moscow, aiming to focus on Russian arms sales to Israel's
enemies. By contrast, Russia hoped the meeting will bolster its
image
as a Middle East peacemaker.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 6, A panel of
scientists
met in Monaco for the 2nd international UNESCO symposium on The
Ocean
in a High-CO2 World. On Jan 30, 2009, they issued the Monaco
Declaration, which summed up their deliberations, and reported that
acidity of ocean surface waters has increased 30% since the 17th
century.
(SFC, 1/31/09, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/bdtj3p)
2008 Oct 6, A suicide bomber
attacked legislator Rasheed Akbar Niwani’s house in eastern
Pakistan,
killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 50. Officials said
Pakistani authorities have begun expelling Afghan refugees from the
Bajaur tribal region that has become the main battleground between
troops and fighters linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda.
(AP, 10/6/08)(Reuters, 10/6/08)(SFC, 10/7/08,
p.A8)
2008 Oct 6, In northern Sri
Lanka
a suspected rebel suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded
opposition party office, killing a former army general and 26
others.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 6, A Nigerian UN
peacekeeper was killed when up to 60 gunmen ambushed a patrol in
Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur.
(AFP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 6, Switzerland's top
prosecutor charged 10 people with laundering more than US$1 billion
dollars (1.349 billion euros) during a decade-long mafia cigarette
smuggling operation. Authorities said they broke up the smuggling
ring
in 2004.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 6, A magnitude 6.6
earthquake killed at least 10 people in Yangyi, Tibet, the hardest
hit
village in Dangxiong County.
(Reuters, 10/6/08)(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 6, Turkish warplanes
bombed a Kurdish rebel hideout in northern Iraq, the third air
strike
in retaliation for an attack that killed 15 soldiers three days ago.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 7, The US Federal
Reserve
announced a radical plan to buy massive amounts of short-term debt
in a
dramatic effort to break through the severe credit clog. The Fed
began
lending unsecured to companies for the first time in its history.
(AP, 10/7/08)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.93)
2008 Oct 7, Republican John
McCain
and Democrat Barack Obama held their 2nd presidential debate. Tom
Brokaw of NBC, the moderator, screened their questions and also
chose
others that had been submitted online.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 7, A US federal judge
ordered that 17 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay military
prison
be released in the US by Oct 10. The next day a federal appeals
court
temporarily blocked the decision.
(SFC, 10/8/08, p.A2)(SFC, 10/9/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 7, Lee W. Dubois (32)
of
Lexington, SC, a former Army contractor, pleaded guilty to stealing
nearly $40 million worth of jet and diesel fuel from a US Army base
in
Iraq and selling it on the black market. Dubois admitted he and
others
used false paperwork to draw more than 10 million gallons of fuel
from
Camp Liberty in Baghdad between October 2007 and May.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 7, California State
Controller John Chiang warned that state revenues and cash flows
were
deteriorating and that the state was already short $1.1 billion
after
the first 3 months of its fiscal year.
(WSJ, 10/8/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 7, Harvard Univ. said
medical device billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, chairman of Swiss-based
Synthes Inc., had donated $125 million, the largest one-time gift in
the history of the school. In 2004 Wyss had donated $25 million to
support doctoral programs at Harvard.
(WSJ, 10/5/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 7, Advanced Micro
Devices
(AMD) and Advanced Technology Investment, a recently formed
investment
firm owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, said they will become
joint
owners of a new company that will take over AMD’s factories in
Germany.
(WSJ, 10/8/08, p.B3)
2008 Oct 7, Afghan refugees
flowed
over the border from Pakistan’s Bajur battle zone after
officials
accused them of links with Taliban militants and ordered them out.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, Algerian PM Ahmed
Ouyahia said there had been 250 million euros worth of damage,
largely
to infrastructure, from the recent flooding.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 7, The Toronto stock
exchange fell 401 points making a cumulative drop of 3942 points
since
Sep 1. As PM Harper spoke to reassure business people, Canadian
autoworkers held a funeral march to mark the loss of some 67,000
jobs
over the past year.
(Econ, 10/11/08, p.51)
2008 Oct 7, Chancellor Angela
Merkel's Cabinet voted to extend Germany's military mission in
Afghanistan for 14 more months.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, Iceland
nationalized
its second-largest bank under day-old legislation and negotiated a
euro4 billion ($5.4 billion) loan from Russia to shore up the
nation's
finances amid a full-blown financial crisis.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, In India Tata
Chairman
Ratan Tata said the company had acquired 1,100 acres in Gujarat
state
and will relocate equipment from the failed Nano minicar project in
West Bengal.
(WSJ, 10/8/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 7, In northeast India
5
days of clashes between members of the Bodo tribe, Assam’s largest
tribe, and local Muslims left 53 people dead with 25 of them shot by
police.
(Econ, 10/11/08, p.60)
2008 Oct 7, In Iraq an American
soldier was fatally shot by an al-Qaida in Iraq extremist in Mosul.
An
Iraqi policeman was also killed in the fighting.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, Israel's PM Olmert
said he received assurances that Russia would not allow Israel's
security to be threatened, but offered no indication he won the
concrete promises he sought on Russian arms sales or sanctions on
Iran.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, In Kenya Jerome
Corsi,
who wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of
Personality," was picked up by police and deported for not having a
work permit.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, In Mauritania
police
fired tear gas and used batons to beat back union activists
demanding
the reinstatement of the deposed president.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 7, Mexico extradited
former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) to face
corruption charges, and the ex-leader told a judge there is no
evidence
to support the allegations against him.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, In Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas, gunmen killed police
commander Rodolfo Barragan (38) in a hail of bullets at a hotel
parking
lot.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 7, Tropical Storm
Marco
roared ashore on Mexico's Gulf coast with near-hurricane force
winds,
prompting a shutdown of some oil platforms and forcing the
evacuation
of some 3,000 people.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, In Romania some
7,000
workers and trade unionists marched around the parliament in
Bucharest
to demand higher salaries and better working conditions.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, Former Guantanamo
detainee Mustafa Ibrahim Mustafa Al Hassan arrived in the Sudanese
capital of Khartoum and vowed to campaign for the release of the
roughly 255 inmates remaining at the US military prison.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 7, The Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences announced that two Japanese citizens and a
Japanese-born American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics for
discoveries in the world of subatomic physics.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, Thai riot police
clashed with thousands of opposition PAD protesters who barricaded
Parliament and vowed to block the government from exiting the
building.
2 people were killed. Deputy PM Chavalit Yongchaiyudh resigned to
take
responsibility for the chaos.
(AP, 10/7/08)(SFC, 10/9/08, p.A16)(Econ,
10/11/08,
p.55)
2008 Oct 7, Turkish warplanes
bombed suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and
southeast
Turkey, in new air strikes responding to an attack that killed 17
soldiers at a military outpost four days ago.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, The UN food agency
(WFP) said it is resuming free breakfasts for hundreds of thousands
of
poor Cambodian schoolchildren after securing new funds for a program
suspended due to high food prices.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, The UN refugee
agency
said at least 5,000 people have fled violence in northeastern Congo
and
sought shelter in neighboring Sudan over the last two weeks due to
ferocious attacks by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army from
neighboring Uganda.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, Zambia's ambassador
said Zambia and the World Health Organization (WHO) have joined the
hunt for a mystery illness that has killed four people in South
Africa.
A South Africa, health official said the mystery disease may be
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.
(AFP, 10/7/08)(Reuters, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, Pres. Bush signed
legislation allowing American businesses to enter India’s
multi-billion-dollar nuclear market.
(SFC, 10/9/08, p.A13)
2008 Oct 8, The US embassy said
in
a statement that the United States and Vietnam have agreed to lift
restrictions on air cargo routes between the two countries.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, In Afghanistan at
least 27 Islamic militants were killed in military operations across
the country. Villagers reported that 10 civilians died in rebel
gunfire.
(AFP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 8, Australian
scientists
said hundreds of new marine species and previously uncharted
undersea
mountains and canyons have been discovered in the depths of the
Southern Ocean.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, Six central banks
jolted markets by cutting interest rates together in an attempt to
shore up confidence in the world's crisis-stricken financial system.
The US Fed reduced its key rate from 2% to 1.5%. The Bank of England
unexpectedly slashed its key lending rate by a half-point to 4.5%.
The
Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 2.5%.
China also cut its key interest rates for a second time in less than
one month to 6.9%. The European Central Bank sliced its rate by half
a
point to 3.75%. Sweden, and Switzerland also cut rates. Earlier in a
day Japan's Nikkei showed its biggest drop since the October, 1987
stock market crash. The IMF said the world economy is entering a
major
downturn.
(AP, 10/8/08)(AFP, 10/8/08)(Econ, 10/11/08,
p.100)
2008 Oct 8, Britain added to
the
financial chaos engulfing Iceland by declaring it planned to sue
over
lost deposits held by thousands of Britons with Icelandic bank
accounts. The news from London overshadowed an emergency loan from
Sweden to Iceland's biggest bank.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, The Asian
Development
Bank announced $35 million in emergency food aid to ease the burden
of
soaring food prices among some of Cambodia's poorest people.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, In Egypt at least
11
people died when an apartment building collapsed in the port city of
Alexandria.
(AFP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest in Baqouba, the
provincial
capital of Diyala province, killing 10 people and wounding 21. A man
accompanying the woman failed to detonate his explosives vest and
was
arrested at the scene.
(AP, 10/8/08)(SFC, 10/9/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 8, Human Rights Watch,
a
New York-based human rights group, accused Jordan's security
services
of carrying out widespread torture in the country's jails. The
torture
allegations came from 66 out of 110 prisoners interviewed randomly
in
seven of Jordan's main prisons in 2007 and 2008.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, Malaysia’s PM
Badawi
said he will step down in March and hand over power to his deputy in
order to prevent a split in the UMNO party.
(WSJ, 10/9/08, p.A13)
2008 Oct 8, Maldives islanders
in
the cramped city of Male and scores of far-flung atolls began voting
in
the first democratic presidential election in their tiny nation's
history.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, President Felipe
Calderon unveiled plans for 53 billion pesos ($4.4 billion) in
emergency spending on roads, schools, hospitals and an oil refinery
next year to help Mexico combat the world financial crisis. Mexican
authorities said that 16 people were killed over the last 24 hours
in
Baha California across the US border from California. State
officials
blamed warring cells of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel for the
killings
and other homicides plaguing the area in recent weeks. 5 state
police
officers were killed in the western state of Jalisco by
grenade-lobbing
gunmen who fired more than 800 bullets in the attack.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 8, In Nepal a small
airplane crashed and caught fire as it tried to land in foggy
weather
at a tiny mountain airport near Mount Everest, killing 18 people,
including 16 tourists from Germany, Australia and Nepal.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, It was reported
that
Gaza's smugglers have gone legit. Owners of the scores of tunnels
running under the Gaza-Egypt border have registered with the Hamas
authorities, pledged to pay workers' compensation and hooked up
their
operations to the electricity network.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, Russian forces
pulled
back from positions outside South Ossetia, bulldozing a camp at a
key
checkpoint and withdrawing into the separatist region as EU monitors
and relieved Georgian residents looked on.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, Pirates in Somalia
released 15 Filipino seamen and four other crewmen of a chemical
tanker
hijacked nearly two months ago, but were still holding 67 other
Filipino sailors.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 8, South Korea's top
military officer said North Korea is working to develop a nuclear
warhead for a long-range missile, a day after the communist state
tested its short-range weaponry.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 8, The Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences said two Americans and a US-based Japanese
scientist won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering and
developing a glowing jellyfish protein that revolutionized the
ability
to study disease and normal development in living organisms. Japan's
Osamu Shimomura and Americans Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien shared
the
prize for their work on green fluorescent protein, or GFP. Shimomura
discovered the jellyfish protein in 1961. In the early 1990s Douglas
Prasher conducted research on the jellyfish gene that made Chalfie’s
and Tsien’s work possible.
(AP, 10/8/08)(SFC, 10/21/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 8, In Turkey rebels
ambushed a police bus, killing four policemen and the driver in the
Kurdish-dominated city of Diyarbakir, further escalating tensions.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 9, Virginia’s Gov.
Timothy M. Kaine ordered 570 state employee layoffs, cut college
funding by at least 5%, ordered som older prisons closed and
postponed
state employee raises to deal with a $2.5 billion fiscal crises.
(WSJ, 10/10/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 9, Chicago’s Cook
County
Sheriff Tom Dart halted evictions on foreclosed properties, saying
innocent tenants were being put on the street. But bankers said he
was
breaking the law.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 9, Wells Fargo
& Co. proceeded with plans to acquire Wachovia as Citigroup said
it
would not pursue additional legal actions to halt the takeover. The
Federal Reserve approved the acquisition on Oct 12.
(SFC, 10/10/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/13/08, p.A15)
2008 Oct 9, Afghanistan
appealed
for more NATO help to attack heroin dealers at a meeting with NATO
counterparts in Budapest. General David McKiernan, the top US
commander
in Afghanistan, said he backed a "political solution" to the
country's
dragging conflict with Taliban-led extremists. The US pushed NATO
allies to order their troops to target Afghanistan's thriving heroin
trade in a bid to stem the flow of drug money to the widening
insurgency against the troubled international military mission.
(AFP, 10/9/08)(AP, 10/9/08)(SFC, 10/10/08, p.A16)
2008 Oct 9, Ethiopia signed a
220-million-euro (300 million dollar) deal with a French company for
the construction of Africa's largest wind farm.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 9, The Swedish Academy
announced French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (b.1940) as
the
2008 Nobel Prize in literature for his poetic adventure and "sensual
ecstasy." Le Clezio made his breakthrough as a novelist with
"Desert,"
in 1980.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, Trading in
Hungary’s
bond market broke down as buyers practically disappeared for a
10-year
auction. The government raised less than planned. A day earlier it
left
its key lending rate at 8.5%.
(WSJ, 10/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 9, Iceland suspended
trading on its stock exchange for two days and took control of the
country's largest bank, the third to be placed under its protective
umbrella, as it grappled with a banking crisis that is threatening
to
engulf the entire country.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his government to suspend a
controversial
new sales tax, a day after a rare strike by merchants worried about
how
the new measure would affect their business.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, Saleh al-Auqaeili,
an
Iraqi lawmaker loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was
killed when a bomb struck his convoy in Baghdad. At least one
bystander
was also killed in the bombing.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, The Libyan oil
company
Tamoil said the Libyan government has again decided to halt oil
deliveries to Switzerland.
(AFP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, Poll results in the
Maldives indicated President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to be headed for a
runoff against Mohamed Nasheed , a former political prisoner who
leads
the main opposition.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, The International
Atomic Energy Agency said North Korea has told it that the
government
is placing all its main nuclear complex off-limits to inspectors and
will stop its program of dismantling the site.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, Two American
journalists, Holli Chmela (27) and Taylor Luck (23), who went
missing
during a vacation in Lebanon eight days ago were released in Syria
and
returned to Jordan. The next day they said they had been "kidnapped"
by
their taxi driver and taken into Syria, where they were held in
custody
for a week before being released.
(AP, 10/9/08)(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 9, In northern Mexico
gunmen opened fire in a bar in Chihuahua, killing 11 people. The
body
of Miguel Angel Villagomez, editor of La Noticia newspaper in the
western state of Michoacan, was found shot dead on the side of a
highway in neighboring Guerrero state.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 9, Montenegro and
Macedonia recognized Kosovo's independence, despite opposition from
Serbia, which called the moves by its Balkan neighbors a betrayal
and
expelled the Montenegrin ambassador from Belgrade.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, NATO joined a
growing
international force to protect vessels off Somalia's perilous coast,
sending military ships to the treacherous waters where pirates are
negotiating the release of an arms-laden tanker.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 9, Pakistani fighter
jets
and helicopter gunships destroyed a Taliban militant facility in the
Swat Valley, killing 20 militants. Separately, five civilians,
including women and children, were killed when a shell hit a house
in
the Matta district of Swat during clashes between troops and
insurgents. Bombings targeting police killed 10 people and wounded
14
in the volatile northwest and the capital. Suspected US missile
strikes
hit Tappi village in North Waziristan, killing at least 9 people and
a
house in the village of Dande Darpa Khel.
(AFP, 10/9/08)(SFC, 10/10/08, p.A17)
2008 Oct 9, In Peru a bomb
killed
13 soldiers and 2 civilians in Huancavelica, east of Lima, in an
apparent response to an army operation to shut down Shining Path
camps.
(AP, 10/10/08)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.50)
2008 Oct 9, Somali pirates
freed
20 Filipino seamen from a hijacked ship they held for more than 80
days, as the Philippine government doubled the pay of sailors
passing
through pirate-infested international waters. 47 Filipinos on three
other ships were still in the hands of Somali pirates. Pirates also
released 29 Iranian crew members and their cargo ship hijacked off
Somalia's coast in late July.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 9, A suspected Tamil
Tiger suicide bomber blew himself up near a convoy carrying a senior
Sri Lankan Cabinet minister, wounding his deputy and at least six
others. One bystander was killed and a wounded person died in the
hospital.
(AP, 10/9/08)(SFC, 10/10/08, p.A17)
2008 Oct 9, According to the
Sudanese army 15 people were killed when Darfur rebels attacked a
local
government convoy with military escort in the far west of the
region.
(AFP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 9, The central banks
of
Taiwan and South Korea cut interest rates as Japan and others pumped
more cash into the financial markets.
(WSJ, 10/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 9, The leaders of
Thailand's anti-government protesters said they will surrender to
police after a court dropped treason charges against them, but vowed
to
continue their occupation of the prime minister's office after
posting
bail.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, In Tobago Anna
Sundsval (62) and Oke Olsoon (73) of Sweden were slashed to death at
their home in the Bon Accord area. A suspect was arrested the next
day.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 9, Ukrainian President
Viktor Yushchenko called early general elections after dissolving
parliament when parties failed to resurrect a ruling pro-Western
coalition in the former Soviet state.
(AFP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, Zimbabwe's
opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai said that power-sharing talks with
President
Robert Mugabe's government had stalled and outside mediation was
needed
to break the deadlock. The UN food agency made an urgent appeal for
140
million dollars (102 million euros) in food aid for more than five
million Zimbabweans facing severe hunger. A state newspaper said
Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate soared to 231 million percent in
July.
(AFP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 10, G7 leaders
confronted
a financial system in shambles as they gathered in Washington with
panic selling in the stock markets, credit frozen solid and the
world
teetering on recession. US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said the
government will buy direct stakes in banks to stem a global
financial
collapse. G7 ministers announced a 5-point plant to support
financial
institutions.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)(SFC, 10/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 10, Global stocks dove
head first to five-year lows at the end of a brutal week as even the
traditional safe-havens of gold and government bonds suffered as
fear-stricken investors sought refuge in cash. The DJIA fell 128 to
close at 8451.19 in its most volatile day ever as the Dow swung 1019
points during the day. Oil on the NY mercantile Exchange fell over
10%
to close at $77.70 a barrel, its lowest level in over a year.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)(SFC, 10/11/08, p.C1)(WSJ,
10/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 10, The US and India
signed a pact allowing American firms to sell nuclear technology to
India.
(WSJ, 10/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 10, Alaska released a
report in which a legislative investigator found that Gov. Palin had
violated state ethics laws and abused her power by trying to have
her
former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Los Angeles
Leland
Wong (51), a former city commissioner (2002-2004) under Mayor James
Hahn, was sentenced to 5 years in prison and ordered to pay about
$139,000 in restitution for accepting bribes from companies seeking
city business.
(SSFC, 10/12/08, p.B7)
2008 Oct 10, The Connecticut
Supreme Court voted 4-3 to give gay and lesbian couples the right to
marry ruling that civil unions fell short of giving them full
equality.
It became the 3rd state to legalize such unions.
(SFC, 10/11/08, p.A6)(WSJ, 10/11/08, p.A7)
2008 Oct 10, Ed Jew, former San
Francisco supervisor, pleaded guilty to one count each of mail
fraud,
bribery and extortion as part of a scheme to shakedown Chinese
immigrant owners of tapioca drink shops in the sunset District for
$84,000 in bribes. In 2009 he was sentenced to 64 months in federal
prison.
(SFC, 10/11/08, p.B1)(SFC, 4/4/09, p.A1)
2008 Oct 10, Jim Benson
(b.1945),
software entrepreneur and founder of SpaceDev (1997), died. He had
hoped to build rockets to colonize asteroids.
(WSJ, 10/18/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 10, NATO defense
ministers authorized their troops in Afghanistan to attack drug
barons
blamed for pumping up to US$100 million (euro74 million) a year into
the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, The London stock
market plunged by almost 10.0 percent again, after fresh falls on
Wall
Street, as investors continued to fret over the worldwide financial
crisis.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Canada’s Finance
Minister Jim Flaherty said Canada plans to buy up to C$25 billion in
insured mortgages to help cushion banks from the global financial
crisis and address a "scarcity" of private-sector lending.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Chile's President,
Michelle Bachelet, signed law 20.299 making October 31st a new
annual
public holiday to coincide with Reformation Day and to be called
"Día Nacional de las Iglesias Evangélicas y
Protestantes". The date marked the 1517 posting by Martin
Luther
of his 95 thesis in Wittenberg, Germany.
(http://tinyurl.com/62uhnt)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.52)
2008 Oct 10, A state news
report
said Beijing will ban half of its 3.4 million cars from the roads
during periods of very heavy pollution. A crane at a construction
site
next to a kindergarten collapsed in Zibo city, Shandong province,
killing five children.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Congo's President
Joseph Kabila named Budget Minister Adolphe Muzito (51) as the new
prime minister following the resignation of 83-year-old Antoine
Gizenga.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Finland's
ex-president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize for his
efforts
to build a lasting peace from Africa and Asia to Europe and the
Middle
East. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it honored Ahtisaari for
important efforts over more than three decades to resolve
international
conflicts.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Iraq Diyar
Abbas
Ahmed (28), a Kurdish journalist, was gunned down in Kirkuk. A New
York-based journalists' group said it was the 136th killing of a
reporter since the US-led invasion of Iraq five years ago. A car
bomb
exploded in a market in southern Baghdad killing at least 14 people.
Bombings and shooting around the country killed 24 people.
(AP, 10/11/08)(SFC, 10/11/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 10, Police in Srinagar
shot and killed two people and at least four protesters were
wounded,
as thousands of Muslims took to the streets of Indian Kashmir to
protest the visit of India's prime minister.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, The Libyan news
agency JANA said Libya will withdraw $7 billion of assets in Swiss
banks, cut economic ties with Switzerland and stop supplying it with
oil to protest against poor treatment of Libyan diplomats and
businessmen.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Mexico's central
bank
auctioned foreign reserves in 3 auctions in an increasingly
aggressive
bid to push the peso stronger. In all, the bank sold off $6.4
billion.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Mexico
authorities
in Tijuana reported that a total of 91 people had been killed in a
wave
of gangland homicides since Sept. 26.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, A suicide bomber
drove his car into an anti-Taliban tribal council meeting in
northwest
Pakistan, killing at least 30 people, the second suicide bombing in
as
many days. The bomber blew himself up when around 500 members of
Alizai
tribe were gathered to draw up a strategy as part of
government-backed
efforts to drive out militants from tribal areas. Angry Pakistani
tribesmen traded fire with Taliban militants and demolished their
houses in a northwestern tribal region following the car suicide
attack.
(AP, 10/10/08)(Reuters, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, Peru’s President
Alan
Garcia accepted the resignation of his entire Cabinet without naming
replacements in response to an oil kickbacks scandal.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, Portugal's
Parliament
voted by a large majority against proposals to allow same-sex
marriages
in the mostly Roman Catholic country.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Qatar the Doha
Center for Media Freedom opened under the leadership of Robert
Menard
of France. Menard had previously led the Paris-based Reporters
Without
Borders.
(Econ, 5/16/09, p.52)(http://tinyurl.com/rxkzzh)
2008 Oct 10, Serbia expelled
the
Macedonian ambassador, reflecting its fury over the recognition of
Kosovo's independence by its closest neighbors.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Singapore’s
economy
fell into recession for the first time in 6 years leading the
city-state’s central bank to ease monetary policy and warn of more
struggle to come.
(WSJ, 10/11/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 10, Armed pirates off
Somalia hijacked a Greek chemical tanker with a crew of 20 flying a
Panamanian flag.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, Spain's government
insisted that a 30 billion euros ($41 billion) fund it will use to
buy
assets from banks starved for liquidity will have zero cost for
taxpayers.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Heinz Imhof, known
as
the Father of Syngenta, died, He orchestrated the 2000 merger of the
crop-protection and seeds divisions of Switzerland’s Novartis AG and
Anglo-Swedish Astra-Zeneca PLC, creating Sygenta, the biggest
agrichemical business in the world.
(WSJ, 11/8/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 10, A Swedish court
sentenced Chilean tenor Ernesto "Tito" Beltran (43) to two years and
six months in prison for raping an 18-year-old nanny and molesting a
7-year-old girl. The appeals court in Goteborg upheld a previous
rape
conviction, but overturned an acquittal in the molestation case.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Leaders of Thai
anti-government protests were granted bail after surrendering to
police
and immediately vowed new rallies, raising fears of mounting turmoil
days after deadly street clashes. At least 22 people were killed and
24
others injured when a bus packed with passengers crashed in eastern
Thailand.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Ukraine's PM Yulia
Tymoshenko said there will be no early parliamentary elections,
defying
a presidential decree and raising the stakes in her fierce political
battle with the president. She said Ukraine has no money for an
early
election and predicted that parliament will not pass the necessary
legislation.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, The UN urged Congo
and Rwanda to hold talks to avoid a war after Kinshasa accused its
eastern neighbor of sending troops over the border to back Congolese
rebels.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Yemeni officials
and
the UN refugee agency said about 100 migrants from Somalia were
missing
and feared drowned in the treacherous waters off the coast of Yemen
after smugglers forced them overboard 3 miles off Yemen’s coast. 47
were believed to have survived.
(AP, 10/10/08)(SFC, 10/11/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 10, Zimbabwe's
political
rivals agreed to seek renewed mediation from former South African
President Thabo Mbeki to try to end deadlock over posts in a unity
government.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 11, President Bush met
with foreign financial officials and pledged a global response to
the
credit crisis that will lead toward a "path of stability and
long-term
growth."
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, The Bush
administration removed North Korea from a terrorism blacklist as
North
Korea agreed to all US nuclear inspection demands. The breakthrough
is
intended to salvage a faltering disarmament accord before President
Bush leaves office in January.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, Afghan Pres.
Karzai
named Muhammad Hanif Atmar (40) as his interior minister in a
Cabinet
reshuffle aimed to curb high-level corruption. In Afghanistan about
40
militants more were killed as a three-day operation wound up in the
Nad
Ali district of Helmand province. Atmar was a former official in
Afghanistan’s communist-era secret police.
(AFP, 10/12/08)(SSFC, 10/12/08, p.A7)
2008 Oct 11, It was reported
that
the population of adult hake fish off Argentina’s coast has declined
by
70% in the past 20 years. Skippers reportedly paid some $2-3 million
in
bribes to inspectors and routinely underreported their catches.
(Econ, 10/11/08, p.53)
2008 Oct 11, Austrian
politician
Joerg Haider (b.1950) died in a car accident while speeding drunk.
His
far-right rhetoric at times sounded sympathetic to the Nazis and
contemptuous of Jews and led to months of international isolation
for
the Alpine republic. At the time of his death, Haider was governor
of
the province of Carinthia and leader of the Alliance for the Future
of
Austria, a party he formed after breaking away from the far right
Freedom Party in 2005.
(AP, 10/11/08)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.99)
2008 Oct 11, A strong
earthquake
hit Chechnya and other parts of Russia's North Caucasus, killing at
least 13 people and damaging scores of hospitals, schools and other
buildings.
(AP, 10/11/08)(SFC, 10/18/08, p.B6)
2008 Oct 11, India's PM Singh
launched Kashmir's first train service, the fruit of an eight-year
project that overcame tough terrain and rebel strife, on a visit
overshadowed by violence. Shops, businesses and schools were shut to
protest Singh’s visit.
(AFP, 10/11/08)(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 11, In Acre, Israel,
police said rioters torched two empty apartments owned by Arabs in a
predominantly Jewish neighborhood. 12 people were put into custody
for
rioting and eight under house arrest.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, Italian security
forces including army paratroops arrested seven members of the
Camorra
mafia believed linked to the killing of African immigrants near
Naples
last month.
(AFP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, In Mexico gunmen
killed six young men at a family party in the gang-plagued border
city
of Ciudad Juarez. In Tijuana federal police arrested seven reputed
members of a cell of the Arellano Felix drug cartel, including a
city
police officer.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 11, Hurricane Norbert
hit
Mexico as a Category 1 storm and left 4 people dead in the Baha
peninsula and Sonora state.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.B6)
2008 Oct 11, US missile strikes
in
Pakistan's northwest killed five people, but none was believed to be
a
foreign al-Qaida fighter.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 11, Peru’s President
Alan
Garcia announced that he has appointed Yehude Simon (61), a leftist
governor, to become the chief Cabinet minister, a day after the
minister's predecessor resigned along with 16 colleagues amid a
brewing
oil-kickbacks scandal.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, Russia launched a
ballistic missile from a submarine in a record flight of over 7,100
miles, hitting a target in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the
first time. Russian TV showed what it said was the Sineva missile
launching from the submarine Tula.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, In Sri Lanka
fighting
around Kilinochchi killed 26 rebels and two soldiers in two separate
clashes. Other battles in Welioya and Vavuniya killed four rebels.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 11, In Sudan Abu Bakr
Kadu, a Sudan Liberation Movement-Unity commander, said 23 civilians
had died after Janjaweed Arab militia assaulted villages over 3 days
in
the Muhagiriya area of southern Darfur. He also said 28 Janjaweed
were
killed.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 11, Thailand's
embattled
PM Somchai Wongsawat, indicated that he may resign in the wake of
fierce anti-government protests earlier this week that left two
people
dead and hundreds injured. Thousands of supporters of the ruling
coalition gathered on the outskirts of Bangkok in a show of
strength,
two days ahead of a planned major protest by a group hoping to
topple
the elected government.
(AFP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, Turkish warplanes
and
artillery bombed dozens of Kurdish rebel targets overnight in
northern
Iraq following an escalation in rebel attacks.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, Zimbabwe’s state
Herald newspaper published a list from the official government
gazette
giving the ruling ZANU-PF party 14 ministries, including the key
portfolios of defense, home and foreign affairs, justice, media,
mines
and land. This would allow 83-year-old Mugabe to retain his iron
grip
on power. Opposition party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said it was a
"midnight ambush style of attack" and meant the proposed national
unity
government was now in jeopardy.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 12, In California Hans
Florine (44) and Yuji Hirayama (39) broke their own World Record for
the fastest climb up the Nose of El Capitan (2:37:5) in Yosemite
National Park. They first record was set on Jul 2 with a time of
2:43:33.
(SFC, 7/3/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 12, In Afghanistan 62
militants, part of a group of 150 that had been seen massing outside
of Lashkar Gah for several days, were killed overnight in NATO
air strikes that stopped them from entering the Helmand provincial
capital. Taliban commander Mullah Qadratullah was among the dead.
The
US-led coalition killed five Taliban rebels in Ghazni. Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reporter Mellissa Fung (35) was
kidnapped in Kabul. She was freed on Nov 8.
(AP, 10/12/08)(AFP, 10/13/08)(SFC, 10/13/08,
p.A11)(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Oct 12, Algeria announced
it
will spend 500 million euros (675 million dollars) on protecting
towns
from flooding as the death toll from floods this month rose to 43.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Australia and New
Zealand gave a blanket guarantee to all bank deposits in a move
likely
to raise pressure on other economies to do the same, amid a crisis
of
confidence in the global financial system.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Dozens of renowned
British writers came out against new anti-terrorism legislation,
publishing a collection of satire, essays, fiction and poetry to
protest a proposal allowing police to hold suspects without charge
for
up to 42 days. The next day the House of Lords rejected the plan and
the government said it would abandon the proposal.
(AP, 10/12/08)(SFC, 10/14/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 12, European leaders
hammered out action to confront the financial crisis, adding their
voices to a global chorus of demands for coordinated action against
the
turmoil.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, In Iraq Qassim
al-Aboudi, the spokesman for the election commission, said there's
not
enough time to organize a ballot this year but that it will take
place
soon after the New Year. 2 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the Yarmouk
district of Baghdad. A car bomb exploded in a commercial street of
southwestern Baghdad, killing 7 people and wounding 9 others.
Another
car bomb in Mosul killed 6 people. A Christian music store owner was
shot to death in Mosul, the latest in a series of killings that has
caused thousands of members of the religious minority to flee the
city.
Iraq deployed around 1,000 police in Christian areas of Mosul as
thousands of members of the minority group fled the worst violence
against them in 5 years. A spate of attacks on Christians in Mosul
since September 28 had killed at least 11 people.
(AP, 10/12/08)(AFP, 10/12/08)(AP, 10/13/08)(SFC,
10/13/08, p.A12)
2008 Oct 12, Lithuanians voted
in
a general election likely to mark comebacks for ex-president
Rolandas
Paksas or former political star Viktor Uspaskich. A non-binding
referendum was also on the ballot as part of a battle to delay the
closure of Ignalina, a Soviet-era nuclear power station which
provides
70 percent of Lithuania's electricity. Voters dealt a major blow to
Lithuania's leftist government by boosting the conservative
opposition
as well as some populist leaders, including an impeached
ex-president,
in weekend elections. Homeland Union leader Andrius Kubilius said he
was ready to form a new Cabinet after his party won the most votes
in
the first round, receiving 19.2 percent. The governing Social
Democratic Party, which has controlled the prime minister's office
since 2001, finished fourth with 11.7 percent.
(AFP, 10/12/08)(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 12, An angry crowd in
central Mexico attacked police and helped nearly three dozen illegal
Central American immigrants escape from custody after hearing that
officers had allegedly sold the migrants to human smugglers in the
farming town of Rafael Lara Grajales, Puebla state. Federal police
managed to round up 21 migrants.
(AP, 10/14/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A23)
2008 Oct 12, North Korea said
it
will resume dismantling its main nuclear facilities, hours after the
US
removed the communist country from a list of states Washington says
sponsor terrorism.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Pakistani
helicopter
gunships bombed a meeting of Islamic militants linked to Al-Qaeda
near
the border with Afghanistan. Among the dead were two Taliban
commanders
and 12 potential suicide bombers. More than 24 extremists with links
to
Al-Qaeda were killed near the Afghan border in the Bajaur tribal
region.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, A Soyuz spacecraft
with two Americans and a Russian on board lifted off from Kazakhstan
for the international space station. The Soyuz TMA-13 capsule
carried
American computer game millionaire Richard Garriott, US astronaut
Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Somali forces from
semiautonomous Puntland unsuccessfully raided a hijacked ships. 2
pirates were killed.
(WSJ, 10/13/08, p.A15)
2008 Oct 12, Sri Lanka’s
soldiers
destroyed three bunkers and captured four others after battles that
killed 15 rebels near their administrative capital of Kilinochchi.
Separate clashes in the same area killed four rebels and one
soldier.
In the northern Jaffna peninsula, troops killed four rebels along
the
front lines while a rebel mortar attack killed two soldiers. Clashes
in
Mullaitivu killed four rebels and wounded one soldier.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 12, The United Arab
Emirates said it would guarantee domestic bank deposits and with
Saudi
Arabia promised fresh financial support to domestic banks.
(WSJ, 10/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Oct 12, Pope Benedict XVI
gave the Roman Catholic church four new saints, including an Indian
woman whose canonization is seen as a morale boost to Christians in
India who have suffered Hindu violence. They included Sister
Alphonsa
(1910-1946) of the Immaculate Conception, a nun from southern India
and
India’s first woman saint; Gaetano Errico (1791-1860), a Neapolitan
priest who founded a missionary order in the 19th century; Sister
Maria
Bernarda, born as Verena Buetler (1848-1924) in Switzerland, who
worked
as a nun in Ecuador and Colombia; and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo
Moran
(1832-1869), a 19th century laywoman from Ecuador who helped the
sick
and the poor.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, In Venezuela Pres.
Chaves, on Indigenous Resistance Day, presented the Yukpa Indians
titles to some blocks of land. This fell short of the 150,000 acres
they claimed as ancestral territory.
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.41)
2008 Oct 13, Stock markets
rejoiced after governments worldwide launched multibillion-dollar
bailouts to shore up banks, and Britain called for a new Bretton
Woods
agreement to reshape the world financial system. The US Central Bank
said it would provide unlimited dollars the European Central Bank,
the
Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank. Britain committed
£37 billion ($64 billion) to capitalize its big banks. Wall
Street rebounded with the biggest stock rally since the Great
Depression. The DJIA rose 936 points to close at 9,387.61, its
largest
point gain ever and one of its largest percentage increases.
(Reuters, 10/13/08)(SFC, 10/14/08, p.A1)(WSJ,
10/14/08, p.A3)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.83)
2008 Oct 13, Paul Krugman, the
Princeton University scholar and New York Times columnist, won the
Nobel prize in economics for his analysis of how economies of scale
can
affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity. The
Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences praised Krugman for formulating a new
theory to answer questions about free trade and said his theory has
inspired an enormous field of research.
(AP, 10/13/08)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.90)
2008 Oct 13, ABC News reported
that Tim Mahoney (52), a US Democratic Representative from Florida,
had
an affair with an aide and then paid her $121,000 to keep her quiet
and
avoid a sexual harassment suit. His affair with Patricia Allen (50)
had
begun in 2006.
(SFC, 10/15/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 13, In the SF Bay Area
fire crews extinguished a fire that had begun a day earlier on Angel
Island. All the historic buildings on the island were saved. The
fire
burned 400 of the island’s 740 acres.
(SFC, 10/14/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 13, In Afghanistan 8
civilians were killed in separate insurgent attacks. 5 Afghan men
who
worked as translators were abducted by unknown gunmen in the eastern
province of Paktia as they were driving to Kabul by taxi. A
coalition
service member was killed and several others were wounded in
southern
Afghanistan when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.
(AFP, 10/13/08)(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 13, First ladies from
seven west African countries gather in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso,
for a
conference on ways to end female circumcision, a widespread practice
in
the region despite efforts to end it.
(AFP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 13, Cambodian PM Hun
Sen
gave Thailand an ultimatum to withdraw troops from a disputed
stretch
of jungle-clad border within 24 hours or his forces would turn the
area
into a "death zone." Thai troops retreated the next day.
(Reuters, 10/13/08)(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 13, Europe put $2.3
trillion on the line to protect the continent's banks, a figure that
dwarfed the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue program.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 13, The EU temporarily
lifted a travel ban on the president of Belarus, a country regarded
as
Europe's last dictatorship, as relations with the country start to
thaw.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 13, The EU condemned
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's "unilateral decision" to form a
new
government and threatened fresh sanctions unless he respects a
power-sharing deal. Mugabe swore in his two vice presidents, casting
doubt on a new mediation effort aimed at saving a power-sharing deal
with the opposition.
(AFP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 13, Guillaume
Depardieu
(37), French film star, died of pneumonia. The often-troubled son of
renowned French film star Gerard Depardieu had gained praise for his
own career as an actor. In 2003 he Depardieu had his right leg
amputated to end years of pain from a bacterial infection that
followed
a motorcycle accident in 1996.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 13, In India police
arrested seven relatives of a 75-year-old widow for doing nothing to
prevent the woman from killing herself by jumping into her husband's
funeral pyre.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 13, Iraq's oil
minister
met 34 oil company representatives in London to set out the ground
rules for foreign multinationals' first bite at the country's
enormous
energy reserves since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 13, Israel shut down
entry from the West Bank during the 7-day Sukkot holiday. The order
bars almost all West Bank Palestinians from entering Israel until
Oct.
21.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 13, Italian police
arrested five people in the Calabria region, including the mayor of
Rosarno, for suspected ties to the local mob.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 13, In Pakistan ten
Islamic extremists died in a gunbattle with soldiers in the
Khawazakhela district of the Swat valley during an ongoing military
operation against fighters loyal to local cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
Security forces fired mortar and artillery rounds at militants in
the
Charmang area of the Bajur region overnight, killing nine
insurgents.
Pro-government tribesmen exchanged fire with militants in the Nawa
and
Kotkai areas of Bajur. Thirteen militants and two pro-government
tribesmen were killed.
(AFP, 10/13/08)(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 13, Singapore's High
Court ruled that an opposition party and two of its leaders must pay
$416,000 in defamation damages to PM Lee Hsien Loong and his father,
former PM Lee Kuan Yew, related to criticism published in 2006 in
the
party's newspaper.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 13, In Somalia
Islamist
insurgents attacked African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu,
triggering
fierce clashes that killed a civilian and wounded five others.
(AFP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 13, Barbara Hogan,
South
Africa’s new health minister, broke from a decade of discredited
government policies declaring that AIDS is caused by HIV and must be
treated by conventional medicine.
(SFC, 10/14/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 13, In Sri Lanka
fighting
in the Kilinochchi region killed 11 rebel fighters and two soldiers.
Fighting in Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mullaittivu killed nine other
rebels.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 13, Sudanese officials
disclosed the arrest of Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman (aka Ali
Kushayb), a Janjaweed militia leader who was charged by the Int’l.
Criminal court in 2007 for crimes against humanity.
(SFC, 10/14/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 13, Swiss authorities
said they have found high concentrations of melamine in biscuits
from
Thailand and Sri Lanka and have called on other European countries
to
withdraw the products.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 13, A Venezuelan court
issued arrest warrants for eight suspects in the Oct 1 killing of
Julio
Soto, a student leader who helped organize protests against
constitutional amendments proposed by President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, President Bush
announced a $250 billion plan by the government to directly buy
shares
in 9 of the nation's leading banks, saying the drastic steps were
"not
intended to take over the free market but to preserve it." Former
Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said the US housing sector
faced
more losses and the economy was in recession even as authorities
moved
to stabilize the financial system.
(Reuters, 10/14/08)(AP, 10/14/08)(WSJ, 10/14/08,
p.A1)
2008 Oct 14, The US
Treasury
revised the 2008 fiscal deficit to $455 billion, as opposed to the
$389
billion projected in July. The national debt, at 38% of GDP, was
well
below the 1990s peak of 49%.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.41)(Econ, 10/25/08, p.40)
2008 Oct 14, Key lending rates
between banks in the US and Europe continued to fall slowly in
response
to combined pledges from governments to inject money into banks and
guarantee their debt. But rates remained abnormally high, a sign of
the
stress in the world financial system.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, A wildfire in
northern Los Angeles covered 13,285 acres.
(SFC, 10/15/08, p.B6)
2008 Oct 14, Ohio executed
Richard
Cooey (41), a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double murderer (1986), who had
argued that his obesity made death by lethal injection inhumane.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, Gray wolves in the
northern US Rocky Mountains returned to the endangered species list,
thanks to a court victory by environmental groups over the US
government [see Mar 28, 2008].
(AFP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, Reymundo Guerra,
sheriff of rural Starr County, Texas, next to the Mexican border,
was
arrested at his office after being indicted on charges alleging he
was
involved in a large-scale cocaine and marijuana smuggling operation.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 14, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb blast killed three NATO soldiers. In the
south, a bomb attack apparently intended for NATO troops exploded
against an Afghan minivan in Uruzgan province, killing nine
civilians.
Dost Mohammad Arighistani, head of the government's labor and social
affairs department for the southern province of Kandahar, was killed
in
his car with his bodyguard as he traveled to work. Taliban militants
attacked police checkpoints ringing Lashkar Gah. 18 militants were
killed and three police wounded. 6 policemen died after a shootout
among officers inside a police checkpoint about 15 miles north of
Lashkar Gah.
(AP, 10/14/08)(AFP, 10/14/08)(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 14, The prosecution
office of Bosnia's war crimes court said it ordered the arrest of
Milorad Skrbic, 48; Milorad Radakovic, 46; Gordan Djuric, 40; and
Ljubisa Cetic, 39, for allegedly having participated in 1992 in the
wartime execution of 200 civilians.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, Indian author
Aravind
Adiga (b.1974) won the 2008 Booker Prize with his first novel: “The
White Tiger.” The book follows Balram Halwai, the son of a rickshaw
puller, who dreams of better things than life as teashop worker and
driver.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 14, Burundi said it
has
completed its deployment of another 850 soldiers to Somalia,
bringing
to about 3,400 the total number of African Union peacekeepers
stationed
there. Burundi had already deployed some 850 soldiers to Somalia as
part of AMISOM (African mission in Somalia).
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, Canadians voted in
an
election. Conservative PM Stephen Harper, the first Western leader
to
face the electorate since the start of the international economic
meltdown, won reelection with a bolstered minority government. Some
59.1% of eligible Canadian voters went to the polls, breaking the
previous record low turnout of just under 61% in 2004. The Liberal
share of the popular vote fell to 26%.
(AP, 10/14/08)(Reuters, 10/15/08)(Econ, 10/18/08,
p.47)
2008 Oct 14, China unveiled a
plan
to achieve universal health care. The plan hoped to cover 90% of the
population within 2 years and achieve universal health care by 2020.
State media reported that a ginseng injection contaminated by
bacteria
caused the deaths of three people using the medicine to treat
thrombosis and heart disease.
(http://tinyurl.com/5f6fyb)(WSJ, 10/20/08,
p.A12)(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 14, The UN said
intense
fighting between the Congolese army and Ugandan rebels have forced
over
50,000 people to flee their homes in the north-eastern Democratic
Republic of the Congo's Ituri region.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, Egyptian police
shot
dead an African migrant and wounded another as they tried to cross
illegally into Israel.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, An Ethiopian
minister
said his country urgently needs US$265 million to feed 6.4 million
people affected by drought.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, Iceland's blue
chip
stocks plunged 77 percent when trading reopened on after a near
week-long suspension and an official delegation from the island
sought
Russian help in saving the economy from collapse.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, In north and
northeastern India a series of road accidents killed at least 48
people
and injured another 64. 43 of the dead died in 2 bus crashes.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, The Israeli
military
troops in the West Bank shot a Palestinian as he prepared to lob a
blazing Molotov cocktail into a Jewish settlement north of
Jerusalem.
Troops found another 10 firebombs at the scene ready to be ignited.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, North Korea
resumed
steps to disable its nuclear reactor under renewed monitoring, after
a
deal with Washington to save the disarmament process from collapse.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, The Hamas
government
announced that it will not permit thousands of striking teachers to
return to their jobs, further heightening tensions with its
political
rivals in the West Bank. Despite the August 24 strike, Hamas kept
schools running and hired some 2,200 new teachers and
administrators.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, The Philippine
Supreme Court threw out a proposed accord to grant minority Muslims
expanded autonomy after Christian protests and renewed fighting
convinced the government to abandon the deal. The accord would have
expanded an existing six-province Muslim autonomous region in
Mindanao,
subject to the agreement of local residents.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, Off the Somali
coast
a Panamanian-flagged vessel and its 11 crew members, nine Syrians
and
two Somalis, were freed after a gunbattle in which one Puntland
soldier
was killed and three wounded. The 10 pirates, who had held the ship
since Oct 9, surrendered when they ran out of ammunition.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, The World
Conservation Congress ended in Barcelona, Spain. The meeting was
awash
in gloomy forecasts.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.68)
2008 Oct 14, In Sri Lanka
government forces pounded rebel defenses with airstrikes and ground
assaults. Heavy fighting across the north killed 49 Tamil Tiger
fighters and 7 soldiers. TamilNet reported that 3 soldiers were
killed
in the government–controlled east.
(AP, 10/15/08)(SFC, 10/15/08, p.A5)
2008 Oct 14, Syria established
diplomatic relations with Lebanon, ending six decades of
non-recognition of its neighbor's sovereignty in an apparent bid to
curry favor with the West as it pursues indirect peace talks with
Israel.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to renew its peacekeeping mission in Haiti
for another year.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, John McCain and
Barack Obama held their final televised debate at Hofstra Univ. in
Hempstead, NY. It was moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS.
(AP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/16/08,
p.A1)
2008 Oct 15, The US Commerce
Department reported that retail sales decreased 1.2% last month,
nearly
double the 0.7% drop that had been expected. Stocks plunged 733
points
in their second biggest point loss ever.
(AP, 10/15/08)(SFC, 10/16/08, p.C1)
2008 Oct 15, At Camp Pendleton,
California, Sgt. Jan Pietrzak (24) and his wife, Quiana
Jenkins-Pietrzak (26) were found gagged, tied and shot in the head
in
the living room of their Winchester home. Investigators said the
house
had been ransacked and a fire had been set, an apparent effort to
destroy evidence. 4 Marines were later charged with two counts of
first-degree murder and special-circumstance allegations of
committing
multiple murders, committing the crime during a robbery and rape by
instrument.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Oct 15, In Illinois a
medical
helicopter crashed just before midnight and killed a desperately ill
1-year-old girl and three crew members when the aircraft clipped a
radio structure's wire and went down in a suburban Chicago field.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 15, A NYC police
officer
warned Michael Mineo, a tattoo parlor worker, that if he reported
being
sodomized with a baton during an arrest at a subway station,
officers
would lock him up for a felony. Officer Richard Kern (25) was later
charged with aggravated sexual abuse and assault. Fellow Officers
Alex
Cruz and Andrew Morales were charged with hindering prosecution and
official misconduct for allegedly covering up the crime.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Oct 15, In Afghanistan
international war planes bombed a gathering of Taliban and other
militants overnight in Barham Chah on the border with Pakistan and
killed up to 70. An explosion in Helmand province killed a British
soldier.
(AFP, 10/15/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 15, Authorities in
Azerbaijan said turnout was high in a presidential election
boycotted
by the opposition and almost certain to return Ilham Aliyev for a
second term in the oil-producing state. President Ilham Aliyev had
89%
of the vote with 70% of precincts reporting.
(AP, 10/15/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 15, In Barbados 13
Caribbean countries approved a new Economic partnership Agreement
(EPA)
with the EU.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.50)
2008 Oct 15, Nicky Reilly (22),
a
convert to Islam, pleaded guilty at a London court to attempted
murder
and engaging in preparation for terrorism by researching how to make
bombs. He was arrested shortly after a blast rattled a family
restaurant in the southwest English city of Exeter 200 miles (320
kilometers) west of London on May 22.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, The Shell
Anglo-Dutch
group said a Nigerian court has ordered it to hand over land around
its
giant Bonny oil terminal to the local population, a key demand of
armed
rebels in the volatile region. Shell said ruling was given some
months
ago but we have appealed.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Cambodia and
Thailand
exchanged fire on the border in a clash over disputed land which
left
two soldiers dead and several wounded.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Chile’s President
Michelle Bachelet signed into law a measure that bans all whale
hunting
off Chile's 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) coast.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 15, EU leaders agreed
to
stick to ambitious plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20% by
2020,
but divisions over how to share out the cuts were widened by fears
over
the impact of the financial crisis.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Iceland moved to
shore up its ravaged economy by slashing borrowing costs and
officials
pursued efforts to get help from Russia in tackling the worst
financial
crisis in the island's history.
(Reuters, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Esha Momeni, a
student at California State University, Northridge, was driving on a
highway in Tehran when she was stopped by authorities, who said they
were traffic police, and later taken to Evin prison. Her computer
and
other materials related to her research on the Iranian women's
movement
were confiscated.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 15, Baghdad and
Washington reached final agreement on a pact requiring US forces to
withdraw from Iraq by 2012. The agreement, reached after months of
difficult negotiations, would allow US troops to remain here after
their UN mandate expires Dec. 31. The US military detained 2
suspected
insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq's leadership in the
northern Iraqi city of Mosul. A US soldier died of noncombat causes.
(WSJ, 10/16/08, p.A1)(AP, 10/16/08)(AP,
10/17/08)(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 15, A Malaysian court
ordered Tuanku Jaafar Tuanku Abdul Rahman (86), the country's former
king (1994-1999), to settle a $1 million debt to a bank in a
landmark
verdict that ended a centuries-old tradition shielding the country's
royal sultans from legal prosecution.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Pakistani
President
Asif Ali Zardari reached trade deals with China, raising hopes that
Beijing would help his country through difficult economic and
diplomatic times.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Armed pirates
hijacked a bulk carrier with 21 crew members in the Gulf of Aden
near
Somalia. The ship under a Panamanian flag was operated by the
Philippines.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, In Sri Lanka air
force jets bombed a group of rebels who were building an earthen
embankment as a defense against advancing government forces in
Mullaitivu.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, The foreign
ministers
of Syria and Lebanon signed an agreement formalizing diplomatic ties
between the two countries for the first time in their turbulent
history.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Turkish media
reported that a hijacker attempted to commandeer a Turkish Airlines
plane over Belarus but that he was overpowered by passengers.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, The Turkish
military
clashed with Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border in battles in
which
four soldiers and five rebels were killed. A Turkish helicopter
crashed
during the clash. A soldier was killed and 15 security personnel
were
slightly injured in the crash.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 15, The IMF said
Ukrainian authorities have asked the International Monetary Fund for
help in stemming a financial crisis in the country. The government
took
emergency measures to rescue banks and stabilize the national
currency,
the hryvna, after worried depositors withdrew more than US$1 billion
from their accounts this month.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, A Vietnamese court
sentenced journalist Nguyen Viet Chien (56) to two years in prison,
accusing him of writing inaccurate stories about one of the
country's
most high-profile corruption cases. Fellow reporter Nguyen Van Hai
(33)
was sentenced on the charges to two years of "re-education without
detention." The reporters were arrested in May for writing about a
2005
scandal in which Transportation Ministry officials were accused of
gambling with allegedly embezzled funds. Police Maj. Gen. Pham Xuan
Quac (62) and investigator Dinh Van Huynh were charged with
"deliberately revealing state secrets," for giving information to
the
journalists. Quac, who has retired, was given a warning, while Huynh
was sentenced to one year in prison.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Former South
African
leader Thabo Mbeki opened a second day of talks with Zimbabwe
President
Robert Mugabe and his main rival to save a power-sharing deal that
has
floundered over cabinet posts.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, Wang Yung-Ching
(b.1917), founder of Formosa Plastics Group, died leaving a fortune
estimated at $7 billion. He had set up a small PVC plant in 1954 in
Taiwan with money from a US aid program.
(WSJ, 10/18/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 15, A study by Gaffney
Cline & Associates of a big natural gas filed in Turkmenistan
confirmed the South Yolotan-Osman as the fifth largest in the world.
(WSJ, 10/16/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 16, Pres. George W.
Bush
signed the 315-page Rail Safety Improvement Act. The bill introduced
a
new rail safety system called Positive Train Control (PTC).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_train_control)(Econ, 7/24/10,
p.70)
2008 Oct 16, The US FDA said it
would open its first office in China before the end of the year.
Over
60 FDA would be placed world-wide over the next year.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 16, Nasdaq filed with
the
SEC to temporarily suspend rules to remove securities trading below
a
dollar. The Sec approved the change effective this day.
(SFC, 10/25/08, p.C1)
2008 Oct 16, The annual TED
prize
was awarded to Sylvia Earl, Deep ocean explorer; Jill Cornell
Tarter,
astronomer; and Jose Antonio Abreu, classical music maestro.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.C3)
2008 Oct 16, Hawaii state
officials said they will stop giving health coverage to the 2,000
children enrolled by Nov. 1, but private partner Hawaii Medical
Service
Association will pay to extend their coverage through the end of the
year without government support. Hawaii lawmakers had approved the
health plan in 2007 as a way to ensure every child can get basic
medical help.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, The Hubble Space
Telescope went into the final stages of recovery after NASA
successfully bypassed a faulty computer and resurrected an
18-year-old
spare from orbital hibernation.
(Reuters, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Edie Adams
(b.1927),
actress and singer, died. The blonde beauty had won a Tony Award for
bringing Daisy Mae to life on Broadway and played the television
foil
to her husband, comedian Ernie Kovacs.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, In southern
Afghanistan an insurgent's rocket hit Lashkar Gah, capital of the
world's largest opium producing region, killing a civilian and
wounding
five other people. An Afghan policeman killed a US soldier on foot
patrol in Paktika province and a second international troop was
killed
by a mortar in another "possible friendly fire" incident. Air
strikes
in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province reportedly killed 17
civilians. 18 insurgents were killed in fighting in Kunar province.
(AP, 10/16/08)(AFP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/18/08,
p.A9)
2008 Oct 16, Brazil's President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Mozambique to launch a project
to
make anti-AIDS drugs in the southern African country.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, Around one million
Burundian children under the age of five suffer chronic
malnutrition,
the UN food agency announced as it marked World Food Day in the tiny
central African nation.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Cambodia and
Thailand
agreed to joint patrols of disputed border areas after deadly
clashes,
but made little progress toward resolving their long-standing
territorial spat.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Canadian police
said
a bomb damaged a natural gas pipeline in British Columbia,
describing
the overnight attack as the second of its kind in the same area in a
week.
(Reuters, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, In Dubai a British
couple was sentenced to three months in jail in a case that has
caused
controversy because the two were charged in July with having sex on
the
beach. The Dubai Court of Appeals upheld the guilty verdict
but
dropped the prison sentences for Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors,
though it ruled the couple must still be deported from the United
Arab
Emirates and pay a fine of about $272 each.
(AP, 10/15/08)(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Oct 16, The European
Commission announced 15 million euros (20 million dollars) of
emergency
food aid for victims of drought and soaring food prices in five east
African countries. The biggest share will go to Ethiopia and Somalia
and smaller amounts to Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, The European
Central
Bank extended emergency loans to Hungary’s central bank. The ECB
said
it will lend up to $6.75 billion.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A5)
2008 Oct 16, The International
Committee of the Red Cross said Iran and Iraq have signed an
agreement
to trace missing persons from the war between the two countries.
About
1 million people died in the eight-year war that began when Saddam
Hussein launched an attack on Iran in 1980.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, A heavy sandstorm
turned Iraq's capital into a pinkish haze, sending dozens of people
to
the hospital with respiratory problems and delaying a number of
international flights. The US military detained 2 more suspected
insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq's leadership in the
northern Iraqi city of Mosul. A US soldier was killed in Diyala
province.
(AP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/15/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 16, Israeli troops
shot
and killed a Palestinian man in Kufr Malek, a village near Ramallah.
An
army patrol spotted three men carrying firebombs and troops shot one
man after the trio ignored warning shots. The other two escaped. A
Palestinian man died in a Ramallah hospital a day after being shot
by
troops in the nearby Jelazoun refugee camp.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Italian police
arrested Antonio Pelle (46), an alleged fugitive mobster, believed
to
be the head of an organized crime clan involved in the slaying of
six
people in Germany last year. His family was involved in a feud that
led
to the Aug. 15, 2007 killing of six Italians outside a restaurant in
Duisburg, Germany.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, In Kenya violence
re-started between the Murule and Garre in Mandera town triggered by
need for space for 920 families displaced by flash floods. A
security
operation was then set up to intervene following a request by the
area
members of parliament when the conflict took a cross-border
dimension
with one clan getting support from Al-Shabaab militants from
Somalia.
In 2009 Human Rights Watch issued a 51-page report, called "Bring
the
Gun or You'll Die," saying Kenyan security forces tortured hundreds
of
civilians and raped at least a dozen women during a three-day
operation
to disarm militias in the Mandera region.
(www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MYAI-7LQ47Q?OpenDocument)(AP,
6/29/09)
2008 Oct 16, Authorities in
Malaysia and Singapore said they will guarantee all foreign currency
and local currency bank deposits.
(WSJ, 10/17/08, p.A5)
2008 Oct 16, An influential
council of Malaysia's state rulers warned people not to question the
supremacy of Islam or the special privileges enjoyed by the
country's
ethnic Malay majority.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, In Mexico six
people
were lined up and gunned down outside a business in the border city
of
Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, Pirates in
southern Nigeria seized eight fishing vessels with a total of 96
crew
and later threatened to seriously harm them if ransom is not paid.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 16, The Pakistani
rupee
dropped to more than 82 to the dollar, continuing a slide that has
seen
it lose more than 30% of its value this year. A suspected US missile
strike killed a purported foreign militant in South Waziristan, a
tribal area considered a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida. A
suicide
bombing in the Swat Valley left four security personnel dead. In
Bajur
7 militants were killed by plane and helicopter gunship attacks.
(AP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 16, In Somalia at
least
23 people were killed in Mogadishu when insurgents attacked camps
housing African Union and Ethiopian troops, triggering heavy
clashes.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Somali pirates
released 22 sailors they kidnapped on Sep 10, after the South Korean
ship owner paid a ransom. Koo Ja-Woo, an executive director of J and
J
Trust, which owns the ship, said his company paid an unspecified sum
to
the pirates through a foreign middleman with experience in dealing
with
the seizure of ships.
(AFP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, Spain's leading
judge
agreed to investigate the disappearances of tens thousands of people
during the 1936-39 civil war and the ensuing Franco dictatorship,
many
of whom are believed to be buried in mass graves. Spanish police
arrested 13 men accused of harboring Islamic extremists and helping
them flee the country, including several suspects in the Madrid
terror
bombings of 2004.
(AFP, 10/16/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Sri Lankan troops
captured the rebel-held town of Maniyakkulam, in the island's north
following heavy fighting that killed a large group of guerrillas.
(AFP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, Sudanese President
Omar al-Beshir launched his "people's initiative" for peace in
Darfur
with an elaborate ceremony attended by regional dignitaries but no
rebels involved in fighting.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Switzerland
launched
a massive recapitalization of UBS AG saying it will invest $5.3
billion
in UBS in return for a 9% stake.
(WSJ, 10/17/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 16, Hurricane Omar
passed
the Virgin Islands overnight leaving oil spills in St. Croix as 40
boats sank or washed ashore.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 17, The Bush
administration named the beluga whale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet an
endangered species, despite opposition from Gov. Palin. Only 375
beluga
whales remained there as opposed to some 1,300 in the 1970s.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 17, US drug czar John
Walters said that Mexico's drug cartels are crossing the border to
kidnap and kill inside the United States, and promised that an
anti-drug aid package to help Mexico to fight the gangs will be
ready
soon.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, Harvard Univ.
announced a gift of $45 million and 31 major works of art from 1936
alumna Emily Rauh Pulitzer for the Harvard Art Museum. It was the
largest gift in the history of the museum.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.E3)
2008 Oct 17, In Philadelphia
college student Jocelyn Kirsch (23) was sentenced to five years in
prison and ordered to pay more than $100,000 in restitution. She and
her former boyfriend, Edward Anderton, had stolen the identities of
friends and neighbors in 2006 and 2007 to net more than $116,000 in
goods and services. Anderton’s sentence was pending.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, Mervyn’s, a
Hayward,
Ca., based retailer, said it plans to liquidate its remaining 149
locations and shutter the business after the holiday season.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.C1)
2008 Oct 17, Pfizer Inc. said
it
has reached agreements to end up to 92% of personal injury lawsuits
relating to anti-inflammatory drugs Bextra and Celebrex, linked to
elevated risks of heart attacks and stroke, at a cost of $894
million.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.A2)
2008 Oct 17, George M Keller
(b.1923), former head of Standard Oil of California (1981-1988),
died
at his home in Palo Alto, Ca. He oversaw the 1984 merger with Gulf
Oil
to form Chevron Corp.
(SFC, 10/18/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 17, Levi Stubbs (72),
Four Tops frontman, died at his home in Detroit. His dynamic and
emotive voice drove such Motown classics as "Reach Out (I'll Be
There)"
and "Baby I Need Your Loving."
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, In Afghanistan a
bomb
in Paktika province killed two civilians. A two-day battle in Wardak
province left 20 militants dead. NATO-led forces assaulted the
insurgent stronghold with airstrikes 40 miles west of Kabul.
(AFP, 10/18/08)(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 17, Two Indonesian
fishing crew picked up in Australian territorial waters with 14
refugees on their boat were charged with people smuggling.
(Reuters, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, Some 30 leaders of
French-speaking nations attended a 3-day summit of French-speaking
nations in Quebec City, Canada. The focus was dominated by the
world's
financial woes.
(AFP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, Chechen leader
Ramzan
Kadyrov opened one of Europe's biggest mosques in the rebuilt
capital
of the southern Russian region, saying it was proof Russian rule and
Islam can go together. The mosque, named "The Heart of Chechnya" and
constructed by Turkish builders, can host up to 10,000 worshippers.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, A bomb planted
near a
Baghdad mosque killed three Shiite worshippers as they were leaving
prayers. Iraqi mosques used the Muslim week's holy day to address
recent attacks against Christians.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 17, In Mexico 334
police
officers were ousted in ciudad Juarez after they failed
psychological,
background and other checks as part of a clean-up campaign meant to
root out officers who are corrupt or cooperating with drug
traffickers.
The border city sent police recruiters across the country as it
tries
to replace nearly half a police force gutted by firings and
retirements.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 17, In northwest
Pakistan
troops backed by helicopter gunships and artillery pounded militant
positions, killing 60 fighters and wounding many others near the
town
of Matta in the Swat Valley.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 17, In southern
Thailand
a 25-year-old man was shot dead in a gunfight with security
officials
after the arrests of five other suspected militants.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 17, Turkish warplanes
carried out successful airstrikes inside Iraq on the main bases used
by
Kurdish rebels. The air strikes on Qandil Mountain killed 25 Kurdish
rebels and wounded many more. Earlier in the day, the military said
it
intercepted Kurdish rebel radio chatter indicating that up to 35
guerrillas had been killed in clashes with troops earlier this week
in
southeastern Sirnak province.
(AP, 10/17/08)(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 17, The UN added
Japan,
Austria, Turkey, Mexico and Uganda as members to the 10
non-permanent
seats of the Security Council, replacing Belgium, Indonesia, Italy,
Panama and South Africa.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 18, UC Berkeley
dedicated
the new sculpture “Berkeley Big People” by Emeryville artist Scott
Donohue. It was erected just off I-80 at a cost of $196,000.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A16)
2008 Oct 18, In Daly City, Ca.,
the new Landmark Plaza announced the opening of its mixed use
project
at 88 Hillside Blvd. Sales for 43 of its Phase I townhome and tower
units began in November. Phase II would bring on an additional 48
unites.
(SFC, 10/18/09, p.G5)(SFC, 11/22/08, p.F8)
2008 Oct 18, In Afghanistan men
on
motorbikes shot dead a prominent pro-government Afghan tribal elder
and
his son, a former bodyguard for President Hamid Karzai, as they left
a
mosque in Kandahar. A bomb in eastern Paktika province killed
two
civilian men and a child.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 18, Phil Woolas,
Britain’s new immigration minister, said the government will impose
tougher restrictions on immigration as the global financial crisis
lifts unemployment to the highest rate in nearly a decade.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 18, Liu Zhihua, a
former
Beijing vice mayor in charge of overseeing Olympic construction
projects, was given a suspended death sentence for corruption, in a
stern warning to wayward Communist officials. The sentence will be
commuted to life in prison in two years if Liu shows good behavior.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 18, At least two
Russian
soldiers were killed and 10 others were wounded when rebels ambushed
a
military convoy in the Sunzha region of Ingushetia.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 18, Shiite cleric
Muqtada
al-Sadr called on Iraq's parliament to reject a US-Iraqi security
pact
as tens of thousands of his followers rallied in Baghdad against the
deal. Abdul-Hadi al-Janabi, the leader of a US-allied Sunni
group
that turned against al-Qaida, was killed in a drive-by shooting
south
of Baghdad. Masked gunmen attacked the home of a US-allied Sunni
group
in Balad, north of Baghdad, killing 5 people.
(AP, 10/18/08)(SSFC, 10/19/08, p.A22)
2008 Oct 18, Mexican federal
authorities raided a “narco-mansion” in Mexico City and arrested 15
alleged traffickers during the middle of a party. A mini menagerie
was
also found at the site that included 2 African lions, 2 white tigers
and 2 black panthers.
(www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/21/mexico-wildlife)
2008 Oct 18, Pakistan said that
China will help it build two more nuclear power plants, offsetting
Pakistani frustration over a recent nuclear deal between archrival
India and the US. Pakistani fighter jets bombed a militant camp and
munition storage facility in the northwest, killing at least 20
insurgents and causing extensive damage. In nearby Bajur district
seven
more insurgents were killed when jets bombed their positions. 3
militants were killed in other parts of Bajur when they tried to
attack
security posts.
(AP, 10/18/08)(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 18, Somali pirates
released a Thai ship after receiving a ransom.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 18, In southern Sudan
unknown assailants kidnapped nine Chinese oil workers.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 18, In southern
Thailand
2 Muslim men were killed in separate drive-by shootings.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 18, Zimbabwean
opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai characterized failed talks to form a unity
government with President Robert Mugabe as "a monologue" saying the
veteran ruler refused to compromise on the allocation of key
ministries.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 19, Pres. Bush signed
a
bill reauthorizing Amtrak for another 5 years.
(Econ, 4/11/09,
p.30)(www.planetizen.com/node/35658)
2008 Oct 19, Colin Powell, a
Republican and retired general who was President Bush's first
secretary
of state, broke with the party and endorsed Democrat Barack Obama
for
president, calling him a "transformational figure" while criticizing
the tone of John McCain's campaign.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 19, It was reported
that
California’s San Mateo County suffered potential losses of some $150
million due to the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. The Lehman Bros.
portfolio accounted for 5.9% of the county’s investment fund. County
cities Daly City, Redwood City and San Bruno each racked up losses
exceeding $1 million.
(SSFC, 10/19/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 19, In San Francisco
over
20,000 runners took part in the 5th annual Nike’s Women’s Marathon.
They raised over $18 million for leukemia and lymphoma research.
Arien
O’Connell (24) of NYC ran the fastest time, but did not win because
she
did not register as an “elite” runner. On Oct 22 Nike recognized
O’Connell as “a winner” in the race.
(SFC, 10/20/08, p.B1)(SFC, 10/21/08, p.B1)(SFC,
10/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 19, Richard Blackwell
(86), actor turned fashion designer, died in Los Angeles. He claimed
to
be the first to make designer jeans for women. In 1960 he issued his
first tongue-in-cheek criticism of Hollywood fashion disasters.
(SFC, 10/21/08, p.B5)
2008 Oct 19, Hal Kant (b.1931),
lawyer for the Grateful Dead (1971-2001), died in Reno, Nev. He led
the
Grateful Dead to incorporate, making it one of the first rock bands
to
offer health benefits and pensions.
(WSJ, 10/25/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 19, Dee Dee Warwick
(63),
a soul singer who won recognition for both her solo work and her
performances with her older sister Dionne Warwick, died in New
Jersey.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 19, Taliban militants
stopped a bus traveling on Afghanistan's main highway in the Maiwand
district of Kandahar province, captured some 50 people on board and
killed 26 of them with at least 6 beheaded. International and Afghan
forces killed 34 Taliban fighters south of the Helmand provincial
capital of Lashkar Gah. In early 2009 Canadian military police
charged Captain Robert Semrau of shooting and killing a man,
described
by the military police, as a "presumed insurgent," on or about
October
19, 2008.
(AP, 10/19/08)(AP, 10/20/08)(AP,
10/24/08)(Reuters,
1/2/09)
2008 Oct 19, China's communist
leaders announced the approval of key rural reform that for the
first
time will permit farmers to lease or transfer their land in a change
aimed at raising rural incomes and speeding migration from the farm
to
the cities. The policy change was approved a week ago at a
high-level
meeting.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 19, In Colombia
Vladimir
Vanoy (32), the son of a warlord extradited to the US on drug
charges,
was murdered by unidentified assailants at the gate to his
condominium
outside Bogota. Earlier this month a Miami judge sentenced Ramiro
Vanoy
to 24 years in prison on drug-trafficking charges.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 20, Our Lady of Kazan,
Cuba's first Russian Orthodox cathedral, was consecrated amid church
bells and the presence of President Raul Castro, in a sign of
goodwill
toward the island's former chief benefactor. Cuba's Russian
community
has dwindled to several hundred as most returned home following the
collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 19, The French
Cabinet's
spokesman said "swindlers" last month broke into the personal bank
account of President Nicolas Sarkozy and swiped small sums of money.
More than 30,000 demonstrators marched across Paris to denounce the
conservative government's budget restrictions, job cuts and other
controversial reforms in the public education system. On Oct 21
police
arrested two men suspected of stealing the bank details of several
people without realizing the identity of their victims. They are
believed to have used small sums to pay mobile telephone bills.
(AP, 10/19/08)(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 19, An Israeli
businessman was kidnapped in Ghana. The kidnappers initially
demanded
$500,000 ransom, then lowered it to $300,000.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 19, In India 2 people
were killed and 12 injured after a bridge being built to extend New
Delhi's six-year-old metro system collapsed onto a bus and cars.
(AFP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 19, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki's ruling Shiite alliance said that parts of the draft
security agreement that would keep US troops here for three more
years
needs more discussion and amendments before it can be approved. A
roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol killed two people and
wounded 10 in southeastern Baghdad. A second roadside bomb in the
same
neighborhood blew up shortly afterward, wounding three other
policemen
traveling in car and four civilians in another vehicle. A US Marine
died in a non-combat incident at Asad Air Base in the west of Iraq.
(AP, 10/19/08)(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 19, Pakistan’s
government
said it may have to accept politically unpopular IMF assistance to
ward
off a possible economic meltdown if wealthy nations turn it down.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 19, The Philippine
government said it would pay 50,000 (1,063 dollars) for every M-16
assault rifle surrendered by a communist insurgent who abandoned the
long-running rebellion.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 19, In Somalia 3
gunmen
shot the employee of the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, as he walked
home
in the southern town of Hudur.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 19, South Korea
announced
a $130 billion economic rescue package, with $100 billion of this in
the form of guarantees for foreign currency debts.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.52)
2008 Oct 19, Turkish warplanes
again bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts across the border in northern
Iraq.
The bombings targeted four towns near the Turkish border.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 20, The DJIA rose
413.21
points as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke tentatively endorsed
a
new stimulus package.
(SFC, 10/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 20, Nebraska’s Gov.
Dave
Heineman and state lawmakers agreed to amend the new safe-haven law
so
as to protect only parents of new-born children from prosecution.
(SFC, 10/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 20, Taliban gunmen
killed
Gayle Williams (34), a Christian aid worker in Kabul, as she was
walking to work. The militant group said it targeted the
British-South
African citizen because she was spreading her religion. In Faryab
province militants killed five policemen, including a district
police
chief. In northern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed two German
soldiers and five children in Kunduz province.
(AP, 10/20/08)(SFC, 10/21/08, p.A12)
2008 Oct 20, President Evo
Morales
agreed to seek only one more five-year term, a key concession that
all
but ended a standoff in Congress over a new constitution to empower
Bolivia's long-oppressed indigenous majority.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 20, Festus Gontebanye
Mogae, who led Botswana from 1998 to 2008, was chosen as the winner
of
the 2008 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, Sister Emmanuelle
(b.1908), a Belgian-born nun who devoted her life to helping the
poor
in North Africa and in France, died in France. Madeleine Cinquin had
spent 20 years working with children in a slum in Cairo as part of a
lengthy career helping the dispossessed.
(AFP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, In China, a
veterinarian said some 1,500 dogs, bred for their raccoon-like fur,
have died after eating feed tainted with the same chemical that
contaminated dairy products and sickened tens of thousands of babies
nationwide.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, The French
government
allocated €10.5 billion among six of its banks.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.89)
2008 Oct 20, Officials in
Honduras
said a week of heavy rains has caused landslides and flooding that
have
killed at least 11 people and left two others missing.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, India’s central
bank
cut its repurchase rate, a leading rate for which the central bank
lends to other banks, to 8%, the first reduction since March 2004.
(WSJ, 10/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 20, The United States
and
Iraq announced a $14 million program to set up a conservation and
historic preservation institute, refurbish the National Museum in
Baghdad and enhance the training of museum and archaeological
professionals in Iraq. An Iraqi policeman was arrested for allegedly
using police vehicles to smuggle weapons to Baghdad. Bombs struck a
double-decker bus and a taxi in eastern Baghdad, killing four
people.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, Mexico agreed to
deport Cubans who sneak illegally through Mexican territory to reach
the US, a step toward cutting off an increasingly violent and
heavily
used human trafficking route. 21 prisoners died in a fight between
inmates at a prison across the border from McAllen, Texas. Police
said
two soldiers and a security guard were found stabbed to death at a
housing construction site in the village of Las Margaritas, northern
Mexico. The body of a federal policeman was found riddled with
gunshot
wounds in Tijuana.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, Pakistani forces
killed up to 35 militants near the Afghan border, as the region's
provincial chief called for "peaceful dialogue" in a meeting with a
US
State Department official.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, Palestinian Pres.
Abbas published remarks saying Israel has failed to protect
Palestinians against attacks by Israeli settlers during the olive
harvest.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, US Ambassador
Michael
McKinley and Peru's foreign minister signed an accord forgiving
US$25
million of Peru's foreign debt and directing the money to a tropical
forest conservation program.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 20, A financially
strapped South Korean man went on an arson and stabbing rampage in
Seoul, leaving six people dead and seven others wounded.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, The Sri Lankan
government admitted that scores of its troops had been killed or
injured in fierce fighting with the Tamil Tigers, its biggest
reported
battlefield loss in months. Battles since Oct 18 had left 33
soldiers
dead, three missing in action and 48 injured. The bodies of 11
rebels
were recovered from the battlefield.
(AFP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, In Thailand
thousands
of anti-government protesters marched through the streets of
Bangkok,
calling the prime minister a "murderer" and demanding he resign over
the violent quashing of a previous rally.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, A Kurdish
demonstrator died after a clash with police in eastern Turkey.
Kurdish
protesters staged demonstrations in many parts of Turkey over the
weekend following allegations that Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah
Ocalan
was mistreated in prison.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, The UN said the
financial crises will add at least 20 million people to the world’s
jobless, raising the total to 210 million.
(WSJ, 10/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 21, Top US and Russian
military officers held an unannounced meeting in Helsinki in an
effort
to maintain dialogue after Moscow's crushing defeat of American ally
Georgia.
(Reuters, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, The US Federal
Reserve announced that it will start buying commercial paper, a
crucial
short-term funding mechanism many companies rely on for day-to-day
operations, from money market mutual funds.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, US federal agents
arrested dozens of members of the Mongol motorcycle club in six
states,
following an undercover investigation in which they infiltrated the
notorious motorcycle gang. Prosecutors said it could herald the end
of
what they call a criminal group.
(AP, 10/22/08)(SFC, 10/22/08, p.B2)
2008 Oct 21, National City
Corp,
an Ohio-based regional bank hard hit by the credit crisis, announced
plans to slash 4,000 jobs and said rising reserves for soured
mortgage
and real estate construction loans led to its fifth straight
quarterly
loss.
(Reuters, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, The Pentagon said
it
has dropped war-crimes charges against five Guantanamo Bay detainees
after the former prosecutor in their cases complained that the
military
was withholding evidence helpful to the defense. Lawyers for
Ethiopian
refugee Binyam Mohamed, a British resident held at Guantanamo, said
the
US has dropped all charges against him, but he is still being held
at
the US prison camp. Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian citizen, had lived
in
Britain for 7 years, and was arrested in Pakistan in 2002.
(AP, 10/21/08)(Econ, 2/7/09, p.49)
2008 Oct 21, Argentina proposed
to
nationalize the private pensions in order to meet debt payments. The
nationalization of the private pension funds took place in December.
(WSJ, 10/22/08, p.A1)(Econ, 2/27/10, p.28)
2008 Oct 21, Bolivia’s Congress
ratified Pres. Morales’ draft constitution, designed to empower the
indigenous population.
(WSJ, 10/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 21, The Bank of Canada
cut its key interest rate by a quarter point, less than expected, to
2.25 percent but said it would likely have to ease further to combat
the effects of the global financial crisis.
(Reuters, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, In Denmark Hammad
Khuershid, a Danish citizen of Pakistani origin, and Abdoulghani
Tokhi,
an Afghan, were convicted of preparing a terrorist attack. They were
secretly filmed mixing the type of explosive used in the 2005 London
transit bombing. They were arrested in the Copenhagen area in
September
2007. Khuershid and Tokhi were sentenced to 12 and seven years in
prison, respectively.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, EU lawmakers
joined
US civil liberty campaigners in criticizing a new scanner that
allows
airport security to see through passengers' clothes, calling it a
virtual strip search that should only be used as a last resort.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy backed the creation of sovereign wealth funds in
Europe
that, when coordinated, could provide an "industrial response" to
the
financial crisis.
(AFP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, In Greece riot
police
fired tear gas to disperse a group of rock-throwing youths during a
demonstration in support of a nationwide general strike that brought
air, rail and ferry traffic to a halt.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, In India 25,000
members of the United Forum of Reserve Bank Officers and Employees
went
on strike in a dispute over pensions. The Reserve Bank of India
denounced the strike as illegal.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.87)
2008 Oct 21, A bomb exploded
outside a training center for police commandos in northeast India,
killing at least 17 people and wounding 23 more.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 21, Indonesia's
parliament ratified the Southeast Asian charter committing ASEAN
member
nations to promote democracy and human rights, clearing the way for
its
formal adoption before year's end. Anti-terrorism police seized
bomb-making materials and a large cache of weapons and ammunition
during a raid on a house in Jakarta. Anti-terrorism squads arrested
five suspected Islamic radicals believed to have been plotting to
blow
up Indonesia's largest fuel depot.
(AP, 10/21/08)(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 21, Iran, Russia and
Qatar discussed the formation of an OPEC-style cartel among some of
the
largest natural gas producing nations, a prospect that has unnerved
energy-importing nations in Europe and the United States.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, Iraq's Cabinet
decided to ask the Americans for unspecified changes in the draft
security pact. A bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in eastern
Baghdad, wounding two civilians.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, Italy's Court of
Cassation ordered Berlin to pay a total of euro1 million (US$1.3
million) to nine family members of victims of a June 1944 massacre.
The
next day Germany rejected the ruling by Italy's top criminal court.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 21, Jordanian police
arrested a local writer for incorporating verses of the Quran, the
Muslim holy book, into his love poetry. Islam Samhan, published his
collection of poems, "Grace like a Shadow," without the approval of
the
Jordanian government, and authorities said it insults the holy book.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, In Kashmir trucks
laden with fruit, honey, garments and spices crossed the heavily
armed
frontier as India and Pakistan opened a trade route between the two
sides of the divided region for the first time in six decades.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, Police in northern
Mexico reported receiving an ice chest packed with four human heads.
The chest arrived at the Ascencion police station in Chihuahua state
was marked "vaccines," but wasn't claimed for a week. Jesus Zambada
was
among 16 members of the Sinaloa drug cartel arrested after a
shootout
in Mexico City. Zambada is the brother of Ismael Zambada, who
allegedly
heads the Sinaloa cartel along with one of Mexico's most wanted men,
Joaquin Guzman.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 21, Amnesty
International
criticized major failings in Nigeria's criminal justice system and
called on the government to immediately put in place a moratorium on
capital punishment.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, Taliban militants
ambushed a convoy of security forces in Pakistan's northwestern Swat
valley, sparking clashes that left at least five personnel and six
rebels dead.
(AFP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 21, Saudi Foreign
Minister Saud al-Faisal confirmed for the first time that the
kingdom
has been sponsoring talks between the Afghan government and the
Taliban
militia.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, Saudi Arabia’s
interior minister said authorities have indicted 991 suspected
militants on charges that they participated in terrorist attacks
carried out in the kingdom over the last five years.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, A Somali official
said Somali gunmen acting as freelance coast guards freed a hijacked
Indian dhow and its 13 crew members after a battle with pirates off
the
country's northern coast. The cargo-laden vessel was en route to
Somalia from Asia when it was seized over the weekend.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, A Thai court found
former PM Thaksin Shinawatra (59) guilty of corruption and sentenced
him to two years in prison. His wife, Pojaman (51), was acquitted.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 21, Turkish soldiers
killed two Kurdish guerrillas during a clash near the village of
Dallitepe in the country's southeast.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 21, Zimbabwe's main
opposition party warned that unless its leader Morgan Tsvangirai is
issued a passport he will not attend a meeting next week aimed at
breaking a deadlock in power-sharing talks. The party also said that
only fresh elections would resolve a dispute over who controls key
cabinet posts, a make-or-break issue under a power-sharing pact
signed
with President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 10/21/08)(Reuters, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 22, The Bush
administration imposed financial sanctions on an Iranian state-owned
bank for allegedly providing financial services in support of the
country’s weapons program.
(SFC, 10/23/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 22, Federal
immigration
officials arrested several members of the MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha,
street gang after conducting raids in SF, Richmond and south San
Francisco. 29 people were indicted on multiple charges including
murder, car theft and extortion.
(SFC, 10/23/08, p.B8)(SFC, 10/24/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 22, Sheriffs' deputies
in
Crockett County, Tenn., arrested two suspects, Daniel Cowart (20) of
Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman (18) of Helena-West Helena,
Ark.,
on unspecified charges. On Oct 27 federal authorities charged the 2
white supremacists for allegedly plotting to go on a national
killing
spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately
targeting
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. On March 29, 2010,
Cowart pleaded guilty to eight of 10 counts in an indictment
accusing
him of conspiracy, threatening a presidential candidate and various
federal firearms violations. Co-defendant Schlesselman pleaded
guilty
in January.
(AP, 10/28/08)(AP, 3/29/10)
2008 Oct 22, The DJIA tumbled
514.45 to close at 8519.21, its 7th biggest point drop in history,
as
investors believed that the global economy is heading into a deep
recession. Hungary’s central bank raised interest rates by 3 points,
from 8.5% to 11.5%, to prevent a run on its currency. Argentine and
Brazilian stock markets each fell about 10%. Former Fed Chief Alan
Greenspan said he was wrong to think that financial markets could
police themselves.
(WSJ, 10/22/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/24/08, p.C1)(Econ,
10/25/08, p.33)
2008 Oct 22, The Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation said that over the next 5 years it will
grant
104 scientists and researchers in 22 countries $100,000 each to
research in areas selected from applications that were submitted
over
the Internet.
(WSJ, 10/23/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 22, Near Livermore,
Ca.,
2 horses were found shot to death in a pasture on Collier Canyon
Road.
A calf was also found shot to death on Manning Road in Alameda
County.
A reward of $17,000 was later offered for information on the killing
of
the horses.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.B4)
2008 Oct 22, The fishing vessel
Katmai sank off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. 4 crew members were
rescued
after spending some 15 hours in a life raft. 5 bodies were recovered
with 2 men missing.
(SFC, 10/24/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 22, A US-led coalition
airstrike hit an Afghan army checkpoint, killing nine soldiers. The
American military acknowledged that its forces may have "mistakenly"
killed allied troops. In southern Uruzgan province a two-day battle
that ended with 35 Taliban fighters killed along with three Afghan
police. US troops killed 7 militants and detained 7 others in a
series
of operations throughout Afghanistan. Among the dead was a Taliban
leader in Helmand province responsible for attacks on coalition
forces
and Afghan security checkpoints. Another three militants were killed
inside a cave in the western Farah province's Bala Buluk district
during a raid by American and Afghan troops. In western Afghanistan
a
roadside bomb killed three US coalition members.
(AP, 10/22/08)(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 22, Leaders from three
African trading blocs, accounting for more than half the continent's
industrial output, met in the Ugandan capital, to push for a single
market. Six heads of state and foreign ministers from 26 countries
of
the East African Community, Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa (COMESA) and Southern Africa Development Community gathered
in
Kampala for a Tripartite Summit.
(AFP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, Defense Minister
Joel
Fitzgibbon said Australia will reduce its troop deployment to East
Timor because of the improved security situation.
(AFP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, The British
government won its appeal to the highest court against previous
rulings
allowing displaced Indian Ocean Chagos islanders to return home. The
resettlement of the Chagossians in the 1960s and1970s allowed
Britain
to lease the main island, Diego Garcia, to the United States
military
for 50 years.
(AFP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, British
researchers
said a drug, known by its lab name of alemtuzumab and licensed for
use
against leukemia, braked and even reversed the effects of multiple
sclerosis among patients with MS.
(http://health.yahoo.com/news/reuters/us_multiplesclerosis_drug.html)
2008 Oct 22, The Canadian
dollar
tumbled to its lowest level versus the US dollar in more than three
years as lower oil prices and a stronger greenback combined to knock
the currency below 80 US cents.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, China’s government
announced that the minimum downpayment on first homes would be
reduced
to 20% from 30%, stamp tax would be eliminated and mortgage rates
cut.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.52)
2008 Oct 22, Officials said the
EU, the US and other international donors have pledged more than
$4.5
billion for rebuilding parts of Georgia that were damaged in its war
with Russia.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, In Guatemala City
Abel Giron (29), a layout designer for El Periodico newspaper, died
after being struck in the heart with an arrow fired by assailants
waiting for him outside his home.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, India launched its
first mission to the moon, rocketing the Chandrayaan 1 satellite up
into the pale dawn sky in a two-year mission to redraw maps of the
lunar surface. On board was the Mono Mineralogy Mapper, a NASA
spectroscope.
(AP, 10/22/08)(Econ, 10/25/08, p.96)
2008 Oct 22, A car bomb
exploded
in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing four civilians. Local
government acknowledged it has yet to persuade frightened Christians
to
return to the homes they fled. In Baghdad three separate blasts
killed
a sick man being transported in an ambulance and wounded 11 others.
An
influential Iraqi cleric living in Iran issued a fatwa condemning a
US-Iraqi security pact that would keep American troops in Iraq for
three more years and warned Iraqi leaders not to back the deal.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, An Ivory Coast
court
jailed Salomon Ugborugbo (39), a Nigerian man, for 20 years for the
2006 dumping of hundreds of tons of toxic waste from an
international
oil trader that killed at least 16 people and left more than 100,000
needing treatment. Essouoin Koua Desire, who played a key role in
Ugborugbo's local company Tommy securing the US$20,000 waste
disposal
contract, was also convicted and jailed for five years.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 22, In Ciudad Juarez,
across the border from El Paso, Texas, four men were shot inside a
go-cart rental at the Xtreme amusement park. Elsewhere in the city,
a
used car salesman was shot to death while driving down a main
boulevard
hours after leading hundreds of other business owners in a protest
against kidnappings and extortion. In Tijuana a 1-year-old boy was
killed when the car he was riding in crashed as the driver tried to
flee a gunbattle. In northern Mexico 10 gunmen were killed in
running
battles with state police in the city of Nogales. Outside the
northeastern city of Monterrey, a soldier, the director of a
security
firm and third man were found stabbed to death alongside a highway.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 22, Pakistani
lawmakers
passed a resolution calling for an urgent review of the government's
national security strategy, saying that dialogue with Islamic
militants
should be given the "highest priority." The International Monetary
Fund
moved to bail out cash-strapped Pakistan in the Fund's first bid to
shore up an Asian economy following global financial turmoil as the
fiscal deficit hit 10% of GDP. An air strike at a militant compound
in
northwestern Bajaur tribal district killed 33 rebels.
(AP, 10/22/08)(AFP, 10/22/08)(AFP,
10/23/08)(Econ,
10/25/08, p.54)
2008 Oct 22, Russia's foreign
minister said Moscow wants to negotiate an extension of its lease at
Ukraine's Black Sea port of Sevastopol. The move would keep Russia's
Black Sea Fleet in the port where it has been stationed for
centuries.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 22, In Sri Lanka the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rammed explosives-laden
boats
against the MV Ruhuna and MV Nimalawa which were supplying the
besieged
Jaffna peninsula in a pre-dawn attack. Officials said at least six
members of the elite Black Sea Tiger suicide squad may have perished
in
the attack.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 23, Former Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the current financial crisis is
a
"once-in-a-century credit tsunami" which will have a severe impact
on
the US economy, driving unemployment higher. Greenspan also said he
was
"shocked" at the breakdown in US credit markets and that he was
"partially" wrong to resist regulation of some securities.
(AP, 10/23/08)(Reuters, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said the US is suspending a trade deal with
Bolivia.
She called it unfortunate but necessary because Bolivian President
Evo
Morales has failed to improve anti-drug efforts.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, NYC Mayor
Bloomberg
persuaded the city council, in a 29-22 vote, to amend the term limit
law allowing him to run for re-election next year.
(SFC, 10/24/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 23, In California a
new
solar thermal power plant, built by startup Ausra, opened north of
Bakersfield. It will generate as much as 5 megawatts, enough for
3,750
homes. Ausra and other companies planned bigger plants in the
future.
(SFC, 10/24/08, p.C1)
2008 Oct 23, In Afghanistan a
US
coalition raid in Paktika province killed three insurgents and
detained
four others. Three Turks were kidnapped in Khost province. In
southern
Helmand province armed assailants attacked a man and gouged out his
eyes in front of his family during a gruesome assault.
(AP, 10/24/08)(AP, 10/25/08)(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 23, England Schools
Minister Jim Knight said millions of children in England aged from
five
to 16 in state-funded schools will receive compulsory lessons about
subjects including sex and drug use.
(AFP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, Canada’s Finance
Minister Jim Flaherty said the government would guarantee borrowing
by
the nation's banks to ease a lending crunch and keep them on equal
footing with foreign competitors. The Bank of Canada said the global
financial crisis, a US recession and falling commodity prices will
bring Canada to the brink of a recession in late 2008 and early
2009.
(Reuters, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, Rebel attacks
using
land mines in Chechnya killed one Russian soldier and wounded 10
other
servicemen and police.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 23, China arrested six
people for their alleged role in supplying contaminated milk to the
country's dairy companies, as the Health Ministry said more than
3,600
Chinese children remain hospitalized after consuming compromised
products. Scores of villagers in a remote timber region ransacked
the
offices of a forestry company and fought with security guards,
accusing
the company of paying too little for use of their land.
(AP, 10/23/08)(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 23, China and
Singapore
signed a free trade agreement on the eve of a summit of European and
Asian leaders in Beijing. Held every two years, ASEM has no mandate
to
issue decisions, but participants hope it will produce some degree
of
consensus ahead of a Nov. 15 meeting of the world's top economies in
Washington to discuss the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.
(AP, 10/23/08)(WSJ, 10/24/08, p.A13)
2008 Oct 23, Colombia's
director
of domestic intelligence resigned after her agency was caught spying
on
a prominent political opponent of President Alvaro Uribe. At least
six
small explosive devices left in trash cans detonated in Bogota,
wounding 18 people and frightening residents.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 23, In Croatia Ivo
Pukanic (47), who owned and edited Nacional, an influential
publication
known for its investigative journalism and Nacional's marketing
director, Niko Franjic, died when an explosive device was placed
near
their car in the capital, Zagreb. On Oct 31 Croatian police filed
murder charges against five people over the bombing deaths. In 2010
six
alleged members of a crime gang were convicted of conspiring to
assassinate Pukanic and a fellow worker. Main suspect Zeljko
Milovanovic, who was tried in absentia, was sentenced to the maximum
40
years in prison. He was being held in neighboring Serbia and tried
on
similar charges. 5 other defendants were sentenced to 15 to 33 years
in
prison.
(AP, 10/24/08)(AP, 10/31/08)(AP, 11/3/10)
2008 Oct 23, Cuba and the
European
Union ended a five-year standoff by signing an agreement that calls
for
EU members to send the island euro2 million (US$2.6 million) in
immediate hurricane recovery aid and up to euro30 million (US$38.8
million) more in financing next year.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, The European
Parliament awarded a prestigious rights prize to jailed Chinese
dissident Hu Jia on the eve of a key Beijing summit and despite
pressure from Beijing not to honor him.
(AFP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, A European Union
court has ruled that EU governments should no longer freeze the
funds
of People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, an Iranian opposition
group on the bloc's terror blacklist. A British court ruled in its
favor last year.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, France’s Pres.
Sarkozy unveiled a strategic national investment fund that will buy
stakes in French industries with borrowed money to protect them from
foreign predators.
(Econ, 11/1/08, p.62)
2008 Oct 23, A Paris criminal
court convicted nine people including a French-Algerian former
prison
inmate who admitted establishing an Islamic group that called for
armed
jihad in France.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 23, The French Navy
captured nine pirates near the Gulf of Aden finding anti-tank
missiles,
other weapons and ship boarding gear on the boats. A Somali pirate
warned that if a hijacked Ukrainian arms ship was attacked the
ship's
20-man crew would be killed.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, A Greek minister
resigned after being accused of involvement in a burgeoning scandal
involving a state land swap with a powerful Orthodox monastery that
has
undermined the government's popularity. Minister of State Theodoros
Roussopoulos, who is also the government spokesman, said he was
stepping down in order to defend himself against a "malicious and
totally groundless attack."
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, A huge explosion
at
an illegal fireworks factory in western India killed 27 people,
including 12 children.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, The US
relinquished
control of a southern province that includes Sunni areas once known
as
the "triangle of death," handing security responsibility to the
Iraqi
government. Babil was the 12th of 18 Iraqi provinces to be placed
under
Iraqi control. In Baghdad Iraq's labor minister escaped
assassination
when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden SUV into his
convoy,
killing at least nine people.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, An Italian
military
helicopter crashed in northeastern France, killing all eight people
on
board.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, In Mexico 2 people
were found dead in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego,
California, including a badly burned corpse left in a trash bin.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, Nigeria's Supreme
Court deferred ruling on challenges to President Umaru Yar'Adua's
April
2007 election victory but did not set a date for handing down its
final
judgment. Nigerian troops killed two militants in a river clash with
insurgents in the volatile oil-rich Niger Delta. 2 AK 47 rifles and
ammunitions were recovered from the militants.
(Reuters, 10/23/08)(AFP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 23, In Pakistan
suspected
US spy drones fired missiles into a school set up by a top Taliban
commander in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing 11 people.
Residents said that all of the victims were local tribesmen, adding
that locals had fired at two suspected US drones hovering above.
(AFP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, Mohammed Albaden,
a
Palestinian assailant, stabbed two Israelis in an east Jerusalem
neighborhood, killing an 86-year-old man and wounding a police
officer
in what authorities called a "terror incident."
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, In Romania vandals
rampaged through a sprawling Jewish cemetery in Bucharest, toppling
tombstones and smashing markers for as many as 200 graves.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 23, Russia, which sent
a
warship to Somalia's coast to combat pirates, asked the African
nation
for carte blanche to use force in its territorial waters.
(Reuters, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, South Africa’s
National Assembly approved new legislation to disband the Scorpions
investigating unit and incorporate it into the police force.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 23, The Ukrainian
currency plunged against the dollar as people raced to exchange
booths
to convert their savings into US currency. Ukraine's Foreign
Ministry
said in a statement that the Russia’s desire to extend its port
lease
at Sevastopol "cannot be a subject of discussion." It said that
Russian
ships will have to leave Ukrainian waters in 2017.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, In southern Yemen
a
tropical storm, formed out in the Indian Ocean earlier in the week,
hit
the remote Hadramut province. Flooding which followed left at least
90
people dead and some 20,000 displaced.
(AP, 10/25/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A18)(AP,
10/27/08)
2008 Oct 24, PNC Financial
Services Group Inc agreed to purchase ailing Ohio-based National
City
Corp in a government-supported $5.6 billion deal that will create
the
No. 5 U.S. bank by deposits.
(Reuters, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 24, In Chicago the
mother
and brother of actress and singer Jennifer Hudson were found shot to
death on the city’s South Side. Hudson’s nephew (7) was missing. The
body of the boy was found in an SUV on Oct 27. William Balfour,
Jennifer Hudson's estranged brother-in-law, was arrested on Dec 1 at
Stateville Correctional Center on a murder warrant and released to
detectives as he awaited formal charges in the deaths of the
relatives
of the singer and Oscar-winning actress.
(SFC, 10/25/08, p.A5)(AP, 10/27/08)(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Oct 24, In Tennessee a
sport
utility vehicle carrying 4 cheerleaders collided with an oncoming
car
on a wet, foggy highway in Scott County, northwest of Knoxville. 3
cheerleaders were killed and a 4th died the next day. A passenger in
the car also was killed.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 24, Milton Katselas
(b.1933), acting teacher and director, died in LA. His direction
work
included both the theater (1969) and film (1972) version of
“Butterflies Are Free.”
(SFC, 11/4/08, p.B5)
2008 Oct 24, Asian and European
leaders, meeting in Beijing, called for a coordinated response to
the
global financial meltdown and prepared to endorse a critical role
for
the International Monetary Fund in aiding the hardest-hit countries.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 24, Colombia's army
chief
fired three colonels in the case of 11 men who disappeared from
Soacha,
a poor district just south of Bogota. They were found dead in August
and September, months after their abduction in a war zone hundreds
of
miles away. The young men appeared to have been kidnapped and
murdered to inflate the body count of dead guerrillas. On Oct 29
President Alvaro Uribe's government fired 25 soldiers, including
three
generals and four colonels, over the killings of the 11 civilians.
(AP, 10/24/08)(AP, 10/29/08)(Econ, 11/1/08, p.47)
2008 Oct 24, The World Food
Program said fighting in eastern Congo has driven some 200,000 from
their homes during the last 8 weeks, exacerbating an already dire
humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 24, Officials in
Honduras said at least 29 people are dead and 14 others are missing
because of heavy rains that began 2 weeks ago.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 24, Iceland, where the
financial system has all but collapsed, reached a deal with the IMF
for
$2 billion to help fix its broken banking system, restart currency
trading and soften the blow from the global downturn.
(Reuters, 10/25/08)(WSJ, 10/25/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 24, Tokyo and Beijing
agreed to establish a hotline between their leaders to build mutual
trust, as Prime Minister Taro Aso held his first meeting as Japanese
leader with his Chinese counterparts.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 24, A Soyuz capsule
carrying an American and two Russians touched down on target in
Kazakhstan after a descent from the international space station,
safely
delivering the first two men to follow their fathers into space.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 24, In central Mexico
2
human heads were found with threatening messages. 2 adults were
killed
when assailants riddled their pickup truck with bullets on a Tijuana
street. A 1-year-old girl riding with them was hit by multiple
rounds
from an assault rifle and was hospitalized in critical condition.
Police also found nine people shot to death in Playas de Rosarito,
just
south of Tijuana.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 24, OPEC said at an
emergency meeting that it will slash oil production by 1.5 million
barrels to stem the "dramatic collapse" of oil prices, but crude
prices
plunged 7 percent anyway as financial markets spiraled downward
across
the globe.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 24, In Paraguay a
small
plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Asuncion, killing all five
people on board. The plane belonged to the private hospital Asismed
and
was used to transport patients. Hospital President Miguel Figueredo
said the pilot had said he would be conducting a test flight, and
did
not tell officials he would have passengers.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 24, In the Philippines
communist rebels triggered a land mine and opened fire on a
Philippine
army unit in an ambush that killed six soldiers on Mindanao Island.
The
rebels manually triggered the US-made claymore mine as the soldiers
hiked past on a narrow mountain trail and then opened fire.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 25, The United States
announced a pledge of an additional $320 million to the global fight
against bird flu at a conference in Egypt. The US also warned
against
complacency in combating the virus, which could mutate and cause a
deadly pandemic.
(Reuters, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 25, Anne Pressly (26),
an
Arkansas KATV anchorwoman, died in Little Rock several days after
she
didn't answer her wake-up call and was found brutally beaten in her
home. On Nov 26 officers arrested suspect Curtis Lavelle Vance (28)
at
a home in Little Rock. Vance was convicted of murder on Nov 11,
2009.
(AP, 10/26/08)(AP, 11/27/08)(SFC, 11/12/09, p.A6)
2008 Oct 25, Martin A.
Pomerantz
(91), astrophysicist, died. In 1979 he built a telescope at the
South
Pole and propelled the new field of helio-seismology. In 1995 the
National Science Foundation dedicated the Martin A. Pomerantz
Observatory in Antarctica.
(SSFC, 11/2/08, p.B3)(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 25, An Afghan guard
killed a Briton and a South African, 2 top officials working for
international courier company DHL, and them himself in a shoot out
in
Kabul. A senior police official said an argument had erupted between
the foreigners and some Afghans and it was not a Taliban attack.
(AP, 10/26/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A20)
2008 Oct 25, In China the 2-day
ASEM economic summit closed. 43 Asian and European leaders pledged
around $4 trillion to support banks and restart money markets to try
to
stem the global crisis. This was ASEM’s 7th biennial gathering since
1996.
(Reuters, 10/25/08)(Econ, 11/1/08, p.49)
2008 Oct 25, In Georgia an
explosion killed Gia Mebonia, mayor of the small town of Mujhava,
while
he was inspecting a house damaged by overnight shelling near the
separatist region of Abkhazia. A villager was also killed and a
local
police officer was seriously injured.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 25, Police in India
arrested more than 1,000 students in eastern Bihar state after their
protests over the release on bail of a firebrand politician turned
violent.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 25, About 300 Shiites
rallied in the southern city of Basra against a security pact being
negotiated that allows US troops to stay in Iraq for three more
years.
In Baghdad, bombs killed an Iraqi army brigadier general and a
soldier.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 25, In Mexico soldiers
and federal police arrested Eduardo Arellano Felix (52), a reputed
leader of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel, after a shootout
in
the border city across from San Diego.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 25, Pirates stormed
and
ransacked a French vessel in Nigeria's restive oil-rich south but
there
were no casualties.
(AFP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 25, Nearly 600 newly
trained Palestinian troops took up positions in Hebron. In the Gaza
Strip, three Palestinians were killed when a smuggling tunnel
linking
Gaza to Egypt collapsed. In the West Bank, a 23-year-old Palestinian
was seriously wounded by Israeli army fire during a clash in the
refugee camp of Fara.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 25, Pakistan's army
captured Loi Sam a key militant stronghold in the Bajur region near
the
Afghan border, a breakthrough in a bloody push against the Taliban
and
al-Qaida. The offensive launched in early August has claimed the
lives
of some 1,500 suspected militant, 73 soldiers and 95 civilians.
(AP, 10/25/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A20)
2008 Oct 25, In the Philippines
communist guerrillas, disguised as anti-narcotics agents, barged
into a
poorly guarded prison in Quezon province southeast of Manila and
freed
seven of their comrades in a daring 15-minute attack staged without
firing a shot.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 25, Muslim Magomayev
(66), an Azeri-born Soviet-era opera and pop singer, died in Moscow.
His fame was at its peak in the 1960s and 70s.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 25, A gunman shot dead
a
Somali woman employee in the latest of a string of attacks on the
humanitarian community. Duniya Sheik Daud was the 15th aid worker
killed so far this year in Somalia.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 25, Tens of thousands
of
opposition supporters marched through Taiwan's capital to protest an
upcoming visit by a senior Chinese envoy, saying the trip was part
of
Chinese efforts to assert control over the self-ruled island.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 26, At the University
of
Central Arkansas in Conway a shooting left two students dead and a
third person wounded. On Oct 28 4 men were charged with capital
murder
and other felonies for the shootings in Conway.
(AP, 10/27/08)(SFC, 10/29/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 26, John Campbell
(1941),
Australia-born mayor of Fortuna, Ca., and former head of Pacific
Lumber
(PALCO), died.
(SFC, 10/27/08, p.B3)
2008 Oct 26, Tony Hillerman
(b.1925), author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery
novels
and creator of two of the unlikeliest of literary heroes — Navajo
police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee — died of pulmonary
failure.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 26, Brazil held
nationwide municipal elections. The ruling party was expected to
dominate. Brazil's ruling party lost its chance to retake control of
Sao Paulo, South America's biggest city. Fernando Gabeira, an
ex-guerrilla who once kidnapped a US ambassador (1969), failed in
his
bid to become mayor of Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, In Chile municipal
elections were held and Alliance, the center-right opposition, won
41%
of the vote for mayors, 2 point more than the governing center-left
Concertacion coalition. This was the first-ever nationwide defeat of
Concertacion, which has ruled since 1990.
(Econ, 11/1/08, p.47)
2008 Oct 26, China’s state
media
said the World Bank and France have agreed to lend China more than
$900
million to rebuild areas devastated by a massive earthquake earlier
this year.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, In Colombia former
congressman Oscar Tulio Lizcano (62) walked to freedom in a
western along with the young guerrilla commander, who had been
his jailer, after eight years of captivity in the hands of leftist
Colombian rebels.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, Rebels seized an
east
Congo army base and the headquarters of a refuge housing some of the
world's last mountain gorillas, in heavy fighting that sent
thousands
of civilians fleeing. An unknown number of soldiers, rebels and
civilians were killed in the renewed fighting in North Kivu
province.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, An Egyptian news
agency that transmitted footage of protesters tearing down a
portrait
of the president was fined $27,000 for operating unlicensed
equipment,
and its owner said he was targeted as a warning to other media. A
judge
upheld a complaint by the government against Nader Gohar, head of
the
Cairo News Company. The complaint came shortly after CNC broadcast
footage from Al-Jazeera English in April showing the anti-government
protesters.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, Hungary reached
agreement with the IMF and the EU on a broad economic rescue
package,
including substantial financing, steadying its battered currency.
The
deal was expected to be finalized over the next few days.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 26, Government troops
in
Indian Kashmir opened fire on hundreds of angry protesters demanding
the release of several people arrested during a recent strike,
killing
one and wounding at least three others.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, A top
Revolutionary
Guards commander said Iran is supplying weapons to "liberation
armies"
in the Middle East, offering the first official confirmation the
country provides weapons to armed groups in the region.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 26, Prime
Minister-designate Tzipi Livni abandoned efforts to form a
government
Sunday, putting Israel on course for new elections and endangering
already fragile Middle East peace talks.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, Kuwait's Central
Bank
stepped to prop up one of the country's biggest banks and said it
was
considering guaranteeing deposits in domestic banks, in one of the
first concrete signs that the global financial crisis may next hit
the
oil-rich Gulf.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 26, Lithuania's
conservatives Homeland Union, led by former PM Andrius Kubilius, won
the parliamentary ballot for the first time since 2000, in a run-off
vote that cemented their first-round defeat of the ruling Social
Democrats two weeks ago. Homeland Union won 44 seats in the
141-member
Parliament.
(AP, 10/26/08)(WSJ, 10/27/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 26, In Mexico City
kidnappers grabbed Javier Morena (5), the son of poor fruit sellers,
with the intent to ask for a $23,000 ransom. The boy was killed with
an
injection of acid and buried outside the city. 5 suspects in the
kidnapping were later arrested and confessed to the killing.
(SFC, 11/4/08, p.11)
2008 Oct 26, Pakistan troops
killed 11 Taliban militants in separate clashes in a tribal region.
15
people including 10 Taliban militants died in a gunbattle with
locals
in the restive Swat valley. Locals thwarted a Taliban attempt to
seize
militia chief Pir Samiullah. Hundreds of Taliban returned and seized
3
militia members, beheading one of them. Unknown gunmen shot dead the
brother of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. A US missile
strike in the South Waziristan area killed Haji Omar Khan, a
lieutenant
of veteran Afghan Taliban chieftain and former anti-Soviet fighter
Jalaluddin Haqqani, along with at least 15 other people.
(AP, 10/26/08)(AFP, 10/27/08)(WSJ, 10/27/08,
p.A14)
2008 Oct 26, The Palestinian
national team hosted an international match for the first time, in
the
West Bank's only regulation-size stadium. Located in a West Bank
suburb
of Jerusalem. The game against Jordan ended in a 1-1 tie.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 27, South Korea
lowered
its key interest rate from 5% to 4.25%.
(WSJ, 10/25/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 26, Four US military
helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction shortly
before sundown in Sukkariyeh about five miles inside the Syrian
border.
A government statement said eight people were killed, including a
man
and his four children and a woman. An Associated Press journalist at
the funerals in the village's cemetery saw the bodies of seven men,
none of them minors. The area targeted is near the Iraqi border city
of
Qaim, which had been a major crossing point for fighters, weapons
and
money coming into Iraq.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 26, The IMF said it
has
reached a tentative agreement to provide Ukraine with $16.5 billion
in
loans over the next 2 years to help the country out of financial
turmoil.
(SFC, 10/27/08, p.D1)
2008 Oct 27, A Washington DC
jury
found Alaska’s Sen. Stevens guilty on seven counts of trying to hide
more than $250,000 in free home renovations and other gifts from a
wealthy oil contractor. Stevens, who first entered the Senate in
1968,
faced Alaska's voters in upcoming elections as a convicted felon. On
April 1, 2009, the US Justice Dept. dropped charges against Stevens,
saying prosecutors’ mistakes forced the move.
(AP, 10/28/08)(WSJ, 4/2/09, p.A1)
2008 Oct 27, An FBI spokesman
said
642 arrests in 29 cities were made last week during a 3-day sting
operation, Operation Cross Country II, focusing on people who forced
teens into prostitution. 100 adults were arrested in the SF Bay
Area.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 27, A US officials
announced that Francisco Celaya Carrilo, a Mexican immigration
officer,
had been caught in Arizona with 170 pounds of marijuana.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 27, The DJIA fell 203
to
8,175.77, a 5½ year low.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 27, In northern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew himself
up
inside a police station, killing 2 American soldiers and 2 Afghans
in
Baghlan province. The Taliban claimed responsibility. Insurgents
downed
a US helicopter in Wardak province. Crew members survived and were
rescued.
(AP, 10/27/08)(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A8)(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Oct 27, Thousands of
civilians threw rocks at four UN offices in eastern Congo, venting
outrage at the organization's inability to protect them from rebel
forces advancing on the provincial capital of Goma.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 27, In Ethiopia 19
people
were killed when the bus they were traveling in hit a wall after its
wheels snapped off some 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Addis
Ababa. Turbo Tumo, who represented Ethiopia at the 1996 Atlanta
Olympics, was among those killed.
(AFP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 27, Georgia's Pres.
Saakashvili dismissed PM Vladimir Gurgenizde and recommended Grigol
Mgaloblishvili (35), the country's ambassador to Turkey, as his
replacement. Saakashvili said Gurgenizde would now head a government
finance commission.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 27, In Iraq US forces
killed 5 assailants in the eastern district of New Baghdad. A
roadside
bomb exploded later in the same district killing 3 civilians. A car
bomb in Baghdad killed a doctor and his friend. A car bomb in Tuz
Khormato killed an Iraqi soldier.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A8)(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A8)
2008 Oct 27, Mexican
prosecutors
said a major drug cartel has infiltrated the Mexican attorney
general's
office and may have paid a spy inside the US Embassy for details of
DEA
operations. 5 officials of the attorney general’s organized crime
unit
were arrested on allegations they served as informants for the
Beltran-Leyva Cartel.
(AP, 10/27/08)(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 27, A West African
court
ordered Niger to pay compensation to Hadijatou Mani (24), who was
sold
into slavery at age 12 and held for a decade. She had been forced to
work as a domestic servant and a sexual slave until 2005.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 27, It was reported
that
a new study, released last week, has found dangerous levels of toxic
metals in produce grown on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, formerly
used
as a Navy bombing range, despite US government claims that the soil
there is safe.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 27, In Somalia Aisha
Ibrahim Duhulow, a 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped, was
stoned to death in Kismayo after being accused of adultery by
Islamic
militants.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Oct 27, In central Sudan
kidnappers killed 4 Chinese oil workers out of nine they had been
holding hostage for more than a week. A local leader in troubled
South
Kordofan state, where the hostages were abducted and killed, said
the
Chinese died as a result of fighting between the Sudanese army and
the
kidnappers. The next day 3 bodies and 3 wounded were flown to
Khartoum.
A 4th body was found on Oct 29. The last 2 were reported found Oct
31,
one alive and one dead.
(AFP, 10/28/08)(AFP, 10/29/08)(AP,
10/29/08)(Reuters, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 27, Leaders of a
Southern
African bloc gathered in Zimbabwe to press President Robert Mugabe
and
the main opposition leader to break an impasse on forming a unity
government.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 28, The DJIA rose
889.35
to 9,065.12, its 2nd biggest gain in the Dow’s history.
(SFC, 10/29/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 28, In Anaheim, Ca., a
newlywed, killed by police after he stepped outside his home to
confront suspected burglars, was shot in a case of mistaken
identity.
Julian Alexander died after being shot twice in the chest by a
police
officer who was chasing four burglary suspects.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 28, Kwame Kilpatrick
(38), former Detroit mayor, was sent to jail for 4 months for his
part
in a sex-and-text scandal.
(SFC, 10/29/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 28, Google along with
the
Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild announced a
settlement regarding the use of copyrighted book material. Google
agreed to pay $125 million to start the Books Rights Registry,
resolve
legal fees and deal with other issues relating to authors and online
book use.
(SFC, 10/29/08, p.C1)
2008 Oct 28, In California Bill
Martin (65), Mendocino realist painter and art teacher, died. His 3
books included “Paintings “1969-1979.”
(SFC, 11/13/08, p.B4)
2008 Oct 28, Afghan and
Pakistani
leaders vowed to seek dialogue with Taliban insurgents, saying the
"door is now open" for reconciliation.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 28, Ricardo Claro
(b.1934), Chilean industrialist, died. His industrial empire
stretched
from shipping (CSAV) to media to wine (Santa Rita). In 1974 he
announced to the world, on behalf of the Pinochet government, that
Chile was once again open for business.
(WSJ, 11/8/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 28, Amnesty
International
urged the United States and other nations to halt military aid to
Colombia until it stems a rise in killings of noncombatants by
security
forces and heeds other UN prescriptions for ending its long-running
internal conflict.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 28, Rebels vowing to
take
Congo's eastern provincial capital of 600,000 people advanced toward
Goma as Congolese troops and UN tanks retreated, while tens of
thousands fled to a makeshift shelter.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 28, Iceland’s PM Geir
Haarde said his country needs about $6 billion in loans to recover
from
the financial meltdown, just as the country's central bank
separately
hiked its interest rates by a massive 6 percentage points to 18%.
(AP, 10/28/08)(WSJ, 10/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 28, In Iraq 4 police
officers were killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of
Mosul and three civilians were killed in a separate Baghdad bombing.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 28, Voters turned out
in
strength to choose the Maldives' first democratically-elected
president
in a run-off between Asia's longest serving leader and a former
political prisoner. Nasheed won 54% of the vote to Gayoom's 46%,
according to provisional results from the nation's elections
commission.
(AP, 10/28/08)(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 28, Mexico's Congress
passed a watered-down energy industry reform that enables private
contractors to participate in the state-owned oil business but won't
likely draw enough investment to reverse declining production.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 28, Namibia sold more
than seven tons of ivory for $1.1 million, in the first legal
auction
of elephant tusks in nearly a decade, exclusively for Chinese and
Japanese buyers.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 28, Pakistani
President
Asif Ali Zardari announced government awards for US Democratic vice
presidential nominee Joe Biden and Republican Senator Richard Lugar.
Biden and Lugar in July introduced a bipartisan US aid plan which
calls
for $1.5 billion per year in non-military spending to support
economic
development in Pakistan.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 28, In Peru police and
protesters clashed violently at a blockaded bridge in the province
of
Moquegua leaving 71 injured.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 28, A Moscow jury said
Alexei Frenkel (36), former chairman of VIP Bank, ordered the
September, 2006, murder of Andrei Kozlov (41), a Central Bank
official.
3 Ukrainians were found guilty of the killing. A 4th Ukrainian and 2
people from Moscow were found guilty as accessories to the murder.
(WSJ, 10/29/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 28, The bodies of
Russian
Otto Messmer and Victor Betancourt of Ecuador were found in their
Moscow apartment at the Jesuit Moscow headquarters. Several days
later,
police announced a 38-year-old man had confessed to the killings but
gave few details. In 2009 a federal Investigative Committee
announced
the man had been drinking with Betancourt, and when Betancourt
suggested they have sex, the man bludgeoned Betancourt with a
dumbbell.
The man allegedly killed Messmer later to cover up the first
killing.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2008 Oct 28, In Serbia Miladin
Kovacevic (21) was detained on suspicion that he "inflicted severe
bodily harm" on Bryan Steinhauer during the fight in a bar in
upstate
New York last May. Steinhauer (22) only recently emerged from a
coma.
In 2010 prosecutors filed assault charges against Kovacevic. The
beating left Steinhauer with skull fractures and a severe brain
injury.
(AP, 10/28/08)(AP, 3/2/10)
2008 Oct 28-2009 Oct 29, In
northern Somalia 5 suicide car bombs attacks killed 28 people in
Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, and in Bosasso, Puntland.
Somali
authorities arrested Cleric Sheik Mohamed Ismail in connection with
the
attacks. Shirwa Ahmed, one of the suicide bombers, was an American
citizen and former resident of Minnesota.
(AP, 10/30/08)(SFC, 10/30/08, p.A4)(Econ,
2/28/09,
p.49)
2008 Oct 28, South Korean
officials said a North Korean soldier has defected for the 2nd time
in
a decade.
(WSJ, 10/29/08,
p.A1)(www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/28/asia/korea.php)
2008 Oct 28, In Sri Lanka the
Tamil Tigers' rudimentary air force bombed a power station on the
outskirts of Colombo. The bombing damaged some turbines at the power
station. A worker hospitalized after the attack died the next day.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 28, The Syrian
government
ordered that an American school and a US cultural center in Damascus
be
closed in response to a deadly raid by US helicopters near the
Syrian
border with Iraq.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 28, Turkey's warplanes
and artillery struck Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 28, Zimbabwe’s
opposition
issued an urgent call for a regional summit after talks aimed at
breaking a political deadlock with Pres. Mugabe’s party failed.
(SFC, 10/29/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 29, The US Federal
Reserve cut the federal funds rate, the interest banks charge each
other on overnight loans, by half a percentage point, and the
government finally began distributing funds from the billions in the
financial rescue package.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 29, The IMF said it
will
offer as much as $100 billion in new 3 month loans to countries
battered by the financial crises without requiring sever changes in
policies as demanded in past decades.
(WSJ, 10/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 29, Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama held a half-hour commercial
ahead
of the World Series baseball game.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 29, The Philadelphia
Phillies won the baseball World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3
with
the conclusion of Game 5, which had been stopped by rain 2 days
earlier.
(SFC, 10/30/08, p.D1)
2008 Oct 29, Marc M. Keyser
(66)
was arrested at his home in Sacramento for sending hoax anthrax
threats
by mail to media outlets.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.B4)
2008 Oct 29, In upstate New
York,
more than 40,000 customers remained without power, a day after the
season's first big snowstorm blew through the region.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Australia
Joseph
Thomas (35), a Muslim convert dubbed "Jihad Jack" by the Australian
media, was sentenced to nine months in prison but freed because of
time
already served. He spent time at an al-Qaida training camp and met
Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, David Miliband,
Britain’s foreign secretary, acknowledged China’s suzerainty over
Tibet.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.54)
2008 Oct 29, Software engineer
Momin Khawaja, a Canadian man who was the first to be charged under
a
tough new anti-terror law, was found guilty in a trial linked to a
plot
to carry out bomb attacks in Britain. On march 12, 2009, Khawaja was
sentenced to 10-1/2 years in jail for his involvement in plans to
bomb
nightclubs, trains and a shopping center in Britain.
(Reuters, 10/29/08)(AP, 3/12/09)
2008 Oct 29, China cut interest
rates for the 3rd time in six weeks.
(Econ, 11/1/08, p.84)
2008 Oct 29, A local Chinese
government acknowledged that officials knew about melamine-tainted
eggs
for a month before the contamination was publicly disclosed. A
Dalian
government notice said that local authorities were notified Sept. 27
of
tests by the customs bureau of Liaoning province that had found
melamine in a batch of export-bound eggs produced by Dalian Hanwei
Enterprise Group.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, China set a new
policy on climate change, asking rich countries to help fund
cleanup,
and acknowledged that its polluting emissions were about the same as
in
the US.
(WSJ, 10/30/08, p.A13)
2008 Oct 29, In northern China
a
gas explosion in a mine shaft at a coal mine trapped 29 miners at
the
Yaotou mine in central Shaanxi province. 26 bodies were recovered
over
the next few days and 3 remained missing. In Henan province 20
miners
were trapped after a mine flooded at the Mazhuang colliery. After a
few
days rescuers gave up hope of finding any alive.
(AP, 10/30/08)(AFP, 11/2/08)
2008 Oct 29, Congolese rebel
forces advanced on the eastern city of Goma, threatening to
overwhelm
government troops and a 17,000-strong UN force deployed to halt a
return to all-out war. The Congolese army said troops from Rwanda
have
crossed the nearby border and attacked its soldiers in support of a
minority Tutsi rebellion. Congolese rebels declared a ceasefire
after a
four-day push to the gates of Goma that threatened to drag Congo
back
to all-out war, but heavy gunfire resumed near the eastern city
after
dark.
(Reuters, 10/29/08)(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Ecuador a new
temporary Supreme Court was picked by lottery. Judges said they will
boycott it. The temporary 21-member court, chosen at random from the
ranks of the 31 former justices, is supposed to operate until a
permanent body takes over in 2009.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, Officials said
that
EU governments promised to lend Hungary 6.5 billion euros ($8.1
billion) as part of a 20 billion euro ($25 billion) international
rescue package to help it weather a financial crisis that has
sharply
devalued its currency.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Germany
Viswanathan Anand of India retained his world chess title by drawing
with the white pieces against Russian challenger Vladimir Kramnik.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Iraq the US
military handed over security responsibilities for the southern
province of Wasit to Iraqi authorities. A new commuter rail was
launched that travels 15 miles through Sunni and Shiite
neighborhoods
in the heart of Baghdad. At least 8 people were killed and wounded
dozens in separate attacks. A bombing in eastern Baghdad killed six
people.
(AP, 10/29/08)(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 29, Nigerian President
Umaru Yar'Adua dropped 20 government ministers out of a total of 44
in
a cabinet shake-up.
(AFP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 29, Pakistan
registered
"a strong protest" with Washington's ambassador to Islamabad over a
number of missile attacks by US drones inside its territory. Gunmen
killed three Shiite Muslims in a sectarian attack in northwestern
Pakistan.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, In southwestern
Pakistan a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck before dawn, killing at
least 215 people and turning mud and timber homes into rubble. An
estimated 15,000 people were left homeless, and rescuers were
digging
for survivors in a remote valley in Baluchistan province. Officials
later feared the death toll would pass 300.
(AP, 10/29/08)(AP, 10/30/08)(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 29, A boat carrying 27
activists and humanitarian supplies sailed into the Gaza Strip,
defying
an Israeli naval blockade to call attention to Israeli sanctions on
the
Hamas-controlled territory. The passengers included Mairead Corrigan
Maguire, who won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with
Catholics
and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Peru a
1,000-strong mob set fire to the station and took 25 officers
captive
in San Martin province. They reportedly were angered when police
threw
tear gas near a school and several children were affected.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 29, Russia's
parliament
quickly ratified treaties cementing close economic and military ties
with Georgia's two breakaway provinces.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, Pirates hijacked
the
Turkish freighter MV Yasa Neslihan with a crew of 20 off the coast
of
Somalia. Pirates freed the Yasa Neslihan freighter on Dec 6 after
paying a ransom.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.A8)(AP, 1/7/09)
2008 Oct 29, South Korea
reported
that Kim Jong Il has suffered a serious setback in his recovery from
a
stroke.
(WSJ, 10/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 29, Sri Lankan troops
captured a small village in northern Sri Lanka, pushing ahead with
their offensive against the Tamil Tigers hours after the rebel group
launched a brazen airstrike on the capital.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Sudan gunmen
opened fire on a group of South African peacekeepers guarding a well
in
Darfur, killing one and seriously wounding another.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 29, A Syrian criminal
court convicted 12 dissidents of fomenting sectarian strife and
sentenced them to two and a half years in prison. The defendants,
members of a pro-democracy group known as the Damascus Declaration,
were arrested last December. The Damascus Declaration, formed in
2005,
is the broadest coalition of opposition figures in Syria.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, The UN panel
overseeing compensation for victims of Iraq's 1990 invasion of
Kuwait
said it has paid a $888.6 million (709.4 million euros) installment
from Iraqi oil funds to cover losses and damages suffered by
governments and private companies.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, The UN General
Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution urging the US to
repeal
its trade embargo against Cuba, and the island nation's foreign
minister said he expects the next American president to respond
positively.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, The US and Vietnam
launched three new programs to help provide job training and health
care to disabled people in Danang, where American troops stored and
mixed Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, Venezuela launched
its first satellite from Sichuan, China. It will begin carrying
radio,
television and other data transmissions in early 2009 after three
months of tests.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 30, The US government
reported that the economy shrank in the summer, the strongest signal
yet that a recession may have already begun. The Commerce Department
reported that the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of
economic health, fell at an annual rate of 0.3% in the
July-September
period, a significant slowdown after growth of 2.8% in the prior
quarter.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, In California
Randall
Cover (46), a former city of Sonoma Water Department supervisor, was
indicted by a federal grand jury in SF for receiving $102,795 in
kickbacks from Underground Express. In November a suit was filed
against 2 former employees of San Francisco’s Public Utilities
Commission for taking thousands of dollars in kickbacks from Sheldon
Morris and his Novato plumbing company, Underground Express. In 2009
Morris was sentenced to nearly 3 years in federal prison.
(SFC, 11/1/08, p.B2)(SFC, 11/25/08, p.B1)(SFC,
5/30/09, p.B2)
2008 Oct 30, In Florida the son
of
former Liberian President Charles Taylor was found guilty by a US
court
in Miami of torture in the first prosecution under a 14-year-old law
that allows citizens to be prosecuted for such crimes committed
abroad.
Charles Taylor Jr. was arrested at Miami International Airport in
2006
and pleaded guilty to a charge of lying about his father's identity
on
a passport application.
(Reuters, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, In Iowa US federal
agents arrested Sholom Rubashkin, a former senior executive of the
Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, for
employing
illegal immigrants for commercial gain and helping them secure fake
documents. A day earlier Iowa labor authorities levied some $10
million
in fines against Agriprocessors for labor violations. On Nov 12,
2009,
Rubashkin was convicted on 86 of 91 financial fraud charges.
(WSJ, 10/31/08, p.A3)(SFC, 11/13/09, p.A8)
2008 Oct 30, Scientists
reported
that 1 in 17 men living on the coasts of North Africa and southern
Europe may have a Phoenician direct male line ancestor. Evidence was
based on Y-chromosomes collected in Cyprus, Malta, Morocco, the West
Bank, Syria and Tunisia.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 30, Taliban militants
stormed a government building in the center of Kabul and one of them
blew himself up inside, killing five people. 4 police were killed in
Panjwayi district of Kandahar province, after their patrol vehicle
struck a newly planted mine.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, In Australia 4
teenagers were charged with attacking an almost blind greater
flamingo
at Adelaide Zoo. The bird is believed to be the oldest of its kind
in
the world.
(AFP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, The Economist
magazine presented its annual innovation awards. Winners included
Martin Evans, for stem cell research at Cardiff Univ.; Jimmy Wales
of
Wikipedia for the promotion online public collaboration; Matti
Makkonen, a Finnish engineer, for the development of Short Message
Service (SMS), better known as text messaging; Steve Chen and Chad
Hurley of YouTube, for the creating of an easy way to share video;
Arthur Rosenfeld of Lawrence Berkeley for his promotion of energy
efficiency; Sumio Iijima for the discovery of carbon nanotubes; Bill
and Melinda Gates for the developing a philanthropic support
platform;
and Nokia Corp. For its ability to respond to social and
technological
trends.
(Econ, 12/6/08, TQ p.13)
2008 Oct 30, Westfield London
mall, London's biggest mall, opened despite the gloomy economic
climate
that threatens to dampen vital Christmas sales.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, China’s state
media
reported that the industrial chemical melamine is commonly added to
animal feed in China to make it appear higher in protein. This
appeared
to be a tacit admission by the government that contamination is
widespread in the country's food supply.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, In China 12 people
died after an elevator plunged at the Sunshine City construction
site
in east Fujian province.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, Laurent Nkunda,
the
rebel general besieging Congo's eastern provincial capital Goma,
said
he wants direct talks with the government about ending fighting in
the
region and his objections to a $5 billion deal that gives China
access
to the country's vast mineral riches in exchange for a railway and
highway. Nkunda said he sent a letter to the UN peacekeeping mission
in
Goma saying he will set up an "urgent humanitarian corridor" for
refugees and humanitarian aid. Refugees have continued fleeing the
war-torn eastern province for neighboring Uganda.
(AP, 10/30/08)(AFP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, An Ecuadorean
presidential commission concluded that US intelligence services
infiltrated the Andean nation's military and police and supported a
cross-border incursion by Colombian troops that killed a top rebel
commander.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 30, In Germany the
last
flight lifted off from Berlin's Tempelhof Airport, bringing an end
to
an era of aviation that spanned World War II, the Cold War and the
rebirth of the German capital.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, In India a series
of
11 coordinated blasts tore through northeast Assam state, killing at
least 77 people and sending police scrambling to find any unexploded
bombs in a province troubled by years of separatist violence and
ethnic
tensions. The next day the "Islamic Security Force-Indian
Mujahedeen"
took responsibility and warned such attacks would continue in Assam
state.
(AP, 10/30/08) (AFP,
10/31/08)(SFC, 10/31/08, p.A2)
2008 Oct 30, Indonesia's
parliament passed a bill banning pornography, ignoring opposition
from
lawmakers and rights groups who worry it will be used to justify
attacks on artistic, religious and cultural freedom.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, Murat Zyazikov
(51),
the unpopular leader of Russia's violence-plagued republic of
Ingushetia, said he has resigned. Pres. Medvedev named an apparent
unknown, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, to take over as the republic's acting
president.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, An Iraqi
opposition
lawmaker claimed that thousands of his countrymen are being
mistreated
in detention centers outside the official prison system. A car bomb
exploded near a market in north Baghdad, killing one person and
wounding five.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, Japan unveiled a
$51.5 billion stimulus package to buttress its economy against the
fallout of the global financial crises.
(WSJ, 10/31/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 30, Morocco’s
Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said flooding over the last week
has
killed 28 people and caused major damage in various parts of the
country.
(AFP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, Palestinian
militants
in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel in violation
of a
4-month-old truce, but the strike did not cause any injuries or
damage.
The Israeli Defense Ministry responded by snapping shut cargo
crossings
into Gaza until further notice.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, In South Korea a
court ruled that a law that allows only visually impaired people to
become licensed masseurs does not violate the constitution, in a
victory for the blind. South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld a
ban
on adultery, rejecting complaints that the 55-year-old law is
outdated
and constitutes an invasion of privacy.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, A powerful car
bomb
exploded at a university in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona,
wounding 17 people and setting a building on fire in an attack
blamed
on Basque separatists.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, A Swiss court
convicted 2 brothers from Kosovo of running a massive drug smuggling
ring that prosecutors said supplied Western Europe with up to half
of
its heroin. Ragip and Kemal Shabani channeled 1.5 tons of heroin
through Europe from the mid-1990s until 2003, when they were shut
down.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, In Thailand
assailants threw a grenade into a crowd of anti-government
protesters
occupying a bridge, wounding 10 people ahead of a demonstration
outside
the British Embassy in Bangkok.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, Zambians voted for
a
successor to the late President Levy Mwanawasa in an election the
main
opposition leader accused the ruling party of rigging. Zambia's main
opposition candidate was ahead in early presidential election
results,
but his lead was slowly narrowing. Banda ended up winning 40% of the
vote and opposition leader Michael Sata secured 38%.
(Reuters, 10/30/08)(AP, 10/31/08)(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Oct 31, Pres. Bush signed
an
executive order restoring the Libyan government’s immunity from
terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases in
response to Libya’s payment of $1.5 billion into a fund to
compensate
the families of victims the 1986 bombing of a German disco and the
1988
Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
(SFC, 11/1/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 31, A jury of US
military
officers at Guantanamo's second war-crimes trial reached a verdict
that
could put Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, Osama bin Laden's alleged "media
secretary" and video maker, in prison for life. Announcement of the
decision was postponed to Nov 3.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, J.P. Morgan Chase
& Co. launched an a plan to modify the terms of $70 billion in
mortgages for borrowers who were either behind on their payments or
soon could be. As many as 400,000 borrowers could be moved into
lower
rate mortgages.
(WSJ, 11/1/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 31, Airship Ventures
began operating zeppelin flights from Moffett field in Mountain
View,
Ca. Passenger tickets were set at $495 per person for one hour and
$950
for 2 hours.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 31, VeraSun Energy,
one
of America’s biggest ethanol producers, filed for bankruptcy after
being caught in the gyrations of the prices of corn and gasoline.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.79)
2008 Oct 31, The Leakey
Foundation
awarded its Leakey Prize to American primatologist Jane Goodall and
Japanese scientist Toshidada Nishida for their work with
chimpanzees.
(SFC, 10/30/08, p.B1)
2008 Oct 31, Studs Terkel
(b.1912), Chicago radio personality and writer, died. His books
included “The Good War,” which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984.
(SFC, 11/1/08, p.A2)
2008 Oct 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a series of operations by US forces targeted an al-Qaida
leader and a bomb-making cell, killing 19 militants in Nangarhar and
Khost provinces. Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the
militant group has released two aid workers from Bangladesh whom
they
had kidnapped in Ghazni province late last month.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Oct 31, Brazil's state-run
oil company signed an agreement to explore for oil in deep Caribbean
waters north of Cuba that officials in Havana say could contain 20
billion barrels of crude.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Petrofac evacuated
56
non-essential workers from the North Sea Heather Alpha oil rig after
a
reports of 10-20 ton oil spill.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Top British
filmmaker
Danny Boyle's new Mumbai-based film "Slumdog Millionaire" won rave
reviews after its screening at the close of the London Film
Festival.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Middle East
investors
will own up to one third of Barclays Plc after Abu Dhabi and Qatar
provided most of 7.3 billion pounds ($12.1 billion) raised by the
bank
to repair damage from the global financial crisis and avoid taking
UK
government rescue funds.
(Reuters, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Heavily-armed
pirates
swarmed aboard an oil industry support vessel working off the coast
of
Cameroon and kidnapped 10 of 15 crew members, including six
Frenchmen.
A man claiming to represent a rebel group opposed to Cameroon's
takeover of the Bakassi Peninsula warned the hostages would be
killed
unless Cameroonian officials agreed to reopen the issue.
(AFP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, In Canada an
explosion damaged a natural gas wellhead in the same area of
northeast
British Columbia where two pipelines have been bombed this month.
(Reuters, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, In southern China
a
truck driver killed 4 people and injured 20 by driving into a crowd
of
high school students coming out of class. The male driver was shot
dead
by police after the incident in the city of Zhuhai in Guangdong
province.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Oct 31, Thousands of
war-weary refugees set out on foot for their homes in eastern Congo,
taking advantage of a cease-fire as American and UN envoys joined
efforts there to find a political solution to the region's
long-running
rebellion.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, In southern Egypt
tourist bus overturned, killing six Belgian tourists and injuring 26
other Belgian passengers.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, Israeli settlers
clashed with Israeli police and Palestinians in the West Bank town
of
Hebron following the overnight demolition of an unauthorized settler
outpost. Israelis from across the political spectrum slammed a
decision
to air the first-ever television interview with Yigal Amir (43), the
extremist Jew who assassinated PM Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
(AP, 10/31/08)(AFP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, In Japan an essay
by
Gen. Toshio Tamogami, head of Japan’s air force, was published. He
had
won a competition for best essay denying Japan’s wartime role as an
aggressor and sponsor of atrocities. The contest was sponsored by
Toshio Motoya, the head of a hotel chain. Within hours of
publication
Gen. Toshio Tamogami was out of a job.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.57)
2008 Oct 31, Libyan leader
Muammar
Gaddafi, starting his first visit to post-Soviet Russia, planned to
discuss opening a Russian naval base in Libya to counterbalance US
interests in the region.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, In Mexico police
arrested Antonio Galarza, the reputed leader of the violent Gulf
drug
cartel for the border city of Reynosa, in the northern city of
Monterrey on suspicion of weapons violations and organized crime.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Oct 31, A suspected US
drone
aircraft fired missiles into a house in Mir Ali town in Pakistan's
North Waziristan region on the Afghan border. Al-Qaida member Abu
Kasha
Iraqi was among those killed. Abu Jihad al-Masri, described by the
US
as al-Qaida’s propaganda chief, was among 3 people killed when a
missile hit their truck. A second house was hit, killing 12
including
suspected foreign militants in Kari Kot in South Waziristan. 29
people
were reported killed in the 2 attacks. A suicide bomber attacked the
convoy of a regional police chief, killing 3 police officers and 5
civilians in Mardan in the North West Frontier Province.
(AP, 10/31/08)(AFP, 11/1/08)(SFC, 11/1/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 31, Gunmen in
Peshawar,
Pakistan, kidnapped Zia ul-Haq Ahadi, the brother of Afghanistan's
finance minister, while he was walking to his mother's home after
praying at a mosque. Ahadi, a businessman who lives in Afghanistan,
was
in Peshawar to visit his mother.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Oct 31, Spain approved a
measure to let descendants of people who fled into exile after its
1936-39 Civil War apply for Spanish citizenship. The government said
it
believes up to 500,000 children and grandchildren of such emigres
are
eligible. The government says 300,000 of those people live in
Argentina.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Oct, In the US the number
of
personal bankruptcies for October jumped nearly 8% as compared to
September. Filings totaled 108,595, up nearly 34% from October,
2007.
(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.A5)
2008 Oct, US customs officials
at
Miami International Airport seized a 3,000-yeor-old Egyptian
sarcophagus from a shipment coming from Spain after the importer
could
not present proper documentation to prove ownership. It dated back
to
the 21st Dynasty (1070-945 B.C.) and belonged to a noble called
Imesy.
An investigation found the coffin had been stolen from Egypt 126
years
ago and taken to Spain before it was shipped to the US. In 2010 it
was
returned to Egypt.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2008 Oct, US Special Forces
soldiers freed a kidnapped American working for the Army Corps of
Engineers during a nighttime mission. The American, who had been
working on US government-funded infrastructure projects, was
abducted
in mid-August and had been held just 30 miles west of Kabul with no
public notice of his abduction. The mission to free the contractor
killed several insurgents.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct, Solyndra, a
Fremont, Ca., company, launched a new type of solar panel using
lightweight glass tubes. It expected installation costs to be half
that
of conventional panels.
(Econ, 10/11/08, p.110)
2008 Oct, Smart Union, a
Chinese
toymaker founded by Tony Wu, went into forced liquidation with the
direct loss of some 12,000 jobs and the indirect loss of many more.
Flooding in June hit Dongguan and severely impacted the company’s
inventories and the following credit crunch forced it to shut down
in
September.
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.63)
2008 Oct, China’s first Disney
operated English-language school opened.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.52)
2008 Oct, Yemen’s President Ali
Abdullah Saleh disclosed that a "terrorist cell" linked to Israel's
intelligence services had been dismantled. Bassam al-Haidari was
later
found guilty of contacts with Israeli premier Ehud Olmert on the
Internet to plot against Yemen and sentenced to death. 2 other men
received 3-year jail terms.
(AFP, 4/3/10)
2008 Nov 1, Members of the
Machinists Union, representing some 27,000 workers in Washington,
Oregon, and Kansas, ratified a new contract with the Boeing Co.
ending
an 8-week strike.
(SSFC, 11/2/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 1, A gunman fatally
shot
Cincinnati minister Rev. Donald Fairbanks Sr. and wounded a church
deacon just after the two men arrived at a northern Kentucky church
to
attend a funeral. Frederick L. Davis, of Covington, quickly
surrendered
to police and was charged with murder, first degree assault,
criminal
mischief and violating an emergency protection order.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 1, Yma Sumac (b.1922),
Peruvian-born singer known as the “Nightingale of the Andes,” died
in
LA. Her voice was said to range over 4½ octaves. Her first
album, “Voice of the Xtabay” (1950) soared to the top of the LP
charts.
(SFC, 11/4/08, p.B4)
2008 Nov 1, In southern
Afghanistan Dutch Major General Mart de Kruif replaced Canadian
Major
General Marc Lessard as head of 19,000 mostly British, Canadian,
Dutch
and US NATO-led soldiers of the International Security Assistance
Force
(ISAF).
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, In Australia the
badly
decomposed body of Chen Liu (27) was found in Sydney, about two
weeks
after a friend reported him missing. 34 nails were found during a
post-mortem examination of Liu's body, and were located mainly in
his
skull. They were fired from an 85 mm nail gun at close range.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2008 Nov 1, Bolivian President
Evo
Morales suspended US anti-drug operations as Washington's relations
with his leftist government spiraled downward.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 1, It was reported
that
British Major Sebastian Morley, commander of SAS (Special Air
Service)
troops in Afghanistan, has resigned, reportedly in disgust at
equipment
failures that he believes led to the death of four of his troops.
(AFP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown left for a tour of oil-rich Gulf states, hoping to persuade
them
to give extra funds to help countries hit by the world economic
turmoil.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, Five migrants were
rescued after 15 days lost at sea. One died the next day. A total of
33
Dominican migrants were trying to reach Puerto Rico by boat when
they
were reported missing by relatives in mid-October. Survivors said
they
lost their way after the captain abandoned the ship. The survivors
ate
their dead comrades to stay alive. Four Dominicans were later
charged
with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly helping to organize the
illegal boat trip to Puerto Rico that ended in the deaths of 29
migrants.
(AP, 11/2/08)(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 1, Three Tunisian men
accused of terrorism links by Italian prosecutors arrived in Milan
under heavy security after being extradited from Britain. Habib
Ignaoua, Mohamed Khemiri and Ali Chehidi were arrested in the London
and Manchester areas last year as part of coordinated raids across
Europe against an alleged Italian-based network recruiting fighters
for
Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 1, Tutsi-led rebels
tightened their hold on newly seized swaths of eastern Congo,
forcing
tens of thousands of frightened, rain-soaked civilians out of
makeshift
refugee camps and stopping some from fleeing to government-held
territory. Congolese soldiers killed nine fighters from Uganda's
Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) after 30-50 rebels attacked a village in
northeast Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AP, 11/2/08)(AFP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 1, Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak promised to push ahead with economic reform and step
up
efforts to combat poverty, despite the impact of the international
financial crisis on Egypt's economy.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 1, In Iraq a police
quick
reaction force for Anbar province moved to the border town of Qaim,
about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, to prevent al-Qaida from
moving
into the area from Syria. Unknown assailants gunned down a policeman
on
a foot patrol along Palestine Street in Shiite eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, Malaysia defended
its
recognition of Kosovo as an independent state, a move that caused
Serbia to expel the Southeast Asian nation's ambassador.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, The top officer of
Mexico's federal police force quit amid allegations that drug gangs
have infiltrated senior levels of crime-fighting agencies. Acting
federal police Commissioner Gerardo Garay said he was stepping aside
"to place myself at the orders of legal judicial authorities to
clear
up any accusation against me."
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, In South Africa
thousands of dissidents in the African National Congress met to pave
the way for a new South African party, the Congress of the People
(COPE) in a bitter split from the movement that led the
anti-apartheid
struggle.
(AFP, 11/1/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.58)
2008 Nov 1, Sri Lanka's defense
ministry said its warships sank at least four rebel boats and killed
at
least 14 guerrillas while the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE)
said they destroyed a navy fast attack craft and a hovercraft.
Security
forces took control of a two-kilometer (1.25-mile) rebel bunker line
north of Kilinochchi amidst heavy fire.
(AFP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, Jacques Piccard
(b.1922), a scientist and underwater explorer who plunged deeper
beneath the ocean than any other man, died in Geneva, Switzerland.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai called for a truth commission to examine
atrocities in the country dating back to the massacres of ethnic
minorities in the 1980s.
(AFP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 2, Opus, a politically
beleaguered penguin created by cartoonist Berkeley Breathed,
appeared
in the Sunday comics for the last time.
(SFC, 10/27/08, p.E1)
2008 Nov 2, Paula Radcliffe
defended her title at the NYC marathon to become the second woman to
win the race three times. Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil won
the
men's race for the second time in three years.
(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,445965,00.html)
2008 Nov 2, In southern
California
police in Long Beach found 5 people shot to death in a homeless
encampment in the shadow of the San Diego Freeway.
(SFC, 11/4/08, p.A2)
2008 Nov 2, The leaders of
Armenia
and Azerbaijan agreed to intensify talks to end a 20-year conflict
over
the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 2, Belarus President
Alexander Lukashenko greeted visiting Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi
and
said he hopes to boost ties between their countries.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 2, British PM Gordon
Brown said he is confident that Saudi Arabia will contribute to the
International Monetary Fund's bailout reserves after he promised
business leaders in the Gulf that they would have a say in any
future
new world economic order.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 2, China opened the
final
session of the Canton Fair, the country's biggest trade show, amid
complaints that attendance has been dismal because of the financial
crisis clobbering the nation's biggest export markets in the US and
Europe. In southwest China at least 40 were killed after mudslides
engulfed several villages.
(AP, 11/2/08)(AFP, 11/2/08)(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 2, Dubai Port World
(DP
World) said it has agreed on a deal to run the cargo terminal in the
Algerian port Djendjen. The port, which opened in 1993, is the most
commercially important in Algeria.
(AFP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 2, Ahmed Al-Mirghani
(67)
former head of Sudan’s last democratically elected government
(1986-1989), died in Egypt. In 1989 a military coup led by current
President Omar al-Bashir unseated him.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 2, In Guyana American
pilots James Barker and Chris Paris and Canadian technician Patrick
Murphy were doing uranium survey work for Prometheus Resources
Guyana
Inc., a subsidiary of U308 Corporation of Toronto, Canada, when the
plane went missing.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 2, Iranian authorities
arrested Hossein Derakhshan (b.1975), a well-known Canadian-Iranian
blogger. In 2010 he was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison.
(Econ, 10/23/10,
p.60)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hossein_Derakhshan)
2008 Nov 2, Israel’s Cabinet
decided to ratchet up law enforcement measures directed at extremist
settlers. It also decided to halt government funding for the some
100
outposts built by settlers.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 2, Mexican prosecutors
said 11 policemen have been shot to death near Mexico City in a
three-day string of drug-gang attacks. In Tijuana, across the border
from San Diego, California, police found two decapitated bodies
wrapped
in blankets in a vacant lot.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 2, The Moroccan
government banned an issue of the French magazine L'Express
International, claiming it insults Islam in articles exploring the
relationship between that religion and Christianity.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 2, In Pakistan a
suicide
bomber detonated his vehicle at a checkpoint at Zalai Fort in South
Waziristan killing 8 troops.
(SFC, 11/3/08, p.A11)
2008 Nov 2, A week of flooding
triggered by torrential rains in northern and central Vietnam killed
some 92 people, 22 of them in the capital Hanoi hit by the worst
flooding in 35 years.
(Reuters, 11/2/08)(AP, 11/3/08)(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 2, The bodies of 60
Somali and Ethiopian migrants washed up on the shores of southern
Yemen
over the last three days.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 2, Veteran diplomat
Rupiah Banda (72) was sworn in as the new president of Zambia
following
a narrow and disputed victory over a populist rival in an election
forced by the death of the country's former leader.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 3, Ali Hamza al-Bahlul
(39), an aide to Osama bin Laden who refused to defend himself at
his
Guantanamo war crimes trial, was convicted of three
terrorism-related
charges and was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 11/3/08)(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 3, Circuit City Stores
Inc. said it is closing about 20 percent of its US stores, cutting
thousands of jobs, in an effort to return the nation's No. 2
consumer
electronics retailer to profitability. The closure of 155 US stores
would put as many as 7,300 employees out of work.
(AP, 11/3/08)(SFC, 11/4/08, p.D1)
2008 Nov 3, In southern
Afghanistan 37 civilians, including women and children, were killed
in
international air strikes that hit Wach Baghtu village in Shah Wali
Kot
district of Kandahar. 26 insurgents were also reported killed. In
Afghanistan gunmen abducted Dany Egreteau (32), a French aid worker
in
Kabul, and shot dead an Afghan man who tried to rescue him. The
Taliban
said it was not involved. Afghan and coalition troops seized 40 tons
of
hashish during a raid in Nawa Kili village in southern Kandahar
province.
(AFP, 11/3/08)(AP, 11/3/08)(AFP, 11/5/08)(AP,
11/7/08)
2008 Nov 3, In Bangladesh Pres.
Iajuddin Ahmed signed an order sending the army back to the
barracks,
drawing to an end the state of emergency that began Jan 11, 2007.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.58)
2008 Nov 3, Two of Brazil’s
largest banks agreed to merge in a move to buttress the country’s
financial system. Itau Holding Financeira SA will purchase its
smaller
rival Uniao de Bancos Brasileiros SA.
(WSJ, 11/4/08, p.C1)
2008 Nov 3, UK Financial
Investments (UKFI) was set up to mange the British government’s
stakes
in rescued banks. John Kingman, a Treasury executive, was placed in
charge.
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.64)
2008 Nov 3, In Iraq PM Nouri
al-Maliki pledged to protect Iraq's Christian minority, which has
faced
a spate of attacks this month in the northern city of Mosul.
Parliament
approved legislation restoring guaranteed seats on provincial
councils
to Christians and other small religious communities, the last major
hurdle to holding provincial elections next year. A string of
bombings
in Baghdad and Baqouba killed nine people and wounded at least 33
others.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 3, General David
Petraeus, the US commander running the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
held talks with Pakistani leaders who told him to stop US strikes on
militants in Pakistani territory.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 3, The Scottish
government approved controversial plans by US tycoon Donald Trump to
build a huge luxury golf resort on the country's east coast.
(AFP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 3, Spain's government,
grappling with soaring unemployment and an economy buffeted by the
global credit crunch, announced a plan to help families make
mortgage
payments and reward businesses that hire.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 3, Chen Yunlin, the
most
senior Chinese official to visit Taiwan since the end of a civil war
60
years ago, arrived in Taipei on a charter flight from Beijing for
talks
on strengthening economic ties, as supporters of independence for
the
island staged demonstrations and planned mass protest rallies
against
his visit.
(AFP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 3, Zimbabwean
officials
say they have sold almost 4 tons of ivory for over $450,000 and the
money will go to the country's cash-strapped wildlife authorities.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 4, The US Presidential
race was called for Barack Obama at 11p.m. on the East Coast. An
hour
later Obama was on stage at Grant Park in Chicago, speaking to the
tens
of thousands of supporters gathered there. Obama beat McCain 52% to
46%
in the popular vote and 365 to 173 in the electoral college.
(AP, 11/5/08)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.39)(SFC, 11/20/08,
p.A16)
2008 Nov 4, The Federal
Communications Commission ruled that a valuable chunk of wireless
spectrum will be open to whatever mobile devices Americans want to
use,
amounting to a political setback for traditional telephone companies
and a partial win for Google.
(http://tinyurl.com/5uyqzj)(SFC, 11/7/08, p.C1)
2008 Nov 4, In Alaska voters
ousted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens. Democrat Mark Begich claimed a
narrow victory on Nov 18, after a tally of remaining ballots showed
him
holding a 3,724-vote edge.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 4, Arkansas voters
passed
a measure blocking the adoption of children by unmarried couples.
John
McCain won the state by 20 points over Barack Obama. Arkansas voters
approved a state lottery by a 63% margin. In 2010 a Circuit Court
judge
in Little Rock struck down the measure on adoption, saying it
infringed
on a person’s right to privacy.
(SSFC, 11/9/08, p.A5)(Econ, 11/22/08, p.45)(SFC,
4/17/10, p.A4)
2008 Nov 4, California voters
put
a stop to gay marriage, creating uncertainty about the legal status
of
18,000 same-sex couples who tied the knot during a four-month window
of
opportunity opened by the state's highest court. On Nov 19 the
California state Supreme Court agreed to decide on the legality of
the
Proposition 8 measure. It was later reported that opponents and
supporters had pumped a total of $85 million in to the measure.
State
voters approved Proposition 2 for improved treatment of farm
animals.
Voters also approved Proposition 1A, a $9.5 billion bond for
high-speed
rail service from SF to LA. Marin and Sonoma voters approved Measure
Q
for a quarter cent sales tax increase to build and operate a
commuter
train for Cloverdale to Larkspur. Prop. 11, a measure to overhaul
state
redistricting rules, passed as the final tally was completed 3 weeks
later.
(AP, 11/6/08)(SFC, 11/5/08, p.A17)(SFC, 11/6/08,
p.A17, B1)(SFC, 11/20/08, p.A1)(SFC, 11/27/08, p.A1)(SFC, 2/3/09,
p.B1)
2008 Nov 4, Voters in Richmond,
Ca., approved a Measure T, which called for a tax assessment on
Chevron
Corp. for the value of crude oil that is refined in the city. On Dec
16, 2009, a Contra Costa County judge struck down the tax.
(SFC, 12/25/09, p.D1)
2008 Nov 4, Mitchell Daniels
(R)
was re-elected governor of Indiana with 58% of the vote.
(Econ, 8/21/10, p.21)
2008 Nov 4, Massachusetts
voters
passed Question 2, a measure to decriminalize the possession of less
than an ounce of marijuana, with 65% in support. Under the state
constitution the measure becomes law after 30 days.
(SFC, 11/7/08, p.A7)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.48)
2008 Nov 4, Michigan voted for
Barack Obama and legalized medicinal marijuana.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.48)
2008 Nov 4, In Missouri
Democrat
Jay Nixon was elected governor replacing Republican Gov. Mat Blunt,
who
did not seek re-election. Missouri’s 11 electoral votes went to
McCain
as it became the last state to complete results on Nov 19.
(SFC, 11/5/08, p.A14)(SFC, 11/20/08, p.A16)
2008 Nov 4, President-elect
Barack
Obama won one of Nebraska's electoral votes, the first time in
history
that the state has split its votes and the first time in 44 years
that
it had given a vote to a Democrat. The result was not known until
Nov
14. Nebraska voters did away with racial preferences.
(AP, 11/15/08)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.37)
2008 Nov 4, Voters in Nevada
favored Barack Obama and ousted 2 Republicans to give Democrats a
majority in the state senate.
(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.A10)
2008 Nov 4, In North Carolina
Democrat Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue was elected governor. Democrat Kay
Hagan defeated Republican state Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
(SFC, 11/5/08, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 4, In Tennessee John
McCain beat Barack Obama by 15 points. Republicans held their 4 US
House seats and took control of both chambers of the state
legislature
for the first time since Reconstruction.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.A2)
2008 Nov 4, Oregon’s GOP Sen.
Smith lost to Democrat Jeff Merkley, giving the Democrats at least
57
Senate votes in 2009.
(WSJ, 11/6/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 4, Washington voted
for
Barack Obama and became the 2nd state after Oregon to legalize
assisted
suicide.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.48)
2008 Nov 4, Michael Crichton
(b.1942), doctor turned author and film director, died in LA. His
books
included “The Andromeda Strain” (1969), “The Great Train Robbery”
(1975) and “Jurassic Park” (1990), all of which were made into
popular
films. He also created the TV series ER in 1994.
(SFC, 11/6/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 4, In Afghanistan Gen.
David Petraeus, the new chief of the US Central Command, took a
firsthand look at the war following a two-day visit to Pakistan.
US-led
troops killed five insurgents in the southern Helmand province,
after
the militants ambushed their patrol. in Kandahar province Don Ayala
(46), a US military contractor, shot and killed Abdul Salam, an
Afghan
civilian, after Salam Afghan ignited a pitcher of fuel and threw it
on
social scientist Paula Lloyd (36), inflicting serious burns. On Nov
20
Ayala was charged in Virginia with 2nd degree murder. Lloyd died
from
the burns on Jan 7, 2009.
(AP, 11/4/08)(SFC, 11/21/08, p.A3)(SFC, 1/10/09,
p.A5)
2008 Nov 4, In Austria 2 men
and a
woman were arrested in the raid in the southern town of Villach. The
raid on a suspected gang of international jewel thieves recovered an
uncut ruby known as the "Prince of Burma" worth 3.2 million euros
($4.1
million). The ruby along with diamonds and other gems were stolen
from
a German jewelry dealer in Milan, Italy, in August.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 4, In London A sketch
by
Winnie the Pooh illustrator E.H. Shepard titled "Tiggers Don't Like
Honey" fetched 31,200 pounds ($49,770) at auction, well above the
pre-sale estimate of 15,000 to 20,000 pounds ($24,000 to $32,000).
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, In China
authorities
in Chongqing, one of China's biggest cities, vowed to crack down on
violence that has marked a rare strike by taxi drivers, and called
for
an immediate return to work.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, Gen. Mario Montoya,
the commander of Colombia's army, resigned abruptly in a widening
scandal over the killing of scores of civilians, allegedly spurred
by
promotion-seeking officers to inflate rebel body counts.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, Congolese rebel
leader
Laurent Nkunda threatened to take his eastern guerrilla war
westwards
to the capital Kinshasa unless the government agreed to talks on the
country's future. Congo's government refused rebel leader Laurent
Nkunda's demand for direct talks.
(Reuters, 11/4/08)(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, Human Rights Watch
reported that both Georgia and Russia used cluster bombs during
their
brief summer war. Georgia’s bombs, purchased from Israel, killed at
least 3 Georgian civilians, including 2 who touched unexploded bombs
and died after the fighting ended. Many of the bombs were said to
have
malfunctioned.
(WSJ, 11/4/08, p.A12)
2008 Nov 4, In Germany a tour
bus
returning from a day trip to a farm caught fire on a highway near
the
northern city of Hannover, killing 20 people. A cigarette was
suspected
but it may also have been caused by a spark from the undercarriage.
(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,446824,00.html)
2008 Nov 4, India’s finance
minister called in the bosses of state owned banks for a chat.
Afterwards they said they would cut their lending rates by .75%.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.91)
2008 Nov 4, In northern India.
a
passenger bus rolled into a gorge near Kufri, a popular ski resort,
killing at least 45 people.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, Iran's parliament
impeached Interior Minister Ali Kordan after he admitted having a
fake
degree from Oxford University, in a vote widely seen as a defeat for
hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, In Iraq bombs
exploded
at a bus station and a small market in Baghdad, killing at least 15
people and wounding 29 others. One person died when a roadside bomb
targeted the convoy of a Shiite government official and former
member
of the Iraqi Governing Council in central Baghdad. In Mosul a
suicide
bomber rammed his car into a passing police patrol, injuring four
officers. One civilian died on the scene of a road accident with
coalition troops near the city of Tikrit. A second Iraqi died after
being rushed to an aid station.
(AP, 11/4/08)(SFC, 11/5/08, p.A17)
2008 Nov 4, Italian police
arrested 47 people including the wife of a jailed mafia boss in
raids
on a Naples-based organized crime syndicate. They also seized bank
accounts and assets worth about 80 million euros ($102 million) in
the
raids.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, One of Mexico's top
pointmen in the war against drug trafficking died when a government
jet
crashed into a Mexico City street, setting fire to dozens of
vehicles.
The loss of Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, former anti-drug
prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and six others thinned the
ranks of Mexico's already embattled leadership. 9 people on the
plane
were killed as well as 5 people on the ground. A 15th victim died 2
weeks later. A 16th victim died in On Dec 11. Three alleged hitmen
suspected in the killing of a top border-state police official died
in
a gunbattle with police in Nogales. They were suspected of having
helped kill Sonora state police chief Juan Manuel Pavon on Nov 2.
One
Sonora state police officer died in the shootout. A suspect in
Pavon's
killing was taken into custody.
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)(AP, 11/18/08)(AP,
12/11/08)
2008 Nov 4, A World Bank
delegation launched a sewage project, long delayed by the standoff
between Israel and Hamas, in the Gaza Strip to prevent raw sewage
from
spilling into residential areas.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, In the Philippines
a
ferry packed with commuters overturned after it was buffeted by
monsoon
winds and huge waves, killing 42 people including 11 children. 76
people were rescued from the Don Dexter Cathlyn. It capsized shortly
after leaving port in central Masbate island. Officials the next day
detained the captain on suspicion of operating the vessel illegally.
(AP, 11/4/08)(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 4, Puerto Rico voted
to
oust incumbent Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila, who is under indictment for
allegedly violating campaign finance laws. Challenger Luis Fortuno
of
the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, vowed to fight crime and
spur
the island's troubled economy. On March 20, 2009, a jury found Vila
not
guilty on all 9 charges against him.
(AP, 11/4/08)(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A2)
2008 Nov 4, In Moscow
ultranationalists and anti-immigrant activists tossed smoke grenades
and scuffled with riot police on a national holiday celebrating
Russian
unity. Youths assaulted a Turkmen diplomat outside his Moscow
consulate
and killed an Uzbek in separate attacks.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 4, Spain’s government
reported that the number of people claiming unemployment benefits
has
jumped to 2.8 million (11.3%), the highest since 1996, in the latest
devastating fallout from the international financial crisis.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, Sudanese
journalists
launched a mass hunger strike, and three independent newspapers
stopped
work for three days in the country's biggest organized media protest
against draconian censorship.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, Taiwan and China
set
aside decades of hostilities and agreed to drastically expand
flights
and allow shipping links across the Taiwan Strait, a potential
hotspot
that has long threatened to become a war zone.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, In southern
Thailand
suspected Muslim insurgents detonated two bombs at a tea stall and
shopping area, killing one person and wounding at least 71.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 4, In a bid to improve
strained Catholic-Muslim relations, the Vatican hosted scholars,
imans
and clerics from both religions as it opened a three-day religious
conference.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 5, In St. Johns,
Arizona,
a boy (8) fatally shot his father, Vincent Romero (29) and Timothy
Romans (39) of San Carlos, with a .22-caliber rifle.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 5, In San Francisco,
Ca.,
Charles Heard shot and killed Richard Barrett (29) outside the Fuse
Bar
in North Beach. Barrett had refused to give up his Flintstones’
Bamm-Bamm pendant. In 2010 Heard (25) was convicted of first degree
murder under the felony murder rule.
(SFC, 7/2/10, p.C2)
2008 Nov 5, John Leonard,
former
editor of the NY Times Book Review (1970-1983), died in NYC.
(SFC, 11/11/08, p.B4)
2008 Nov 5, Africans across the
continent sang, danced in the streets and wrapped themselves in US
flags to cheer for America's first black president. Kenya will party
for two days, after Pres. Kibaki declared a national holiday for Nov
6
in honor of Obama.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 5, In Algeria Fateh
Bouchibane, mayor of Timezrit in the Kabylie region, was abducted
and
killed.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 5, Queen Elizabeth II
approved a new constitution for the Falkland Islands. It formalizes
the
system of self-government on the South Atlantic archipelago, while
giving Britain the final say on foreign policy, policing and the
administration of justice.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 5, Cpl. Daniel James
(45), a former British army interpreter, was convicted of espionage
for
sending e-mails to an Iranian diplomat while serving in Afghanistan
in
2006.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 5, A Cameroon militia
leader said one of the 10 hostages seized by a local militia off
Cameroon's coast last week was killed in a failed rescue attempt by
Nigerian marines.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 5, In Congo heavy
fighting erupted for a second day between rebels and a
pro-government
militia in lawless North Kivu province, but a wider cease-fire was
holding around this provincial capital. In Kiwanja fighters loyal to
rebel General Laurent Nkunda drove out pro-government Mai-Mai
militia,
sending its inhabitants fleeing in panic. A local clergyman said at
least 180 civilians had been killed overnight. The next day UN
peacekeepers found the bodies of a dozen shot civilians.
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.61)
2008 Nov 5, In southern
Ethiopian
farmers stoned to death Legesse Wegi, a senior rebel figure
suspected
of organizing fatal blasts in the capital Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 5, Germany’s cabinet
approved measures to boost the economy that will cost around €23
billion ($29.9) over the next 4 years.
(WSJ, 11/6/08, p.A15)
2008 Nov 5, In Iraq a suicide
bomber rammed his car into a police patrol on the road to Baghdad’s
airport, killing 6 people. In Amara a police officer died from a
roadside bomb.
(SFC, 11/6/08, p.A2)
2008 Nov 5, Hamas militants
pounded southern Israel with a barrage of rockets, hours after
Israeli
forces killed six gunmen. The clashes began the previous evening
after
Israeli forces burst into Gaza to destroy what the army said was a
tunnel being dug near the border to abduct Israeli troops. The
Israeli
military said 35 rockets were fired. Late the same day Israel
launched
another airstrike, killing a Palestinian militant in northern Gaza.
The
army said it was targeting a rocket launcher, whom the Islamic Jihad
group identified as its own. The group had fired two rockets at the
Israeli border town of Sderot and one of its leaders, Khader Habib,
declared the truce over.
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 5, Libya's Moamer
Kadhafi
met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in his
traditional
Bedouin tent during a visit to Kiev expected to focus on energy and
military cooperation.
(AFP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 5, In Mozambique a
medical officer said at least 50 people have died of cholera and
more
than 100 have been taken to hospital since the disease broke out
last
week in northern Manica province.
(AFP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 5, A Pakistani army
air
strike overnight destroyed a suspected militant training facility in
the Bajur tribal area near the Afghan border. 15 insurgents were
killed. The dead included a Pakistani militant commander named Wali
Rehman, who was known to shelter foreign militants linked to
al-Qaida.
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 5, Russia will deploy
missiles near NATO member Poland in response to US missile defense
plans, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday in his first state
of
the nation speech.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 5, In Somalia 6
employees
of the French aid group Action Against Hunger were kidnapped in the
town of Dhusamareb. They included four non-Somali workers and two
chauffeurs.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 5, Zimbabwe issued
three
new denominations of banknotes, including a one-million-dollar note,
as
the impoverished country struggles to cope with runaway inflation.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 6, President elect
Barack
Obama chose Rahm Emanuel (48), a fiery partisan unafraid of breaking
glass and hurting feelings, as his White House chief of staff. It
was
reported that Obama's campaign chief strategist David Axelrod, one
of
the main architects of his election victory, had agreed to become a
senior advisor in the White House.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 6, The leaders of GM,
Ford and Chrysler came to Capital Hill along with the president of
the
UAW to discuss billions of dollars in financial help for the
struggling
car industry.
(SFC, 11/7/08, p.C3)
2008 Nov 6, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger proposed $4.4 billion in new taxes and a similar
amount
in spending cuts to deal with California's worsening fiscal crisis,
saying, "We must stop the bleeding."
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 6, Philadelphia’s
Mayor
Nutter said a budget deficit crises will force the city to close
libraries and swimming pools, suspend planned tax reductions, cut
more
than 800 jobs and trim salaries to deal with a $1 billion shortfall.
(SFC, 11/7/08, p.A7)
2008 Nov 6, David Booth (61),
chief executive of Dimensional Fund Advisors mutual fund, said he
will
donate $300 million to the Univ. of Chicago’s business school.
(WSJ, 11/6/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 6, In northwest
Afghanistan an airstrike killed 13 Taliban militants and seven
civilians in Ghormach district of Badghis province, a day after
President Hamid Karzai demanded a halt to civilian casualties in
US-led
coalition operations.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 6, The Himalayan
kingdom
of Bhutan crowned a new king, placing a charismatic Oxford-educated
bachelor as head of state of the world's newest democracy. Jigme
Khesar
Namgyel Wangchuck (28) became the world's youngest reigning monarch.
(AFP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 6, The European
Central
Bank cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 3.25%
and
the Bank of England made an even more aggressive reduction of 1.5%,
from 4.5% to 3%, in an effort to ease the financial crisis and boost
their flagging economies. The rate in England was lowest since 1955.
(AP, 11/6/08)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.71)
2008 Nov 6, Authorities said
Hungary is preparing a financial aid package worth up to 600 billion
forints ($3 billion, 2.3 billion euros) to boost domestic banks'
capital and help them refinance debts.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 6, A series of bomb
blasts across Baghdad killed six people and injured more than 20
others, in the fourth consecutive day of heightened violence in the
Iraqi capital. The al-Qaida leader, known as Abu Ghazwan, was killed
during a raid on a weapons cache. An American soldier has died of
noncombat related causes.
(AP, 11/6/08)(AP, 11/7/08)(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 6, In Italy Domenico
Magnoli (27), an alleged mobster, woke up in a private Italian
clinic
following liposuction surgery, and was arrested for trafficking in
cocaine. Police alleged that Magnoli, born in Cannes, France, has
links
to the Piromalli crime clan in the 'ndrangheta syndicate.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 6, Japanese
researchers
said they had created functioning human brain tissues from stem
cells,
a world first that has raised new hopes for the treatment of
disease.
(AFP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 6, Mexican authorities
detained Rodolfo de la Guardia Garcia, the No. 2 official in the
Federal Agency of Investigation from 2003-2005, suspected of aiding
drug traffickers, and Jaime Gonzalez Duran, alleged founder of a
vicious gang of drug-cartel hit men. A cache of 540 rifles, 165
grenades, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and 14 sticks of TNT were
seized
at a house in the city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen,
Texas. This was the largest seizure of drug-cartel weapons in
Mexico's
history. In the northeast, police mistakenly opened fire on a family
of
six, seriously wounding a teenage girl. In the west, inmates rioted,
killing six. And police in Tijuana found three more bodies
accompanied
by messages that appeared to be from drug traffickers.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 6, In Nigeria at least
six navy personnel were killed in a gun battle between two rival
gangs
in southern oil-rich Bayelsa state.
(AFP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 6, In Pakistan a
suicide
bomber attacked a gathering of anti-militant Salarzai tribesmen,
killing at least 17 and wounding 45 in the Batmalai area of the
Bajur
tribal region, where the military has clashed with insurgents for
months. Another suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint
in
the Swat Valley killing at least 2 paramilitary troopers.
(AP, 11/6/08)(SFC, 11/7/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 6, In the central
Philippines a small ferry capsized during a storm at Bagongon islet.
11
passengers drowned in waters just 200 yards offshore. 30 survived a
3
remained missing.
(AP, 11/6/08)(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 6, Romania's defense
minister says the country's 501 peacekeepers in Iraq will all leave
by
the end of the year.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 6, A Romanian computer
programmer who hacked into computers used by the U.S. Navy, the
Department of Energy and NASA was convicted on Romanian charges and
ordered to pay thousands in damages. Victor Faur (28) was also given
a
16-month suspended prison sentence. In 2006 Faur was indicted in the
United States on nine federal counts of computer intrusion and one
of
conspiracy.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 6, A group of Saudi
activists began a rare public hunger strike to demand judiciary
reform
and draw attention to the detention without trial of 11 political
reformists.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 6, An suspected
suicide
explosion hit a minibus unloading passengers in Vladikavkaz, the
capital of Russia's North Ossetia province, killing 12 people.
(AP, 11/6/08)(Reuters, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 6, Taiwan's President
Ma
Ying-jeou made history when he met with a senior Chinese official as
tens of thousands of anti-Beijing protesters brought the island's
capital to a standstill.
(AFP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 6, State media
reported
that Zimbabwe's government will release millions of dollars in
unspent
foreign aid given to the country last year to fight AIDS,
tuberculosis
and malaria. An official said Zimbabwe's largest gold mining firm
has
stopped operations at its five mines across the strife-torn country,
resulting in 5,000 people losing jobs. The closures resulted from
long
delays in receiving payments for gold delivered to the Reserve Bank
of
Zimbabwe, which has a monopoly on the country's gold trade.
(AFP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 7, US Pres.–elect
Obama
gave his first news conference and vowed to pass a stimulus plan as
his
first act.
(WSJ, 11/8/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 7, The US Labor
Department said the nation's employers cut 240,000 jobs in October,
hurtling the US unemployment rate to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, General Motors
Corp.
reported $2.5 billion losses in the third quarter, burning through
$6.9
billion in cash and warned that it could run out of cash in 2009. GM
also said it has suspended talks to acquire Chrysler. Meanwhile,
Ford
Motor Co. said it lost $129 million in the third quarter as the
struggling automaker burned through $7.7 billion in cash and set
plans
for more job cuts.
(http://cbs5.com/business/ford.posts.loss.2.858582.html)
2008 Nov 7, In Afghanistan a
clash
between police and the Taliban in Zabul province, killed seven
insurgents and wounded two policemen.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, In China hundreds
of
people clashed with police in the southern city of Shenzhen,
throwing
stones and setting fire to a police car after a motorcyclist died
while
trying to avoid a checkpoint.
(Reuters, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 7, The UN
secretary-general joined African leaders to try to end the fighting
in
eastern Congo, where a fragile cease-fire is close to collapse. A UN
official and a peacekeeping officer said Angolan troops are fighting
alongside Congolese soldiers battling rebels outside the eastern
provincial capital of Goma. The UN official said an unspecified
number
of Angolans arrived four days ago.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, Egyptian police
arrested 25 Muslim Brotherhood members at a meeting at Faous, in the
eastern Nile Delta.
(AFP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 7, European planemaker
Airbus said that Spanish tourism company Grupo Marsans has signed a
firm order for 61 aircraft worth almost $9 billion at list prices.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, In Georgia
thousands
of the United Opposition coalition demonstrated in the first major
protest against President Mikhail Saakashvili since the August war
with
Russia. At least two significant opposition parties, The Republican
Party and the Christian Democrats, stayed away from the protest,
citing
the need for postwar unity against Russia.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, In Germany Klaus
Zumwinkel, the former head of Deutsche Post, was charged with tax
evasion. He had stepped down from his post in February following a
raid
on his home in Cologne.
(Econ, 11/15/08, p.77)
2008 Nov 7, In Petionville,
Haiti,
the collapse of a school killed at least 94 children and teachers.
There may have been hundreds of students in La Promesse school when
the
concrete building collapsed. Fortin Augustin, the preacher who owns
and
built College La Promesse in suburban Port-au-Prince, was arrested
Nov
8 and charged with involuntary manslaughter.
(AP, 11/8/08)(AP, 11/9/08)(AP, 11/11/08)(SFC,
11/11/08, p.A10)
2008 Nov 7, India said it will
send one of its most decorated army units to join a UN mission in
Congo
and support other Indian troops as Congolese rebels advance to seize
fresh areas.
(Reuters, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, In southern Nigeria
armed rebels killed a Nigerian sailor during an overnight attack on
US
giant Chevron's oil facility.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, An environmentalist
group and four Nigerians filed suit against Royal Dutch Shell PLC in
the Netherlands, claiming the company was negligent in cleaning up
oil
spills in Nigeria.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, In Pakistan
suspected
US drones fired missiles into Kam Sam, on the border between North
and
South Waziristan, killing 13 militants, including 4-5 foreigners.
This
was the latest in a series of strikes that has infuriated Pakistan.
(Reuters, 11/7/08)(SFC, 11/7/08, p.A8)
2008 Nov 7, Palestinian
militants
in the Gaza Strip fired at least 3 rockets at southern Israel,
fraying
a five-month truce that has been tested sorely this week. There were
no
injuries.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, Mieczyslaw Rakowski
(81), Poland's last communist-era party chairman and prime minister,
died. Rakowski, a historian and journalist, was chairman of the
communist Polish United Workers' Party from July 1989 until the
party
was dissolved at its January 1990 congress during the country's
bloodless transition to democracy.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 7, General Motors
Corp.
dedicated its first Russian assembly plant, a $300 million,
70,000-car-a-year factory just outside of St. Petersburg.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 7, Pirates near
Somalia
hijacked a Danish cargo ship with 13 crew members, which consisted
of
Russians and Ukrainians. The CEC Future was released on
January
16 following a ransom payment by Clipper Projects.
(AP, 11/8/08)(AP, 1/16/09)
2008 Nov 7, South Korea reduced
its key interest rate by .25%, its 3rd cut in 4 weeks.
(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 8, On Long Island, NY,
7
students from Patchogue-Medford High School attacked Marcelo Lucero
(38), an immigrant from Ecuador. Jeffrey Conroy (17) stabbed and
killed
Lucero as he struggled to defend himself. Police soon arrested the 7
teens. In 2010 Jeffrey Conroy )19) was convicted of manslaughter.
(SFC, 11/22/08, p.A6)(SFC, 4/20/10, p.A6)
2008 Nov 8, Li Ximing (82),
Beijing's Communist Party boss during the bloody 1989 crackdown on
pro-democracy protests, died.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 8, Congolese soldiers
advanced toward rebel lines in renewed fighting that threatens a
tenuous cease-fire around the eastern provincial capital Goma.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 8, In Guatemala 15
bodies
were found after a bus burned on an unpaved road in a mountain
valley
about 90 miles (140 kilometers) east of the capital, Guatemala City.
The bus had originated in Nicaragua and all the bodies had been shot
before being set on fire. On March 31, 2009, Investigators in
Guatemala
announced that a drug gang was responsible for the grisly killings
of
15 Nicaraguans and a Dutch man aboard the bus. In 2010 Juan Carlos
Policarpi was convicted sentenced to multiple life terms. Rony
Terraza
was also convicted and sentenced to three years in prison.
Authorities
arrested a former police officer in connection with the attack and
sought seven more people in the case.
(AP, 11/10/08)(AP, 4/1/09)(AP, 6/9/10)
2008 Nov 8, In India at least
five
people were killed when they tried to dismantle a discarded
artillery
shell in the northern town of Meerut.
(AFP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 8, PM Nouri al-Maliki
called for changes to the Iraqi constitution to give more power to
the
central government, especially in security and other key fields.
Kurdish politicians promptly dismissed al-Maliki's proposals,
defending
their regional rule. Iraq's presidential council signed off on
legislation giving Christians and other religious minorities fewer
guaranteed seats on provincial councils than the UN and some
political
groups had recommended. A suicide bomber slammed his car into a
police
checkpoint, killing eight civilians and wounding 17 policemen on a
highway near Ramadi.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 8, In New Zealand John
Key's center-right National Party swept to power on a theme of
change
in elections, ending the nine year reign of Helen Clark's Labor
Party.
National, with 59 seats, supported by the libertarian Act Party with
5
seats and United Future with one seat, won the 122-seat parliament.
(AFP, 11/8/08)(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.A14)
2008 Nov 8, In Pakistan police
found the bullet-ridden bodies of the two men in the North
Waziristan
tribal region after a tip from residents. Militants claimed they
were
spies for the United States and dumped their bodies with a warning
in a
Pakistani border region at the center of a campaign of suspected
American missile strikes. Fighting reported elsewhere in Pakistan's
volatile northwest left 29 militants and three Pakistani soldiers
dead.
Security forces fatally shot a local journalist in the Swat Valley
area. Mohammad Shoaib, worked for the Azadi newspaper and apparently
did not stop his vehicle when signaled to do so.
(AP, 11/8/08)(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 8, A group of European
lawmakers sailed from Cyprus into Gaza, defying an internationally
backed blockade of the Hamas-run territory with activists promising
to
send more visitors and goods to end the coastal strip's isolation.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 8, Mieczyslaw Rakowski
(81), politician and former editor of Polityka magazine, died.
(Econ, 11/22/08, p.99)
2008 Nov 8, The fire safety
system
on a brand-new Russian nuclear submarine accidentally turned on as
the
sub was being tested in the Sea of Japan, spewing chemicals that
suffocated 20 people and sent 21 others to the hospital. The dead
included 17 civilians and 3 seamen. Construction of the Nerpa, an
Akula
II class attack submarine, started in 1991 but was suspended for
years
because of a shortage of funding. Testing on the submarine began
last
month and it submerged for the first time last week.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 8, Sudanese security
banned two newspapers from publishing after they protested against
draconian censorship measures and arrests of journalists.
(AFP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 8, Kenneth Dale Peters
(55), an American tourist, was shot and killed and a friend wounded,
in
an apparent robbery attempt aboard a sailboat on Venezuela's
Caribbean
coast. On Nov 12 regional police arrested Jose Rodriguez, Jonas
Marcano
and Johan Isazis. They will face charges of homicide and attempted
homicide.
(AP, 11/10/08)(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 9, In a record bailout
of
a private company the US government scraped its original $123
billion
plan to rescue troubled insurance giant American International Group
(AIG) and replaced it with a new $150 billion financial package,
including $40 billion for partial ownership.
(AP, 11/10/08)(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 9, Health experts
presented findings of a study, called Jupiter, that found
Crestor, a cholesterol drug made by AstraZeneca, reduced the risk of
heart-related death, heart attacks and other serious cardiac
problems
by 44%.
(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.B1)
2008 Nov 9, In Louisiana
Raymond
"Chuck" Foster, 44, shot and killed an Oklahoma woman, who was lured
over the Internet to take part in a Ku Klux Klan initiation, after a
fight broke out when she asked to be taken back to town. The group
tried to cover it up by dumping her body on a rural roadside and
setting her belongings aflame. Foster, the local Klan leader was
soon
in jail on a second-degree murder charge, and seven others were
charged
with trying to help conceal the crime.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 9, A Taliban suicide
attacker rammed a bomb-filled minivan into a NATO military convoy in
Afghanistan, killing two Spanish soldiers and critically wounding
another. Officials said US coalition forces killed 14 militants who
fired on them in Khost province. The province's governor, Arsallah
Jamal, said the 14 men were civilian construction workers and were
not
militants.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, A Bahrain-based
Islamic investment bank unveiled plans for a five-billion-dollar
energy
sector business hub at Sabratha, Libya.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, In Sao Paulo,
Brazil,
finance ministers from 20 leading nations (G20) agreed to boost
emerging economies’ role in negotiations to overhaul the
international
financial system.
(SFC, 11/10/08, p.D1)
2008 Nov 9, Troubled neighbors
Chad and Sudan exchanged ambassadors, six months after diplomatic
ties
were ruptured over tit-for-tat accusations of support for armed
rebels.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, China announced a
$586
billion stimulus package in its biggest move to stop the global
financial crisis from hitting the world's fourth-largest economy.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, Doctors struggled
to
contain an outbreak of cholera in a sprawling refugee camp near
Congo's
eastern provincial capital of Goma, as new fighting ignited fears
that
infected patients could scatter and launch an epidemic.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, Hurricane Paloma
leveled hundreds of homes along Cuba's southern coast before rapidly
losing steam over land, weakening from a dangerous Category 4 storm
into a tropical depression in less than a day.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 9, Egyptian
authorities
denied entry to one of Osama bin Laden's sons and put him on a plane
to
Qatar, becoming the third country to reject the self-proclaimed
"ambassador for peace." Omar Osama bin Laden (27) and his British
wife,
Zaina Alsabah (52), arrived at Cairo International Airport over the
weekend after he unsuccessfully tried to seek political asylum in
Spain.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, Rose Kabuye, Rwanda
Pres. Kagame's chief of protocol, was arrested at Frankfurt airport
on
an international warrant issued in 2006 by French anti-terrorism
judge
Jean-Louis Bruguiere.
(AFP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 9, Indonesia boosted
security after three Islamic militants (Imam Samudra, 38, and
brothers
Amrozi Nurhasyim, 47, and Ali Ghufron, 48) were executed for the
2002
Bali bombings that killed 202 people. Emotional supporters thronged
ambulances carrying their caskets through narrow streets, some
calling
for revenge.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber blew herself up at a hospital west of Baghdad,
killing
three people and injuring five others. 2 women and a 10-year-old
girl
were killed in the attack in Amiriyat al-Fallujah near Fallujah. A
roadside bomb in Mosul killed 3 Iraqi soldiers and wounded 4 others.
A
bomb attached to a bike in Khalis killed at least 2 people.
(AP, 11/9/08)(SFC, 11/10/08, p.A12)
2008 Nov 9, Israel and the
Palestinians pledged to continue peace talks that President Bush
launched last year even though a possible deal won't be reached
until
after he leaves office.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, Pakistani
airstrikes
pounded suspected insurgent hide-outs in the Bajur tribal region
bordering Afghanistan, killing 13 alleged militants. A
remote-controlled bomb planted on a motorcycle killed a passer-by
and
wounded five others in a market in Sui town in southwest Baluchistan
province.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, Southern African
leaders opened a regional summit on Zimbabwe, hoping to break a
deadlock over the allocation of cabinet posts which has prevented
formation of a power-sharing government.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, Taiwan’s central
bank
cut its key interest rate for the 4th time in less than 8 weeks. The
cut was .25%.
(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 9, Kuo Te-tsai (42), a
Taiwanese drug trafficker, was arrested at a Thai beach resort with
229
pounds of heroin worth millions of dollars in a joint operation by
American, Taiwanese and Thai drug enforcement authorities.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 9, Zimbabwe's
neighbors
failed to break an impasse on forming a unity government, prompting
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to appeal to the African Union
to
step in.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 10, Citigroup says it
is
imposing a moratorium on most foreclosures as part of a series of
initiatives aimed at helping at-risk borrowers remain in their
homes,
making Citi the latest big bank to announce sweeping efforts to try
to
curtail losses from souring mortgages.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 10, Circuit City
Stores
Inc., the second-biggest electronics retailer in the US, filed for
bankruptcy protection but planned to stay open for business as the
busy
holiday season approaches.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, George W. Housner
(b.1910), known in his profession as the father of earthquake of
engineering, died.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.A11)
2008 Nov 10, Afghan writer Atiq
Rahimi won France's top book prize, the Goncourt, for a novel penned
in
French, "Syngue Sabour", or Stone of Patience.
(AFP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, New York Times
reporter David S. Rohde (41) was abducted along with an Afghan
reporter
colleague and a driver south of Kabul. Rohde and Afghan reporter
Tahir
Ludin (35) escaped captivity in North Waziristan on June 19.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2008 Nov 10, In Brazil bandits
blew up a police station with dynamite after stealing drugs and
weapons
in Botucatu city in Sao Paulo state.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, Deutsche Post AG
said
it will close all of its DHL Express service centers, cut 9,500 jobs
in
the United States and eliminate US-only domestic express shipping by
land and air, citing heavy losses and fierce competition.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, An explosion
killed
two Georgian police officers near the disputed region of South
Ossetia.
EU monitors called the attack an unacceptable breach of the
cease-fire
that ended the Georgia-Russia war.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, Miriam Makeba
(b.1932), the South African folk singer and anti-apartheid activist
fondly known as "Mama Africa," died in southern Italy after
performing
at a concert against organized crime.
(AP, 11/10/08)(SFC, 11/11/08, p.B5)
2008 Nov 10, International
experts
said in a report that Irish Republican Army splinter groups are
launching more attacks in Northern Ireland than at any time in
recent
years, and are increasingly trying to kill police officers.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, In Iraq a suicide
bomber struck in a crowd gathered at the site of an explosion that
moments earlier had damaged a bus filled with schoolgirls. Both
blasts
killed 31 people and wounding 71 others. A female suicide bomber
attacked a security checkpoint in Baqouba, killing five people
including a local leader of Sunni group opposed to al-Qaida.
(AP, 11/10/08)(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 10, Iraq and China
signed
the final agreement on a $3 billion deal to develop the Ahdab oil
field
south of Baghdad over a 22 year-period.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 10, Italian railway
and
mass transit workers staged a strike creating chaos for commuters. A
wildcat protest by some of Alitalia’s staff forced the national
airline
to scrap dozens of flights.
(SFC, 11/11/08, p.A3)
2008 Nov 10, In Japan a
California-based computer scientist, a Canadian philosophy professor
and a Canadian molecular biologist each received US$500,000 at an
awards ceremony for this year's Kyoto Prizes for achievement in the
arts and sciences.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, Gunmen in northern
Kenya seized two Italian Catholic nuns from a church before dawn and
took them across the border into a Somali region largely controlled
by
Islamist insurgents. The nuns were free on February 19, 2009.
(AP, 11/10/08)(AP, 2/19/09)
2008 Nov 10, Malaysia's Scomi
Engineering said its consortium with an Indian company has won a
1.85
billion ringgit ($523 million) state contract to build the first
monorail in India.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon chose Fernando Gomez-Mont as the new Secretary of
the
Interior. 7 people were found dead in a string of gruesome attacks
in
the border city of Juarez. Police there chased a truck that opened
fire
on a state vehicle, causing a car crash that killed a bystander and
injured four others. In northwestern Mexico 27 farmworkers who were
kidnapped by dozens of heavily armed men wearing military-style
uniforms. Local news media reported that a drug gang may have
kidnapped
the men to make them work growing marijuana.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 10, In Nicaragua the
ruling Sandinista party (FSLN) claimed victory in nationwide
municipal
elections, but rival parties said the early returns were misleading
and
the US government expressed concern about the vote.
(AP, 11/11/08)(Econ, 5/1/10, p.38)
2008 Nov 10, Militants in
northwest Pakistan hijacked 13 trucks carrying supplies for Western
forces in Afghanistan as they passed through the Khyber Pass.
(Reuters, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, Pirates near
Somalia
hijacked the MT Stolt Strength. a Philippines chemical tanker with
23
crew, bringing the total number of attacks in waters off the African
nation this year to 83.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 10, Sweden's financial
regulator says it has revoked the banking license from troubled
investment bank Carnegie and that Sweden's national debt office will
take control of the bank.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, Taiwan's coast
guard
rescued 9 crewmen and searched for 19 missing seamen after their
fishing boat foundered in rough seas.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, President Robert
Mugabe said a new Zimbabwe government would be formed "as quickly as
possible" despite his rival Morgan Tsvangirai's rejection of a
regional
compromise on a power-sharing deal.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 11, Tim Lincecum,
pitcher
for the SF Giants, was named winner of the Cy Young Award.
(SFC, 11/12/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 11, Suspected Taliban
militants kidnapped Shamsudin Agha, a religious leader in western in
Farah province, after he criticized the use of suicide attacks as a
weapon of war in the country. Authorities recovered Agha's body the
next night.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 11, Bolivian officials
said they have formally asked the US to extradite former President
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who ordered a military crackdown on 2003
riots in which at least 60 people died.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, Jack Scott (85),
former British TV sitcom star (On the Buses), died.
(Econ, 12/6/08, p.109)
2008 Nov 11, At least 13
soldiers
were killed in an ambush by rebels at Kabo, near the Central African
Republic's border with Chad, 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of
Bangui.
(AFP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 11, The UN reported
that
hundreds of Congolese soldiers rampaged through several villages in
eastern Congo raping women and pillaging homes as they pulled back
ahead of a feared rebel advance.
(SFC, 11/12/08, p.A7)
2008 Nov 11, Egypt's chief
archaeologist has announced the discovery of a 4,300-year-old
pyramid
in Saqqara, the sprawling necropolis and burial site of the rulers
of
ancient Memphis. The new pyramid is the 118th discovered so far in
Egypt.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, Armed Bedouin
attacked a security checkpoint in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and seized
11
policemen in a restive area near the border with Israel. The Bedouin
tribesmen were angered by a police shooting a day earlier that
killed a
suspected Bedouin smuggler in the area.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, French police
arrested 10 people, described as anarchists, suspected for the
recent
sabotaging of high-speed trains. In 5 instances since late October
iron
rods were jammed into power cables in order to hold up trains.
(WSJ, 11/12/08, p.A12)
2008 Nov 11, The Imams Bridge
in
north Baghdad reopened. It had closed 3 years ago after a stampede
during a Shiite procession killed almost 1,000 people. A pair of
roadside bombs exploded in quick succession in east Baghdad during
the
morning rush hour, killing 3 people and wounding 14 others. An
Internet
monitoring service said 10 Iraqi insurgent groups have agreed to
escalate attacks against US and Iraqi forces to derail the proposed
US-Iraqi security agreement. Hajji Hammadi, a leader of al-Qaida in
Iraq, was killed. He was blamed in the April, 2004, abduction and
murder of Army reservist Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin of Batavia, Ohio.
(AP, 11/11/08)(AP, 11/12/08)(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 11, Rabbi Meir Porush,
an
ultra-Orthodox rabbi, faced off against Nir Barkat (49), a secular
businessman, in Jerusalem's mayoral race. Nir Barkat, a former
paratroops officer, won the election with 52% support.
(AP, 11/11/08)(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 11, Mohamed Nasheed
took
the oath of office as the Maldives' first democratically elected
president. He now leads the flattest nation on Earth, with an
average
height of 2.3 meters (7 feet) above sea level, and one considered
particularly vulnerable to the perils of global climate change and
rising sea levels.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, In Mexico 21
police
were arrested in the northern border city of Tijuana on suspicion of
working with criminal gangs. The body of a 28-year-old man was
dumped
in an empty lot in the beach resort of Rosarito, outside Tijuana.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, Myanmar sentenced
23
activists, including 5 Buddhist monks arrested during anti-junta
protests last year to 65 years each in jail, in what rights groups
branded a fresh attempt to stifle dissent. Min Ko Naing, considered
as
one of Myanmar's top activists, was among those sentenced.
(AP, 11/11/08)(AFP, 11/14/08)(AFP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 11, A Nigerian appeal
court sacked the governor of the southern state of Edo following
complaints of vote irregularities and declared his opponent the
winner.
(AFP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, Pakistan’s
military
said at least 11 Taliban militants were killed and two soldiers
wounded
in gunfights with troops in the northwestern Swat valley, rocked by
a
violent campaign to introduce Islamic law. A suicide bomber blew
himself up outside the Peshawar Sports Complex, hosting athletes
from
around the country, killing at least two people.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, Russia’s central
bank
widened its target band for the currency’s rate against the dollar
by
about 1% in each direction. Weeks of rigid defense had fueled a $112
billion decline in reserves. The central bank also raised interest
rate
by 1% in an effort to keep money from flowing out of the country.
(WSJ, 11/12/08, p.A8)
2008 Nov 11, Rwanda expelled
the
German ambassador and Pres. Kagame declared that Germany violated
his
country's sovereignty when it arrested one of his aides in
connection
with an attack that set off Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, Swedish truck and
bus
maker Volvo AB said it will lay off nearly 1,000 staff at its
powertrain unit in Sweden and the United States as the global
financial
crisis continues to weigh on the demand for heavy vehicles.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, In Taiwan former
Pres. Chen Sui-bian was detained by police after prosecutors sought
his
formal arrest on corruption and money laundering charges. He was
later
taken to hospital complaining that police had roughed him up.
(SFC, 11/12/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 11, Uruguay's Senate
voted to depenalize abortion during the first trimester, a rare step
in
a Latin American nation. President Tabare Vasquez vetoed the measure
on
Nov 14.
(AP, 11/11/08)(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 11, In Zimbabwe riot
police beat dozens of students and pro-democracy activists marching
through Harare to demand a new government to tackle the country's
worsening economic and political crisis.
(AFP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 12, The Department of
the
Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board announced the release of a
joint
final rule to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement
Act
of 2006. The act made it illegal for financial institutions to
transfer
funds between punters and online gambling sites. Compliance was
required by Dec 1, 2009.
(www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20081112b.htm)(WSJ,
11/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 12, The Supreme Court
lifted restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises
off the California coast, a defeat for environmental groups who say
the
sonar can harm whales.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, US prosecutors
charged Raoul Weil, a senior executive of Swiss bank UBS AG, of
helping
some 20,000 rich clients evade federal income taxes on assets of
some
$20 billion from 2002-2007.
(WSJ, 11/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 12, A judge cleared
the
way for gay marriage to begin in Connecticut, a victory for
advocates
stung by California's referendum that banned same-sex unions in that
state.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, LCD makers LG
Display
of South Korea, Sharp of Japan, and Chunghwa Picture tubes of Taiwan
pleaded guilty to US charges of price fixing and will pay fines
totaling $585 million.
(WSJ, 11/13/08, p.B3)
2008 Nov 12, In Fort
Lauderdale,
Florida, sophomore Teah Wimberly (15) shot Amanda Collette at
Dillard
High School, then walked to a seafood restaurant to call authorities
and turn herself in.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 12, Mitch Mitchell
(61),
English drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the
1960s
and the group's last surviving member, was found dead in his hotel
room
in Portland, Oregon, the last stop on the West Coast part of a tour.
(AP, 11/13/08)(SFC, 11/13/08, p.B4)
2008 Nov 12, Walter Gabrielson
(1935), California artist, died, His 1993 self-published
autobiography
was titled “Persistence.”
(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.B6)
2008 Nov 12, In Afghanistan a
bomb-filled tanker exploded outside the office of the provincial
council in Kandahar, killing six people and wounding 42. Two British
troops were killed in an explosion in southern Helmand province. Men
squirted the acid from water bottles onto three groups of students
and
teachers walking to school in Kandahar. Some of the girls received
burns only on their school uniforms but others will have scars on
their
faces. On Nov 25 officials announced the arrest of 10 Taliban
militants
involved in the acid attack.
(AP, 11/12/08)(AP, 11/13/08)(AP, 11/14/08)(AP,
11/25/08)
2008 Nov 12, Algeria's
parliament
overwhelmingly approved constitutional amendments that abolish
presidential term limits, paving the way for President Abdelaziz
Bouteflika to seek a third term in spring elections.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, Angola announced
it
is mobilizing troops to send to neighboring Congo, heightening fears
that the fighting in this central African nation will engulf other
countries in the region. North of Kibati the bodies of two dead
government soldiers lay in the center of the road beside a rebel
checkpoint.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, A Sidney court
sentenced an Australian woman to 22 months periodic detention for
assisting in the suicide of her longtime partner, an Alzheimer's
sufferer who had been rejected for a legal euthanasia in
Switzerland.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, The Canadian
government announced a series of steps to improve the
availability of long-term credit including the purchase of C$50
billion
($40 billion) more in insured mortgages from banks.
(Reuters, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, China launched a
50-day campaign against unlicensed taxis in Beijing.
(WSJ, 11/14/08, p.A10)
2008 Nov 12, In Colombia the
investment company Proyecciones DRFE (Dinero Rapido Facil Efectivo -
Easy Money, Fast Cash) collapsed in Narino state leaving investors
in
the pyramid scheme with losses estimated at some $270 million.
Investors took to the streets on rumors that owner Carlos Alfredo
Suarez had fled the country. At least 2 people died in ensuing
riots. A
week later Panama extradited David Murcia Guzman, the president of
DMG
Group, suspected of running the country's biggest pyramid scheme. On
Mar 13, 2009, the government announced it had recovered just $20.5
million, which would be distributed equally among some 214,000
investors, who would receive about $96 each. On Dec 16 Murcia was
sentenced to 30 years and 8 months in prison for a money-laundering
conviction and was fined $12.5 million. He is expected to be
extradited
to the US soon on money-laundering conspiracy charges.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7740032.stm)(SFC, 11/15/08,
p.A9)(Econ, 11/22/08, p.49)(SFC, 3/14/09, p.A2)(SFC, 10/14/09,
p.A2)(AP, 12/16/09)
2008 Nov 12, Germany's biggest
industrial union secured a 4.2 percent pay rise over 18 months for
the
nation's manufacturing workers in a deal that averted an all-out
strike.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, In Germany Dr.
Gero
Huetter said his 42-year-old patient, an American living in Berlin
who
was not identified, had been infected with the AIDS virus for more
than
a decade. But 20 months after undergoing a transplant of genetically
selected bone marrow, he no longer shows signs of carrying the
virus.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 12, Hong Kong
officials
said they had found elevated levels of melamine in fish feed from
China’s Fuzhou Haima Feed Co.
(WSJ, 11/13/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 12, Indonesian health
officials said test results from two laboratories in the capital
came
back positive confirming that a girl (15) died of bird flu last
week.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, Iran successfully
test-fired the Sajjil, a new generation of long range
surface-to-surface missile using solid fuel, making them more
accurate
than its predecessors. It had a range of about 1,200 miles (2,000
kilometers).
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, In Iraq a series
of
bombings shook Baghdad for the third straight day, killing at least
11
people and wounding about 60. In Mosul unidentified gunmen killed
two
sisters from a Christian family as they were waiting in front of
their
house for a ride to work. Barzan Mohammed Abdullah, an Iraqi
soldier,
opened fire on US troops after a quarrel broke out in Mosul, killing
two American soldiers and wounding six in a military compound before
he
was shot to death.
(AP, 11/12/08)(SFC, 11/13/08, p.A3)
2008 Nov 12, Israeli troops and
Palestinian militants fought with missiles and mortars along the
Gaza-Israel border, raising new concerns that an increasingly shaky
five-month-old truce might collapse. Four Hamas militants were
killed
in the exchange, and the Hamas military wing said it would
retaliate.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, The United States
says it has shipped 50,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil to North
Korea
as part of a nuclear disarmament deal. The fuel is scheduled to
arrive
in the North in late November and early December. North Korea said
that
it won't allow outside inspectors to take samples from its main
nuclear
complex to verify the communist regime's accounting of past nuclear
activities.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, North Korea's
powerful military announced it will shut the country's border with
the
South on Dec. 1, a marked escalation of threats against Seoul's new
conservative government at a time of heightened tension on the
peninsula.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, In Pakistan
Stephen
Vance, a US development worker, and his driver were shot dead in
Peshawar. 3 security forces died when a suicide bomber rammed his
explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of government school for boys
in
the northwestern village of Subhan Khwar, 22 miles north of
Peshawar.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, In Somalia the
Islamist al-Shabab militia, that the US calls a terror organization,
seized Merka, a key port town, giving it control of most of southern
Somalia and sidelining the weak government.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, In South African a
truck carrying workers collided with another truck, killing 23
people
and injuring nine.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, Sudanese President
Omar Hassan al-Bashir, facing a possible indictment by the
International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur,
announced a ceasefire in the region.
(Reuters, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, Pirates
commandeered
the Karagol, a Turkish chemical tanker, off the coast of Yemen. 14
Turkish personnel were aboard the tanker. The Russian frigate
Neustrashimy and the British frigate Cumberland foiled pirates who
fired automatic weapons toward a Danish ship and twice tried to
seize
it in the Gulf of Aden. The Karagol was released on Jan 12,
2009.
(AP, 11/12/08)(AP, 1/13/09)
2008 Nov 12, Zimbabwe's main
opposition said it would not join a new government with President
Robert Mugabe until unresolved power-sharing issues were ironed out.
(AFP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 13, The US government
said the number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment
benefits has jumped to a seven-year high.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, The US Mint was
scheduled to issue the Van Buren dollar coin, the 8th of its
presidential dollar series.
(WSJ, 12/27/07, p.D6)
2008 Nov 13, US Federal health
officials slapped a sweeping detention order on dozens of imported
foods from China, from snacks and drinks to chocolates and candies.
The
agency said the action was needed as a precaution to keep out foods
contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, which can cause
serious kidney problems.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, Police in
Richmond,
Ca., arrested 18 people in conncetion with a crackdown on the Deep
Central (Deep C) gang. Officials served 43 arrest warrants in
Richmond
as well as other Bay Area and Sacramento counties wrapping up a
yearlong investigation by California drug agents.
(SFC, 11/14/08, p.B5)
2008 Nov 13, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber struck a US patrol, killing eight Afghan
civilians
and one US soldier and wounding 74 civilians in Nangarhar province.
US
troops killed four al-Qaida-linked militants during a raid in
eastern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/14/08)(SFC, 11/14/08, p.A14)
2008 Nov 13, In Chile
authorities
said public health services failed to tell 512 people that they
tested
positive for HIV. Private-sector health services also fell down,
failing to inform an estimated 1,700 people that tests show them
carrying the AIDS virus.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, China signed an
agreement in Geneva to loosen controls on financial news providers
in
an out-of-court settlement of a dispute with the US, the EU and
Canada.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, The European Union
proposed plans to toughen up rules covering taxes on foreign
accounts
in an effort to stop tax evasion which has been endemic in some EU
nations.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13,The 38th Chess
Olympiad started in Dresden, Germany. It included 146 teams in the
open
division, often referred to as the men's division although it
includes
a few women. The separate women's division included 111 teams.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 13, An American
soldier
died of a noncombat cause in western Iraq. A civilian cargo aircraft
crashed in the desert south of Fallujah.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, In Mauritania the
military junta that ousted President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi
released him in response to international pressure.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, In Mexico Armando
Rodriguez, a crime reporter in the border city of Juarez, was
killed,
adding to dozens of journalist deaths in a country where newspapers
are
so fearful, many refuse to cover drug violence. With his death, 24
journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, at least seven of
them in direct reprisal for their reports on crime, and seven others
have disappeared since 2005.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, Mexico City Health
Secretary Armando Ahued said that the government will start handing
out
doses of one or two Viagra, Levitra or Cialis pills on Dec. 1.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, Pakistan announced
that China had offered it a $500 million aid package.
(WSJ, 11/14/08, p.A10)
2008 Nov 13, In northwestern
Pakistan gunmen kidnapped Hashmatullah Atharzadeh, an Iranian
diplomat,
and killed his local guard. Peshawar’s police chief Suleman Shah
said
the spate of killings and abductions was in reaction to the military
operations against insurgents in the adjoining tribal belt. Iranian
intelligence agents freed Atharzadeh in late March, 2010.
(AFP, 11/13/08)(AP, 3/30/10)
2008 Nov 13, Myanmar courts
handed
down sentences of between six and eight years for 4 Buddhist monks
and
two to 16 years for members of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi's party for involvement in last year's massive protests against
the
military junta. 14 more activists from the NLD were sentenced the
next
day at different courts in Yangon for between two to 16 years, all
in
relation to last year's protests.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 13, Gaza militants
fired
a new barrage of rockets and mortars at Israeli border areas,
prompting
Israel to bar planned food and fuel shipments to Palestinian
civilians
hurt by the unraveling of a five-month-old truce.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, In Thailand
assailants hurled explosives at vendors protesting a rent increase
by
new managers of a government-owned market in Bangkok, wounding 13
people.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 13, Vietnam's premier
pledged to probe a corruption case in which Japanese businessmen
have
admitted bribing a Vietnamese official in the latest scandal
involving
a foreign aid-funded road project.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 14, The US Army
promoted
its first woman, Ann Dunwoody, to the rank of four-star general.
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 14, Space shuttle
Endeavour and 7 astronauts made a night time launch and raced toward
the international space station for a home makeover job.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 14, In the SF Bay
Area police arrested 17 more people as part of a federal drug
investigation targeting members of the Project Trojans street gang
in
North Richmond, San Pablo, Antioch and El Sobrante.
(SFC, 11/15/08, p.B2)
2008 Nov 14, In Iowa police
again
arrested Sholom Rubashkin, former chief executive of Agriprocessors
Inc., a Postville slaughterhouse, on new charges of bank fraud. In
2010
Rubashkin (51) was sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to
pay
$27 million in restitution for his conviction on fraud charges.
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A2)(SFC, 6/22/10, p.A4)
2008 Nov 14, In California
firefighters and a squadron of aircraft launched a desperate
daylight
attack to push back a wind-whipped wildfire that destroyed 210 homes
and forced thousands to evacuate near Santa Barbara. The fire was
later
traced to a bonfire out at a tea garden by a group of young adults,
who
thought they had put the fire. Further south a wildfire broke out in
the foothill community of Sylmar on the edge of the Angeles National
Forest and quickly spread across 2,600 acres. By the next day it
tore
through the city's northern foothills, sending thousands of
residents
fleeing in the dark, forcing a hospital to evacuate and destroying
an
untold number of homes.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AP, 11/15/08)(SFC, 11/19/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 14, In Santa Clara,
Ca.,
Jing Hua Wu (47), recently laid off, shot and killed 3 people at
SiPort
Inc., including CEO Sid Agrawal and Brian Pugh, the vice president
of
operations.
(SFC, 11/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 14, Irving Gertz
(1915),
movie composer, died. He composed or contributed to over 200 scores
for
horror, sci-fi and Westerns, which included such films as “It Came
from
Outer Space” (1953) and “Gun for a Coward” (1957).
(SFC, 11/24/08, p.B3)
2008 Nov 14, In Afghanistan US
forces grabbed a "key insurgent leader" in a joint raid with Afghan
police in a village in eastern Ghazni province. Coalition forces
also
killed 10 militants in a strike against a bomb-making cell in the
eastern Paktia province.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 14, Azerbaijan
lawmakers
voted 86-1 to back President Ilham Aliev's request to withdraw the
150
troops serving as part of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, The EU said that
the
15 countries that use the euro are officially in a recession,
as
their economies shrank for a second straight quarter because of the
world financial crisis and sinking demand.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, Nearly half of Air
France's flights were grounded by a pilots' strike expected to last
through the weekend.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, An Indian probe
landed on the moon, in a milestone for the country's 45-year-old
space
program.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, In India suspected
Maoist insurgents triggered landmine blasts to scare away voters in
Chhattisgarh state, killing 2 people.
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A6)
2008 Nov 14, In India the
Kuber, a
45-foot fishing boat, left port at Porbandar with a crew of 5 men.
It
was soon hijacked by terrorists from Pakistan, who used it to reach
Mumbai for the attacks that began late Nov 26. The crew were all
killed, including lead crewman Amar Narayan Singh (45), who was
found
with his throat slashed.
(WSJ, 12/2/08, p.A6)
2008 Nov 14, In Indonesia 5
people
were killed and 14 were feared dead after a landslide triggered by
heavy rain crushed scores of houses in West Java.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, Iraq's national
security advisor said all British troops will be out of Iraq by the
end
of next year.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Mexico 2
bullet-ridden bodies were found at the foot of a monument in Ciudad
Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, one of them partially stuffed
into
a large pot. Four scuba divers died while performing maintenance in
an
aqueduct that supplies Mexico City.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Myanmar
journalist
Ein Khaing Oo, who had been detained for five months, was sentenced
to
two years in prison for her coverage of a protest over the lack of
government relief for victims of a devastating cyclone. She was
convicted in a closed-door trial on charges of "disturbing
tranquility."
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Nigeria 22
Filipinos were arrested by a joint army-navy patrol on the Warri
River
with the vessel MT Akuada laden with its cargo of 12,500 metric tons
of
crude oil. On Feb 20, 2009, 13 Filipinos were sentenced to five
years
each or a fine of one million naira (6,800 dollars) for stealing
crude
oil from the Niger delta.
(AFP, 2/21/09)
2008 Nov 14, In Pakistan a
Japanese and an Afghan journalist were shot in the frontier city of
Peshawar, the third attack on foreigners in three days. Motoki
Yotsukura from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper was wounded in the leg.
Abdul Sami Yousafzai, was more seriously hurt. Missiles apparently
fired by US unmanned aircraft in North Waziristan killed at least 12
people, including 9 militants.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AFP, 11/14/08)(WSJ, 11/15/08,
p.A1)
2008 Nov 14, Palestinian
militants
attacked Ashkelon in southern Israel with rocket fire. They also
unleashed rockets at nearby Sderot, where rescue services said one
person was lightly wounded by shrapnel. The barrages followed an
earlier strike by Israeli aircraft targeting militants firing
rockets
in northern Gaza. Israel kept the crossings into Gaza sealed for a
tenth straight day, forcing the UN to suspend its food aid
distribution
to 750,000 Gaza residents.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, Russian lawmakers
gave preliminary approval for extending presidential terms from four
years to six, a move observers say could pave the way for Vladimir
Putin to return to the presidency.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, Thailand former PM
Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman, who married in 1976, divorced at the
Thai consul general's office in Hong Kong. A political observer
suggested the divorce could have been aimed at protecting the
family's
considerable assets, which are mostly held in Pojaman's name.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 14, Zimbabwe's main
opposition party said that it will not join a unity government with
Pres. Mugabe until the rivals resolve their differences over a
power-sharing deal.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 15, G20 leaders ended
a
2-day economic summit in Washington. They released a joint
communique
covering eight pages and 47 action items, with an overarching focus
to
establish a series of new safeguards for the fragile and opaque
global
financial system.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 15, In southern
California the Triangle Complex broke out in Corona and Orange
counties. The fire soon covered 10,475 acres and damaged or
destroyed
119 residences.
(SFC, 11/17/08, p.A9)
2008 Nov 15, In North Carolina
tornadoes killed 2 people.
(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.A2)
2008 Nov 15, In Afghanistan
police
thwarted a suicide attack in the eastern city of Khost. Officers
surrounded a suspect, who was on foot, and the man detonated the
explosives on his body. The would-be attacker died, but no one else
was
injured. Also in Khost province, coalition and Afghan troops
detained a
militant leader of the network led by the Afghan insurgent leader
Jalaluddin Haqqani. Coalition forces accidentally killed a civilian
during a clash with insurgents in Zabul province. The civilian was
killed when a grenade fired by coalition forces overshot its target.
30
insurgents were killed during a clash with US-led coalition troops
in
Helmand province. In eastern Paktia province's Zurmat district
coalition troops killed five al-Qaida-associated insurgents and
nabbed
eight, including a militant leader accused of helping the Taliban
move
and train Arab and other foreign fighters into Afghanistan. Colour
Sergeant Krishnabahadur Dura (36), from 2nd Battalion the Royal
Gurkha
Rifles, was killed after an explosion in the Musa Qala district of
Helmand Province.
(AP, 11/15/08)(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 15, In the West
African
nation Burkina Faso a collision between a passenger bus and a truck
killed more than 60 people.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 15, In eastern China a
subway tunnel under construction collapsed in Hangzhou, trapping
workers and creating a huge crater into which more than 10 vehicles
plunged. At least 7 people died and 14 were missing.
(AP, 11/15/08)(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 15, The government of
Ecuador delayed a $30.6 million interest payment on part of its debt
of
$10 billion, which amounted to 21% of GDP. A committee soon reported
evidence of malfeasance on debt contracts issued between 1976 and
2006.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.44)
2008 Nov 15, A Georgian
policeman
was shot dead by a group of armed Abkhazians. The group was said to
have entered Georgian-controlled territory to plant land mines.
Abkhazian presidential envoy Ruslan Kishmariya said police from the
separatist side killed one and wounded two Georgian "saboteurs" in
the
tense Gali district.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 15, A senior aide to
PM
Nouri al-Maliki said US and Iraqi negotiators have agreed on a draft
of
a security pact that would allow American troops to stay in Iraq for
three more years after their UN mandate expires Dec. 31. A suicide
car
bomber struck a commercial district in the northern city of Tal
Afar,
killing 10 people and wounding 20. In Baghdad a car bomb parked near
the National Theater exploded in the mainly Shiite district of
Karradah, killing at least five people and wounding 23. An American
Marine died from wounds suffered in a roadside bombing west of
Baghdad
a day earlier.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 15, In Mexico more
than
1,500 demonstrators marched through the violence-plagued border city
of
Tijuana to protest the current of killings and kidnappings. Two
people
were shot to death at a Tijuana taco restaurant. 4 men and a woman
were
shot to death at a pool hall. A girl (14) and two men were shot down
in
a Tijuana street just before midnight.
(AP, 11/15/08)(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 15, An official said
Pakistan has agreed to borrow $7.6 billion from the International
Monetary Fund to avoid adding an economic crisis to its struggle
against Islamic militants. Helicopter gunships, backed by artillery,
began pounding suspected insurgent hideouts in Mohmand tribal area.
(AP, 11/15/08)(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 15, Gazans seeking
food
aid walked away empty-handed from locked United Nations distribution
centers after a strict Israeli border closure depleted UN food
reserves.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 15, In southwestern
Romania two explosions in a coal mine killed eight miners and four
emergency workers.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 15, In Somalia
fighters
of al-Shabab took control of the port town of Barawe without a fight
after the government's allies left as soon as they heard the
fighters
were on their way.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 15, Gunmen hijacked a
freighter with 23 crew off the coast of Somalia. The crew of the
Japanese-owned Chemstar Venus consisted of five South Koreans and 18
Filipinos. Somali pirates hijacked the Sirius Star, a newly
commissioned supertanker, more than 450 nautical miles southeast of
Mombasa, Kenya, along with its 25-member crew. The ship, owned by
Saudi
oil company Aramco, was capable of carrying about 2 million barrels
of
oil. The ship was released on Jan 9, 2009.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/17/08)(AP, 1/9/09)
2008 Nov 15, Sri Lanka's
president
asked Tamil Tigers to surrender after troops claimed re-taking
Pooneryn, a strategically-important town from the separatists,
following months of heavy fighting. Army troops destroyed 16 rebel
bunkers in the Mullaitivu district and fought a series of battles in
the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi, inflicting "heavy casualties"
on
the guerrillas.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 15, Mario Masuku
(b.1951), Swaziland leader of the opposition People’s United
Democratic
Movement (Pudemo), was jailed.
(Econ, 11/29/08,
p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Masuku)
2008 Nov 15, In Yemen a
16-year-old boy died when police fired at locals demonstrating at a
voter registration center. The crowds were protesting the
government's
rejection of opposition attempts to amend the country's electoral
law.
Yemen's political parties have been preparing the amendment to the
electoral law for the past year in an effort to bring more women
into
parliament, curb vote-rigging and limit the influence of government
officials.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 16, In Afghan suicide
car
bombers struck a NATO convoy in the northern Baghlan province and a
US
convoy in western Herat province. One civilian was killed in the
northern attack.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, In Australia a
storm
in Brisbane damaged about 4,000 homes, destroying at least 30,
flattened cars and felled power lines, plunging large swathes of the
city into darkness.
(AFP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 16, Reg Varney (92), a
comic actor who played a cheery Cockney bus driver in British sitcom
"On the Buses," died.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, On Canada's
Pacific
coast 7 people were killed and one was injured when the charter
plane
they were flying in crashed on Thormanby Island.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 16, Congo's main rebel
leader promised a UN envoy to support a cease-fire and UN efforts to
end the fighting, and the diplomat said he hoped the warring sides
would hold peace talks in Kenya. Congo government troops abandoned
their position at Rwindi, 130 km (80 miles) north of Goma in North
Kivu
province, after a battle with the rebels involving small arms and
heavier weapons. UN peacekeeping troops at Rwindi stayed in their
base
during the fighting.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 16, Guinea Bissau,
seen
as a major African drugs hub, went to the polls for parliamentary
elections, which observers hoped would bring stability to the West
African nation. The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and
Cape Verde (PAIGC), which has been dominant since independence from
Portugal in 1974, is favorite to win the election.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 16, Iraq's Cabinet
approved a security pact with the United States that will allow
American forces to stay in Iraq for three years after their UN
mandate
expires at the end of the year. 7 people died and 7 others were
wounded
in a suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint in Diyala province.
A
roadside bomb in a Sunni enclave of Baghdad killed three people and
wounded 7 at a checkpoint belonging to US-backed fighters. The US
military said Iraq's Shiite-dominated government is making good on
promises to pay thousands of US-backed Sunni fighters in Baghdad,
despite some government unease over the alliance.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, Israeli leaders
made
a secret journey to neighboring Jordan, listening to pleas from King
Abdullah II to avert a large-scale military operation in the Gaza
Strip. An Israeli airstrike killed 4 Palestinian militants as they
were
firing mortars at Israel from the Gaza Strip, just hours after
another
group of militants struck Israel in a separate rocket attack.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 16, In
Indian-controlled
Kashmir a bridge under construction over an icy Himalayan river
collapsed, killing four workers and leaving 19 others missing and
feared dead.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, The party
representing New Zealand's indigenous Maori people will get its
first
Cabinet posts under a multiparty deal signed by PM-elect John Key to
form a center-right minority government.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, Officials said
Nigeria's anti-drugs agency had seized 30,000 kilograms of cannabis
contained in 5,923 bags in southern Edo state earlier this week. In
June, the agency seized 80 ton of cannabis in its largest ever
single
haul, in the southwestern city of Ibadan.
(AFP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, Pakistan
temporarily
barred oil tankers and container trucks from a key passageway to
Afghanistan, threatening a critical supply route for US and NATO
troops
and raising more fears about security in the militant-plagued border
region. NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan fired 20 artillery rounds
at
insurgents inside Pakistan in an attack the alliance said was
coordinated with the government in Islamabad.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 16, In Peru Edwin
Valladolid was arrested in Lima carrying a box of 36 grenades ahead
of
the arrival next week of 18 world leaders for a Pacific Rim economic
summit.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 16, Russian liberals
launched a pro-Kremlin political party promising to defend middle
class
values but rivals said it was just a tool for the authorities to
suck
support away from genuine opposition groups.
(Reuters, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, Somali
pirates
freed another vessel after securing a ransom and a Russian frigate
repelled an attack on a Saudi ship.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, Sri Lanka's air
force
pounded the Tamil Tiger rebels' main northern defense line in the
Muhamalai area of Jaffna peninsula.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, Sudanese and rebel
forces traded accusations that the other is initiating a new wave of
fighting in the ravaged Darfur region just days after the government
had offered a cease-fire.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, In Vietnam weekend
flooding killed at least 11 people in the southern and central
regions,
submerged thousands of homes in Ho Chi Minh city and stranded air
and
railway passengers.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 17, Vice President
Dick
Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were indicted on
state charges involving federal prisons in a South Texas county that
has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles under the
outgoing prosecutor. Cheney was charged with engaging in an
organized
criminal activity related to the vice president's investment in the
Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private
prison
companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney
of a
conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on
detainees
because of his link to the prison companies. The indictment accused
Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an
investigation
in 2006 into abuses at one of the privately-run prisons. On Dec 1 a
Texas judge dismissed the indictments against Cheney and Gonzales.
(AP, 11/19/08)(SFC, 12/2/08, p.A8)
2008 Nov 17, The SEC charged
Mark
Cuban, high-tech entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks,
with
illegal insider trading for allegedly using confidential information
to
avoid over $750,000 in stock losses from the sale of Mama.com stock
in
2004.
(SFC, 11/18/08, p.D1)
2008 Nov 17, A report was
released
concluded that Gulf War syndrome is a legitimate illness suffered by
more than 175,000 US war veterans who were exposed to chemical
toxins
in the 1991 Gulf War.
(Reuters, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, Citigroup Inc.
said
it is cutting approximately 53,000 more jobs in the coming quarters
as
the banking giant struggles to steady itself after suffering massive
losses from deteriorating debt.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, US Automakers
begged
governments to save them amid a spreading global recession.
Cash-strapped General Motors Corp. said it will sell its entire
stake
in Suzuki Motor Corp. for 22.37 billion yen ($230 million), the
automaker's latest move to stay afloat while awaiting a decision on
government aid for the industry.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, Yahoo said
co-founder
and CEO Jerry Yang will resign his post as CEO, but continue his
previous role as “Chief Yahoo” and remain on the company’s board.
(SFC, 11/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 17, In Afghanistan 5
insurgents died in the clash in Farah's Bala Buluk region.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 17, Algeria and
Argentina
signed an agreement to boost cooperation over civil nuclear energy
as
part of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner's tour of northern
Africa.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, Australia said it
will invest millions of dollars in non-lethal whale research to show
Japan that the animals do not need to be killed in order to be
studied.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, Guy Peellaert
(b.1934), Belgian painter and collagist, died. His work included the
book “Rock Dreams” (1974), published in collaboration with British
rock
journalist Nik Cohn.
(SSFC, 11/23/08, p.B8)
2008 Nov 17, Bolivian President
Evo Morales expressed hope for improved relations with the United
States under Barack Obama's presidency, but said he will never allow
the US anti-drug agency to resume operating in his country.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, In northwest China
a
crowd of 1,000 people stormed a local Communist Party headquarters,
smashing cars and clashing with police following a land dispute. The
protesting began with just a small group of people complaining about
the demolition of their homes to make way for a new road in Longnan
city in Gansu province. Police later arrested 30 people for
involvement
in a two-day violent protest, that had to be broken up with tear gas
after 74 people were injured.
(AP, 11/18/08)(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 17, In central China
flood waters trapped workers in a coal mine in Pingdingshan, Henan
province. The next day rescuers saved 33 miners who had been trapped
for 28 hours by an underground flood. One miner died.
(AP, 11/17/08)(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 17, Ethiopia’s state
news
agency said the Wabe Shebelle river in the southeast highlands burst
its banks after heavy rains, killing 11 people and stranding
hundreds
more.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, French police
arrested ETA's alleged military chief, the most wanted Basque
separatist still at large and a man Spanish officials branded a
"bloodthirsty terrorist." Miguel De Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina (35),
alias "Txeroki", was captured in Cauterets, a spa and ski resort in
the
Pyrenees near the border with Spain's autonomous Basque region. On
Nov
24 Spain indicted Aspiazu and four other men over the car bombing at
a
Madrid airport parking garage on Dec. 30, 2006.
(AFP, 11/17/08)(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 17, Iceland moved to
secure $6 billion in loans to refloat its collapsed financial system
as
Britain said it would welcome a government promise to guarantee its
citizens' deposits in collapsed internet bank Icesave.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, In eastern
Indonesia
a 7.5 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sulawesi killed at least
6
people, damaged hundreds of homes and briefly triggered a
region-wide
tsunami warning.
(AP, 11/17/08)(SFC, 11/17/08, p.A3)(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 17, Baghdad Mayor
Sabir
al-Issawi said in statement that Iraq's Cabinet has earmarked $3
billion for a Baghdad subway project.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, A car carrying
Yaakov
Alperon (51), one of Israel's top mafia kingpins, exploded as it
traveled in central Tel Aviv, killing him and threatening to unleash
an
all-out war in Israel's increasingly violent underworld.
(AP, 11/17/08)(SFC, 11/18/08, p.A14)
2008 Nov 17, The mother ship in
Japan's whaling fleet left for the country's annual hunt in the
Antarctic. Greenpeace anti-whaling activists vowed to disrupt the
expedition once again after high-seas clashes forced an early halt
last
year.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, Large crowds voted
in
some towns in Indian Kashmir while protesters clashed with police in
others as state elections began amid boycott calls by Muslim
separatists.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, In Iran Ali
Ashtari
(45), convicted of spying for Israel, was hanged after being
sentenced
to death on June 30 by a revolutionary court in Tehran. The
electronics
salesman worked in supplying military, security and defense centers
across the Iran.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 17, The Kenya Wildlife
Service (KWS) said a ton of ivory items and 57 suspects were netted
in
a four-month operation billed Africa's largest-ever crackdown on
wildlife crime. Operation Baba also seized cheetah, leopard, serval
cat
and python skins as well as hippo teeth at several markets, airports
and border crossings in Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and
Zambia.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, A Mexican
newspaper's
offices were damaged by two grenades in the violence-plagued city of
Culiacan in northwestern Mexico.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 17, Courts in
military-ruled Myanmar sentenced at least seven democracy activists
to
prison, continuing a crackdown that saw about 70 people jailed last
week.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 17, Pakistan sent
armed
troops to escort trucks along a key supply route for US and NATO
forces
in Afghanistan. In northwest Pakistan a suicide car bomber attacked
an
army post, killing at least 3 people. Violence elsewhere in the
region
left at least five suspected militants dead. Taliban militants
attacked
Pakistani tribal leaders in the Bajur region near the Afghan border,
triggering a gunbattle and a blast that killed seven people.
(AP, 11/17/08)(AP, 11/18/08)(WSJ, 11/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 17, In the Philippines
a
gunman on a motorcycle killed Arecio Padrigao, a hard-hitting
Filipino
radio commentator, in front of Bukindon State University in southern
Gingoog city. This was the seventh deadly attack on reporters in the
Philippines this year.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, In Somalia
witnesses
said African Union (AU) peacekeepers from Burundi have started
moving
into positions usually manned by Ethiopian troops in the capital
Mogadishu, as part of the ongoing Djibouti peace process.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, Sri Lankan troops
captured the strategic towns of Mankulam, Pannikankulam, and
Kumalamunai from Tamil Tiger rebels following fierce fighting in the
north of the island.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, Sudanese police
detained more than 60 journalists for around three hours and
instructed
them to go to court for protesting against draconian censorship.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, Venezuela and Iran
announced a plan to start a new university program in the South
American country with a focus on teaching socialist principles.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 18, The chief
executives
of Detroit’s Big Three automakers appeared before the US Senate
Banking
Committee along with the head of the UAW union to plea for financial
aid under the current economic crises.
(WSJ, 11/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 18, A judge in Georgia
sentenced 25-year-old Rico Todriquez Wright to spend the next 20
years
in prison after his victim mentioned a hip hop confession to police.
Wright shot a man twice and felt so good about it, the rapper wrote
a
song describing the shooting and calling out the victim by name.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 18, George C. Chesbro,
US
writer, died. His 27 novels included a detective series featuring
Mongo, a dwarf detective. “Shadow of a Broken Man” (1977) starred
Mongo
and proved to be Chesbro’s breakout hit.
(SFC, 11/27/08, p.B8)
2008 Nov 18, In Afghanistan
insurgents in western Farah province ambushed an Afghan army supply
convoy, killing five troops and wounding five others.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Belgian brewing
giant
InBev announced it had completed the takeover of Anheuser-Busch to
create the world's biggest brewer. Beijing agreed to Belgium-based
InBev SA's takeover of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.'s Chinese operations
as
part of their global merger, but limited future acquisitions on
anti-monopoly grounds.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, A Cambodian monk
(17)
was arrested for raping a British woman (39) while taking her on a
tour
of a cave in the northwestern Sampov mountains near his Buddhist
temple. The monk also allegedly stole $55 and a cell phone from the
woman.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 18, Demoralized
Congolese
government troops, retreating before eastern rebels, clashed with
their
own local militia allies who tried to make them stand and fight
after
the armed forces chief was replaced.
(Reuters, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Separate bands of
pirates seized a Thai fishing trawler with 16 crew members and an
Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates
on
the trawler then apparently fired on the Indian naval frigate Tabar.
The Indians, believing the trawler to be a pirate "mother ship,"
returned fire turning the Ekawat Nava 5 into a massive fireball and
killing 14 of the 15 crew as well as the pirates. The Tabar then
chased
two attack boats into the night. A surviving sailor spent six days
adrift in the shark-infested ocean before another ship picked him
up.
The Iranian vessel was released on Jan 9, 2009.
(AP, 11/19/08)(AP, 11/26/08)(SFC, 11/26/08,
p.A3)(AP, 1/10/09)(AP, 6/5/09)
2008 Nov 18, Grand Ayatollah
Ali
al-Sistani. Iraq's top Shiite cleric, said that the US-Iraqi
security
pact would only be viable if the country's main political groups
backed
it and it restored the country's full sovereignty. Iraqi lawmakers
loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr disrupted a parliamentary
debate
ahead of a Nov. 24 vote on a US-Iraqi security agreement that would
keep American troops in Iraq for three more years. An alleged senior
member of Iran's elite security forces suspected of funneling arms
into
Iraq was detained by Iraqi police at Baghdad International Airport
while he was trying to leave the country. The man was released on
Nov
21.
(AP, 11/18/08)(AP, 11/19/08)(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 18, Israeli tanks
forged
into the southern Gaza Strip, drawing mortar fire from Palestinian
militants and intensifying violence that has chipped away at a
tenuous
cease-fire. Israeli seamen boarded a Palestinian fishing boat and
arrested one of Gaza's foreign supporters and five Palestinian
fishermen. The foreigner was identified as Andrew Muncie of
Scotland.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, John Key (47)
became
New Zealand's conservative new prime minister and underscored the
economy as his top priority.
(AP, 11/18/08)(Econ, 11/15/08, p.51)
2008 Nov 18, Northern Ireland's
leaders announced a deal allowing power-sharing cabinet meetings to
resume in the British province for the first time in over four
months.
(AFP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Italian
authorities
in Sicily seized assets worth euro700 million ($885 million) from
Giuseppe Grigoli, a supermarket chain owner, suspected of letting
the
Mafia use his businesses to launder money.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, In Japan Takehiko
Yamaguchi (66) and his wife Michiko (61) were found dead near the
doorway of their home in Saitama, just outside Tokyo. Evidence
showed
the pair had been stabbed repeatedly. On Nov 22 Takeshi Koizumi (46)
turned himself in to police saying that he had killed the retired
vice
health minister. Authorities later said they suspected the attacks
were
connected to the ministry's mishandling of millions of pension
records,
a debacle that has drawn intense ire from the public, many of whom
lost
their retirement funds as a result. It was later reported that
Koizumi
accused the ministry of killing his childhood pet dog.
(AP, 11/23/08)(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 18, Thousands of
supporters of Nicaragua's leftist ruling party armed with rocks
tried
to block an opposition march on the capital to protest alleged vote
fraud, setting off clashes that injured at least five people.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Pakistani security
forces in the Kabal area of the Swat valley killed seven militants.
In
another incident in the valley's Kanju area, insurgents ambushed an
army convoy, killing a soldier.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Owners of a Saudi
oil
supertanker hijacked by Somali pirates grappled with how to respond,
as
navies patrolling the region said they would not intervene to stop
or
free the captured vessel.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Spanish artist
Miquel
Barcelo unveiled his lavish, $23 million ceiling painting at the
European headquarters of the United Nations in Switzerland, a
project
that has evoked controversy over its hefty price tag.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Spain's most
famous
judge abandoned a drive for a symbolic indictment of the late Gen.
Francisco Franco and his regime, dropping a probe into atrocities
committed during and after the country's ruinous civil war.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, Sri Lankan naval
forces backed by helicopter gunships attacked a group of rebel
boats,
sinking two and killing six Tamil Tiger sailors. Sri Lankan air
force
jets bombed a rebel training camp in the north as ground forces
waged
new battles with Tamil Tiger rebels across the front lines.
(AP, 11/18/08)(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 18, In Zimbabwe riot
police prevented striking doctors and nurses from protesting against
the collapsing health care system, which lacks even basic drugs amid
a
rapid spread of cholera in the country.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 19, FBI agent Sam
Hicks
was shot and killed while serving a warrant at a home near
Pittsburgh,
during a roundup of drug suspects in the greater Pittsburgh area.
Christina Korbe was charged with homicide. Her husband, Robert
Korbe,
was one of 35 people charged in a 27-count drug-trafficking
indictment.
(AP, 11/19/08)(SFC, 11/20/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 19, The US DJIA fell
to
levels not seen since 2003. the DJIA closed down 427.47 at 7,997.28.
(SFC, 11/20/08, p.C1)
2008 Nov 19, In NYC the
Triborough
Bridge was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge.
(SFC, 11/20/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 19, The US Coast Guard
suspended its search for roughly 90 migrants feared dead after their
makeshift boat apparently sank in an often-stormy stretch of water
between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The boat left the
southeastern Dominican Republic on the night of Nov 12 and a woman
whose boyfriend was on the boat alerted authorities that it was
missing
on Nov 16.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, The New Jersey
Office
of the Attorney General said online dating service eHarmony has
agreed
to create a new website for gays and lesbians as part of a
settlement
with a gay man in New Jersey.
(Reuters, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, California state
and
federal officials said they have seized 5.2 million marijuana plants
from public and private land during this year’s growing season, half
of
which were grown in California.
(SFC, 11/20/08, p.B8)
2008 Nov 19, NASA flight
controllers were revamping plans for the remaining spacewalks
planned
during space shuttle Endeavour's visit to the international space
station, after astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper lost a crucial
tool bag floating out to space during a repair trip. NASA put the
value
of the tools at $100,000.
(AP, 11/19/08)(SFC, 11/20/08, p.A2)
2008 Nov 19, In Miami, Florida,
police arrived to find Abraham Biggs (19) dead in his father's bed
12
hours after the Broward College student first declared on a Web site
that he hated himself and planned to die. It was only then that the
Web
feed stopped. Some users told investigators they did not take him
seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 19, John Hayes,
Hollywood
screenwriter, died in New Hampshire. His work included “Peyton
Place”
(1957) and Alfred Hitchcock’s classic “Rear Window” (1954).
(SFC, 11/25/08, p.B4)
2008 Nov 19, The British
government announced plans to make it illegal to pay for sex with
women
forced into prostitution and to name men who solicit sex on the
streets, measures that prostitutes say will put more women at risk.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, Chinese President
Hu
Jintao promised Cuba at least $78 million in donations, credit and
hurricane relief. Hu also met with a thin-looking Fidel Castro
before
leaving for the Asia-Pacific economic summit in Peru. China agreed
to
donate $8 million to Cuba and extend the second, $70 million phase
of
$350 million in previously agreed-upon credit to renovate Cuban
hospitals.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, China and Peru
signed
a free trade agreement.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.42)
2008 Nov 19, In China Huang
Guangyu, founder and chairman of GOME Electrical Appliances, was
detained for insider trading in shares of Shandong Jintai Group, a
pharmaceutical company controlled by his brother. On Feb 12, 2010,
authorities announced charges of insider trading and bribery.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.69)(Econ, 2/20/10, p.64)
2008 Nov 19, Georgia and Russia
held their first major, mediated talks since their August war.
(WSJ, 11/20/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 19, Germany extradited
to
France Rose Kabuye (47), chief of protocol to Rwandan President Paul
Kagame, over an assassination triggering the 1994 genocide, amid
mass
anti-European protests in Kigali. Some European investigators feared
that Kabuye deliberately delivered herself to German authorities so
her
lawyers could gain access to the case files prepared against her and
other Kagame allies.
(AFP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, Germany chemical
company BASF SE said it is temporarily closing 80 plants worldwide
due
to slumping demand and cutting production at 100 more, including
facilities in Texas and Louisiana. Some 20,000 workers are affected.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, In Haiti Max Cosci
of
Doctors Without Borders said at least 26 children had died over a
two-week period in the remote, southeastern area of Baie d'Orange.
The
UN World Food Program says it is sending medical and food aid to the
region.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 19, The IMF approved a
two-year, $2.1 billion support program for Iceland designed to
restore
confidence and stabilize the country's shattered economy.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 19, Iran's official
news
agency said Iranian border guards have killed several Kurdish
separatists in a shootout in the western part of the country. The
gunmen were said to be part of the Kurdish separatist group, known
as
the PEJAK, the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, A court in
military-ruled Myanmar sentenced a student activist to 6 1/2 years
in
jail, a week after his father received a 65-year prison term for his
own political activities and a decade after his grandfather died in
custody. Di Nyein Lin was one of three student activists sentenced
by a
court in a suburb of Yangon for various offenses, including causing
public alarm and insulting religion.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 19, In Pakistan gunmen
shot and killed Ameer Faisal Alvi, a retired Pakistani army general,
and his driver on the outskirts of capital, Islamabad. Alvi had led
military operations against insurgents in the tribal regions. A
suspected American missile bombarded a village in Bannu district,
deep
inside Pakistani territory, marking what appears to be the first
time
the US has struck beyond the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. Six
alleged militants were killed including Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, a
senior member of Osama bin Laden's terror network.
(AP, 11/19/08)(AFP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, Philippine health
officials said at least two people have died and more than 1,500 are
in
hospital following a suspected outbreak of cholera in the southern
Philippines.
(AFP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, Vladimir
Kuznetsov, a
former UN diplomat convicted in the US of money laundering and
fraud,
arrived in Moscow and will serve the last 16 months of his sentence
in
a Russian prison. Kuznetsov once chaired the UN's powerful budget
oversight committee.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, Spanish doctors
reported the successful transplant to a woman of a new windpipe with
tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for
anti-rejection drugs.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 19, The UN asked for
$7
billion (5.5 billion euros) to fund its humanitarian work around the
world in 2009, almost double last year's appeal as a result of
soaring
food prices and crises in Africa, among other factors. The UN's food
agency will slim down its bureaucracy, work to cut costs and make
investments that will improve efficiency as part of a reform plan
adopted by member nations.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, The World Food
Program said that it has signed a new food aid deal to allow the UN
agency to provide 350,000 tons of grain to millions in Zimbabwe.
(AFP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 20, A US federal judge
ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
and
the continued detention of a sixth in a major blow to the Bush
administration's strategy to keep terror suspects locked up without
charges.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, US Congressional
efforts to rescue Detroit’s auto makers collapsed with lawmakers
saying
the industry lacks credibility to return to profitability. Democrats
asked for a convincing turnaround plan by Dec 2.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 20, The DJIA fell
444.99
to its lowest level since March, 2003.
(SFC, 11/21/08, p.C1)
2008 Nov 20, In Afghanistan
US-led
forces killed an Afghan civilian in a battle that also left two
militants dead.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 20, The new Australian
Sex Party launched at Sexpo, an annual sex exhibition in Melbourne.
It
has already gathered the required 500 members and plans to register
with the electoral commission next week.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the European Union's
peacekeeping
force in Bosnia for a year, emphasizing the importance of the
country's
progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Britain called on
Rwandan President Paul Kagame to use his "influence" over Congolese
rebels led by general Laurent Nkunda to end to violence in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, A meteor streaked
across the sky of the Canadian Prairies producing a fire ball that
shone brightly enough to be seen over an area 700 km (435 miles)
wide.
Searchers soon found the remains of the 10-ton meteor.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 20, In southwestern
Colombia the Nevado del Huila volcano erupted and loosed avalanches
of
mud and ash that injured nine, destroyed bridges and trapped people
in
their towns. At least 10 people died in landslides triggered by the
eruption.
(AP, 11/22/08)(SFC, 11/29/08, p.B6)
2008 Nov 20, Dubai held a
launch
party for its Atlantis Hotel.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.115)
2008 Nov 20, Egypt held
emergency
talks with nations bordering the Red Sea on how to stop Somali
gunmen
from hijacking ships. Somali pirates had already seized at least 80
ships off the Horn of Africa this year.
(SFC, 11/21/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 20, The European Union
formally recognized Welsh, which dates back to the 6th century, as a
minority tongue. It became an official tongue in Wales in 1993, 450
years after British rulers gave it the boot in favor of English.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Finland's Finance
Ministry said four Nordic countries will lend Iceland $2.5 billion
(euro1.98 billion) to help the country recover from its economic
meltdown.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The 2008 edition
of
Beaujolais Nouveau wine arrived, and vintners hoped it will lift
spirits despite the financial crisis and a dismal crop.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Georgian officials
said Russian and separatist forces attacked a Georgian police
checkpoint near the village of Ganmukhuri, near the breakaway
province
of Abkhazia. Anatoly Zaitsev, the chief of staff for the Abkhaz
armed
forces, said that a group of Abkhaz troops patrolling the area were
shelled from the Georgian side and returned fire, and no Russian
troops
were involved.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Iraqi opposition
lawmakers shouted and pounded their desks in protest in a second day
of
emotional debate in parliament over a proposed agreement with the US
that would allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three more
years.
Baghdad authorities announced a campaign to kill stray dogs who roam
the Iraqi capital in packs, after a spate of fatal dog attacks left
children in some neighborhoods fearful of going outside. An American
soldier died of non-combat-related causes.
(AP, 11/20/08)(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, Jewish settlers in
Hebron spray-painted graffiti on a mosque slurring the Prophet
Muhammad
and defaced a Muslim cemetery, Israeli military officials said,
threatening to worsen tensions in this volatile West Bank city.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Latvia said it is
looking to start talks with IMF and had formally entered into
negotiations with the European Commission on emergency financial
assistance.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A10)
2008 Nov 20, US oil group
Chevron
suspended export contracts on much of its Nigerian production after
a
militant attack on a key pipeline. Chevron said it was declaring
"force
majeure" until December 31 following the Nov 14 attack on the
pipeline
which carries supplies to its Escravos terminal in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The Norwegian
government said it has picked the US developed F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter to replace its aging US-made F-16 aircraft in a roughly 60
billion kroner ($8.5 billion) deal.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Pakistan a
militant Taliban group warned of reprisals if there was another US
drone attack, as the government condemned the latest missile strike
in
its territory. A suicide bomber killed at least four people when he
blew himself up at a mosque northwest of Khar, the main town in the
troubled Bajaur tribal region. Pakistani jets and artillery killed
17
people, including up to four Uzbek commanders, as they pounded
suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda hideouts in Bajaur overnight and into
the morning. Pakistani jets also killed 20 militants in attacks on
militant centers in the northwestern Swat valley. A suicide bomber
attacked a mosque in the border region where government-backed
anti-militant tribesman were praying, killing 8, including the head
of
the group.
(AFP, 11/20/08)(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, In the Philippines
a
mother and her 3 children were among the six people killed after a
mudslide triggered by days of heavy rain buried houses in a southern
gold mining town.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, Boris Fyodorov
(50),
Russian economic reformer, died.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.88)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions on pirates, arms
smugglers, and perpetrators of instability in Somalia in a fresh
attempt to help end years of lawlessness in the Horn of Africa
nation.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, South Africa said
it
will withhold aid for Zimbabwe until a representative government is
in
place, in what appeared to be the first punitive measure by a
regional
country to enforce a power-sharing agreement.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, South Korean
activists sent propaganda leaflets over the border into North Korea,
ignoring their own government's pleas to stop the practice and
threats
from the North to sever relations if it continues.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Sri Lanka's
military
said that it smashed a key Tamil Tiger defense line in the island's
far
north and seized an airfield, putting new pressure on the shrinking
jungle mini-state.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The International
Criminal Court prosecutor requested arrest warrants for rebels in
Sudan's Darfur region, accusing them of storming an African Union
camp
and killing 12 peacekeepers in Sep, 2007.
(Reuters, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Switzerland’s
central
bank cut its benchmark interest by a full percentage point, the
latest
in a global round of aggressive rate cuts amid stuttering economic
growth.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A16)
2008 Nov 20, In Thailand a
grenade
attack on demonstrators occupying the Thai premier's offices killed
one
person and wounded 29, prompting protest leaders to call for a new
march against the government.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 19, Turkey’s central
bank
cuts its core overnight borrowing rate by .5% to 16.25%.
(WSJ, 11/20/08, p.A15)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to send some 3,000 additional UN
peacekeepers
to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help prevent a new war in
the country's east.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Vietnam's
president
Nguyen Minh Triet was set to meet Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez,
during
the first visit by a head of state from the communist nation here,
mainly focused on oil and gas ties.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Vietnam family
planning chiefs said officials in Communist Vietnam, alarmed by a
new
baby boom, are to crack down on couples having more than two
children.
The government first launched a two-child policy in the early 1960s.
A
2003 ordinance encouraged small families without making it illegal
for
families to have a third child.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The US ambassador
to
Harare, James McGee, said that a total of 294 people have been
confirmed dead from cholera in Zimbabwe, amid some 1,200 cases of
the
water-borne disease.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 21, The DJIA rose
494.13
to close at 8,046.42 following news that Pres.-elect Obama would
likely
pick Timothy Geithner, chief of the New York Federal Reserve, as the
next Treasury secretary.
(SFC, 11/22/08, p.C1)
2008 Nov 21, The Nebraska
Legislature voted 43-5 to make abandonment of children legal only
for
infants up to 30 days old. Gov. Dave Heinemen signed the emergency
bill
effective after midnight.
(SFC, 11/22/08, p.A2)
2008 Nov 21, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber rammed the gate of an army base in the southern
province
of Zabul, killing three civilians and seriously wounding four Afghan
soldiers. A man was killed after being interrogated by the Taliban
leadership. US-led troops shot and killed a civilian in Khost when
the
vehicle he was in came too close to a patrol. 8 wedding-goers were
killed when two or three grenades were thrown into the men's section
of
the wedding in the northern province of Parwan.
(AP, 11/21/08)(AFP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 21, Mario Ferreyra
(63),
an ex-Argentine police commander, committed suicide in front of
rolling
television cameras as he was about to be arrested for alleged human
rights violations during the country's dictatorship.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 21, Canada and
Colombia
signed a free trade agreement, hoping to boost investment and trade
flows at a time of global economic instability.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 21, Chinese
authorities
destroyed the home of leading rights activist Ni Yulan in front of
her
distraught husband who pleaded with the government to release her
from
jail. Chen Daojun, a writer and journalist who was arrested after
protesting against a power plant in southwest China, was sentenced
to
three years in prison on charges of subverting state power.
(AFP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, In eastern Congo
armed men shot and killed a 20-year-old woman at the Kibati refugee
camp where thousands of displaced people live in constant fear,
caught
between soldiers and rebels. Armed men also forced families there
out
of their huts and looted them. Didace Namujimbo, a journalist
working
for a UN-backed radio station, was shot dead in Bukavu.
(AP, 11/21/08)(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 21, Ethiopia’s
government
said the death toll from floods in southeastern Ethiopia has risen
to
17 and more than 100,000 people have been left homeless.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, German security
officials said they are dropping the pursuit of a ban on Scientology
after finding insufficient evidence of illegal activity.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 21, Germany banned
Hezbollah's Lebanon-based satellite television station on grounds
that
it violates the country's constitution.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 21, In Iraq thousands
of
followers of a radical Shiite cleric protested a proposed US-Iraqi
security deal, burning an effigy of President George W. Bush in the
same square where Iraqis beat a toppled Saddam Hussein statue five
years ago.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, A shootout between
Lebanese soldiers and a group of gunmen in the northern port city of
Tripoli left one of the gunmen dead and two wounded.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, In Mexico Attorney
General Eduardo Medina Mora told reporters that Noe Ramirez,
Mexico’s
former drug czar, accepted $450,000 from drug traffickers, and that
cartel leaders offered to pay him monthly for alerting them to
planned
police operations. In Tijuana 3 gunmen burst into the Bar Utopia, a
bar
popular with university students and opened fire. 2 men and a woman
died instantly and 3 others died the next day.
(AP, 11/21/08)(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 21, Courts in
military-ruled Myanmar handed long prison sentences to a prominent
Buddhist monk and Zarganar, a popular comedian active in the
country's
pro-democracy movement, rounding out two weeks of an intensive
judicial
crackdown on activists.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, Amsterdam said it
will order the closure of dozens of coffee shops that sell cannabis
near schools in accordance with new legislation.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, In northwestern
Pakistan a bomb killed eight mourners at the funeral of Shiite
cleric
Allama Nazir Shah Naqvi, who was fatally shot earlier in the day.
(AP, 11/21/08)(SFC, 11/22/08, p.A3)
2008 Nov 21, Vadim Pokrovsky,
Russia's anti-AIDS coordinator, said the number of registered HIV
cases
is growing 10 percent a year despite increased government funding.
He
said that the actual number of people with HIV was likely higher
than 1
million.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, Somali security
forces and Islamic insurgents engaged in one of the fiercest
gunbattles
in recent weeks in Mogadishu, killing at least 17 people and
wounding
six.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, Somali pirates
released a hijacked Greek-owned tanker with all 19 crew safe and the
oil cargo intact. The Liberian-flagged tanker MV Genius had been
seized
on Sept. 26. The ship's management company said a ransom was paid
but
did not say how much.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 21, Zimbabwe refused
to
let former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, ex-US President Jimmy
Carter and rights advocate Graca Machel to visit the impoverished
African country for a humanitarian mission. They came as members of
The
Elders group, formed by former South African President Nelson
Mandela
to foster peace and tackle world conflicts.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 22, In Afghanistan a
French trooper was killed and another wounded when a mine engulfed
them
about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Kabul. A bomb exploded in a
vegetable market in the eastern town of Khost, killing a 15-year-old
boy and a man passing-by. Another bomb blew up a police vehicle in
the
central province of Ghazni and killed three policemen and wounded
two.
The bullet-riddled body of Ghais Haqmal, the governor of
Marawara
district, was found in Kunar province. He had been abducted by
Taliban
three months ago and the militants had demanded the release of 50 of
their jailed comrades in exchange for his life. The US-led military
announced that troops had killed 14 insurgents in operations in the
southern provinces of Helmand and Farah in the past two days. Afghan
and coalition forces killed 17 insurgents in air strikes in the
southern province of Kandahar. The government of the central
province
of Ghazni said its forces had thwarted a Taliban attack on the Ab
Band
district administration center killing eight gunmen.
(AFP, 11/22/08)(AFP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 22, Burundi's
parliament
adopted a new set of laws abolishing the death penalty for the first
time in the troubled central African country.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 22, The Yellow River
Conservancy Committee reported that one-third of the Yellow River,
which supplies water to millions of people in northern China, is
heavily polluted by industrial waste and unsafe for any use.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 22, Congolese rebel
leader Laurent Nkunda sought to reassure people in territory
recently
seized in a lightning advance, telling thousands gathered in
Rutshuru
for his first mass rally that his men intend to bring peace, not
war,
to Congo. A rebel offensive under Nkunda began to push some 1,500
Hutu
FDLR militiamen from Ishasha. The move forced over 3,000 civilians
to
flee to neighboring Uganda.
(AP, 11/22/08)(SFC, 11/27/08, p.A8)
2008 Nov 22, In eastern Congo 2
mass graves containing as many as 2,000 bodies were discovered in
Bukavu on a plot of land formerly owned by a member of the Congolese
Rally for Democracy (RCD), a Rwandan-backed rebel group. The RCD
became
a political party in 2003. Many of its top leaders were integrated
into
the government, taking jobs as vice presidents and army chiefs.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 22, The French
Socialist
Party said that Martine Aubry, the architect of France's 35-hour
work
week, has won the party's leadership in an extremely tight race, an
outcome quickly challenged by partisans of rival Segolene Royal.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 22, A prison fight in
Guatemala has left seven inmates dead, including five who were
decapitated. The fight in the Pavoncito prison in Guatemala City
erupted because inmates were angry over the transfer of a group of
alleged gang members from another prison.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 22, In Guatemala the
head
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia was among three
people
killed in a boat accident on Lake Atitlan.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 22, Malaysia's top
Islamic body ruled against Muslims practicing yoga, saying it has
elements of other religions that could corrupt Muslims. On Nov 25
Malaysia's leader assured Muslims they can perform yoga if they do
not
chant religious mantras, an apparent effort to assuage public anger
over an Islamic body's ban of the ancient Indian exercise.
(AP, 11/22/08)(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 22, Ibrahim Nasir
(b.1926), who led the Maldives' independence movement from the
British
and became the island nation's first president, died in Singapore.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 22, Dutch electronics
giant Philips said it will cut "about five percent" of its 32,000
strong workforce in the medical division worldwide, affecting 1,600
workers.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 22, Nicaragua's
opposition pressed on with a bid to cancel disputed elections
despite a
presidential decree declaring that effort unconstitutional.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 22, In Abuja, Nigeria,
MTV launched its first-ever music award program for Africa, with
acts
from across the world's poorest continent nominated for prizes in
the
capital.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 22, In northwest
Pakistan
British-born Rashid Rauf, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006
transatlantic airplane bombing plot, was killed in a US missile
attack.
He had been in custody under the Security of Pakistan Act when he
escaped in December 2007 from Pakistani police custody, although all
charges relating to terrorism had been dropped. Also among the five
killed in the early morning incident was Egyptian Abu Zubair
al-Misri,
another wanted Al-Qaeda operative.
(AFP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 22, In Peru the 21
leaders at the APEC conference endorsed a sweeping action plan that
had
been approved a week ago at the G20 emergency meeting in Washington.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 22, Qatar unveiled its
new Museum of Islamic Art, designed by I.M. Pei.
(Econ, 11/22/08, p.95)
2008 Nov 22, Nearly 600 Tibetan
exiles, gathered at Dharamsala, India, at the behest of the Dalai
Lama,
ended a 6-day meeting. They reaffirmed their absolute “faith and
allegiance” in the Dalai Lama’s leadership and agreeing to pursue
for
Tibet’s autonomy. They did not rule out a possible shift in policy
to
independence if current middle-way policy with China fails to yield
any
result in the near future.
(Econ, 11/22/08,
p.52)(www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=23264)
2008 Nov 22, In Yemen opening
ceremonies were held for the $60 million Saleh Mosque glorifying the
country's leader, President Ali Abdullah Saleh. It's a massive sum
in a
country that ranks as the poorest in the Arab world and is beset by
internal armed conflict, terrorism and severe malnutrition.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 23, President George
W.
Bush, wrapping up his final summit with world leaders, offered a
message of hope that despite the worst economic crisis in decades,
the
global economy will emerge in better shape. He was expected to tout
the
benefits of free trade during a meeting with his host, Peru's
President
Alan Garcia, before attending the final sessions of the 21-nation
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) as he wrapped up
three
days of discussions. Summit leaders predicted a worldwide recovery
in
18 months.
(AP, 11/23/08)(SFC, 11/24/08, p.A11)
2008 Nov 23, Rushing to rescue
Citigroup, the US government agreed to shoulder hundreds of billions
of
dollars in possible losses at the stricken bank and to plow a fresh
$20
billion into the company.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 23, In San Francisco’s
North Beach Brian Goggin unveiled his art installation, “Language of
the Birds,” a $120,000 effort that involved hundreds of people.
(SFC, 11/24/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 23, In Hollywood, Ca.,
Mario Majorski (48) of Oregon was shot and killed by a security
guard
at the Scientology Celebrity Center as he tried to attack guests
with a
pair of Samurai swords.
(SFC, 11/25/08, p.B8)
2008 Nov 23, In New Jersey
Joseph
Pallipurath (27) of Sacramento, Ca., shot and killed Reshma James
(24),
his estranged wife, at the Syrian Orthodox Knayaya Church in
Clifton.
He also killed a 2nd man at the church and wounded a 3rd person.
Pallipurath was arrested late the next day in Georgia.
(SFC, 11/25/08, p.A3)(SFC, 11/26/08, p.A3)
2008 Nov 23, In southeastern
Australia rescuers returned 11 pilot whales to sea, a day after a
pod
of 64 mothers and calves were found stranded on a beach.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 23, In southern Brazil
weekend rains caused rivers to overflow their banks. The resulting
floods and mudslides left at least 114 people dead. In northeastern
Paragominas a mob of about 3,000 people, enraged by a crackdown on
illegal logging, trashed a government office, and tried to attack
environmental workers.
(AP, 11/25/08)(AP, 11/24/08)(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Nov 23, In southwest China
men wielding knives and batons attacked employees at an arcade in a
brawl that left five dead and two injured in Chongqing.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 23, Congolese soldiers
stopped a peacekeepers' convoy at an impromptu roadblock and dragged
23
Congolese men off the trucks, accusing them of being rebels. UN
officials said the men were rebels who had surrendered as well as
national policemen and civilians.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 23, In Egypt police
fired
tear-gas at about 2,000 rioters in the southern town of Aswan as
they
protested the police shooting to death of a bird-seller.
(AFP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 23, In Georgia gunfire
that broke out as Pres. Saakashvili and Polish Pres. Lech Kaczynski
were traveling near a roadblock at the edge of Georgia-controlled
territory. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there was no
gunfire from Russian or South Ossetian positions and suggested
Georgia
engineered the incident to discredit Russia and South Ossetia. In
Tbilisi Nino Burjanadze, a former ally of Pres. Saakashvili, founded
a
new party: the Democratic Movement-United Georgia.
(AP, 11/24/08)(WSJ, 11/24/08, p.A8)
2008 Nov 23, In Guinea Bissau
mutinous soldiers fought their way into the fortified residence of
President Joao Bernardo Vieira's in a 3-hour gunbattle but did
not hurt the head of state.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 23, Indonesia rescued
Bank Century at a cost of 6.76 trillion rupiah ($730m). In 2010
Indonesia’s parliament ruled that the bailout was illegal and
suggested
that indications of corruption be investigated.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.55)(http://tinyurl.com/y8l28yq)
2008 Nov 23, Baghdad
authorities
killed more than 200 stray dogs, the opening day of a campaign to
cull
dog packs roaming the capital that was prompted by a spate of fatal
attacks on residents. According to Baghdad's provincial council 13
people died in August alone in the capital after being attacked by
dogs.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 23, In Indian Kashmir
turnout was high for a 2nd round of voting despite boycott calls by
Muslim separatists and clashes in some towns between protesters and
security forces.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 23, Kenyan PM Raila
Odinga called for the deployment of African Union peacekeepers to
Zimbabwe to bring President Robert Mugabe back into line.
(AFP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 23, In Northern
Ireland 4
police officers were killed in an early morning road accident.
(AFP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 23, Saudi Arabia
slashed
a key lending rate and cut reserve requirements amid intensifying
economic headwinds.
(WSJ, 11/24/08, p.A8)
2008 Nov 23, In Sri Lanka at
least
27 soldiers were killed and another 70 wounded in fresh fighting
just
outside Kilinochchi, the political capital of the Liberation Tigers
(LTTE). Tamil Tiger rebels said they killed 43 Sri Lankan soldiers
in
the island's north, halting the government's march toward a
strategic
crossroads.
(AFP, 11/24/08)(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 23, In Thailand
protesters seeking the resignation of the prime minister massed in
the
capital for what they said would be their biggest rally yet and a
final
showdown with the government. Thousands of soldiers and police were
ordered to use nonviolent means to keep the peace.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 23, In Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez sought to hold on to his dominance in state
and
municipal elections, facing an opposition aiming to win back power
in
key states and cities. Chavez's opponents made important gains in
local
elections, capturing the Caracas mayor's office and three of the
most
populous states, but his allies won a strong majority.
(AP, 11/23/08)(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 24, It was reported
that
President George W. Bush has granted pardons to 14 individuals and
commuted the prison sentences of two others convicted of misdeeds
ranging from drug offenses to tax evasion, from wildlife violations
to
bank embezzlement.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 24, The Bush
administration, after a long legal battle, agreed to send Salim
Hamdan,
Osama bin Laden’s driver, home to Yemen. Hamdan was transferred to
Yemen the next day.
(WSJ, 11/25/08, p.A1)(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 24, The US government
won
a terrorism conviction against Texas-based Holy Land, what had been
the
nation's largest Muslim charity, and five of its leaders for
funneling
millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Holy
Land
supporters accused the government of politicizing the case as part
of
its war on terrorism, while attorneys for the foundation said Holy
Land's mission was philanthropy and providing aid to the Middle
East.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 24, Delaware’s Gov.
Ruth
Ann Miner named Edward Kaufman, a former aide to Sen. Joe Biden, to
fill the Senate seat Biden was leaving for the vice presidency.
(SFC, 11/25/08, p.A14)
2008 Nov 24, Cecil Underwood
(b.1922), former 2-time governor of West Virginia, died. He won his
first term in 1956 to become the state’s youngest governor. In 1996
he
was elected again and became the state’s oldest governor.
(SFC, 11/25/08, p.B4)
2008 Nov 24, In eastern
Afghanistan US troops killed six militants and detained 12 others in
two operations.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 24, Bhutan opened its
4th
annual Gross National Happiness (GNH) conference.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 24, China's President
Hu
Jintao arrived in Greece for a three-day visit timed to coincide
with
the signing of a 831.2 million euro ($1 billion) port deal.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 24, Congolese soldiers
went on an overnight looting and shooting spree in a sprawling
Congolese refugee camp, stealing from hungry and traumatized people
who
have fled fighting in the country's east.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 24, A Haitian teen
shot
and killed a classmate in a rare outbreak of school violence in the
troubled country.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 24, The National Bank
of
Hungary cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point to an
annual rate of 11% to support the economy amid the global financial
crisis.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 24, In Indonesia
health
workers and rights activists sharply criticized a plan by lawmakers
in
remote Papua province, who have thrown their support behind a
controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted
with microchips, part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 24, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber blew herself up near an entrance to the US-protected
Green Zone killing 7 people. A bomb tore through a minibus carrying
Iraqi government employees and killed at least 13 people, most of
them
women. Three more people were killed in bomb attacks on police
patrols
in Baghdad and Baqouba. An American soldier died of
noncombat-related
causes in Diyala province.
(AP, 11/24/08)(AP, 11/25/08)(SFC, 11/25/08,
p.A13)
2008 Nov 24, Adel Hussein was
sentenced six months in jail by a court in Irbil, capital of the
Kurdish-ruled region, for violating a public decency law by writing
a
story about homosexuality. The case centered on an April 2007
article
Hussein wrote for the independent weekly Hawlati that detailed the
physical effects of homosexual sex.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Nov 24, Malaysia released
suspected terrorist Yazid Sufaat, an alleged biological weapons
expert
who was also linked to the September 11 attacks in the United
States.
(AFP, 12/10/08)
2008 Nov 24, North Korea
detailed
plans to radically curtail ties with South Korea, announcing the end
of
daily cross-border train service and tours of a historic city in
response to what it called Seoul's "confrontational" policy.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 24, In Pakistan
government forces killed 15 militants in the Swat valley. An
official
said a two-week operation to secure the frontier city of Peshawar,
which sits on a key supply route for US and NATO troops in
Afghanistan,
killed 25 suspected militants.
(AP, 11/24/08)(SFC, 11/25/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 24, Pakistan, the
front-line country in the battle against Islamist terrorism, won
final
approval for a $7.6 billion loan from the IMF to help stave off a
possible economic meltdown.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 24, Gazans crowded
into
banks to withdraw money amid a worsening currency shortage resulting
from Israeli sanctions.
(WSJ, 11/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 24, Shipping officials
from around the world called for a military blockade along the coast
of
Somalia to intercept pirate vessels heading out to sea.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 24, In Thailand
thousands
of anti-government protesters fanned out across Bangkok, causing
Parliament to shut down and forcing a group of riot police to
retreat
in what the activists called their final bid to oust a corrupt
administration.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 25, The Bush
administration unveiled a set of new programs intended to pump an
additional $800 billion into the economy and thaw still-frozen
credit
markets. The US Federal Reserve said it will buy up to $600 billion
in
mortgage-backed assets in another attempt to deal with the financial
crisis.
(AP, 11/25/08)(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 25, The Bush
administration imposed financial sanctions on four people it called
"cronies" of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe whose support
allegedly
allowed Mugabe to undermine democracy.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, The US said it
will
freeze about $64 million in anti-poverty aid to Nicaragua amid
accusations that local elections were fraudulent.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 25, The US Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) said the list of banks it considers
to
be in trouble shot up nearly 50 percent to 171 during the third
quarter.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 25, A judge ruled that
a
strict Florida law that blocks gay people from adopting children is
unconstitutional, declaring there was no legal or scientific reason
for
sexual orientation alone to prohibit anyone from adopting.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, Gerald Schoenfeld
(b.1924), head of the Shubert Organization, died in NYC. From 1972
he
and Bernard B. Jacobs (d.1996) reinvigorated the commercial theater
business.
(SFC, 11/27/08, p.B8)
2008 Nov 25, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai demanded at a meeting with a UN Security Council team
that
the international community set a "timeline" for ending military
intervention in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, In Australia BHP
Billiton dropped its controversial hostile takeover bid for rival
Rio
Tinto because of the global economic crisis.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25 Armenia won its
second
straight gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in Germany by defeating
China
2.5-1.5 in the 11th and final round.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 25, In Britain the
application process began for a national identity card for some
foreign
nationals in an attempt to combat terrorism and identity fraud. A
British law went into effect that allows courts to prevent someone
from
being forced into marriage, a move that comes as governments across
Europe confront immigrant practices that sometimes clash with more
liberal values. On June 30, 2009, home secretary Alan Johnson said
Britons would not be required to have the new ID cards.
(AP, 11/25/08)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.55)
2008 Nov 25, In Britain a
Sheffield man (56) was sentenced to life in prison for raping his
children for more than 25 years, from the time they were between 8
and
10, beating them when they resisted. Between them, the daughters
bore
their father seven surviving children. Two more died at birth; the
other pregnancies ended in abortion or miscarriage.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 25, Bulgaria lost
euro220
million ($286 million) in promised payments from the EU because of
its
failure to tackle corruption.
(www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1227620855.75/)
2008 Nov 25, In Egypt the state
news agency MENA reported that Coptic Pope Shenuda III has banned
Egyptian Christians from praying in a church-owned building in Cairo
after sectarian clashes there with Muslims.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, EU ministers
sought
to enlist counterparts from 27 African countries in a new effort to
curb the flood of illegal immigration.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, Greenland polling
stations opened in a referendum on expanding home rule. Voters
overwhelmingly approved a plan for more autonomy from Denmark and to
take advantage of potential oil reserves off the glacial island's
coast.
(AP, 11/25/08)(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 25, In eastern India
suspected communist rebels blew up a bridge, killing five police
officers who were escorting election officials in Chattisgarh state.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, Iran said it has
broken a spy ring working for Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad.
The prosecutor general said it would the death penalty for 3
suspects
in custody.
(SFC, 11/26/08, p.A8)
2008 Nov 25, In northern
Iraq 2 American servicemen were killed when a gunman in an Iraqi
army
uniform opened fire while they were distributing humanitarian aid.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 25, It was reported
that
Ireland plans to impose tough new penalties on beggars for the first
time since the Potato Famine 160 years ago.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, In Mexico 7 bodies
were dumped before dawn at a school soccer field in the border city
of
Juarez.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 25, Nigeria’s state
media
said the country has signed a $780 million (605 million euros) loan
agreement with the World Bank to finance three projects.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, Pakistan said its
Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has shut down a
unit
that spied on domestic politicians.
(SFC, 11/26/08, p.A3)
2008 Nov 25, Russian warships
arrived in Venezuela in a show of strength aimed at the United
States
as Moscow seeks to expand its influence in Latin America.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, In eastern Sri
Lanka
12 people, including three suspected Tiger rebels, were killed in
fresh
violence. Heavy fighting raged on three fronts around the northern
town
of Kilinochchi, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE)
political
headquarters.
(AFP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 25, In Thailand
Bangkok's
main international airport halted all flight operations after
anti-government protesters stormed the departures area.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, Indochina
Airlines,
Vietnam’s first privately owned airline, began operations.
(www.india-server.com/news/vietnam-launches-indochina-airlines-4811.html)
2008 Nov 26, Edna Parker (115),
the world’s oldest person, died in Shelbyville, Indiana.
(WSJ, 11/28/08, p.A10)
2008 Nov 26, British data
showed
its economy shrank 0.5% in the 3 months to September, placing it
perilously close to recession as it feels the chill from the global
financial crisis.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 26, China cut interest
rates by more than a percentage point to 5.58%, the most significant
cut in 11 years, as the economic conditions worsened.
(SFC, 12/9/08, p.A10)(Econ, 11/29/08, p.80)
2008 Nov 26, China executed
Wang
Zhendong, a businessman convicted of bilking thousands of investors
out
of $416 million in a bogus ant-breeding scheme.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 26, European ministers
pledged euro10 billion ($12.8 billion) to an ambitious list of 30
space
missions, including one to put a robotic rover on Mars.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 26, In India 110
people
were killed and over 300 injured when suspected Islamic militants
attacked 10 sites in Mumbai including the five-star Taj Mahal Palace
and Tower and the 19th century Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station.
On
Oct 3, 2009, David Headley (b.1960 as Daood Sayed Gilani), a US
citizen
of Pakistani descent, was arrested in Chicago on suspicion of doing
reconnaissance Mumbai attack. In 2010 Gilani pleaded guilty and
testified that the Pakistani spy agency provided individual handlers
for the Lashkar-e-Taiba attackers.
(AP,
11/27/08)(www.talkleft.com/story/2009/12/7/125726/611)(SFC,
10/20/10,
p.A5)
2008 Nov 26, In Iran a court
sentenced a man who blinded a woman with acid also to be blinded
with
acid under the country's Islamic law. Majid (27) confessed to
attacking
Ameneh Bahrami in 2004 to dissuade anyone from marrying the woman he
loved.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 26, In Iraq intense
deal
making among political factions delayed by one day a parliamentary
vote
on a security pact that would allow American forces to stay in the
country through 2011 under tight Iraqi supervision. A roadside bomb
killed two civilians and wounded four in central Baghdad. 18 young
women, purportedly belonging to a suicide bombing network in
northern
Iraq, surrendered and signed a form promising not to conduct attacks
as
part of a reconciliation program.
(AP, 11/26/08)(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 26, Nigeria's food and
drug control agency NAFDAC said 25 children have died in the last
fortnight after taking a teething mixture discovered to contain a
harmful substance. Laboratory tests on the drug found out that it
contains a killer element known as diethylene glycol. The agency
shut
down the premises of the Nigerian manufacturer. The death count soon
rose to 34 as more children lost their lives after being given "My
Pikin" teething syrup contaminated with diethylene glycol, blamed
for
causing kidney failure.
(AFP, 11/26/08)(Reuters, 12/3/08)
2008 Nov 26, The UN and other
aid
agencies appealed to the international community to send $462
million
in emergency assistance to address what they said is a humanitarian
crisis in the Palestinian territories.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 26, In North Ossetia
Vitaly Karayev, the mayor of Vladikavkaz, was shot and killed in the
latest violence to hit a region. The next day An obscure Islamic
group
claimed responsibility for the assassination of a mayor in Russia's
troubled North Caucasus, saying he had sanctioned persecution of
Islamic women.
(AP, 11/26/08)(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 26, In Peru suspected
rebels armed with machine guns and grenades ambushed a police patrol
in
the central jungle, killing four officers and wounding five others.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 26, Off Sierra Leone
pirates from neighboring Guinea attacked a Chinese fishing vessel in
a
rare attack that ended with four suspects dead. Two pirates were
shot,
two drowned and the other pirates were arrested by the Sierra Leone
navy.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 26, In northern
Somalia 2
foreign journalists were kidnapped while doing a story on the
rampant
piracy in the region. The Britain and journalist and his Spanish
counterpart were released on Jan 4, after almost six weeks in
captivity
in Somalia's breakaway Puntland state.
(AP, 11/26/08)(AFP, 1/4/09)
2008 Nov 26, South Africa's
health
minister said Zimbabwe faced a humanitarian crisis after a major
outbreak of cholera, vowing not to turn away anyone who crosses the
border for treatment. Botswana's foreign minister said Zimbabwe's
neighbors should close their borders in an attempt to bring down
Pres.
Robert Mugabe, in the strongest call yet for action from Africa.
(AFP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 26, Sudanese police
demolished about 10,000 homes in a shanty town south of Khartoum,
using
tear gas to disperse protesting residents.
(AFP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 26, The UN Security
Council approved the deployment of a European Union mission
throughout
Kosovo under the UN umbrella.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 26, In Venezuela
Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to help start a local nuclear
energy
program and said Moscow is willing to participate in a socialist
trade
bloc in Latin America led by President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, Macy’s held its
82nd
Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC.
(SFC, 11/28/08, p.A2)
2008 Nov 27, An SUV plunged off
an
overpass in northern Colorado and hit a concrete embankment in a
fiery
crash, killing all seven people inside it, including two young
children.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, A sport utility
vehicle carrying 8 people from Texas plunged off an unfinished
bridge
into a river in northern Mexico, causing the death of three adults
and
four children.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 27, In southern
Afghanistan 2 British troops were killed after being fired at by
insurgents while on patrol. A suicide car bomber targeting an
American
convoy exploded about 200 yards (meters) outside the US Embassy in
Kabul, killing at least four Afghan bystanders as people entered the
compound for a Thanksgiving Day race. In northwestern Afghanistan
Taliban insurgents killed 13 Afghan troops in an ambush of their
convoy. NATO-led troops fired on insurgents inside Pakistan. The
artillery attacks killed several insurgents and caused several
secondary explosions, indicating the presence of ammunition at the
locations. The U.N.'s drug czar said the Taliban and other warlords
could clear almost half a billion dollars from Afghanistan's opium
trade this year, money that will help finance insurgent attacks.
(AFP, 11/27/08)(AP, 11/27/08)(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 27, In China
assailants
allegedly pulled members of a Belgian television crew from their
vehicle, beat them and took their notes and money. VRT asked for
compensation for damaged equipment, an apology to the journalists
and a
guarantee that the journalists will be able to work safely.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Nov 27, More than 10,000
Congolese civilians fled to Uganda in a matter of hours to escape
renewed fighting.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, An Airbus A320
passenger plane crashed off France's southern coast during a
maintenance flight, killing 3 people and leaving the 4 others on
board
missing.
(AP, 11/28/08)(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Nov 27, Germany's defense
minister laid the foundation stone for the first national memorial
in
Berlin, designed by German architect Andreas Meck, to soldiers
killed
serving in the country's post-World War II military.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, Black-clad Indian
commandoes raided two luxury hotels to try to free hostages, and
explosions and gunshots shook Mumbai, India's financial capital, a
day
after suspected Muslim militants killed 110 people.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, Iraq's parliament
approved a security pact with the United States that lets American
troops stay in the country for three more years, setting a clear
timetable for a US exit for the first time since the 2003 invasion.
Under the security pact, US forces will withdraw from Iraqi towns
and
cities by June 30 and the entire country by Jan. 1, 2012.
(AP, 11/27/08)(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 27, A court inside
Myanmar's notorious Insein prison sentenced a comedian who has
criticized the government's cyclone response to 14 more years,
bringing
his total prison term to 59 years, his lawyer said. Comedian and
activist Zarganar was given a 45-year prison sentence last week
after
he was convicted on charges related to interviews he gave to foreign
media outlets.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, South Korea's
supermarket chains resumed selling US beef, nearly five months after
the government lifted an import ban imposed over fears of mad cow
disease.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, Spain's prime
minister announced an euro11 billion ($14 billion) stimulus plan to
revive the country's flagging economy.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, In Spain novelist
Juan Marse (75), known for his descriptions of hardship in Catalonia
during the Spanish civil war (1936-1939), won the Cervantes Prize,
the
Spanish speaking world’s highest literary prize.
(SFC, 11/28/08, p.E10)
2008 Nov 27, Switzerland
reached
an agreement wit the EU to join the European Union's passport-free
travel zone effective next month.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, Thailand's
government
prepared to crack down on protesters occupying the capital's two
airports, but called on the public not to panic as rumors of a coup
swept through the city.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, Yemeni security
troops in San’a opened fire on thousands of protesters calling for a
boycott of April parliamentary elections, wounding a number of
demonstrators.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 28, This day was
marked
as Native American Heritage Day. US federal legislation set aside
the
day after Thanksgiving — for this year only — to honor the
contributions American Indians have made to the US. Congress passed
legislation this year designating the day as Native American
Heritage
Day, and President George W. Bush signed it last month.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, Space shuttle
Endeavour and its crew of seven departed the international space
station, ending a 12-day visit.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, In New York
Jdimytai
Damour (34), a Long Island Wal-Mart worker, was killed after a crowd
of
post-Thanksgiving shoppers burst through the doors at the suburban
Valley Stream store and knocked him down. In 2009 Wal-Mart agreed to
pay nearly $2 million and improve safety at its 92 New York stores
as
part of a deal with prosecutors that avoids criminal charges in the
trampling death.
(AP, 11/29/08)(AP, 5/6/09)
2008 Nov 28, William Finnegan,
TV
and film producer, died in New York. His film and TV work included
“The
Dollmaker” (1984) and “Hawaii Five-0.”
(SFC, 12/3/08, p.B6)
2008 Nov 28, In Afghanistan US
troops killed Haji Yakub, a wanted Taliban commander, who tried to
hide
from soldiers under a woman's burqa. Afghan and coalition forces
killed
33 militants when their patrol came under attack in southern Helmand
province. In Kandahar province a three-day NATO-Afghan operation in
Zhari district killed 12 militants. Police in Farah province killed
four insurgents setting up a makeshift base in a village, apparently
aiming to launch strikes on Farah city. Afghan army and police
attacked
a nine-vehicle convoy, killing four insurgents and wounding another
three as other insurgents fled. An Afghan police officer was also
killed in the gunbattle in Farah province.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Argentina a
three-judge panel formally charged former President Carlos Menem
with
arms trafficking as he watched on live video from hundreds of miles
away because doctors say he is too ill to travel.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 28, China executed Wo
Weihan, a scientist accused of passing information to Taiwan,
triggering condemnation from his family and several countries
including
the US.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, Tens of thousands
of
Colombians marched to demand leftist rebels free hostages they have
held for as long as a decade or more.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 28, Congo rebels
captured
the border post of Ishasha in eastern Congo, increasing their
stranglehold over the region. At least 13,000 frightened civilians
have
fled into Uganda over the last two days.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Cuba Russia's
president Medvedev met with Fidel Castro, discussing Guantanamo Bay
and
hopes for a multipolar world with Cuba's former leader during a tour
of
Latin America aimed at raising Moscow's presence in the region.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, Ethiopia announced
that it will withdraw its forces from Somalia by the end of the
year,
leaving this country's weak and fractured government to face an
increasingly powerful Islamic insurgency.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, In India commandos
who stormed the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish
group
found the bodies of five hostages inside, as a fresh battle raged at
the luxury Taj Mahal hotel and other Indian forces ended a siege at
another five-star hotel. More than 150 people have been killed since
gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital on Nov 26,
including 22 foreigners, two of them Americans. Commandos killed the
last two gunmen inside the luxury Oberoi hotel, where 24 bodies had
been found.
(AP, 11/28/08)(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew himself up among worshippers waiting to be searched
outside
a mosque run by followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr, killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, Japan announced it
would end its airlift operations in Iraq by the end of the year,
citing
security improvements and moves toward democracy in Iraq.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Mexico at least
12
masked gunmen opened fire inside a restaurant in the northern border
city of Ciudad Juarez, killing eight.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Myanmar 2
journalists were jailed for seven years each on charges of
undermining
the military junta after they were caught with a UN human rights
report. A court in a northeastern suburb of Yangon sentenced Thet
Zin,
editor of the local Myanmar-language journal News Watch, and Sein
Win
Maung, the paper's manager, under the country's draconian Printing
and
Publishing Law.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 28, Clashes erupted in
Jos, Nigeria, after a local election dispute, leaving at least three
people dead and prompting the military to send troops into city
streets
to restore order. Over the next 3 days at least 300 people were
killed
and 7,00 displaced. In southern Nigeria gunmen abducted a Scottish
oil
industry worker.
(AP, 11/28/08)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.64)
2008 Nov 28, In Pakistan a
suicide
car bomber killed seven people in the northwestern town of Bannu.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, A Palestinian was
killed in a clash with Israeli forces in southern Gaza. A mortar
attack
on an Israeli army base injured eight Israeli soldiers. The next day
the Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility.
(AP, 11/28/08)(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 28, Somali pirates
hijacked the chemical tanker chemical tanker M/V BISCAGLIA with 25
Indian and 3 Bangladeshi crew members. A helicopter rescued three
British security guards who had jumped into the sea. The Liberian
flagged ship operated out of Singapore. The ship was freed on Jan 23
following a $1 million ransom.
(AP, 11/28/08)(AP, 1/24/09)(WSJ, 1/31/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 28, Zimbabwe’s
opposition
said it has agreed on a draft constitutional amendment to allow the
formation of a power-sharing government, but obstacles still remain
to
setting it up. The UN warned that cholera has killed 389 people in
Zimbabwe to date and that the disease is also spreading into
neighbouring Botswana and South Africa.
(AFP, 11/28/08)(Reuters, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, A regional
tribunal
in Namibia ruled that 78 white Zimbabweans can keep their farms
because
the government's land reform scheme discriminated against them.
(AFP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 29, Joern Utzon
(b.1918),
the Danish architect who designed the iconic Sydney Opera House
(1957),
died. In 2003 Utzon won the Pritzker prize.
(AP, 11/29/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.104)
2008 Nov 29, In Afghanistan a
soldier with the NATO-led force shot and killed an Afghan policeman
in
a car in Lashkar Gah that was driving toward a NATO patrol at high
speed.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 29, In Bangladesh
police
in Dhaka arrested eight members of a hard-line Islamic group for
damaging a 41-foot outdoor sculpture of a group of white storks. The
statue by sculptor Mrinal Haque has stood at a road intersection
since
1989.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 29, In southern China
about 300 taxi drivers went on strike in Chaozhou, smashing cars and
demanding a crackdown on unlicensed taxis in the latest protest
against
illegal taxi competition in China.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 29, In Gambia British
missionary David Fulton (60) and his wife (46) were arrested for
alleged sedition. Fiona Fulton was released in December, 2009. David
Fulton was freed in 2010 after serving nearly two years for
sedition.
(http://tinyurl.com/8ftt3c)(AP, 9/11/10)
2008 Nov 29, Georgia said it is
cutting diplomatic relations with Nicaragua after the Central
American
nation recognized the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 29, In India a 60-hour
terror rampage that killed at least 173 people across Mumbai,
India's
financial capital, ended when commandos killed the last three gunmen
inside the 565-room Taj Mahal hotel while it was engulfed in flames.
A
group called Deccan Mujahideen, which alludes to a region in
southern
India traditionally ruled by Muslim kings, claimed responsibility
for
the attack. Officials said they believed that just 10 gunmen had
taken
part in the attack. Nine were killed and one was captured. The 10th
gunman was later identified as Mohammad Ajmal Amir Imam from
Faridkot
village in Pakistan. 19 foreigners were killed including 6
Americans.
(AP, 11/29/08)(WSJ, 11/29/08, p.A1)(AP,
12/1/08)(WSJ, 12/5/08, p.A1)(SFC, 12/10/08, p.A9)(Econ, 12/6/08,
p.57)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Mumbai_attacks)
2008 Nov 29, In Iraq a rocket
attack in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone killed 2 people. In Diyala
province Mayor Sayid al-Anbaki of Salam district announced the
discovery of 7 mass graves in the village of Botoama. Al-Qaida in
Iraq
had dominated the region in 2006-2007.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, p.A19)
2008 Nov 29, In Nigeria
witnesses
said hundreds of people have been killed in the central city of Jos
as
Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election.
The
violence began following a rumor that the mostly Muslim All Nigerian
Peoples Party (ANPP) had lost the election to the mainly Christian
federal ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). Over 10,000 people
were
displaced from their homes and sought refuge in churches, mosques
and
army and police barracks.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 29, Pakistan's foreign
minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a press conference that Pakistan
will take action against any group within its borders if it was
involved in the Mumbai attacks. A suspected US missile strike killed
at
least two people near Miran Shah in northwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 29, In Qatar French
President Nicolas Sarkozy told Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to
take action to end the conflict in Darfur.
(AFP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 29, Officials in Sri
Lanka said floods caused by days of heavy rains killed at least
seven
people, left four soldiers missing and displaced tens of thousands
in
insurgency-ravaged northern Sri Lanka.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 30, The US space
shuttle
Endeavour ended a 16-day trip to the int’l. space station landing at
Edwards Air Force Base in California after storms hit the main
landing
site in Florida.
(SFC, 12/1/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 30, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber on foot attacked a German Embassy vehicle in Kabul.
No
Germans were hurt, but the blast killed two Afghans and wounded
three.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, In southern
Australia
a group of 150 whales that became stranded on a remote coastline
were
battered to death on rocks before rescuers could save them.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Canada
three
opposition parties reached a tentative deal to defeat the minority
Conservative government and then put together a coalition.
(Reuters, 12/1/08)
2008 Nov 30, Chinese health
authorities and the UN AIDS agency pledged to fight discrimination
against people with the disease in China with the unveiling of a
massive red ribbon, the symbol of AIDS awareness, at the Olympic
Bird's
Nest stadium in Beijing.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, In northern China
a
coal mine blast killed 15 miners at the Changlong Coal Mine in
Heilongjiang province. 3 rescuers died the next day in a cave-in.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Nov 30, Rebels in eastern
Congo pulled out of Ishasha, a town on the Ugandan border they
captured
in fighting that forced 10,000 people to flee.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Guatemala
Mexican
and Guatemalan drug traffickers, arguing about a horse race in the
rural border town of Santa Ana Huista, began a series of gunbattles
in
which 17 people died.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Haiti a dozen
men
in T-shirts declaring "I am gay" and "I am living with HIV/AIDS"
marched with hundreds of other demonstrators through St. Marc in
what
organizers called the Caribbean nation's first openly gay march.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Nov 30, India's top
security
official, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, resigned as the government
struggled under growing accusations of security failures following
terror attacks that killed 174 people.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, The head of Iran's
nuclear power agency said the country is willing to help neighboring
Arab countries build joint light-water nuclear power plants if they
are
interested.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, Iraqi and Iranian
troops exchanged the remains of soldiers killed during the 1980-1988
war between the two countries. It was the first such handover since
the
two signed an agreement in October to work together in tracing
thousands still missing after the war.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon pledged to clean up corruption within his
administration and vowed that his government would never negotiate
with
drug lords. The bodies of 9 decapitated men were found in a vacant
lot
in Tijuana, part of a wave of violence that claimed at least 23
lives
over the weekend in this border city plagued by warring traffickers.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Nigeria
residents
delivered more bodies to the main mosque in the central Nigerian
city
of Jos, bringing the death toll from two days of clashes between
Muslim
and Christian gangs to around 400 people. In July, 2009, Human
Rights
Watch (HRW) said more than 700 died in clashes in Jos, and urged the
prosecution of members of security forces it accused of "arbitrary
killings."
(AP, 11/30/08)(AFP, 7/20/09)
2008 Nov 30, Six Pakistani
security officers and two suspected militants were killed in new
violence close to the Afghan border. Fighting in the past two
days between ethnic and political gangs that left 16 people dead in
Karachi.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, Poland adopted an
economic package for 2009-2010 valued at 24 billion euros (30
billion
dollars) to help weather the impact of the global financial crisis.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, Romanians trickled
to
the polls to elect a new parliament, as the leftist Social Democrats
and right-wing Liberal Democrats battled it out ahead of PM Calin
Tariceanu's Liberals. The leftist Social Democrats won the most
votes,
but failed to get enough support to take power outright.
(AP, 11/30/08)(SFC, 12/1/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 30, Pirates chased and
shot at the M/S Nautica, a US cruise liner with more than 1,000
people
on board, but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a
corridor
patrolled by international warships.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Nov 30, Sri Lankan
soldiers
recaptured Kokavil, a key northern town near the headquarters of
Tamil
Tiger rebels, 18 years after the area was seized by the insurgents.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Nov 30, A pioneering Swiss
program to give addicts government-authorized heroin was
overwhelmingly
approved, according to projections that showed voters simultaneously
rejecting the decriminalization of marijuana.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Thailand
attackers
set off explosions at anti-government protest sites, wounding 51
people
and raising fears of widening confrontations in Thailand's worst
political crisis in decades, which has strangled its economy and
shut
down its main airports. Thousands of government supporters wearing
red
shirts, headbands and bandanas joined a rally against the protest
alliance. So far six people have been killed in bomb attacks,
clashes
with police and street battles between government opponents and
supports.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, Zimbabwe's health
minister insisted that the country's crumbling medical system was
taking all necessary measures to combat a cholera epidemic, even as
more than 1,000 new cases were reported.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov, The coffin of
Austrian
billionaire Friedrich Karl Flick (d.2006) was stolen from a cemetery
in
Velden, southern Austria. Thieves demanded 6 million euros ($9
million)
for the coffin's return. It was found in Nov 2009 by private
investigators in Budapest. A 41-year-old Hungarian lawyer,
identified
only as Barnabas Sz., was suspected of masterminding the crime and
was
in police custody. Four other suspects were still at large.
(AP, 12/2/09)
2008 Nov, China detained Hu
Zhicheng, an American automotive engineer, on accusations he misused
trade secrets. His case was first reported in Dec, 2009, in an
account written under a pen name that appeared on Boxun News.
Zhicheng
was released in May, 2010, with no charges filed against him.
(AP, 12/17/09)(AP, 5/14/10)
2008 Nov, Dubai’s government
and
state-owned enterprises debt amounted to $80 billion, equivalent to
148% of GDP.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.53)
2008 Nov, In South Africa a
verdict by the tribunal of the regional Southern African Development
Community (SADC) found that Zimbabwe had wrongly taken land from
nearly
80 farmers, saying they had been targeted because of their race. In
2010 white farmers whose land was seized under Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe's land reforms claimed a house owned by his government
in
South Africa based on the SADC verdict.
(AFP, 3/30/10)
2008 Dec 1, President-elect
Barack
Obama announced that Robert Gates would remain as defense secretary.
Obama picked former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as
secretary
of state.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Alabama mayor
Larry
Langford of Birmingham was arrested on charges of steering millions
of
dollars of bond work to a friend in exchange for over $230,000 in
bribes. The 101-count indictment also charged Montgomery banker Bill
Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre.
(SFC, 12/2/08, p.A2)
2008 Dec 1, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency and called legislators
into
a new special session in order to trim a $11.2 billion budget
deficit.
(SFC, 12/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 1, In Tracy, Ca., Kyle
Ramirez (16) escaped from a home where he had been shackled and
tortured for over a year. In 2010 defendants Michael Schumacher (36)
was sentenced to 30 years in prison, his wife Kelly Lau (32)
received
33 years, and the boy’s guardian Caren Ramirez (45) was given 34
years.
All three had accepted plea deals. In 2010 Anthony Waiters (31), a
neighbor, was convicted of 9 charges including aggravated mayhem and
false imprisonment.
(SFC, 10/9/10, p.C2)(SFC, 11/24/10, p.C3)(SFC,
12/7/10, p.C3)
2008 Dec 1, The NBER, a
private,
nonprofit research organization, said its group of academic
economists
who determine business cycles met and decided that the US recession
began last December.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 1, A federal jury in
SF
cleared Chevron Corp. of responsibility for any human rights abuses
during a violent protest on a company oil platform in Nigeria a
decade
ago.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 1, US researchers
reported that almost 20% of young American adults have a personality
disorder that interferes with everyday life, and that even more
abuse
alcohol or drugs.
(SFC, 12/2/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 1, China's Health
Ministry said six babies may have died after consuming tainted milk
powder, up from a previous official toll of three, and announced a
six-fold increase in its tally of infants sickened in the scandal,
to
nearly 300,000.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In northern China
11
girls died of carbon monoxide poisoning at a school in Shaanxi
province. A news report said the girls had lit a fire to keep warm.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Germany Monika
Halbe (44) was sentenced to four years and three months in prison
for
killing the children born in 1988 and 2003 by suffocation or
neglect.
The case of a third infant killed in 1986 and stored with the other
two
was not prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, India has formally
demanded that Pakistan take "strong action" against the people
behind
the Mumbai attacks. An Indian police official said the only gunman
captured alive after the attacks claimed to belong to
Lashkar-e-Taiba,
a Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed Himalayan
region
of Kashmir and one long seen as a creation of the Pakistani
intelligence service.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, A series of suicide
bomb attacks struck US and Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and the
northern city of Mosul, killing at least 32 people and wounding
dozens.
(AP, 12/1/08)(SFC, 12/2/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 1, The Israeli navy
turned away a Libyan ship heading to Gaza with 3,000 tons of
humanitarian aid, ending the most high-profile effort yet to break a
blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Italy the worst
flooding in Venice in more than 20 years forced residents and
tourists
to wade through knee-high water.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Mexico Tijuana's
anti-corruption police chief was fired and replaced with an army
officer, following three days of violence that left 37 people dead
in
this border city plagued by warring drug gangs. In southern Mexico
Fabian Ramirez shot his 50-year-old mother in the back Monday,
wounding
her. He then allegedly killed three police officers who arrived at
the
scene, including Iguala's police chief. Police captured Ramirez, but
four armed men broke into the jail and took him away by force. The
next
day Ramirez was found beheaded.
(AP, 12/1/08)(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Nigeria some two
thousand angry youths stormed a mosque in the riot-torn city of Jos
as
a top parliament official appealed for an end to religious troubles
that have left hundreds dead.
(AFP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, Militants in
northwestern Pakistan attacked trucks ferrying supplies to NATO and
US
forces in Afghanistan, killing two people and destroying a dozen
vehicles. A suicide attack on a security checkpoint in the
Swat
Valley killed 8 people and wounded 40.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, A 12-day UN climate
conference opened in Poznan, Poland. During the conference Chief
Bill
Erasmus of the Dene nation in northern Canada brought a stark
warning
about the climate crisis: The once abundant herds of caribou are
dwindling, rivers are running lower and the ice is too thin to hunt
on.
(www.environmentalleader.com/2008/12/01/un-climate-talks-kicks-off-in-poznan/)
2008 Dec 1, Romania's
parliamentary election results showed the centrist and leftist
parties
less than a percentage point apart with more than 90 percent of the
vote counted, raising the prospect of tough negotiations to form a
coalition.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, South Africa used
World AIDS Day to urge its menfolk to get themselves tested for the
HIV
virus that leads to the illness.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Thailand a
senior
tourism official said an estimated 350,000 passengers have been
unable
to fly out since anti-government protesters shut down Bangkok's two
airports last week.
(AFP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Zimbabwe gunfire
broke out in downtown Harare when rampaging, unpaid soldiers
attacked
money changers and clashed with police. Zimbabwe rejected a court
ruling that demanded the government stop its policy of seizing land
from white farmers. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged the
world
to help end a "man-made" humanitarian crisis which has left hundreds
of
people dead in a cholera epidemic.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 2, Detroit’s Big Three
auto makers presented turnaround plans to Congress and sought $34
billion in aid.
(WSJ, 12/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 2, The new Washington,
DC, Capitol Visitor Center opened to the public. The 580,000
square-foot structure ended up costing $621 million, over twice the
budgeted amount.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.53)(www.aoc.gov/cvc/)
2008 Dec 2, In Arkansas a
federal
indictment was unsealed accusing evangelist Tony Alamo (74) of
sexually
abusing five girls on separate occasions beginning in 1994,
including a
period when he was serving a tax-evasion sentence at a halfway house
in
Texarkana. Alamo was convicted on July 24 of taking girls as young
as 9
across state lines for sex. On Nov 13 Alamo was sentenced to 175
years
in prison.
(AP, 12/3/08)(SFC, 7/25/09, p.A3)(SFC, 11/14/09,
p.A4)
2008 Dec 2, Georgia Sen. Saxby
Chambliss trounced Democrat Jim Martin, winning his second term by a
margin of more than 10 percentage points. The victory in the runoff
denied Democrats a filibuster-proof majority and cemented the
state's
reputation as a GOP bastion.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 2, In Chicago federal
prosecutors unveiled a series of elaborate sting operations aimed at
officers who hired out to ride shotgun for drug deals and other
criminal activities. Those charged include 10 Cook County sheriff's
correctional officers, four Harvey police officers and one Chicago
police officer.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 2, Hawaii unveiled
plans
to be first in the nation to roll out electric car stations
statewide,
a move Gov. Linda Lingle hailed as a major step toward weaning
the islands off oil.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 2, Eric Von der Porten
(50), SF Bay Area hedge fund manager, committed suicide at his home
in
San Carlos, Ca.
(SSFC, 1/4/09, p.A1)
2008 Dec 2, Odetta Holmes
(b.1930), African-American folk singer, died. Her fame peaked in
1963
when she marched with martin Luther King and performed for Pres.
Kennedy.
(SFC, 12/3/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 2, Henry Molaison
(82), a
native of Connecticut, died. In the 1950s he had his medial temporal
lobes removed by surgery to alleviate his grand mal epileptic
seizures.
From that point on he was unable to form new memories. Scientists
learned from Molaison that the hippocampus is crucial in forming
some
long term memories, but not for maintaining or retrieving them.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.146)
2008 Dec 2, US troops killed 10
Taliban militants during operations in southern and central
Afghanistan, while five more witnesses testified at a hearing over
allegations that two American soldiers mistreated a detainee.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 2, Australia cut its
key
interest rate by one percentage point to 4.25%.
(WSJ, 12/3/08, p.A12)
2008 Dec 2, A British judge
ordered Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric, to be jailed because of
fears he was preparing to abscond. Qatada was once described as
Osama
bin Laden’s ambassador in Europe.
(SFC, 12/3/08, p.A14)
2008 Dec 2, Mike Terry (61),
anti-apartheid activist, died. He led Britain's anti-apartheid
movement
for nearly two decades and played a pivotal role in turning British
public opinion against South Africa's white minority rule.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 2, A Burundi soldier
serving with African Union forces in Somalia was killed in fighting
with Islamist insurgents in the war-torn capital Mogadishu.
(AFP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 2, Canadian
governor-general Michaelle Jean, the acting head of state, said she
would cut short a foreign trip to help resolve one of the worst
political crises in Canada's history.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 2, Ted Rogers (75),
founder of Rogers Communications, died in Toronto. He transformed a
single FM radio station into a North American broadcasting,
publishing
and wireless telecommunications conglomerate.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 2, India demanded
Pakistan hand over 20 of its most wanted fugitives as a sign of good
faith, while both sides tried to cool tensions over the Mumbai
attacks
before a visit by Washington's top diplomat. India named Yusuf
Muzammil, the senior leader of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, as
the
mastermind of the attacks in Mumbai. A bomb exploded in a train
coach
in India's insurgency-hit northeast, killing at least three people
and
injuring another 29.
(AP, 12/2/08)(WSJ, 12/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 2, A special Iraqi
court
sentenced Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin, "Chemical Ali" Hassan
al-Majid, to death after convicting him of crimes against humanity
for
his part in crushing the 1991 Shiite uprising in southern Iraq. A
series of bombs in northern and southern Iraq killed at least 14
Iraqis.
(AP, 12/2/08)(SFC, 12/3/08, p.A17)
2008 Dec 2, Dozens of Jewish
settlers rioted in the West Bank town of Hebron, clashing with the
Israeli troops who guard them but who may also soon evict them from
a
disputed building they've occupied.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 2, In Kenya a
government
anti-corruption watchdog said it is suing seven current and former
Kenyan officials for a total of a quarter of a million dollars,
saying
they obtained the money dishonestly.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 2, In Nigeria
authorities
in central Plateau state announced the arrest of 16 alleged
"mercenaries" from neighbouring Niger. Isa Ibrahim, the Nigerien
Ambassador to Nigeria, said that those arrested had been living in
Jos
for several years as water vendors.
(AFP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 2, In Switzerland Alex
Widmer (52), head of private banking at Julius Baer Holding AG,
committed suicide.
(www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/05/europe/baer.php)(WSJ, 2/2/09, p.C4)
2008 Dec 2, In Tanzania Simon
Bikindi, Rwandan singer-songwriter, was sentenced to 15 years in
prison
by the Tanzania-based UN war crimes court for inciting the killings
of
ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. In 2010 a court upheld his
15
year sentence. The time Bikindi has already spent in prison since
his
arrest in July 2001 will be deducted from the 15 years.
(AFP, 12/2/08)(AFP, 3/18/10)
2008 Dec 2, Thailand's PM
Somchai
Wongsawat resigned after weeks of protests closed the capital's
airports, stranding 300,000 travelers. Protesters promised to lift
their siege, and international flights were expected to resume on
Dec
5. Deputy PM Chaowarat Chandeerakul will become the caretaker prime
minister. Parliament will have to pick a new prime minister within
30
days.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 2, Zimbabwe slipped
deeper into crisis as the death toll from a cholera epidemic neared
500
and members of President Robert Mugabe's armed forces were accused
of
taking part in a looting spree.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 3, The US government
released the first part of a $400 million aid package to support
Mexico's police and soldiers in their fight against drug cartels.
Jesus
Martin Huerta, the No. 2 federal prosecutor in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez, was shot dead.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 3, Laura Garza, an
aspiring dancer, disappeared after leaving a NYC nightclub with a
registered sex offender. On April 11, 2010, her remains were found
in
Olyphant, Pa. DNA confirmation was announced on April 26.
(SFC, 4/27/10,
p.A4)(www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=NEWS67)
2008 Dec 3, In California
Theodore
Neff (66) was found strangled to death as his house on San Pablo Bay
burned. Within days police arrested Alejandro Hernandez Rivera, a
male
prostitute, in a sting operation. Neff’s golden flute was in
Rivera’s
car. In 2010 Rivera was convicted of 1st degree murder.
(SFC, 9/21/10, p.A1)(SFC, 10/5/10, p.C1)
2008 Dec 3, Lynn Gilderdale
(31),
who suffered from myalgic encephalomyelitis (aka chronic fatigue
syndrome), died in East Sussex with the assistance of her mother,
Kay
Gilderdale. In 2010 a British jury cleared the mother of murder
charges.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article5309918.ece)(SSFC,
1/31/10, p.A4)
2008 Dec 3, In Iraq a sticky
bomb
attached to a minibus carrying Education Ministry employees
exploded,
killing at least one civilian and wounding five others in eastern
Baghdad. Another such bomb attached to a car exploded near the
entrance
of the heavily fortified Green Zone, w