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, 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, 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, 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.
(AP, 10/24/08)(AP, 10/31/08)
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, 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, 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, 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.
(SSFC, 11/9/08, p.A5)(Econ, 11/22/08, p.45)
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, 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, 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.
(SSFC, 11/23/08, 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.
(AP, 11/10/08)(AP, 4/1/09)
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 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)
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 US issued rules
barring banks from processing payments tied to most online gambling
sites, effectively making Web betting illegal.
(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.
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A2)
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.
(AP,
11/27/08)(www.talkleft.com/story/2009/12/7/125726/611)
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, 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.
(AP, 12/17/09)
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, 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, 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, wounding the driver, an Iraqi
contractor working with US forces.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 3, An international
rights group said the torture of prisoners including al-Qaida suspects
has increased under the military junta that rules Mauritania, where
security forces routinely abuse detainees with electric shocks,
burnings, beatings and sexual violence.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 3, NATO foreign ministers
affirmed their support for US plans to install anti-missile defenses in
Europe despite Russia's strong opposition. NATO foreign ministers said
they expected Albania and Croatia to become the alliance's newest
members by April.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 3, In the southern
Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom one person was killed during an attack on a
convoy of Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN), a subsidiary of US oil group
ExxonMobil.
(AFP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 3-2008 Dec 4, In Norway
94 nations signed a treaty banning cluster bombs in a move that
supporters hope will shame the US, Russia and China and other
non-signers into abandoning weapons blamed for maiming and killing
civilians. Norway, which began the drive to ban cluster bombs 18 months
ago, was the first to sign, followed by Laos and Lebanon, both hard-hit
by the weapons.
(AP, 12/3/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.70)
2008 Dec 3, Pakistani airstrikes
killed 30 suspected militants in 2 area of the Mohmand border region. A
suicide attack on a convoy in the same region killed 3 soldiers and a
civilian.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A13)
2008 Dec 3, In Puerto Rico a
Rockwell International 690B plane slammed into El Yunque mountain,
killing Caribbean pilot Ken Webster and two US tourists on board. A
spokesman for the Medical Mutual of Ohio health insurance company later
identified the two Americans as Kent W. Clapp, the firm's chief
executive, and his fiancee, Tracy Turner.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 3, In Spain's northern
Basque region suspected ETA separatists shot and killed a businessman
in the first attack linked to the group since the arrest of its
military chief last month.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 3, In Thailand the first
commercial flight in a week arrived in Bangkok as anti-government
protesters ended their siege of the country's two main airports,
declaring victory after PM Somchai Wongsawat was ousted by a court
ruling.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 3, In Yemen the bodies of
24 Somalis washed ashore following an accident involving a boat trying
to smuggle migrants. Strong winds pushed the bodies on to beaches over
the last 2 days near the town of al-Qasha'a. 184 more Somalis involved
in the accident managed to swim ashore.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 3, Zimbabwe riot police
charged into a group of doctors and nurses protesting the deepening
economic and health crisis, as deaths rose sharply from a cholera
epidemic blamed on collapsing infrastructure.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 4, AT&T Inc. joined
the recession's parade of layoffs by announcing plans to cut 12,000
jobs, about 4 percent of its work force.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Afghanistan 2
Danish soldiers serving with NATO's force were killed in southern
Helmand province. The governor of Afghanistan's key southern Kandahar
province said he was sacked by the central government and complained
that powerful people in his region had been sabotaging his work. US-led
troops killed four militants in Helmand province, after the insurgents
fired on a joint US-Afghan patrol.
(AFP, 12/4/08)(AP, 12/4/08)(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Afghanistan eight
prisoners were killed at Kabul's Pol-i-charki Prison, during a clash
between guards and prisoners.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 4, The Bank of England
cut its base interest rate from 3% to 2%, a rate last seen in 1951.
(Econ, 12/6/08, p.74)
2008 Dec 4, In Burundi a summit
was held in Bujumbura stating the position of the Great Lakes region on
the implementation of the peace agreements signed at the Dar es Salaam
summit of 2006 in Tanzania.
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200812040216.html)
2008 Dec 4, Canada’s PM Stephen
Harper won a rare suspension of Parliament, managing to avoid being
ousted by opposition parties angry over the minority Conservative
government's economic plans and an attempt to cut off party financing.
(Reuters, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, In eastern China
a fire at the dormitory of a seafood company killed 11 workers and
injured 10 others.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, The Danish navy
intercepted and sunk a suspected pirate vessel drifting off Somalia. 7
men were handed over to authorities in Yemen but were not immediately
suspected of any crime.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 4, Europe's top human
rights court ruled that storing DNA from people with no criminal record
is in breach of their rights, a landmark decision that could force
Britain to destroy the samples of nearly 1 million people on its
database.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, In France armed
robbers, some disguised as women, snatched euro85 million ($108
million) worth of diamond rings, necklaces and luxury watches from a
Harry Winston boutique on a posh Paris avenue in one of the largest
jewel heists in history. In June, 2009, French police arrested 25
suspects in connection with the robbery and recovered some of the
jewelry.
(AP, 12/5/08)(SFC, 6/23/09, p.A2)
2008 Dec 4, The Luxembourg-based
European Court of First Instance said EU governments "violated the
rights of defense" of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran
(PMOI), and that the EU nations have not provided sufficient proof to
blacklist the group.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, Iraq's presidential
council approved a security pact that sets out a three-year timeframe
for US troops to leave, the final step for the agreement to replace a
UN mandate that expires Dec. 31. Two suicide bombers in
explosives-laden trucks took aim at police stations in the former Sunni
insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, killing at least 15 people and
wounding more than 100. A suicide car bomber killed two US soldiers and
wounded nine Iraqi civilians near a checkpoint in the northern city of
Mosul. A bomb in Baquba killed 3 people.
(AP, 12/4/08)(SFC, 12/5/08, p.A23)
2008 Dec 4, Rioting by Jewish
settlers spread in the West Bank after Israeli soldiers forcibly
removed about 250 extremists from a disputed house in the center of
Hebron. Banks in the Gaza Strip shut down to count their dwindling
cash. Israel lifted a four-week-old ban on international journalists
entering the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, Pirates attacked an
oil-services vessel before dawn off the coast of Nigeria and kidnapped
two foreign workers.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, Drug agents in Peru
seized 3 tons of cocaine mixed into a shipment of guano bound for
Spain. Four Peruvians and a Colombian were arrested.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Somalia 20 men and
women graduated from medical school in Mogadishu, something that nobody
in Somalia has done in nearly two decades.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, Sweden’s central bank
cuts its benchmark interest rate from 3.75% to 2% saying monetary
policy was less effective than usual.
(Econ, 12/6/08, p.92)
2008 Dec 4, Zimbabwe declared a
national emergency over a cholera epidemic and the collapse of its
health care system, as the government sought more international help to
pay for food and drugs to combat the crisis.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 5, The US and China
pledged to work together to tackle global financial turmoil as they
wrapped up economic talks but left open whether the high-level dialogue
will continue under President-elect Barack Obama.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, The US labor Dept.
said employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years,
catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the
country is careening deeper into recession.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, O.J. Simpson was
sentenced in Las Vegas from 9 to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and
assaulting two sports memorabilia dealers with a deadly weapon.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 5, Nina Foch (b.1924),
Dutch-born Hollywood film star, died in Los Angeles. Her films included
“An American in Paris” (1951).
(SFC, 12/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 5, In Afghanistan 3
Canadian soldiers were killed by a massive bomb, bringing to 100 the
number who have lost their lives since the country's military mission
there started in 2002.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 5, Australia's driest
state was forced to purchase water for the first time to ensure
adequate supplies in the midst of a drought. Karlene Maywald, state
water security minister, said South Australia has purchased 61 billion
gallons (231 gigaliters) of water so that Adelaide, the state capital,
will have enough water for 2009 even if the drought continues.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In southern China
about 100 factory owners and employees held up red protest banners
outside a government building, demanding that officials help them
collect more than $13 million in debts from an electronics factory that
recently closed.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In northeast Colombia
suspected leftist rebels attacked a small police convoy with explosives
and automatic weapons, killing eight police officers and wounding one.
Police blamed the attack on the National Liberation Army (ELN), which
operates in the oil-producing region bordering Venezuela.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, A boat from the
Dominican Republic was found adrift. 2 survivors were found by
fisherman and 49 others were presumed dead. Migrants had set off on Nov
13 in search of jobs in Puerto Rico.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 5, India and Russia
signed a civilian nuclear deal that would see Russia build four nuclear
reactors for power-starved India.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Police in India
arrested two Indian men accused of illegally buying mobile phone cards
used by the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks. In eastern India suspected
Maoist rebels killed five police officers in an ambush.
(AP, 12/6/08)(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Iranian state radio
said police confirmed that a militant group active in Iran has killed
all 16 police officers it abducted in June. Shortly after the
abduction, the Sunni Muslim Jundallah group said it had executed two of
the officers and threatened to kill the remaining 14 unless imprisoned
members of the group were released.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Iraq three women
were killed in Balad Ruz, north of Baghdad, when a bomb planted in a
radio exploded.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Israeli defense
officials reinstated a ban on international journalists entering the
Gaza Strip, despite protests from the heads of major news organizations
and an appeal to the country's Supreme Court.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 5, Japan approved a law
that will grant citizenship to all children born out of wedlock to
Japanese fathers who acknowledge them, regardless of the nationality of
their mothers.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Kyrgyzstan's state
radio station was reported to have taken BBC programming off the
airwaves, days after withdrawing broadcasting rights from US-funded
Radio Liberty's Kyrgyz Service.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Gerardo Garay,
Mexico's former acting federal police chief, was accused of
collaborating with a notorious cartel and stealing money from a mansion
during a raid to bust a drug trafficking ring. Victor Serrano (24), a
hit team chief, was wounded and 3 alleged gang members died in a
shootout in Mexicali. 14 others were arrested.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Pakistan a car bomb
devastated a busy street in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing
303030at least 29 people and injuring about a hundred.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/6/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.50)
2008 Dec 5, In Romania Constantin
Ticu Dumitrescu (80), once jailed as a communist-era "enemy of the
state," died after years of fighting to reveal details of the country's
troubled past.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, Russian Orthodox
Patriarch Alexy II (79) died. He had presided over a vast post-Soviet
revival of faith but struggled against the influence of other churches.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Saudi Arabia nearly
3 million Muslims from all over the world gathered in Mecca, on the eve
of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Somalia 12 people
were killed as mortar shells rained down on homes and a small
market in Mogadishu.
(SFC, 12/6/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 5, In southern Thailand 4
people were killed by a bomb at a drugstore suspected to have been
planted by Muslim insurgents.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, The leaders of
Pakistan and Afghanistan met for Turkish-sponsored talks aimed at
reducing tensions over militant attacks along the countries' lawless
border.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 6, Indicted Democratic US
Rep. William Jefferson was ousted from his New Orleans area district,
while Republicans narrowly held on to the seat vacated by a retiring
incumbent. Republican attorney Anh "Joseph" Cao won 50% of the vote to
Jefferson's 47% and will become the first Vietnamese-American in
Congress.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 6, A Montana a state
judge ruled that doctor assisted suicides are legal in the state.
(SSFC, 12/7/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 6, The Univ. of Hawaii
activated the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System
(PS1) to search for dangerous asteroids.
(Econ, 12/6/08, p.100)
2008 Dec 6, Martha "Sunny" von
Bulow (b.1932), daughter of utilities tycoon George Crawford, died in
New York. The heiress spent the last 28 years of her life in oblivion
after what prosecutors alleged in a pair of sensational trials were two
murder attempts by her husband. In 19082 Claus von Bulow was convicted
of trying twice to kill her by injecting her with insulin at their
estate in Newport, R.I. That verdict was thrown out on appeal, and he
was acquitted at a second trial in 1985.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 6, Okay Airways, China's
first private airline, began a planned one-month suspension of
passenger service 10 days early after skittish airports insisted on
cash to refuel its planes. The airline suffered from financial and
management woes.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 6, In Denmark "Gomorra,"
a movie by Italian director Matteo Garrone about Naples' criminal
underworld, won the best film prize at the 21st annual European Film
Awards.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 6, India’s central bank
cuts its benchmark short term lending and borrowing rates by one
percentage point. The next day the government unveiled a stimulus
package that included increased spending and easing of some taxes.
(WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A8)
2008 Dec 6, A series of attacks
targeted Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and in the north, killing at
least six people, including a senior member of an anti-al-Qaida group.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 6, The Irish government
ordered the recall of all pig meat products made in the Republic of
Ireland after dioxins were discovered in slaughtered pigs thought to
have eaten contaminated feed.
(AFP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 6, Mexican soldiers found
at least eight bodies buried in a shallow grave in Michoacan state.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 6, Amsterdam unveiled
plans to close brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafes in its ancient
city center as part of a major effort to drive organized crime out of
the tourist haven.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 6, Palestinians packed
into cars to leave the West Bank city of Nablus after Israel eased
restrictions on residents leaving the town in vehicles for the first
time in six years.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 6, In the Philippines
gunmen armed with automatic weapons and grenades fired on police
officers who were tailing them, leaving at least 17 people dead in a
fierce shootout in a Manila suburb.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 6, In Moscow, Russia,
ultranationalist attacked 2 migrant workers, one of whom escaped. On
Dec 10 the severed head of Salekh Azizov (20), the other Tajik migrant
worker, was found in a trash bin. A group calling itself the Militant
Organization of Russian Nationalists claimed responsibility. For the
year some 85 people were reported killed by violent
nationalists.
(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.A25)
2008 Dec 6, Sri Lanka's military
captured a rebel-held village, bringing half of a main highway leading
to the rebels' de facto capital of Kilinochchi under government control.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 6, Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe came under fresh international pressure over his
country's economic collapse as his government announced plans to
introduce a 200 million dollar bill.
(AFP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 7, Off the coast of
Cameroon at least three dozen people were missing and feared dead after
a ferryboat accident. It was transporting 43 people in West Africa's
Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 7, Former Central African
Republic president Ange-Felix Patasse arrived in Bangui after 5 years
in exile in Togo to participate in long-delayed peace talks in the
troubled country.
(AFP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, China protested
strongly to France over President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the
Dalai Lama, calling it a "rude intervention" into Chinese affairs.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Ghanaians voted for a
new president in a tight race between two foreign-educated lawyers
hoping to lead the West African nation into an era of greater
prosperity thanks to offshore oil. Two technocrats were expected to get
the most votes in a filed of 8 seeking to replace incumbent Pres. John
Kufuor. No candidate managed to win a majority and Nana Akufo-Addo and
John Atta Mills were scheduled for a runoff on Dec 28.
(Reuters, 12/7/08)(WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A12)(WSJ,
12/11/08, p.A12)
2008 Dec 7, In Greece rioters
rampaged through Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki, hurling
Molotov cocktails, burning stores and blocking city streets with
flaming barricades after protests against the fatal Dec 6 police
shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos (15) in Exarchiaa teenager erupted
into chaos.
(AP, 12/7/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.59)
2008 Dec 7, In Iraq a bomb hidden
in an abandoned store exploded as the mayor of Baqouba was leading a
tour through the city center. The blast wounded the mayor, Abdullah
al-Hiali, and 34 other people. In northern Iraq Dr. Adel Hussein,
freelance journalist, was pardoned by Massoud Barzani, the president of
the self-ruled Kurdish region in the country's north. He had been
imprisoned for 13 days for violating a public decency law by writing a
story in 2007 about homosexuality. He was among 121 people pardoned by
the president in advance of the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha.
(AP, 12/7/08)(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 7, Large crowds voted in
several towns in Indian Kashmir, while separatists in other areas
boycotted the polls and clashed with government forces in the fourth
phase of state elections in the disputed Himalayan region.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Kenya’s PM Raila
Odinga said foreign troops should prepare to intervene in Zimbabwe to
end a worsening humanitarian crisis and Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe should be investigated for crimes against humanity.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Kurdish rebel group
declared a nine-day holiday cease-fire in their fight against Turkey,
calling it a "first step toward peace."
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, In southern Malaysia a
bus skidded off a highway, smashed into a tree and plunged into a
ditch, killing nine people and injuring 19 others.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Mexico 10 suspected
drug traffickers and a soldier were killed in gunbattles in southern
Guerrero state. 6 people were killed when assailants opened fire inside
a pool hall in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Mexican government
Learjet plunged into Atlangatepec lake in central Mexico, killing two
pilots in the second deadly crash in a month involving a federally
owned plane.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, Gunmen blasted their
way into two transport terminals in Pakistan and torched more than 160
vehicles, including 790 Humvees, destined for US-led troops in
Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply
line. The losses possibly exceeded $10 million.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Pakistani security
forces overran a militant camp on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad,
Pakistani Kashmir's main city, and seized Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, an
alleged mastermind of the attacks that shook Mumbai last month. Zarar
Shah, another top operational commander, and 10 others were seized at
the camp run by the banned group Laskhar-e-Taiba.
(AP, 12/8/08)(WSJ, 12/9/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 7, In the Philippines Abu
Sayyaf and Muslim militants engaged in fierce clashes with governments
troops who took over a southern village on Basilan island notorious as
a hide-out for kidnappers and al-Qaida-linked rebels. At least five
soldiers were killed and dozens wounded.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Saudi Arabia nearly
3 million Muslims converged on a rocky desert hill outside Mecca to
perform the ritual of forgiveness marking the climax of the annual hajj.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Thailand's main
opposition party called for an emergency parliament session to prove
its majority in a bid to form the next government and end months of
political chaos, as loyalists of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra
struggled to stay in power.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 8, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
and 4 co-defendants, charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, told a
military judge that they want to immediately confess at their
war-crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 12/8/08)(WSJ, 12/9/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 8, Marc Dreier (58),
owner of a prominent NYC law firm, was indicted with criminal charges
and civil complaints alleging he defrauded investors of some $115100
million by selling them phony financial instruments. On Dec 23 federal
prosecutors charged Kosta Kovachev (57), a former stockbroker, for his
role in Dreier’s 2006 Ponzi scheme. In 2009 the indictment was amended
and estimated the alleged fraud at about $700 million.
(WSJ, 12/9/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/24/08, p.A3)(WSJ,
3/18/09, p.A7)
2008 Dec 8, In San Diego The
F/A-18D Hornet crashed into a street about two miles from Marine Corps
Air Station Miramar as the pilot was returning from a training flight.
4 people, a mother, 2 children and a grandmother, were killed in one
house. Two homes were destroyed.
(AP, 12/9/08)(WSJ, 12/9/08, p.A1)(SFC, 12/10/08,
p.A6)
2008 Dec 8, The Chicago-based
Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy as it struggled with $13 billion in
debt and a drop-off in advertising.
(SFC, 12/9/08, p.D2)
2008 Dec 8, Dow Chemical Co. said
it will slash 5,000 full-time jobs, about 11 percent of its total work
force, close 20 plants and sell several businesses to rein in costs
amid the economic recession.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, Robert Prosky (77),
American theater, film and TV actor, died.
(SFC, 12/12/08, p.B9)
2008 Dec 8, In Brazil Police chief
Paulo Fernando Fortunato reported that 13 gay men were killed in a park
in suburban Sao Paulo between February 2007 and August 2008.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, British car parts
maker Wagon PLC said it planned to file for a form of bankruptcy
protection after a global slump in demand for cars crippled its
business.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, British and French
leaders met with European business executives to discuss plans for
major government spending on infrastructure and energy projects aimed
at helping Europe to beat the downturn.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, Quebec's ruling
Liberals strengthened their grip on power in a provincial election,
winning a parliamentary majority and defeating separatists who want
independence for the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province.
(Reuters, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 8, Congolese rebels
opened peace negotiations with a government delegation in Nairobi in
their first direct talks on ending the conflict in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, The EU formally
launches its anti-piracy task mission off the Somali coast, preparing
to take over from the NATO flotilla guarding one of the world's most
important shipping lanes.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, The EU joined calls
for President Robert Mugabe to step down after 28 years ruling
Zimbabwe, where spreading cholera and food shortages have worsened a
desperate humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, French police arrested
the suspected military chief and "No. 1 member" of ETA, a new blow to
the banned Basque militant group just weeks after his alleged
predecessor was caught.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 8, The National Bank of
Hungary cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point to an
annual rate of 10.5% due to the deteriorating economy outlook.
(WSJ, 12/9/08, p.C2)
2008 Dec 8, The US military
captured four suspected members of a Shiite militant group in Iraq
allegedly trained and funded by Iran.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, Victor Hugo Moneda, a
senior Mexico City police commander, was slain in a drive-by shooting
outside his home. He had overseen raids in the capital's gang-filled
Tepito neighborhood.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 8, In Pakistan armed
militants launched a second raid in as many days on NATO depots,
torching nearly 100 more vehicles destined for the alliance's forces in
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 8, In the Philippines
suspected extortionists armed with automatic rifles and
rocket-propelled grenades attacked two cargo ships docked at a southern
port, wounding two crew members.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 8, In northern Vietnam a
blast at a coal mine killed at least seven workers and injured 15.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 9, Federal authorities
arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (51) on charges that he brazenly
conspired to sell or trade the US Senate seat left vacant by
President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder. Blagojevich was
released after paying a $4,500 bond.
(AP, 12/9/08)(SFC, 12/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 9, The US Treasury said
it had sold $30 billion in four-week bills at an interest rate of zero
percent, for the first time since the notes began issuing in 2001.
(SFC, 12/10/08, p.C4)
2008 Dec 9, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
said it will pay up to $54.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit
that alleged the discount giant cut workers' break time and didn't
prevent employees from working off the clock in Minnesota.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 9, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom
announced $71 million in cuts that included the loss of jobs for nearly
400 city employees.
(SFC, 12/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 9, Nevada state and
federal authorities said they arrested nearly two dozen people, many
with ties to Eastern Europe, in a credit card fraud and identity theft
scheme that cost Las Vegas businesses and consumers about $1.5 million.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, In Afghanistan
Mohammad Bobi, a Taliban commander, was killed during a targeted
overnight operation just south of Kabul.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, In Argentina officials
announced that 10,000 bone fragments had been unearthed between
February and September, inside the once-secret Arana detention center
in La Plata. Political dissidents were tortured and killed there during
the 1976-1983 “Dirty War.”
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 9, The Bank of Canada
unexpectedly cut its key interest rate by three-quarters of a
percentage point to a 50-year low of 1.50 percent and declared the
Canadian economy to be in a recession.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, In Beijing delegates
from six nations focused on a Chinese proposal on how to verify North
Korea's claims about its atomic program in talks aimed at ending the
secretive regime's nuclear activities.
(AFP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, In China activists
issued a new public call for greater freedoms ahead of the 60th
anniversary of the UN convention on human rights, but police detained
two of the signatories before it was even issued. The petition known as
Charter 08 was issued online and initially signed by 303 intellectuals.
Within a week 5,000 people added their signature.
(AP, 12/9/08)(Econ, 1/17/09, p.42)(Econ, 2/14/09, SR
p.17)
2008 Dec 9, Ethiopian troops were
reported to be pouring into neighboring Somalia to fight radical
Islamists who have taken over much of the country, raising fears of
more violence in a country fighting a deadly insurgency and piracy.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, In Paris, France,
entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, Jordan's Queen Noor and other
dignitaries launched an ambitious project aimed at eliminating the
world's nuclear weapons over the next 25 years.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, The European Union and
Canada reached a deal to open their aviation markets to each other by
removing restrictions on direct flights and foreign ownership in
airlines.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, Hong Kong health
authorities said more than 80,000 chickens will be slaughtered after
bird flu was found on a poultry farm, the first outbreak at a farm here
in nearly six years.
(AFP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, India police released
the names of nine suspected Islamic militants killed during their
attack on Mumbai, bolstering India's charges that all of them came from
Pakistan. A speeding bus caught fire in northern Uttar Pradesh state,
killing at least 63 Hindu pilgrims.
(AP, 12/9/08)(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 9, Ireland's farm
minister said Irish cattle have tested positive for chemicals which
have triggered a cancer scare previously confined to pork.
(AFP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, Israel reopened its
crossings with Gaza to shipments of humanitarian aid and fuel.
International journalists were also being allowed in.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, Sony said it is
slashing 8,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its global work force, aiming to
cut costs by $1.1 billion a year as an economic downturn and a stronger
yen batter profits at the Japanese electronics maker.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, Andrius Kubilius
(b.1956) began serving as the Prime Minister of Lithuania. He already
served as the PM 1999. He led the conservative political party Homeland
Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrius_Kubilius)
2008 Dec 9, Mexico's Congress
voted to broaden police powers, allowing law enforcement agencies to
use undercover agents and taped conversations as evidence in a bid to
help them fight increasingly bloody drug cartels. In the Gulf coast
state of Tabasco, soldiers detained 11 police officers from four towns
for questioning on suspicion of aiding the Gulf drug cartel. In the
northern city of Tijuana four bodies were found.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, Pakistan arrested some
40 people in raids that targeted Lashkar-e-Taiba in the Northwest
Frontier Province and Punjab.
(WSJ, 12/10/08, p.A9)
2008 Dec 9, A South African man
accused of attempting to smuggle hundreds of rare chameleons, snakes,
lizards and frogs out of Madagascar inside his jacket and luggage was
convicted and sentenced to a year in jail.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 9, President Robert
Mugabe rejected mounting Western pressure for him to resign, even as
his health minister called for more international aid to battle a
deadly cholera epidemic. US President George W. Bush joined calls for
Robert Mugabe to step down, but the African Union rejected tougher
action against Mugabe and said only dialogue could solve its crisis.
(AFP, 12/9/08)(Reuters, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 10, Congressional
officials said majority Democrats and the White House have finalized a
deal to spend $15 billion on emergency loans for struggling US
automakers.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, The US proposed to
track down Somali pirates not only at sea, but on land and in Somalian
air space with cooperation from the African country's weak UN-backed
government.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 10, In southern
Afghanistan 6 police and a civilian were killed when US-led forces
targeting a Taliban commander bombed a police station in Zabul province.
(AFP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, Anglo-Australian
mining giant Rio Tinto said it will slash some 14,000 jobs globally to
cut its debt by 10 billion US dollars as it battles falling prices and
a global slowdown.
(AFP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, In Australia Taha
Abdul-Rahman of Sydney was jailed for 3½ years for buying seven
rocket launchers stolen from the military between 2001 and 2003, most
of which have never been recovered by authorities.
(AFP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, British television
broadcast a documentary of the assisted suicide of Craig Ewert (d.2006
at 59), a terminally ill American, as he died in Switzerland. The
documentary, “Right to Die?,” was made by Oscar-winning director John
Zaritsky.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.A2)
2008 Dec 10, Sark, the English
Channel Island that let only landowners vote for 450 years, held the
first parliamentary election in its history.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, The government of
Cambodia and the UN agreed in principle to strengthen measures to
prevent corruption among staff at the country's genocide tribunal.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, The European
Commission awarded the first Chaillot Prize to the Al-Nahda
Philanthropic Society for Women, a Saudi charity which helps divorced
and underprivileged women.
(AFP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, Protesters attacked
Athens' main courthouse with firebombs during a hearing for police
officers whose shooting of a teenager set off rioting that appeared to
be tapering off even as a general strike paralyzed the country.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, Israel agreed to
allow the delivery of cash to banks in the Gaza Strip to ease a cash
crunch that has badly hobbled the economy of the blockaded Palestinian
territory.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, In Italy a bumper
harvest was expected to push wine production above that of neighboring
France for the first time in a decade, making Italy the world's largest
wine producer.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, Police in Jamaica
said armed gangs wrestling for control of 2 communities near the
capital have forced over 200 people from their homes.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 10, In Mexico a shootout
between rival gangs killed 10 people in Sinaloa state, home of the
powerful cartel of the same name. US security consultant Felix Batista
was kidnapped in Saltillo, Coahuila state, while there to offer advice
on how to confront abductions for ransom. He claimed to have helped
resolve nearly 100 kidnap and ransom cases.
(AP, 12/11/08)(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 10, In Romania Theodor
Stolojan (65), former World Bank economist, was chosen to become the
next prime minister. On Dec 15 Stolojan renounced the job and was
replaced by Emil Boc (42), the leader of the same centrist Democratic
Liberal Party.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.A4)(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 10, In Saudi Arabia
Muslims poured into Mecca for a final day of the hajj.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, In northern Sri Lanka
separatist Tamil rebels fought intense battles against government
forces trying to advance on the militants' de facto capital, killing at
least 89 soldiers. The military disputed the death toll, saying pitched
battles in the north over the past two days had left 20 soldiers and 27
rebels dead.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 10, The Nobel Prizes were
awarded in twin ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 10, The death toll from
Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak soared to nearly 800 and a court ordered
police to find a missing rights activist, piling more pressure on
President Robert Mugabe's government.
(Reuters, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 11, The $14 billion
package to aid General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC
collapsed amid disputes over union wage cuts. A band of mostly
Republican Southern senators, including states that subsidized foreign
auto makers, formed the heart of the opposition.
(AP, 12/12/08)(WSJ, 12/12/08, p.A3)
2008 Dec 11, US Interior Sec. Dirk
Kemphorne announced major changes to the Endangered Species Act causing
environmental groups to charge that the ‘midnight rules” set to go into
effect before Pres. Obama takes offices were intended to eviscerate the
wildlife protection law.
(SFC, 12/12/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 11, Bernard Madoff (70),
a quiet force on Wall Street for decades, was arrested and charged with
allegedly running a $50 billion "Ponzi scheme" in what may rank among
the biggest fraud cases ever.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 11, California’s air
quality board approved the nation’s most sweeping plan to reduce global
warming by curbing emissions.
(SFC, 12/12/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 11, California
conservation officials said a $9.9 million deal to buy the Sonoma
Ranch, also known as the Walsh Property, would be completed by the end
of the year.
(SFC, 12/12/08, p.B1)
2008 Dec 11, In Los Angeles the
husband and daughter of Karine Hakobyan were killed. On March 26, 2010,
Karine Hakobyan was shot to death in Hollywood.
(AP, 3/30/10)
2008 Dec 11, Ron Carey (72),
former Teamsters president (1992-1997), died in NYC.
(SFC, 12/13/08, p.B5)
2008 Dec 11, Bettie Page (85), the
1950s secretary-turned-model, died. Her controversial photographs in
skimpy attire or none at all helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual
revolution.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 11, Australian police
said detectives have charged 22 men including a policeman, a senior
lawyer and a child care worker in connection with a child
pornography-sharing network spanning 70 countries. Brazilian
information, which was shared via the international policing network
Interpol, identified more than 200 suspects in 70 countries.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 11, Police in Brussels
and eastern Belgium detained 14 suspected al-Qaida-linked extremists in
raids, including one militant who allegedly was plotting a suicide
attack.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 11, As Greece suffered
through its sixth day of violence, there were troubling signs of unrest
spreading across Europe. Angry youths smashed shop windows, attacked
banks and hurled bottles at police in small but violent protests in
Spain and Denmark, while cars were set alight outside a consulate in
France.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 11, Hong Kong's
government confirmed that the deadly H5N1 virus was found at a poultry
farm, the first outbreak on a farm here in nearly six years.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 11, Indian authorities
rep