Current events of October 1, 2008 (2008-10-01) (Wednesday) |
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- Russia's supreme court declares the imperial dynasty victims of political repression, marking the official rehabilitation of the house of Romanov. The decision overturns a lower court ruling that classified the killings as plain murder, and exonerates Emperor Nicholas II and his family of the alleged crimes the Bolshevik regime used to justify their killing. (Reuters)
- The United States Senate passes the civilian nuclear agreement with India by a vote of 86–13. India has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but may now undertake nuclear trade to the States (TOI)
- The National Transportation Safety Board reports that a Metrolink engineer sent a text message 22 seconds before the Chatsworth train collision in Los Angeles, California, that killed 25 people. (CBS)
- Mayor of Melbourne John So announces his resignation. (news.com.au)
- United States Army General David D. McKiernan, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, says that a greater military presence is "needed as quickly as possible." (CNN)
- Subprime mortgage crisis:
- A new U.S. Armed Forces Unified Combatant Command for Africa—AFRICOM—is created. Main functions of AFRICOM include fighting terror, securing oil supplies in Africa, and supporting U.S. foreign policy in the region where Chinese influence is growing. (BBC) (The Nation)
- A series of 4 blasts set off in Agartala, capital of the Indian state of Tripura, killing at least 4 people and injuring 100. Times of India
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Current events of October 2, 2008 (2008-10-02) (Thursday) |
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- Sarah Palin and Joe Biden have their only scheduled debate for the vice presidency of the United States. (ABC)(WP)
- Ukrainian President, Viktor Yushchenko may face impeachment on charges of undermining national security, and illegal arms trade with Georgia months before the attack on Tskhinvali, South Ossetia, says Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Yushchenko earlier said the arms trade charges are "unsubstantiated". (USA Today) (Bikilar.Az) (The Times) (France24) (BBC News) (Izvestia)
- The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service and the most senior policeman in the United Kingdom, Sir Ian Blair, announces that he will stand down from his post in December of this year, citing a lack of support from London Mayor Boris Johnson. (BBC News)
- A search team finds the wreckage of the airplane flown by adventurer Steve Fossett in the mountains of Madera County, California, and what appears to be some of his personal effects nearby. Fossett had disappeared on September 3, 2007. (Sydney Daily Telegraph)
- Subprime mortgage crisis:
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Current events of October 3, 2008 (2008-10-03) (Friday) |
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Current events of October 4, 2008 (2008-10-04) (Saturday) |
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Current events of October 5, 2008 (2008-10-05) (Sunday) |
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- 2008 South Ossetia war
- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Defense Ministry, law enforcement agencies and the Foreign Ministry to investigate a bombing in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, on 3 October, 2008. A car, carrying weapons, was detained by Russian peacekeepers in Georian village and transported to Tskhinvali, where it exploded. EU and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development earlier condemned this 'act of terrorism'. Georgian authorities claimed 'Russian special services' 'were behind' the blast that left 7 servicemen of Russian peacekeeping forces dead. (Rustavi 2) (RIAN) (NY Times)
- Earlier, on October 2, an attempt of assassination of head of the Akhalgori Ossetian administration, Anatoli Margiev failed. He survived the explosion of a bomb planted on a road in Georgian village while driving to Tskhinvali, South Ossetia. (Rustavi 2)
- Russian troops are dismantling positions in security zones on the border of South Ossetia and Georgia created after the war, a Georgian Interior Ministry official said. (AP via Google News).
- Authorities detain separatist leader and impose curfew in anticipation of a separatist rally to be held on Monday in Kashmir. (BBC News)
- Apirak Kosayothin is re-elected as Governor of Bangkok. (Thai News Agency)
- Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari acknowledges his government's consent to US air strikes in Pakistan and says India has never been a threat. (BBC News)
- Senior British Commander says military victory in Afghanistan is impossible. (CBC News)
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Current events of October 6, 2008 (2008-10-06) (Monday) |
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Current events of October 7, 2008 (2008-10-07) (Tuesday) |
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Current events of October 8, 2008 (2008-10-08) (Wednesday) |
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Current events of October 9, 2008 (2008-10-09) (Thursday) |
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- Narcoterrorist attack on a military convoy by Shining Path guerrillas kills 19 including women and children in southeast Peru. (AFP via Yahoo News)
- Montenegro and Macedonia recognize Kosovo, bringing the total number of United Nations members recognising Kosovo to fifty. (International Herald Tribune)
- The U.S. National Security Agency is accused of listening to Americans' private phone conversations.(ABC News)
- Nobel Prize:
- 2008 Pacific hurricane season : Tropical Storm Odile forms south of Mexico while Hurricane Norbert weakens to tropical storm strength northwest of Odile. (AP via Google News)
- Global financial crisis of September–October 2008:
- Head of International Monetary Fund says the US financial crisis threatens to send the world into a recession. IMF releases World Economic Outlook report with gloomy projections for the global financial system. (Deutsche Welle)
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 678.91 points to 8,579.19 points. (New York Times)
- Greece introduces a 100,000 Euro guarantee for the 230 billion Euro bank deposits in the country for three years, well above the EU-wide Ecofin-mandated minimum of 50,000 Euro for one year, and gives assurances that the Greek banking system is stable, while the Greek central bank announces a drop in the expected growth of the Greek economy to 3.3% (from 4%) because of decreased consumption caused by high petrol and food prices. (ekathimerini), (ekathimerini), (Forbes), (Wikinews)
- Kaupthing Bank, Iceland's largest bank, is nationalized by the country's Financial Supervisory Authority. (Bloomberg)
- North Korea has forbidden ships to sail in an area of the Yellow Sea as it prepares for the launch of 10 short-range missiles. (Reuters) (BBC News)
- Democratic Republic of the Congo accuses Rwanda of sending troops across the border, threatening the city of Goma. (BBC News)
- War on Terrorism:
- Court in the United Kingdom hears of how two doctors planned car bomb attacks on London and Glasgow airports in revenge for how UK was treating Muslims (BBC News)
- NATO plans on sending seven warships to protect United Nations food aid from Piracy in Somalia. (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)
- North Korea ends its nuclear freeze as it prepares to restart a nuclear facility (AP via Yahoo News)
- No candidate wins a majority in the Maldives' first democratic presidential election; the incumbent Maumoon Abdul Gayoom will face Mohamed Nasheed in a runoff. (Minivan News)
- Los Zetas of the Gulf Cartel suspected killers of 5 police near Guadalajara during nationwide crackdown in Mexico. (AP via Yahoo News)
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Current events of October 10, 2008 (2008-10-10) (Friday) |
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- Pirate spokesman threatens to blow up MV Faina, which has been held off the coast of Somalia since September 25, if $20 million is not paid by October 13. (BBC News)
- The president of Peru accepts the resignation of his entire cabinet in response to an oil kickbacks scandal. (AP via Yahoo News)
- Gunmen kill 11 in a bar in Mexico in drug smuggling related violence. (Reuters via Irish Times)
- 27 people were killed by a suicide car bomb in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border during a tribal meeting planning the eviction of the Taliban from the area. (BBC News)
- Dozens of bodies that washed ashore in Yemen are believed to be from the 130 migrants from Somalia thrown overboard by smugglers; prompting calls for action against human trafficking in the Gulf of Aden. (AP via Yahoo News)
- An Alaskan legislative committee finds that the Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her authority in terminating the Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan. (AP via The New York Times)
- The Connecticut Supreme Court rules that gay and lesbian couples have the right to marry in Connecticut. (CNN)
- Oxfam says those needing food aid in Ethiopia has risen to 6.4 million, nearly two million more than in June . (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)
- NATO ministers reach a deal after overcoming resistance from France, Italy and Germany by agreeing that only willing countries temporarily "act in concert with the Afghans, against [drug] facilities". (Deutsche Welle)
- Nobel Prize:
- The Nobel peace prize is awarded to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari for mediation for the resolution of international conflicts who, as a UN special envoy, guided Namibia to independence in 1990, oversaw the 2005 reconciliation between the government of Indonesia and rebels in Aceh, and mediated a peace deal in Kosovo.(AFP via Yahoo News)
- Former Russian cross country ski champion Alexey Prokurorov dies after he is hit by a car while crossing a road in Vladimir.(RIA Novosti)
- A Swedish appellate court sentences Chilean opera tenor Ernesto "Tito" Beltrán to two years and six months in prison for raping an 18-year-old nanny and molesting a 7-year-old girl.(Associated Press)
- North Korea draws nearer to a compromise in a nuclear deal that would prompt Washington to remove it from a list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. (Reuters via Yahoo News)
- Global financial crisis of September–October 2008:
- Leaders of the anti-government protests in Thailand surrender to thepolice. (BBC)
- The Republic of China (Taiwan) celebrates its 97th National Anniversary on Double Ten Day, with its newly elected President Ma Ying-jeou. (The China Post)
- Scores missing as migrant vessel sinks off the coast of northern Morocco in a route used by illegal migrants trying to reach Europe. (BBC News)
- Fifteen killed when JEM rebels ambush a government convoy in west Darfur. (AFP via Yahoo News)
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Current events of October 11, 2008 (2008-10-11) (Saturday) |
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- Global financial crisis of September–October 2008:
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Current events of October 12, 2008 (2008-10-12) (Sunday) |
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- Business and economy
- Religion
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Current events of October 13, 2008 (2008-10-13) (Monday) |
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Current events of October 14, 2008 (2008-10-14) (Tuesday) |
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Current events of October 15, 2008 (2008-10-15) (Wednesday) |
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Current events of October 16, 2008 (2008-10-16) (Thursday) |
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Current events of October 17, 2008 (2008-10-17) (Friday) |
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Current events of October 18, 2008 (2008-10-18) (Saturday) |
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Current events of October 19, 2008 (2008-10-19) (Sunday) |
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Current events of October 20, 2008 (2008-10-20) (Monday) |
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- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Arts and culture
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Current events of October 21, 2008 (2008-10-21) (Tuesday) |
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Current events of October 22, 2008 (2008-10-22) (Wednesday) |
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Current events of October 23, 2008 (2008-10-23) (Thursday) |
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Current events of October 24, 2008 (2008-10-24) (Friday) |
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Current events of October 25, 2008 (2008-10-25) (Saturday) |
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- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Disasters and accidents
- Severe flooding in Yemen kills 58 people and displaces 20,000 more. (Xinhua)
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Current events of October 26, 2008 (2008-10-26) (Sunday) |
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- United States Special Operations Forces, stationed in Iraq, launch a cross-border raid in Syria, attacking a civilian building under construction near Abu Kamal, Syria. The Syrian government states 8 civilians were killed. (Sky News) (SANA) (IHT)
- A shooter kills two people and injures another at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas. (CNN)
- A light aircraft en route from Gloucester, England, to Kilrush, Ireland, crashes in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland, killing four people. (RTÉ)
- Kadima Party leader and Acting Prime Minister of Israel Tzipi Livni abandons efforts to form a coalition government and calls for early elections. (CNN)
- Georgian–Abkhazian conflict:
- President of Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh, accused Georgia of 'massive provocations with the use of armed force' after Georgians opened 'heavy fire' on Abkhazian border guards on Inguri river, part of the Georgian-Abkhazian border. (Kasparov.ru)
- A Georgian source claims a shootout occurred between the Russian 'occupational forces' and Abkhazian 'militiamen'. (Rustavi2)
- Óscar Tulio Lizcano, a Conservative congressman kidnapped by the FARC in August 2000, is freed by the military in Chocó Department, Colombia. (BBC News)
- Municipal elections take place in Chile. The conservative opposition Alliance for Chile reaches 40% of the mayoral vote, winning an election for the first time in 50 years, in what is considered a barometer for the 2009 presidential election. (El Mercurio)
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Current events of October 27, 2008 (2008-10-27) (Monday) |
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Current events of October 28, 2008 (2008-10-28) (Tuesday) |
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Current events of October 29, 2008 (2008-10-29) (Wednesday) |
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Current events of October 30, 2008 (2008-10-30) (Thursday) |
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Current events of October 31, 2008 (2008-10-31) (Friday) |
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Elections |
Recent
October
- 8 October: Maldives, President
- 12 October: Lithuania, Parliament (1st Round) and nuclear power referendum
- 14 October: Canada, Parliament
- 15 October: Azerbaijan, President
- 15 October: Jersey, General (1st Round)
- 16 October: United Nations, Security Council
- 17/18 October and 24/25 October: Czech Republic, Senate (one third)
- 26 October: Lithuania, Parliament (2nd Round)
- 26 October: Chile, Municipal
- 29 October: Maldives, President (2nd Round)
- 30 October: Zambia, President
November
- 4 November: United States: President, House of Representatives, Senate (one third: "Class II" Senators)
- 4 November: American Samoa, General
- 4 November: Guam, General
- 4 November: Palau, President, Senate and House of Delegates
- 4 November: Puerto Rico, Governor, Legislative
- 8 November: New Zealand, General
- 9 November: San Marino, Parliament
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Upcoming holidays and observances |
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