|
Portal:Current events/2008 October 5
|
|
- 2008 South Ossetia war aftermath:
- US President Bush signs the US$ 700,000,000,000 bailout bill after it is passed by the House. (NPR News)
- International Reaction to the 2008 Dairy Scandal
- Australia began withdrawing Chinese-made Kirin milk tea from shops after discovering it contained melamine in tests. (The Australian)
- Greece announces it will follow Ireland's lead and guarantee all bank deposits in the country. (RTÉ)
- 2008 Russian financial crisis:
- Both of Russia's main stock exchanges, the MICEX and RTS, suspend trading of stocks "for technical reasons" as the markets rallied after a 1-1/2 day trading halt that ended earlier in the morning. (Financial Times)
- Trading is suspended for a second and a third time in the same day at the RTS stock exchange as Russian equities tumble. The dollar-denominated stock index was last down 7.8% in intraday trading. At MICEX, index fell 6.2% in intraday trading. (MarketWatch)
- Investigators in the United States announce that they have found human remains in what is believed to be the wreckage of Steve Fossett's plane, which went missing over California a year ago (BBC News)
- United States government announces sale of billions of dollars of arms to Taiwan to keep a balance with China's massive arms buildup aimed at Taiwan (CBC News)
- Russia's foreign minister calls for international action to halt piracy in Somalia (BBC News)
- The remains of a Viking-era stave church, including the skeletal remains of a woman, is uncovered near the cemetery of the Lännäs church in Odensbacken outside Örebro in central Sweden. (The Local)
- A jury convicts retired American football player O.J. Simpson of armed robbery and kidnapping, 13 years to the day after he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles.(New York Times)
|
|
|
- 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
|
|
|
- 2008 Chinese milk scandal
- Shares of major Irish banks rise sharply following the announcement of a State guarantee of all deposits in Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Life & Permanent, Irish Nationwide Building Society and EBS, worth an estimated €400 billion. The guarantee includes Bank of Ireland branches in Northern Ireland while the coverage of AIB's subsidiary, First Trust is still under discussion. Deposits in foreign-owned banks remain guaranteed to €100,000. (RTÉ News) (BBC News)
- 147 people are dead after a human stampede at the Chamunda Hindu temple near Jodhpur in India. (Reuters), (CNN), (AFP via The Canberra Times)
- At least 35 people die when a bus collides with a milk tanker and catches fire in central Pakistan, police say. (News 24)
- 30 suspected mobsters arrested around Naples in "war against the Camorra". (BBC News)
- Piracy in Somalia:
- Pirates deny reports of three of their own killed in a shoot-out aboard the Ukrainian ship (MV Faina) off the African coast. (CBC News) (BBC News)
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average goes up almost 500 points, following its largest one day point drop in history yesterday.(Yahoo Finance)
|
|
|
- Three bombs go off in western India, killing 8 people and injuring 30. (TOI)
- United States Attorney General Michael Mukasey announces the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006. (BBC News)
- Subprime mortgage crisis:
- The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposed bailout of the U.S. financial system.(Associated Press) (New York Times) (MarketWatch)
- Head of the Swedish National Debt Office Bo Lundgren says that the $700 billion U.S. financial industry bailout is based on too-optimistic valuations, and may not be enough to restore confidence in the financial system. (Dagens industri)
- The German government and private banks inject 35 billion Euros into the struggling Hypo Real Estate, a bank that is heavily involved in the real estate business. The bank had been stuggling because its Irish subsidy Depfa Bank had suffered massive losses during the subprime mortgage crisis. The HRE is the first company from the DAX that had to be rescued by the government in recent memory. (Handelsblatt.com)
- Brazil's stock market had its worst one-day plunge in almost a decade, the São Paulo Stock Exchange sank 9.36% to 46,028.06 points, its steepest drop since 1999. (Reuters)
- Russian RTS falls 7,1%, MICEX 5,5%, as investors sell off assets on emerging markets on concerns that the U.S. government's bailout plan will not be enough to stem the financial crisis caused by the U.S. housing bubble. (MarketWatch)
- Citigroup acquires the banking operations of Wachovia, the troubled Charlotte, N.C.-based bank. Under the agreement, Citigroup will absorb up to $42 billion of losses on a $312 billion pool of loans, while the U.S. Government will take losses beyond that. (MarketWatch)
- The Government of Iceland takes control of the country's number three bank, the struggling Glitnir Bank (Reuters) (International Herald Tribune)
- The British Government confirm that the mortgage and loans components of Bradford & Bingley will be nationalised, whilst the company's savings operations will be sold to the Spanish banking group, Grupo Santander. (BBC News) The financial crisis around Europe deepened with the nationalization of Fortis and a cash infusion from the Benelux states amounting to €11.2 billion.
- Intervention is needed to support the US's Wachovia, Britian's Bradford & Bingley, Iceland's Glitnir, Germany's Hypo Real Estate and the Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, following on from the Subprime mortgage crisis. (Sources as already listed)
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average has the biggest intra-day decline in its history as it drops by 777 points. (NY1)
|
|
| Elections |
Recent
September
- 2 September: Vanuatu, Parliament
- 5–6 September: Angola, Legislature
- 6 September: Pakistan, Presidential election (indirect)
- 7 September: Hong Kong, Legislature
- 15–18 September: Rwanda, Parliament
- 19 September: Swaziland, Parliament
- 19 September: Mauritius, President (indirect)
- 21 September: Slovenia, Parliament
- 21 September: France, Senate (third of the seats) (indirect)
- 25 September: South Africa, President (by the parliament)
- 28 September: Ecuador, Constitutional referendum
- 28 September: Austria, Parliament
- 28 September: Belarus, Parliament
Upcoming
October
|
|
