Portal:Current events/2008 June 19
June 19, 2008 (Thursday)
- The President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez threatens to stop selling oil to European countries who apply new European Union legislation on illegal immigration. (Reuters)
- Iraqi security forces enter the city of Amarah, arrest its Sadrist mayor, and take control. (BBC News)
- An Alabama state judge upholds a fraud verdict against AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in a Medicaid drug pricing suit but reduces the value of damages to $160 million. (AP via Forbes)
- The President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accuses the United States of plotting to kidnap and assassinate him during a visit to Iraq. (AP via Forbes)
- Subprime mortgage crisis
- A Congressional ethics panel is examining allegations that Democrat Senators Christopher Dodd of Connecticut (the sponsor of a major $300 billion housing bailout bill) and Kent Conrad of North Dakota received preferential loans by troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
- Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers are arrested and will be the first Wall Street executives to face criminal charges. (Bloomberg)
- Royal Dutch Shell shuts down an offshore oil installation in Nigeria after an attack from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. (AP via Google News)
- Zimbabwean presidential election, 2008:
- Zimbabwe police arrest an opposition Movement for Democratic Change lawmaker and place six others on a wanted list. (AFP)
- The bodies of four people who opposed Robert Mugabe have been found in Harare. (Sky News)
- Lee Myung-bak, the President of South Korea, apologises to South Koreans over an unpopular decision to resume importing beef from the United States. (Reuters)
- Commencing at dawn, the Israeli Government and Hamas declare a truce in the Israel-Gaza conflict, halting attacks across the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. (Chicago Tribune)
- A report reveals sailors onboard the submarine HMCS Chicoutimi during a 2004 fire may develop serious health problems as a result. (Canada.com)
- Four German and Spanish servicemen die when their EUFOR helicopter crashes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Deutsche Welle)