Portal:Current events/2008 October 10
October 10, 2008 (Friday)
- 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:
- European markets fall steeply upon opening. (BBC News)
- Fears of a global recession send Asian markets tumbling. (AP via Yahoo News)
- The Australian Stock Exchange suffers its greatest fall since the crash of 1987 (The Age).
- The Dow Jones finished down 128 points, after twice reaching down 700 points and below 8000 points. (CNN)
- The United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson says that the Bush administration will proceed with plans to buy stocks in United States financial institutions.(AP via USA Today)
- Group of Seven finance ministers who met in Washington with International Monetary Fund chief and World Bank president announce a plan to combat the crisis including the use of "all available tools" to support key institutions and prevent their failure. (NineMSN)
- 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)