Current Affairs (International Events 2008)

International Events 2008
Events in January 2008
Jan. 1 A Sri Lankan Tamil MP, T.Maheswaran, is shot dead at a temple on the outskirts of
Colombo.
Thirty-five persons are killed as a mob torches a church in Eldoret town, Kenya. Toll in
ethnic riots over poll results goes up to 316.
E.U. newcomers Cyprus, Malta adopt the euro scrapping the pound and lira.
Germany and France ban smoking in public places.
Jan. 2 Sri Lanka declares the 2002 ceasefire pact with the LTTE “invalid.”
Pakistan postpones elections to February 18.
Jan. 3 Pakistan frees four Palestinians convicted of the 1986 hijacking of an American airliner
in Karachi that ended with the death of 22 persons, including an Indian flight purser
Neerja Bhanot.
The University of Cambridge announces the launch of the “Jawaharlal Nehru
Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise.”
Jan. 5 Scotland Yard begins probe into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
Georgians cast votes in a snap general election.
‘Col.’ Charles (Shanmuganathan Ravishankar), Chief of the Liberation Tigers Military
Intelligence” is killed in a “random claymore attack” by the Sri Lankan Army in
Pallamadu, Mannar.
Jan. 6 Malaysia awards a $1.08-billion project to IRCON.
Jan. 8 The Sri Lankan Nation Building Minister, D.M. Dassanayake, is killed in a bomb
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explosion on the Negombo-Colombo main road.
The Maldivian President Mamoon Abdul Gayoom escapes bid on life on a visit to the
north of the Indian Ocean archipelago.
Jan. 9 Georgian President, Mikhail Saakashvili, is declared winner in the snap polls.
Jan. 10 A suicide bombing near the gates of the Lahore High Court kills 23 persons, mostly
policemen.
U.S. war planes launch their biggest air strike in Iraq since 2003 raining Baghdad
outskirts with 40,000 pounds of bombs.
Jan. 11 Sir Edmund Hillary (88) conqueror of Mt. Everest on May 29, 1953 dies in an Auckland
hospital of heart attack.
The Nepal Government sets Constituent Assembly polls for April 10.
The world’s first commercial service from Hobart, Australia to Antarctica, an Airbus A-
319, touches down smoothly at the Wilkins glacial blue ice runway.
S. Krishnasamy (61), a prominent Malaysian Indian politician is shot dead at Johor
Baharu.
Jan. 12 Opposition Kuomintang wins elections to the Taiwan legislature called “Legislative
Yuan”
A 17-member Chinese expedition team reaches Dome A, the highest Antarctic ice cap
summit after a gruelling 21-day journey.
Pakistan lawyers decide to end court boycott at a meeting of the Pakistan Bar Council in
Peshawar.
Jan. 13 The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, arrives in China on a three-day visit.
South African police Chief Jackie Selebie resigns as Interpol president after being
indicted of corruption.
University of Minnesota researchers report success in creating a beating rat heart in a
laboratory.
Jan. 14 Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Wen Jiabao sign a joint document “A Shared
Vision for the 21st Century” after talks in Beijing.
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, suggests a three-pronged strategy to boost
economic ties at the largest ever India-China business congress in Beijing.
NASA’s Messenger Spacecraft makes historic Mercury flyby.
Jan. 16 Thirtyone persons, including 26 bus passengers are killed in a wave of violence by the
LTTE in Sri Lanka’s Uva province. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission winds up
operations as the Ceasefire Agreement ends.
Jan. 17 Bhutan’s poll panel announces the nation’s first general elections will be held on March
24. Elections to the upper House of Parliament were held on December 31, 2007.
Jan. 18 Spain smashes an Islamist terror cell and arrests 14 persons.
A journalist from Belarus Alexander Sdvizhkov is jailed for thee years for printing
cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
Abhijeet Mahato, an Indian student is found shot dead at an apartment complex in North
Carolina, the U.S.
Jan. 20 Cuba holds parliamentary polls.
Jan. 21 Serbian ultra-nationalist leader Tomishlav Nokolic wins the first round vote in
presidential polls. The run-off is set for February 3.
Stock markets tumble across the world following fears of U.S. recession, with Latin
America being the worst-affected.
Jan. 22 Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary is given a state funeral by New Zealand.
Jan. 23 The World Economic Forum summit opens in Davos, Switzerland.
Besieged Gaza residents flood Egypt after breaching a southern border wall.
Jan. 24 A breakthrough in organ transplant eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs is
announced by a U.S. research team.
Dr. Craig Venter of the U.S. creates the world’s first man-made micro-organism.
The Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, heading a nine-party coalition, resigns after
losing a confidence vote in the Senate.
Jan. 25 The Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe dissolves Parliament and sets national
elections for March 29.
Jan. 27 The former Indonesian President Suharto (86) who ruled the island nation for 32 years
with an iron fist dies in a hospital at Jakarta of multiple organ failure. A week-long
national mourning is declared.
Jan. 28 Samak Sundaravej, leader of Thailand’s People’s Power Party is elected Prime Minister.
Jan. 29 Seventeen civilians, including 11 school children are killed in a claymore attack on a
school bus in Sri Lanka’s Mannar district.
Events in February 2008
Feb. 1 Sixty Four persons are killed in twin blasts in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Scientists in New Zealand and Japan announce creation of ‘No tears’ onion.
Feb. 2 The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, weds girl friend Carla Bruni at the Elysee Palace
in Paris.
Twenty civilians are killed and 80 injured following an explosion in a passenger bus at
the Dambulla bus stand in central Sri Lanka.
Feb. 3 Twelve civilians are killed and 100 injured as a woman suicide bomber blows herself up
in the crowded Fort Railway Station, Colombo.
Boris Tadic is re-elected Serbian President.
Feb. 4 At least 12 civilians are killed and 17 injured in a claymore explosion targeting a bus at
Ethwatunuwewa in Sri Lanka.
Iran launches a rocket designed to carry its first research satellite Omid (Hope) next
year.
Feb. 5 Republican John McCain cements position as frontrunner in U.S. presidential
nomination. In the Democratic camp, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are
evenly poised after the Super Tuesday races.
France’s Alstom unveils “Automatrice Grande Vitesse”, a new generation of superfast
train without locomotive that can travel 1,000 km in three hours.
Feb. 6 Samak Sundaravej assumes office as Thailand Prime Minister.
Feb. 7 Dr. Amit Kumar, the alleged kingpin a multi-crore kidney transplant racket in India is
arrested from a hotel in Saurah, a small Napalese town.
Feb. 8 The former Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, died of injuries due to the impact
of the bomb blast, says the Scotland Yard in its report.
The Turkish Parliament approves statute amendments that will lift a decades-old ban on
Islamic headscarves at universities.
The former Sri Lankan Minister and dissident of the ruling SLFP, Sripathi
Sooriayaarachchi (45), dies in a road accident at Madagama in the Galgamuwa area.
Myanmar’s military government announces move to hold a referendum on a new
constitution.
Feb. 10 British pop singer Amy Winehouse (24) wins five Grammy Awards and jazz veteran
Herbie Hancock (67) bags the album of the year award at a function in Los Angeles.
Feb. 11 East Timor’s President Jose Ramos-Horta is critically wounded in an attack by rebels at
his residence in Dili. The Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao is ambushed while travelling
in a car.
Mansoor Dadullah, a top Taliban leader is killed after a shootout near a seminary in
Zhob distruct, Baluchistan province of Pakistan.
U.S. Military prosecutors issue the first charges relating to the September 11 attacks
Feb. 12 Aborigines make history in Australian Parliament overturning hundreds of years of
British tradition in the nation.
Imad Mughniyeh, a top commander of the Lebanese Hizbullah is killed in an explosion
in the Syrian capital Damascus.
Illinois Senator Barack Obama routs New York Senator Hillary Clinton sweeping
primaries in Virgina, Maryland the District of Columbia.
Feb. 13 Malaysian Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announces a snap general election.
The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, delivers an apology in Parliament for past
injustices to aborigines.
Feb. 14 Stephen Kazmierczak (27) a former student opens fire at a classroom at Northern Illinois
University in Deklab, Illinois killing five persons before turning the gun on self.
Hizbullah declares open war on Israel.
Feb. 15 Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett (63) missing since September 3, 2007 is declared
dead.
Mark Beaumont (25), a Scotsman sets a record by cycling around the world in 194 days
and 17 hours.
Feb. 16 “Elite Squad” (“Tropa Squad”), a political thriller by Brazilian director Jose Padilha
bags the Berlin Film Festival’s Gold Bear for best film.
Feb. 17 Eighty persons are killed in a blast on the outskirts of Afghanistan’s southern city of
Kandahar.
Kosovo declares independence from Serbia after a vote in ethnic Albanian dominated
Parliament.
Feb. 18 Low turnout marks Pakistan general elections. Fourteen persons are killed in election-
related violence.
Feb. 19 Pakistan general elections result in hang verdict. The PPP emerges the single largest
party followed closely by the Nawaz Sharif – led Pakistan Muslim League.
Pakistan Muslim League (Q) an ally of President Musharraf is routed.
Fidel Ruiz Castro (81), steps down as Cuban President after a 49-year-rule during which
he outlasted nine American presidents.
Feb. 20 The U.S. Navy launches an interceptor missile to shoot down a non-functioning National
Reconnaissance Office Satellite over the Pacific Ocean.
Feb. 21 Israel launches an incursion into Gaza Strip.
The PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari and the PML (N) chief Nawaz Sharif agree to work
together on government formation.
Feb. 24 The Coen brothers’ crime saga “No Country for Old Men” bags four Academy awards,
including best picture at the 80th Annual Academy Awards, in Hollywood, California.
Daniel Day-Lewis gets Best Actor Oscar (“There Will Be Blood”) and Marion Cotillard
is named Best Actress (“La Vie En Rose”).
Cuba’s National Assembly unanimously elects Mr. Raul Castro Ruz (76) President in
place of brother Fidel Castro. Jose Ramon Machado named Vice-President.
Lee Myung-bak is formally inaugurated South Korean President.
Feb. 25 The Pakistan Army’s Surgeon-General Lt. Gen. Mushtaq Ahmed Baig and seven others
are killed after a suicide bomber blows himself up near his staff car at a busy intersection
in Rawalpindi.
Feb. 26 A vault carved into the Arctic permafrost and filled with samples of the most important
seeds to serve as a Noah’s Ark of food crops in the event of a global catastrophe is
inaugurated in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, some 1,000 km from the North Pole.
Feb. 27 Pakistan government drops all corruption charges against the PPP leader Asif Ali
Zardari.
Microsoft is fined a record $ 1.35 billion (euros 899 million) by the European
Commission for using high prices to discourage software competition.
Britain is jolted by an earthquake, the biggest to hit the nation in nearly 25 years,
damaging property worth £ 10 million
An online encyclopaedia of life (at www.eol.org) crashes as soon as public unveiling.
Iraq’s presidency council gives its nod for the execution of Saddam Hussein’s cousin,
Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as “Chemical Ali” for the genocidal campaign against
Iraq’s Kurds in the 1980s.
Feb. 28 Thailand’s deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra receives a hero’s welcome on
return home after 17 months of self-imposed exile.
Kenya’s leaders agree to form a coalition government after marathon talks in the capital
Nariobi.
Fifty persons are killed in a suicide bomb attack on a funeral procession in Mingora in
Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.
Events in March 2008
Mar. 1 Israel kills 46 Palestinians in its deadliest and deepest incursion into the Gaza Strip
since pulling out in 2005.
A suicide bombing leaves 20 dead in Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal agency.
Mar. 2 Russia’s presidential candidate Dmitry Anatolievich Medvedev sweeps polls winning
about two-thirds of votes cast.
The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in Iraq on a visit, the first since
the 1979 revolution.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas snaps contacts with Israel after the toll in the
blitz on Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp by the Jewish state goes up to 120.
Thirtytwo persons are killed in a suicide bombing on a grand ‘sirga’ of five tribes in
Zarghon village near Darra Adam Khel.
Mar. 3 Kashmir Singh, the death row prisoner who spent 35 years in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail
is freed following a presidential pardon.
Israel pulls out its ground forces from Gaza Strip following an international outcry.
The U.N. Security Council imposes fresh sanctions against Iran.
Mar. 4 Seven persons are killed and 19 injured in a suicide attack at the gates of the Pakistan
Navy War College in the heart of Lahore.
The Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf rejects the mercy petition of Sarabjit Singh
condemned to death for alleged role in bomb blasts in 1990.
Mar. 6 K. Sivanesan, a pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance MP is killed in a claymore mine
attack in Sri Lanka’s Wanni region.
A Palestinian gunman kills eight students of a prominent Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.
Sixty eight persons are killed and 154 injured in coordinated bombings in a packed
shopping area in Karrada district, Central Baghdad.
A Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout nicknamed “Merchant of Death” is arrested in a
hotel in the Thailand capital Bangkok.
Mar. 7 Global equities selloff gathers speed hit by growing U.S. recession fears, a plunging
dollar. The euro rockets to a record high $1.5431.
Mar. 8 Malaysian Indian Congress leader Samy Vellu loses parliamentary seat of Sungai Siput
in the Perak State seeking a ninth successive term.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak
retain seats in snap general elections.
The Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica resigns following a crisis over the
independence of Kosovo.
Mar. 9 Spaniards cast ballots in general elections. Polling held for Senate seats too.
The Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) announce
decision to form a historic coalition government to be led by the former in Murree near
Islamabad.
Mar. 10 Spanish Premier Jose Louis Rodriguez Zapatero’s Socialist Party (PSOE) wins general
elections. The party gains in Senate polls too.
Local bodies polls are held in Sri Lanka’s Batticaloa district after 14 years.
Mar. 11 Twentyfour persons are killed and 170 injured in twin suicide attacks in Lahore,
Pakistan. Punjab headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency is reduced to a
rubble.
A Chinese vessel with e-tagged containers sails out from Shanghai to Savannah in the
U.S. marking the opening of the world’s first international e-tagged container route.
The Tamil Viduthalai Pullikkal, the party formed by former Tamil Tiger leaders wins a
majority in Batticaloa local bodies polls.
Jayant Patel, an Indian-born surgeon is arrested by the FBI on charges of manslaughter
for the death of 17 patients in Australia.
Mar. 12 Eliot Spitzer resigns as New York Governor in the wake of a prostitution scandal.
Mar. 13 The U.S. Dow Jones industrial average falls more than 200 points. European and Asian
markets sink following the dollar’s drop to a 12-year low against the yen.
Mar. 14 Iranians cast votes in parliamentary polls.
Europe’s biggest ever fraud trial opens in Italy to reach a verdict in the 2003 collapse of
the dairy group Parmalat which left euros 14 billion in debts.
Nineteen persons are killed and 382 people injured as violence erupts in the Tibetan
Capital Lhasa after protesters led by Buddhist monks clash with troops.
Mar. 15 China’s Parliament endorses Hu Jintao for a second five-year term as President. Xi
Jinping is appointed Vice-President.
Five persons are killed and 200 injured as a series of blasts rocks an Albanian army
munitions depot outside the capital Tirana.
Mar. 16 Pakistan announces that Sarabjit Singh of India caught in 1990 and convicted for spying
will be hanged on April 1.
Wen Jiabao is re-elected China’s Premier for a second five-year term.
Conservatives win a majority in Iranian parliamentary polls.
Anura Bandaranaike (58) senior Sri Lanka Freedom Party leader known as the “Crown
Prince” dies at his residence in Colombo.
Voting gets under way in French local body polls.
Mar. 17 Pakistan’s newly elected members take oath as MPs at the 13th National Assembly
inauguration in the capital Islamabad.
Left wing wave sweeps French local polls dealing a blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy
and his right wing Conservative Party.
Former Beatle Paul McCartney reaches a £25 million divorce settlement with his
estranged wife Heather Mills.
Asian stocks suffer fresh turmoil as the dollar slumps to a fresh record low against the
euro and a 12-year trough against the yen.
Mar. 18 Russia and the U.S. agree to set up a broad strategic agenda for bilateral cooperation
agree talks between Defence Minister in Moscow.
Mohd. Najib Tun Razak is made Malaysian Defence Minister. Syed Hamid Albar gets
Home and Rais Yatim gets Foreign Affairs in the ministerial line-up unveiled by Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Fifty persons are killed after a suicide bomber attacks Shia workshippers in the holy
city of Karbala in Iraq. Twentynine others die in a series of attacks.
Mar. 19 Fahmida Mirza of the Pakistan People’s Party is elected National Assembly Speaker.
Faisal Karim Kundi is elected Deputy Speaker.Mar. 19 Pakistan President Pervez
Musharraf stays the execution of Sarabjit Singh till April 30.
Mar. 20 Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme takes over as Belgian Prime Minister to end
nine months of deadlock.
Mar. 21 Rival Cypriot leaders agree to reopen Ledra Street running through the heart of Cyprus
divided capital Nicosia. The barricades are in place since 1963.
Mar. 22 Ma Ying-jeou of the opposition Kuomintang wins the Taiwanese presidential polls,
defeating Frank Hsieh of the Democratic Progressive Party. Electorate vetoes
propositions on U.N. membership.
Mar. 23 Sixty persons are killed in Iraq. The high security green zone where the U.S. embassy is
located comes under rocket attack.
Mar. 24 Yousuf Raza Gillani is elected Pakistan Prime Minister and orders release of the ousted
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary and other judges detained since November 3, 2007.
Druk Phuensum Tshogpa or the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party of former Prime
Minister Jigmi Thinley wins Bhutan’s first ever parliamentary polls by a landslide.
Mar. 25 Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani is sworn in Pakistan Prime Minister by the President retired
General Pervez Musharraf.
Mar. 26 Tata Motors acquires Britain’s most famous names in automobile manufacturing,
Jaguar and Land Rover, in a $2.3 billion deal with Ford, their American owners.
Mar. 27 French serial killer Michel Fourniret (65) dubbed the “Ogre of the Ardennes” goes on
trial for the murder of seven young women and girls, between 1987 and 2001, in
Charleville- Mezieres near the Belgian border.
American John Griggs Thompson and Belgian-born Jacques Tits win the $1.2 million
Abel prize for mathematics for group theory in algebra.
Mar. 29 Zimbabweans cast ballots in presidential, parliamentary and local government elections.
At least 230 people are killed in five days of clashes between Shia gunmen and troops
in Iraq. Seventyfive persons are killed and 498 wounded in Sadr city alone.
Singer Miley Cyrus of Hannah Montana fame and the Jonas Brothers — Joe, Kevin and
Nick top draws at the Kids Choice Awards in Los Angeles.
Mar. 31 A 24-member Pakistan Cabinet is sworn in by President Pervez Musharraf. Shah
Mahmood Qureshi is Foreign Affairs Minister. Sherry Rehman gets Information
Ministry and Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar Defence portfolio.
Negotiators from 164 countries begin work on drawing a battle plan against global
warming in Thailand capital Bangkok.
Events in April 2008
Apr. 1 India’s Kamalesh Sharma takes over as the Commonwealth Secretary General.
Turkey’s Supreme Court decides to hear a case calling for the closure of the ruling
Justice and Development Party and banning the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
President Abdullah Gul from politics for five years.
Finland’s Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva is sacked for sending suggestive text
messages to an erotic dancer Johanna Tukiainen.
Apr. 2 President Robert Mugabe’s party loses control of Zimbabwe’s Parliament.
Apr. 3 Russia scuttles bid to induct Ukraine and Georgia into the NATO at a summit in the
Romanian capital Bucharest.
Ledra Street, the barricaded boulevard in the heart of Nicosia, the last divided capital in
Europe is thrown open for traffic.
Apr. 5 The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa president Jigmi Y. Thinley is endorsed Bhutan’s Prime
Minister-elect by the party executive meeting in Thimphu.
Apr. 6 Jeyaraj Fernandopulle Sri Lanka’s Highways Minister and 13 others are killed while
attending a marathon race in Weliveriya town near Colombo.
Montenegrins cast votes in president polls.
Apr. 8 Sri Lanka’s ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana splits.
Britain’s High Court rules that the government cannot alter the terms of the High
Skilled Migrants Programme.
India and Venezuela sign a historic agreement to invest $400 million to develop the San
Cristobal oil field.
Apr. 9 The Navy becomes the first Indian team to ski to the North Pole Jigme Y. Thinley
assumes office as Bhutan’s first elected Prime Minister.
Apr. 10 Nepali voters cast ballots in a historic Constituent Assembly election.
Sabeel Ahmed, brother of Kafeel Ahmed who died in the botched terror attack on the
Glasgow airport in 2007, gets 18-month jail sentence for withholding information on
the plot from British police.
Apr. 11 China’s first domestically-made bullet train rolls off the production line.
Apr. 12 Two Border Roads Organisation personnel are killed in a suicide attack in
Afghanistan’s Nimroz province.
Apr. 13 Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki names Opposition leader Raila Odinga Prime Minister.
Uhuru Kenyatta and Musalia Mudavadi to be Deputy Prime Ministers.
Italians cast ballots in general elections.
Seventynine LTTE cadres and 13 soldiers are killed in fire fighting in Sri Lanka’s
north.
Apr. 14 Eighteen schoolgirls are burnt to death after fire engulfs a dormitory at Budo Junior
School near the Ugandam capital Kampala.
Apr. 15 Over 80 persons are killed after a plane crashes shortly after take-off at Goma in
Congo.
More than 50 persons are killed in car bomb attacks in Iraq
Italians vote to power Silvio Berlusconi and his People of Freedom party wins majority
in both the Lower House and the Senate.
Apr. 17 Fortynine mourners are killed and 55 injured as a suicide bomber strikes at a funeral in
a Sunni Arab village northern Iraq.
Mexico and India sign agreements on cooperation in renewable energy and on Air
Services after talks between President’s Pelipe Calderon and Pratibha Patil.
Apr. 20 India and Saudi Arabia reach agreement on establishing a Saudi –India investment
fund. Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement is ratified.
Apr. 21 India and Chile sign four agreements covering air services, S and T, Antarctica
expeditions and sports cooperation.
Apr. 23 Intense fighting leaves 90 people – 52 LTTE cadres and 38 army men dead in Sri
Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula.
Apr. 24 A draft framework agreement on starting work on the $7.6 billion Turkmenistan,
Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline, project in 2010 is signed in
Islamabad.
Relatives meet death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh lodged in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore,
Pakistan.
Apr. 25 Iranians cast votes in run-off parliamentary polls.
Apr. 26 The Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan is sacked. Abdul Moiz Bothari
is named acting Foreign Secretary.
Apr. 27 Afghan President Hamid Karzai escapes bid on life by Taliban fighters during a
military parade in Kabul.
LTTE aircraft drops three bombs on Sri Lankan Army positions in the north.
Apr. 28 Seventy persons are killed and 416 injured as a high-speed passenger train jumps track
and smashes into another train in China’s Shandong province.
Apr. 29 The U.N. decides to set up a task force to tackle the global food crisis to be headed by
the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Apr. 30 The British House of Lords rejects government move to push through new rules against
non-EU doctors.
Events in May 2008
May 1 The world’s longest sea bridge is inaugurated in the Yangtze River delta in China. The
36 km long Hangzhou Bay Bridge in Ningbo, Zhejiang province links Shanghai with
Ningbo.
May 2 Pakistan puts off indefinitely execution of Sarabjit Singh a death row prisoner.
The Labour Party in Britain suffers its worst defeat in local body elections in 40 years.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai fails to win outright majority,to
boycott the run-off polls.
May 3 The Sri Lanka Cabinet gives its nod for a proposal to set up a Special Task Force to
oversee development initiatives in the Northern Province districts.
Londoners elect Tory candidate Boris Johnson Mayor, ending Ken Livingstone’s
eight-year reign.
Cyclone Nargis leaves 78,000 people dead in Myanmar. Bogalay, a town in the
Irrawaddy delta bears the brunt. Over 56,000 persons are missing.
May 6 Russia, the U.S. sign a civilian nuclear power pact that will give the latter access to
Russian technology.
Britain announces second phase of immigration rules aimed at curbing entry of non-
E.D. foreign workers, especially skilled workers.
Irish Premier Bertie Ahern quits after being at the helm for 11 years.
May 7 Dmitry Medvedev is sworn in Russian President and nominates his predecessor
Vladimir Putin Prime Minister.
May 8 Russian Parliament confirms Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister.
May 9 Lebanese militant group Hezbollah takes over most of west Beirut and forces a
shutdown of pro-government media outlets.
May 10 The first-ever elections to Sri Lanka’s Eastern Provincial Council is held peacefully.
Myanmar holds a rare referendum to secure mandate for a new military-scripted draft
statute.
May 11 The ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance wins elections to the Eastern Provincial
Council, Sri Lanka.
Serbs cast ballots in parliamentary polls.
May 12 At least 8,700 people are killed, including 900 school students after a major
earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale rips through southwest China’s Sichuan
province.
The Pakistan Muslim League led by Nawaz Sharif pulls out of the Federal Cabinet
following differences with the Pakistan People’s Party over the reinstatement of
judges sacked last year.
The Commonwealth readmits Pakistan revoking a six-month long suspension.
May 13 China quake toll crosses 12,000. Aftershocks continue to jolt Sichuan throughout the
day. Three Gorges dam unaffected. Wenchuan county, the epicentre, reports 57
deaths.
May 14 A pregnant woman and a girl are pulled out alive from under the debris in China’s
Dujiangyan and Beichuan regions. The toll touches 19,500.
The 14-day Cannes Film Festival opens.
May 15 One hundred people are killed in a pipeline explosion in Lagos, Nigeria.
May 16 The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, pledges to extend the Indian rail network to
Bhutan during talks with his counterpart Jigmi Y. Thinley in Thimphu.
Russia, India, China and Brazil institutionalise their four-way group BRIC after
Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan is sworn in Chief Minister of Sri
Lanka’s Eastern Provincial Council.
May 17 The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, addresses the first-ever joint sitting of the
Bhutan Parliament in Thimphu. Announces decision to begin work on the ‘Golden
Jubilee Rail Line’, the first-ever rain link into the Himalayan kingdom from
Hashimara, northern Bengal.
Kuwaitis cast votes in landmark parliamentary elections.
Taliban frees Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kabul Tariq Azizuddin after three months
after being kidnapped in the Khyber tribal area on February 11.
Soldiers find a man Wu Jianping, alive under a collapsed building 127 hours after the
devastating earthquake in southwest China.
May 18 militants in Afghaniztan free an Indian Muhammad Naeem (40) after being kidnapped
on April 21.
Islamists win Kuwaiti parliamentary polls.
May 19 The China earthquake toll touches 34,073. Companies suffer $9.5 billion in damage.
A three-day national mourning for the first time in the country’s history begins.
Mahathir Mohammad quits Malaysia’s ruling party to press for leadership change.
May 20 Scientists announce “resurrection” of a gene from the extinct Tasmanian tiger by
implanting it in a mouse
May 21 Pakistan reactor for a “grand reconciliation” with India through dialogue, says Foreign
Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi after talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab
Mukherjee.
Rival Lebanese leaders clinch a deal to end an 18-month political feud.
Balasegaram Kandish alias “Brigadier Balraj”, a key commander of the LTTE dies of
a heart attack in Vanni.
The Awami National Party-led government in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier
Province signs a 15-point peace accord with Taliban militants in the Swat Valley.
May 24 Two Sydney women Cheryl Bart and her daughter Nikki create history as the first
mother-daughter team to climb Mt. Everest.
May 25 Lebanon’s Parliament elects Army Chief General Michel Sleiman president.
An aftershock measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale jolts Qingchuan county in southwest
China’s Sichuan province leaving six dead and 400 injured. The toll in the May 12
quake stands at 62,664.
Min Bahadur Sherchan (75) becomes the oldest person to reach the summit of Mt.
Everest.
French Classroom drama “Entre les Murs” (The Class) directed by Lawrent Cantet
bags the Palm d’or for best picture at the Cannes film festival. Benicio Del Toro and
Sandra Corveloni get Best Actor and Best Actress awards.
May 26 NASA’s Phoenix probe sends back never-seen pictures of Mars’ North Pole after a
near perfect landing, topping a 10 month journey.
At least seven persons are killed and 62 injured after a bomb explosion in a train on
the outskirts of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.
The former president of the erstwhile Soviet Union, Michael Gorbachev is conferred
the lift time achievement award at the Energy Global Awards in Brussels.
May 27 Members of Nepal’s newly elected 601-member Constituent Assembly take oath.
Myanmar’s military junta extends the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi who has been in detention continuously since May 2003.
Nepal is declared a Federal Democratic Republic by the Constituent Assembly ending
the 240-year-rule of the Shah Dynasty.
May 28 Diplomats from 100 countries reach an agreement on a treaty on banning cluster
bombs.
Events in June 2008
Jun. 1 Phoenix Mars Lander starts digging for life.
Jun. 2 Six persons are killed and 30 injured in a car bomb blast outside the Danish embassy
in Islamabad.
The U.S. shuttle Discovery docks with the International Space Station delivering a
bus-sized Japanese laboratory.
Jun. 3 the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon maps out a twin tack strategy to tackle
soaring food prices at a summit hosted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization in Rome
Jun. 4 Barack Obama wins presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in the battle for
the White House against Republican John McCain.
Jun. 5 The 18th Global Summit of Women informally called the “Davos for Women” opens
in the Vietnam capital Hanoi.
Turkish constitutional court overturns a law allowing women to wear headscarves at
university.
The U.S. Chief of Naval Staff Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael
Wynne are sacked over problems with handling nuclear weapons.
Jun. 6 The External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee confers the Padma Bhushan award
on Chinese Indologist Ji Xianlin (97) in Beijing.
Luisa Dias Diago, first woman Prime Minster of Mozambique receives the Global
Women’s Leadership Award in Hanoi.
Jun. 8 Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone bag the best male and female debut of the year
award for roles in “Saawariya” and “Om Shanti Om” at IIFA awards in Bangkok.
Shahbaz Sharif takes over as Chief Minister of Punjab province in Pakistan.
Seven people are killed in a stabbing spree in Japan’s Akihabara district by a youth
Tomohiro Kato.
Jun. 10 Nepal’s former king Gyanendra leaves the Narayanhiti palace.
The former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is freed after 11 months in
jail.
Jun. 11 The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, formally apologises to the natives for
abuse of children in government-run residential schools.
Jun. 12 A “long march” from Lahore to Islamabad seeking reinstatement of sacked judges is
launched.
Jun. 13 Ireland rejects Lisbon reforms treaty in a tense referendum plunging the European
Union into a crisis.
The Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Straits
Exchange Foundation sign two agreements on weekend chartered flights and Chinese
tourists’ travel to Taiwan.
One Thousand and one hundred inmates escape after Taliban rebels raid a jail in
Kandahar.
Jun. 14 Zac Sunderland (16), a U.S. sailor sets sail for a solo circum navigation form Marina
del Rey in California.
Elian Gonzalez, who was at the centre of an international custody battle eight years
ago, joins Cuba’s Young Communist Union.
Jun. 15 The Kathmandu palace of Nepal’s deposed king is opened to the public as a national
museum.
Jun. 16 California begins issuing same-sex marriage licences as a historic court ruling
legalising gay and lesbian weddings takes effect.
Six hundred Taliban militants take over villages in Arghandab district on the outskirts
of Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Jun. 18 Afghan troops and NATO forces launch a huge offensive against Taliban militants in
Arghandab district.
Jun. 20 Jason 2, a French-U.S. satellite designed to provide precise monitoring of rising sea
level is launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
Jun. 21 The Pakistan government decides to commute the sentences of all prisoners on death
row to life term.
Hundreds of people are feared killed after a ferry mv Princess of the Stars sinks in
rough seas during Typhoon Fengshen off Sibuyan island in central Philippines.
Jun. 22 Zimbabwe Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai quits the June 27 Presidential run-
off.
Jun. 23 European Union states slap new sanctions against Iran, including an asset freeze on
Bank Melli its biggest bank over its refusal to curb nuclear programme.
The Lahore High Court bars the Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif
from contesting the June 28 by election to the National Assembly.
Jun. 25 India-born British author Salman Rushdie is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his
“services to literature”.
Jun. 26 The U.S. Supreme Court says Americans have the right to own guns for self-defence
and hunting. The ruling strikes down Washington’s 32-year-old ban on handguns.
Girija Prasad Koirala resigns as Nepal Prime Minister.
North Korea hands over detailed “Nuclear list.” U.S. says it will lift key trade
sanctions and remove it from the terrorism black list.
Jun. 27 North Korea demolishes cooling lower at the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
Jun. 28 Bill Gates leaves the job of running Microsoft.
An Indonesian-born Indian Varsha Sabhanani is sentenced to 11 years in jail in the
U.S. for enslaving her two Indonesian housekeepers.
Jun. 29 Robert Mugabe is sworn in Zimbabwe President for a sixth term.
Israel approves prisoner exchange with Hizbollah.
Thomas Beatie (34), a U.S. man who was born a woman before undergoing gender
realignment surgery gives birth to a baby girl at a hospital in Bend, Oregon.
Events in July 2008
Jul. 2 Usha Chammar of Gujarat is crowned ‘Princess of Sanitation Workers’ at the U.N.
Jul. 3 The former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others being
held hostage since 2003 by FARC rebels are airlifted to freedom by the army in a
daredevil operation.
Jul. 4 China and Taiwan begin direct flights.
Jul. 5 Record-setting Japanese sailor Kenichi Horie completes a 110-day voyage from
Hawaii without a port call in Nishinomiya, Japan.
Jul. 6 Twenty persons, including 15 policemen are killed and many injured as a suicide
bomber blows himself up some distance away from the Lal Masjid in Pakistan capital
Islamabad.
The U.N. Development Programme is killed in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
Twentytwo people are killed after air strikes hit a wedding party in Afghanistan. More
than a dozen civilians die in strikes in Nuristan province a day earlier.
Jul. 7 Fortyone persons including senior Indian diplomat V. Venkateswara Rao and
Brigadier Ravi Datt Mehta are killed after a suicide bomber rams his car into the gates
of the Indian Embassy in Kabul.
One person is killed and 40 injured in a series of seven bomb blasts in the Pakistani
port city of Karachi.
Jul. 8 The G8 summit in Toyako, Japan affirms to stick to the goal of cutting global
greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2050.
Jul. 10 Salman Rushdie wins the Best of Booker prize for his pathbreaking novel Midnight’s
Children after a global vote by readers.
Inderjit Singh Reyat convicted in the 1988 Kanishkha bombing is granted bail by a
Canadian judge after serving nearly 20 years in prison.
Jul. 11 Lebanese President Michel Sleiman names Fouad Siniora as the head of a new unity
government.
Russia and China veto sanctions on Zimbabwe’s leaders.
An Indian-American couple found guilty of enslaving two workers are ordered to pay
$1 million in back wages by a U.S. court.
Jul. 13 A summit of leaders of 43 countries belonging to the European Union and the
Mediterranean region opens in Paris, France.
Twenty four people are killed in a suicide attack on a bazaar in southern Afghanistan.
Jul. 14 The International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor calls for the arrest of Sudanese
President Omar Al-Bashir for genocide and war crimes in Darfur.
Miss Venezuela Dayana Mendoza (22) is crowned Miss Universe 2008 in a contest in
the Vietnamese city of Nha Trang.
Jul. 15 Asian and European stock markets plummet following erosion of investor confidence
in the U.S. financial system.
Video grabs of the questioning of a Guantanamo detenus in February 2003 are
released for the first time.
Jul. 16 Israel, Hizbollah exchange prisoners. Among the freed is Samit Qantar who has spent
30 years in an Israeli prison.
Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s de facto opposition leader is arrested in Kuala Lumpur on
charge of sexually assaulting his male aide.
Jul. 17 Malaysian leader Anwar Ibrahim is freed on bail.
Human trial for vaccine against HIV is cancelled.
Jul. 18 Cuba begins land reforms.
Jul. 19 Nepal’s first presidential polls fail to produce clear winner paving the way for run-off.
Paramanda Jha of the Madhesi Janadikhar Forum wins the vice-presidential election.
Pope Benedict XVI offers a historic full apology for child sex abuse by Australian
priests, in a candle light vigil in Sydney.
Jul. 21 Russia and China end decades-old boundary dispute and give up some of their
territorial claims.
Nepali Congress leader Ram Baran Yadav is elected Nepal’s first President.
Bosnian Serb war-time President Radovan Karadzic wanted for genocide during the
1992-95 Bosnian war is held near Belgrade after 13 years on the run.
Jul. 22 In the biggest such occurrence in three years, a chunk of Arctic ice cracks after
separating from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic
archipelago.
Jul. 23 Ram Baran Yadav is sworn in Nepal President. Paramananda Jha takes oath as Vice-
President.
Jul. 24 Indian-origin ICC judge Navanetham Pillay is appointed the United Nations’ new
Human Rights Commissioner.
Jul. 25 A Boeing 747-400 flying to Melbourne makes an emergency landing in Manila after a
mid-air rupture leaves a gaping hole in its fuselage.
A German medical team performs the world’s first transplant of two full arms on a
farmer who lost both his limbs in an accident six years ago.
Jul. 27 Election to the National Assembly in Vietnam passes off peacefully.
Seventeen people are killed and more than 150 injured after two bombs rip through a
crowded street in Istanbul, Turkey.
Jul. 28 At least 57 people are killed and 300 injured after suicide bombers target a Shia
pilgrimage in Baghdad and a Kurdish rally in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
One of Al-Qaeda’s top bombmakers, Abu Khabab al-Masri, is killed in an air strike
on a house in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
Jul. 29 The nine-day WTO talks in Geneva to salvage the Doha trade round collapses
following a deadlock between the U.S. and India over proposals to protect poor
farmers.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is extradited from Serbia to stand trial for war
crimes at The Hague.
A group of Russian scientists reaches the bottom of Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest
fresh water lake in Russia’s far east, for the first time ever.
Jul. 30 The Phoenix spacecraft confirms presence of ice lurking below the Martian
permafrost.
Jul. 31 Doctor couple Prakash Amte and Mandakini Amte of India, Grace Padaca, a woman
Philippines provincial Governor among the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay awardees.
The British House of Lords upholds the government’s decision to drop probe into
charges against BAE Systems that it paid commission to win a defence deal with
Saudi Arabia.
Events in August 2008
Aug. 1 The International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting in Vienna
approves the safeguards agreement with India.
Nine mountaineers are killed in an avalanche near the submit of the Himalayan peak
K2.
Georgia attacks its breakaway territory of South Ossetia.
Aug. 2 Terrorism “single biggest threat” to stability and progress, says the Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh at the inaugural of the 15th SAARC Summit in Colombo. Nod for
SAARC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.
Aug. 3 The SAARC Summit adopts the Colombo Declaration titled “Partnership for growth
of our people.” Leaders resolve to jointly fight terror and trans-national organised
crime.
Aug. 4 An attack on a border patrol in China’s Xinjiang region leaves 16 policemen dead just
four days ahead of the Olympics.
Aug. 7 Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom signs and adopts a Constitution that
allows multi-party elections.
Aug. 8 The 29th Olympic Games gets off a colourful start in the Chinese capital Beijing.
Georgia launches a full-scale military assault against South Ossetia and reduces to
ruins the capital Tskhinvali.
Serial bombings rock Xinjiang region in China. Seven bombers are killed.
Aug. 9 Russia foils Georiga plan for an offensive against South Ossetia. Two thousand
persons were killed in attacks. Moscow takes control of regional capital Tskhinvali.
Aug. 10 Georgia pulls out forces from South Ossetia under heavy Russian fire.
Aug. 11 Abhinav Bindra wins the Olympic gold medal for the 10-metre air rifle event bagging
for independent India its first individual Olympic gold.
Russia sends more troops to Abkhazia another breakaway region of Georgia.
Aug. 12 Russia agrees to a peace pact brokered by France to end the Caucasus crisis and halts
military operations. Georgia pulls out of Commonwealth of Independent States.
Aug. 13 Ceasefire in Georgia.
Fourteens persons are killed as a bomb blast risk through a shopping street in the
Lebanese capital Tripoli.
Aug. 15 Pushpa Kamal Dahal popularly known as Prachanda, chairman of the Communist
Party of Nepal (Maoist), is elected the first Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic
Republic of Nepal by a four-fifths majority.
Aug. 16 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signs a peace plan to end war with Georgia.
U.S. ace swimmer Michael Phelps ties Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven gold
medals in a single Olympics.
Aug. 17 Michael Phelps wins an unprecedented eighth gold medal at the Beijing Olympic
Games.
Aug. 18 Pervez Musharraf resigns as Pakistan President after an eight-year rule.
Prachanda is sworn in first Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of
Nepal.
Russia begins troops pullout from Georgia.
Aug. 19 At least 39 persons are killed in a suicide bombing in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier
Province town of Deras Ismail Khan.
A car bomb attack on a police school in Algeria leaves 43 deads.
Aug. 20 At least 153 people are killed after fire engulfs a Spanair flight during take off in
Madrid airport.
The U.S. signs a deal with Warsaw to deploy 10 anti-missiles in Poland.
Aug. 21 At least 65 people are killed in twin suicide bombings at the gates of Pakistan
Ordnance Factory in Wah cantonment near Taxila.
Aug. 24 The Beijing Olympic Games conclude after 16 glorious days.
Sixtyfive people are killed after a plane crashes soon after take-off from the Kyrgyz
capital Bishkek.
Aug. 25 The Pakistan Muslim League (N) pulls out of the Pakistan People’s Party led
coalition government.
Lovemore Moyo of the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change takes oath as
Zimbabwe Speaker.
Aug. 26 Russia recognises Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as
independent states.
Malaysia’s Opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim wins a big victory in a by-election.
Aug. 27 The Pakistan government restores eight of the 60 judges sacked by the former
President Pervez Musharraf in November 2007.
Aug. 28 India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations clinch a trade pact that will
create a new free trade area of 1.7 billion people and cover 11 countries, in Singapore.
Aug. 29 Australian police drops its probe against Indian doctor Mohammad Haneef wrongly
accused of involvement in the failed U.K. car bombings.
Aug. 31 Eight persons are presented the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay awards at a function in the
Philippines capital Manila.
Events in September 2008
Sep. 1 Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda resigns after being at the helm for about a year.
More than 100 people are killed in two days of clashes between Shia and Sunni tribes
in the Kurram tribal agency on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Nearly 2 million people flee the Gulf of Mexico coast as Hurricane Gustav lashes
Louisiana.
Sep. 2 Thailand’s Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej proclaims a state of Emergency in
Bangkok to quell a week-long street rebellion against his rule.
Sep. 5 Angolans cast votes in general elections.
Sep. 6 The Nuclear Suppliers Group lifts its 16-year-old embargo on nuclear commerce with
India after three days of roller-coaster negotiations in the Austrian capital Vienna.
Asif Ali Zardari is elected Pakistan President.
Sep. 7 The Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces plan to hold snap
parliamentary elections.
Sep. 8 Hurricane Ike pounds Cuba as 90,000 flee to shelters.
Sep. 9 Asif Ali Zardari is sworn in Pakistan President.
The Constitutional Court in Bangkok disqualifies Thailand’s Prime Minister Samak
Sundaravej.
Russia establishes diplomatic ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The LTTE launches an air raid on the Sri Lankan Air Force station in Vavuniya.
Sep. 10 The biggest physics experiment in history, Large Hadron Collider tests begin under
the aegis of the European Organization for Nuclear Research on the French-Swiss
border.
Fuel assurances contained in 123 Agreement with India not binding, declares the U.S.
President George W. Bush in a message to the Congress.
Sep. 11 The former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is released from jail after being
held a year earlier on graft charges.
Sep. 12 Seventeen persons are killed and 135 people injured as a commuter train smashes into
a freight train in Los Angeles.
Sep. 13 Russia withdraws all its forces from western Georgia.
Hurricane Ike lashes Texas bringing a monster ocean surge, knocking out power and
flooding coastal areas.
Sep. 14 At least 88 persons are killed after a Russian plane crashes on the outskirts of Perm in
Ural mountains while preparing to land.
Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat lifts Bangkok emergency.
Sep. 15 Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
sign a power-sharing deal in Harare.
Major U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings files for bankruptcy
protection, while the world’s largest retail brokerage Merrill Lynch agrees to be taken
over by Bank of America.
Sep. 16 Asian stock markets suffer heavy losses after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Sep. 17 The U.S. Federal Reserve bails out insurance firm American International Group
offering a $85-billion package, staving off a financial meltdown.
Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat is elected to the top post by
the House of Representatives in Bangkok.
At least 16 persons are killed following a car bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in the
Yemeni capital Sana’a.
Australia issues licence allowing scientists to create cloned human embryos.
Sep. 18 Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni wins leadership primary of the ruling Kadima
party.
The Large Hadron Collider is shut down by the CERN for two months due to a
mechanical failure.
Sep. 19 U.S. stock markets stage a huge rally. Short selling or betting against financial stocks
is banned temporarily.
Sep. 20 At least 60 persons, including the Czech envoy Ivo Zdarek are killed and 266 injured
following a massive blast outside the Marriott hotel in Islamabad triggered by an
explosives-laden truck.
Sep. 21 At least 43 persons are killed and 88 injured in a night club fire in south China’s
Shenzhen city.
South African President Thabo Mbeki resigns.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert quits office.
Global financial services provider Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs get U.S.
Federal Reserve Board nod to turn bank holding companies.
Sep. 23 “Like slavery and piracy, terrorism has no place in the modern world,” says the U.S.
President George W.Bush in his farewell speech to the U.N. General Assembly.
Matti Juhani Saari opens fire killing nine persons at the Kanhajoki School of
Hospitality in western Finland before turning the weapon on himself.
Win Tin (78) Myanmar’s longest-serving political prisoner is freed from Insein Prison
after 19 years behind bars.
Sep. 24 Taro Aso takes charge as Japan’s Prime Minister. Hirofumi Nakasone is named
Foreign Minister and Yasukazu Hamada becomes Defence Minister.
China and Venezuela sign an oil cooperation deal and several economic pacts.
Sep. 25 India and Pakistan agree to begin cross-LoC trade from October 21, 2008 following
talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari in
New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Wagah-Atari Border,
Munabao-Khokrapar rail link to be thrown open for trade.
China launches Shenzhou-7 its third manned spacecraft with three taikonauts on
board from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu province.
Sep. 24 Washington Mutual Inc., one of the largest U.S. banks collapses.
Sep. 26 The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lauds the U.S. President George W.Bush’s
personal role in the “massive transformation” of the India-U.S. ties centred on the
nuclear agreement.
Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy makes history by flying across the English Channel
from France using a jet-powered wing.
Sep. 27 Taikonaut Zhai Zhigang starts China’s first spacewalk.
Seventeen persons are killed in a massive bomb blast in Syrian capital Damascus.
The U.S. House of Representatives passes the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal.
Sep. 28 The Shenzhou-7 space shuttle with three taikonauts aboard lands safely at Siziwang
Banner in Inner Mongolia in China after a 68-hour flight including a 25-minute
spacewalk.
Austria’s far-Right notches up big gains in snap parliamentary polls for electing a
House for a five-year term for the first time.
Malalai Kakar, head of Kandahar’s department of crimes against women, is shot dead
by Taliban gunmen in front of her house.
The U.S. seals an unprecedented $ 700 billion Wall Street bailout package.
Sep. 29 The U.S. House of Representatives defeats a $ 700 billion emergency bailout package
to bolster the financial industry. The Asian and European bourses tumble.
The ninth India-Euruopean Union summit in Marseille, France welcomes India’s
emergence out of the nuclear denial regime.
At least 25 persons are killed as the LTTE bombs a military base in Vavuniya in
coordination with a ground attack by “Black Tiger” suicide fighters.
Sep. 30 India and France sign a framework agreement for civil nuclear cooperation, after talks
between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris.
Gurkhas win right to settle in Britain after a landmark judgment by the High Court.
Events in October 2008
Oct. 1 Sarvodaya couple Krishnammal Jagannathan and Sankaralingam Jagannathan share
the Right Livelihood Award or “alternative Nobel.” An American Journalist, a Swiss-
born doctor and an activist from Somalia are the other winners.
Russia’s Supreme Court rehabilitates the last Romanov monarch Czar Nicholas II and
his family killed by a revolutionary firing squad in 1918.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration celebrates 50 years of operation.
The U.S. Senate approves a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.
Oct. 2 The U.S. Senate gives nod for the U.S.- India Agreement for Cooperation Concerning
Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy.
The Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan escapes bid on life by a
suicide bomber in the North West Frontier Province, Pakistan.
Oct. 5 Russia begins pullback from Georgia.
Oct. 6 World stock markets plunge touching four-year lows in London and New York. Dow
Jones goes below the 10000-mark intraday since October 2004.
Germany’s Harald Zur Hausen and French researchers Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and
Luc Montagnier share the 2008 Nobel Prize for medicine.
Major General (Retd.) Janaka Perera is among 28 persons killed in a suicide bomb
attack in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.
Oct. 7 Two Japanese scientists, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa and a Tokyo-
born American citizen Yoichiro Nambu share the 2008 Nobel Physics Prize for
discoveries in sub-atomic particles.
Thailand Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat flees from Parliament and his Deputy
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh resigns following growing anti-government protests.
Oct. 8 The U.S. President George W. Bush signs the United States-India Nuclear
Cooperation Approval and Non-proliferation Enhancement Act in Washington.
Osamu Shimomura of Japan and Americans Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien win the
Nobel Chemistry Prize for a fluorescent protein derived from a jellyfish.
Maldivians cast votes in presidential polls.
The Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dissolves Parliament and calls for a snap
poll on December 7.
Russia finishes troops pullout from Georgia.
Oct. 9 French writer Marie Gustave Le Clezio is awarded the Nobel Literature Prize.
The trial in the attack on the Glasgow airport on June 30, 2007 begins.
Wall Street registers record losses.
Oct. 10 Finland’s former President Martti Ahtisaari is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for a
long career of peacemaking around the world from Namibia to Kosovo.
Fifty persons are killed and 100 others injured after a suicide bomber strikes at a
meeting of tribal elders in Pakistan’s Awrakzai region.
Japan’s Yamato Life Insurance Co. files for bankruptcy.
India signs a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement with the U.S.
Oct. 11 Austrian extreme right leader Joerg Haider dies in a car crash near his home town of
Klagenfurt in Austria’s Carinthia province.
The U.S. takes off North Korea of “terror list.”
Oct. 12 India’s Sister Alphonsa is declared a saint by Pope Benedict XVI at a ceremony in
Vatican City and named St. Alphonsa of Immaculate Conception.
Oct. 13 U.S. Economist Paul Krugman is awarded the Nobel Economics Prize for his trade
analysis theory.
Global stock markets soar as governments step in pumping more money into banks
crippled by the credit crunch.
Oct. 14 Arvind Adiga, the Chennai-born author wins the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for his
debut novel The White Tiger.
Oct. 15 Stephen Harper is re-elected Canadian Prime Minister.
Malaysia bans the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) accusing it of threatening
national security.
Oct. 22 India and Japan sign a declaration on security cooperation after talks between Prime
Ministers Manmohan Singh and Taro Aso in Tokyo.
British billionaire Sir Richard Branson sets out from New York on Yacht Virgin
Money on a quest to break the world record for crossing the Atlantic set in March
2003.
Oct. 23 A British team launches an attempt to set a new land speed record with the
Bloodhound Supersonic car that could reach 1,600 kmph.
Oct. 24 Reforms agenda must take on board the “economically damaging role of excessive
speculative activity,” says the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the seventh Asia-
Europe meeting in Beijing.
British tycoon Richard Branson abandons bid to break the Trans Atlantic sailing
record.
Oct. 26 Eight persons are killed as U.S. troops launch a helicopter raid on a Syrian village on
the Iraqi border.
Oct. 28 The LTTE drops two improvised bombs on the Kelanitissa power station on the
outskirts of Colombo, after dropping three bombs on a military camp in Mannar
district.
Maldivians cast ballots in run-off presidential polls.
Oct. 29 Mohamed “Anni” Nasheed wins the Maldivian presidential run-off unseating the
incumbent Maumoon Abdul Gayoom at the helm for the past 30 years.
At least 215 people are killed 375 injured and 15,000 rendered homeless after a strong
earthquake strikes a remote valley in Balochistan, Pakistan.
The hilltop resort of Ziarat and eight surrounding villages bear the brunt.
Oct. 30 The Sri Lankan Army wrests control of Nachchikuda ‘a major strongpoint’ of the
LTTE.
Events in November 2008
Nov. 2 Rupiah Banda is sworn in Zambian President.
Russia, Libya sign a civilian nuclear deal.
Nov. 4 Democrat Senator from Illinois Barack Obama an African-American wins the U.S.
presidential polls defeating Republican John McCain.
Iranian Parliament impeaches Interior Minister Ali Kordan for being in possession of
a fake Oxford University honorary degree.
Nov. 6 Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk is crowned Bhutan’s Fifth Druk Gyalpo, or
Dragon King by his father Jigme Singye Wangchuk at a coronation ceremony in
Thimphu.
Nov. 7 Fifty school children and teachers are killed after a school in Petionville on the
outskirts of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince caves in.Oman and India agree to set up
a joint investment fund whose seed money could go up to $1.5 billion. Two MoUs
inked to ensure welfare of Indian workforce and priority for Indians in recruitment.
The U.K. revokes the visa of Thailand’s ousted Prime Minister, Thakshin Shinatwara,
making him unable to return to London where he has been living in exile.
Nov. 8 New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark loses power to John Key a multi-
millionaire former banker in general elections.
Twenty people are killed of gas poisoning in an accident aboard a new Russian
nuclear submarine, to be leased to India, during underwater sea trial in the Sea of
Japan.
Nov. 9 All the three perpetrators of the October 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia that left
202 killed, on death row are executed by a firing squad at a prison complex in central
Java.
China unveils a $570-billion stimulus package to offset adverse global economic
conditions by boosting domestic demand.
Nov. 10 India signs a “landmark” defence agreement with Qatar, besides pact on security and
law enforcement.
At least 31 persons are killed and 71 wounded in twin bomb blasts in the Iraqi capital
Baghdad.
Nov. 11 Mohammed Nasheed is sworn in Maldives President and Mohammed Waheed Hassan
takes oath as Vice-President.
Nov. 13 Global stock markets fall after Germany announces recession.
The U.N. to send 3,000 more troops to Congo to bolster the world’s largest
peacekeeping mission.
Ilustrado, a novel by Filipino author Miguel Syjuco wins the $10,000 Man Asian
Literary Prize.
Nov. 14 Ann E. Dunwoody becomes the first woman four-star general in the U.S. military.
Nov. 15 The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh moots a coordinated global fiscal stimulus to
mitigate the severity of recession addressing the G-20 Summit in Washington.
Declaration focuses on reforming international financial institutions.
The Sri Lankan military captures Pooneryn, the last strategic sea base of the LTTE.
Army opens up a land route to Jaffna after 20 years.
Nov. 16 Somali pirates hijack Sirius Star, a Saudi Arabian oil supertanker 830 km off the
Kenyan coast.
Nov. 17 Iraq and the U.S. sign troop pullout pact requiring Washington to withdraw its
soldiers by 2011.
Japan slides into recession in seven years.
Nov. 20 Deepening global recessionary trend pushes the world stocks to 5-1/2 year lows.
Nov. 22 I am for no-first-use of nuclear weapons, says the Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari
and assures Islamabad will not interfere in Jammu and Kashmir.
Nov. 23 The U.S. government to plough a fresh $20 billion to rescue banking giant Citigroup.
To shoulder most of the potential losses on $306 billion of high risk assets.
Nov. 24 Hundreds of LTTE cadres are killed as the Sri Lankan military tries to gain control
over Kilinochchi.People’s Alliance for Democracy, an umbrella alliance of anti-
government groups in Thailand lays siege to Parliament. Take control of state-of-the-
art Suvarnabhumi airport.
Nov. 25 Maninderpal Singh Kohli is sentenced to lifer by a London court in the 2003 murder
of 17-year-old British schoolgirl Hannah Foster.
The British government rolls out its controversial biometric identity cards scheme for
non-European foreign nationals.
Nov. 27 Iraq’s Parliament gives nod for a landmark military pact that will see all U.S. troops
pull out by 2011-end.
Events in December 2008
Dec. 1 Hillary Clinton is named U.S. Secretary of State, Robert Gates to continue as Defence
Secretary. Susan Rice to be Ambassador to the U.N.
Dec. 2 An Iraqi Court condemns Saddam Hussein’s hatchetman ‘Chemical Ali’ to death for
war crimes.
Thailand’s constitutional court unseats Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat and
disbands his People’s Power Party for electoral fraud.
Israel bids emotional farewell to Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka killed in
the terror attack at Nariman House in Mumbai.
Dec. 3 Norway becomes the first signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions finalised
in Dublin in May.
Dec. 4 Wrangling over pollution trading rights holds up a major climate change accord even
as EU Environment Ministers begin a key meeting in Brussels.Armed robbers pull off
one of the world’s biggest jewellery heists at a Paris store and make off with
valuables worth $102 million.
Dec. 5 At least 22 persons are killed and 70 injured in a massive car bomb explosion in a
crowded market in Peshawar in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.
Dec. 6 The Malaysian State of Malacca presents ‘Datuk’ title to Bollywood actor Shah Rukh
Khan, making him the first foreign actor to get the honour.
A youth Alexis Grigoropoulos dies in Greek police firing after 30 youth attack a
police car.
Dec. 7 The London weekly, The Observer confirms that Mohammed Ajmal Amir, the lone
surviving Mumbai mayhem suspect hails from Faridkot village in Okara district of
Pakistan.
At least 160 vehicles meant for use by the NATO forces in Afghanistan are destroyed
by pro-Taliban militants in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Pakistan military mounts an “intelligence-led operation” against a banned militant
organisation in Pakistan – administered Kashmir and effects arrests of among others,
LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, suspected to be the mastermind behind the
Mumbai attacks.
Dec. 8 Hundred more NATO vehicles are set ablaze by militants at a container depot in
Peshawar.Krishnammal Jagannathan of Tamil Nadu receives the Right Livelihood
Award, known as alternative Nobel Prize in Stockholm.
Grand funeral for Russia’s Orthodox Patriot Alexy II.
Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune files for bankruptcy.
Dec. 9 The Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is arrested for bid to sell U.S. President-elect
Barack Obama’s recently open Senate seat.
Greek protesters clash with police guarding Parliament. Unrest spreads across more
than 10 cities.
Lord Swraj Paul becomes the first Asian Deputy Speaker of the British House of
Lords.
Dec. 10 The former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari is presented with the Nobel Peace
Prize at a function in the Norwegian capital Oslo.
A general strike cripples Greece. Thousands take out a march to Parliament.
The slain former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto is awarded the U.N.
Human Rights Award.
The U.S. automakers get a $14 billion government lifeline.
Two Indian Navy officers of a large crude carrier are jailed by a South Korean court
for an oil spill on the Yellow Sea coast on December 7, 2007.
Dec. 11 Pakistan begins a countrywide crackdown on Lashkar-e-Taiba front organisation
Jamat-ud-Dawah. and places its leader Hafiz Mohammed Saeed under house arrest in
Lahore for three months following U.N. sanctions.
At least 45 persons are killed and 93 injured in a suicide blast at a restaurant in
Kirkuk, Iraq.
U.S. President – elect Barack Obama chooses Chinese – American Steven Chu for
Energy Secretary post.
The U.S. Senate rejects the Federal government’s bailout package for troubled auto
majors General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
Bernard Madoff, former chairman, Nasdaq Stock Market is arrested for a $ 50 billion
fraud.Dec. 12. A British court absolves Scotland Yard officers who shot dead a
Brazilian youth Jean Charles de Menezes at a London underground station on July 22,
2005 mistaking him to be a terrorist of unlawful killing.
Dec. 12 Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso announces a new $255 billion stimulus package to
shore up his country’s economy.
Asian stocks tumble on hefty losses on the Wall Street.
The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Summit in Poznan, Poland
operationalises an Adaptation Fund.
Dec. 13 Ksenya Sukhinova is crowned Miss World 2008 at an extravaganza in the South
African capital Johannesburg.
Dec. 14 The first model of Japan’s bullet train has a farewell run 44 years after it transformed
overland travel.
Somalia’s Prime Minister Hassan Hussein Nur is sacked by the President Abdullahi
Yusuf Ahmed.
Dec. 15 China and Taiwan start direct air and sea transport and postal services, a historical
step in cross-strait relations.
Thailand’s House of Representatives elects Abhisit Vejjajiva Prime Minister.
Najam Sethi Editor-in-Chief of Friday Times and Daily Times in Pakistan is awarded
the 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual freedom prize of the World Association
of Newspapers.
Dec. 16 The Woolwich Crown Court finds a U.K. – based Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla guilty of
plotting to bomb the Glasgow airport on June 30, 2007.
Dec. 17 Bangladesh lifts emergency that was imposed in January 2007 ahead of parliamentary
polls slated for December 29.The Time magazine names U.S. President – elect
Barack Obama Person of The Year 2008.
Dec. 18 The U.N. – based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentences to life
Theoneste Bagosora for masterminding the 1994 genocide.
Rangzieb Ahmed, a British Pakistani, accused of being a high-profile Al-Qaeda
activist is found guilty of “directing terrorism”.
Dec. 19 NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul creates history by becoming the first Asian to
preside over the House Of Lords.
Hamas ends six-month-old ceasefire with Israel.
The U.S. gives $ 13.4 billion in emergency loans to prevent the collapse of General
Motors and Chrysler.
Japan unveils Auriga Leader, the world’s first large ship partially using solar power at
a shipyard in Kobe.
Dec. 22 A 36-member Thailand Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjejiva is sworn
in in Bangkok.
Dec. 23 Australia’s high-power probe clears Dr. Mohamed Haneef saying he “was wrongly
charged” in July 2007 on suspected links to a terrorist plot in Britain.
Dec. 24 Palestinian fighters in Gaza launch a barrage of rockets into Israel.
Dec. 27 Over 200 persons are killed in an Israeli air raid on Gaza.
Dec. 29 The Awami League-led Grand Alliance heading for a landslide in Bangladesh
elections.
Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed resigns.
Dec. 30 The Awami League gets a massive mandate bagging 230 seats in the 299-member
Parliament.
Israel begins naval attack even as the toll in the air raid touches 385.
An Air New Zealand jet part fuelled by vegetable oil completes a two-hour flight.

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International Events 2008

Events in January 2008

ethnic riots over poll results goes up to 316.

Germany and France ban smoking in public places.

Pakistan postpones elections to February 18.

The University of Cambridge announces the launch of the “Jawaharlal Nehru

Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise.”

Jan. 5 Scotland Yard begins probe into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

Georgians cast votes in a snap general election.

‘Col.’ Charles (Shanmuganathan Ravishankar), Chief of the Liberation Tigers Military

Intelligence” is killed in a “random claymore attack” by the Sri Lankan Army in

Jan. 6 Malaysia awards a $1.08-billion project to IRCON.

explosion on the Negombo-Colombo main road.

north of the Indian Ocean archipelago.

outskirts with 40,000 pounds of bombs.

hospital of heart attack.

S. Krishnasamy (61), a prominent Malaysian Indian politician is shot dead at Johor

summit after a gruelling 21-day journey.

University of Minnesota researchers report success in creating a beating rat heart in a

Vision for the 21st Century” after talks in Beijing.

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, suggests a three-pronged strategy to boost

economic ties at the largest ever India-China business congress in Beijing.

NASA’s Messenger Spacecraft makes historic Mercury flyby.

operations as the Ceasefire Agreement ends.

Jan. 18 Spain smashes an Islamist terror cell and arrests 14 persons.

cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

Carolina, the U.S.

Jan. 20 Cuba holds parliamentary polls.

presidential polls. The run-off is set for February 3.

America being the worst-affected.

Jan. 23 The World Economic Forum summit opens in Davos, Switzerland.

announced by a U.S. research team.

losing a confidence vote in the Senate.

elections for March 29.

national mourning is declared.

school bus in Sri Lanka’s Mannar district.

Events in February 2008

the Dambulla bus stand in central Sri Lanka.

in the crowded Fort Railway Station, Colombo.

Boris Tadic is re-elected Serbian President.

Ethwatunuwewa in Sri Lanka.

Feb. 5 Republican John McCain cements position as frontrunner in U.S. presidential

evenly poised after the Super Tuesday races.

France’s Alstom unveils “Automatrice Grande Vitesse”, a new generation of superfast

train without locomotive that can travel 1,000 km in three hours.

Feb. 6 Samak Sundaravej assumes office as Thailand Prime Minister.

arrested from a hotel in Saurah, a small Napalese town.

of the bomb blast, says the Scotland Yard in its report.

Islamic headscarves at universities.

Sooriayaarachchi (45), dies in a road accident at Madagama in the Galgamuwa area.

Myanmar’s military government announces move to hold a referendum on a new

Zhob distruct, Baluchistan province of Pakistan.

Feb. 12 Aborigines make history in Australian Parliament overturning hundreds of years of

British tradition in the nation.

Imad Mughniyeh, a top commander of the Lebanese Hizbullah is killed in an explosion

in the Syrian capital Damascus.

primaries in Virgina, Maryland the District of Columbia.

Hizbullah declares open war on Israel.

Pakistan Muslim League (Q) an ally of President Musharraf is routed.

he outlasted nine American presidents.

Reconnaissance Office Satellite over the Pacific Ocean.

Feb. 21 Israel launches an incursion into Gaza Strip.

together on government formation.