As of January 2008

As of January 2008

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January 2008 was the first month of the current year. It began on a Tuesday and ended after 31 days on a Thursday.

Portal:Current events

January 1, 2008 (Tuesday)

The Taliban threaten to escalate attacks in Afghanistan after a year of record violence. (The Independent)
Venezuela introduces the new Bolívar Fuerte currency (ISO 4217, code: VEF) to combat inflation. (ABC News)
Fatah-Hamas conflict: At least eight people have died in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, reports say. (BBC News)
Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro currency, becoming the 14th and 15th countries to do so. Cypriot pound and Maltese lira notes and coins will remain valid in shops until the end of the month, and exchangeable at the respective central banks for some years. (BBC News)
A fire in a church in Eldoret, Western Kenya kills fifty people who were sheltering from violence after the disputed presidential election. (AP via Google Red News)
US Diplomat John Granville, working for the United States Agency for International Development in Sudan, is murdered. (AP via Google News)
Thiyagarajah Maheswaran, a minority Sri Lankan Tamil parliamentarian, is shot dead at a Hindu temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka.(Times of India)

January 2, 2008 (Wednesday)

Crude oil prices surge past $100 a barrel briefly in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. (AP via Yahoo! Finance)
Clashes in Kenya (2007-present):
- Both sides in Kenya's disputed election accuse the other of violence as diplomatic efforts intensify to defuse the country's political crisis. (BBC News)
- There were reports of several more deaths overnight, with two police officers killed in Kericho by youths armed with bows and arrows. (BBC News)
Islamic insurgency in Algeria (2002–present): A suicide attack kills at least three people in Naciria, east of Algiers. (BBC News)
A bomb targeting a military bus in Colombo, Sri Lanka kills at least four people including 2 soldiers and injures another 20. (BBC News)
Technip is awarded a $1.2 billion contract to develop the Pazflor oil deposit in Angola. Acergy is awarded a $700 million contract to assist in petroleum production at Pazflor. (Bloomberg)
A fire at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, England forces its evacuation. (BBC News)

January 3, 2008 (Thursday)

United States presidential election, 2008:
- Voters in Iowa go to the polls for the first caucus to determine presidential nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties. (BBC News)
- Illinois Senator Barack Obama wins the Democratic caucus. (CNN)
- Former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee wins the Republican caucus. (CNN)
- Senators Christopher Dodd and Joseph Biden withdraw their candidacy. (AP via Yahoo! News)
Benazir Bhutto assassination: President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf denies any role in Benazir Bhutto's death. (CNN)
The price of gold reaches a new record of $865.35 per troy ounce in the a.m. London Gold Fixing, breaking the previous high of 21 January 1980. (LBMA)

January 4, 2008 (Friday)

China allows academics to own patents (RSC)
Transaven crash: A Venezuelan Let L-410 Turbolet carrying at least 14 people crashes near the Los Roques Archipelago. (Reuters)
The 2008 Dakar Rally is cancelled due to safety concerns in Mauritania. (Jornal de Negócios)
North Korean officials accuse the United States of not fulfilling its promise of humanitarian aid after an international disarmament agreement. (AP via CNN)
Winter storms in California cause power outages, destruction of property and flight delays in San Francisco.
Former Indonesian leader Suharto is taken to hospital in critical condition for anemia and low blood pressure. (BBC)

January 5, 2008 (Saturday)

Early presidential elections are held in the country of Georgia.

January 6, 2008 (Sunday)

Greece is hit by an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5. The epicenter is 70 km (43 miles) below Leonidio. There were no reports of casualties or serious damage. (RTÉ)
Georgian presidential election, 2008: Georgian Incumbent President Mikhail Saakashvili has been re-elected for a new mandate following a snap poll with nearly 53% of the votes. (BBC News)
Five armed Iranian boats confront three U.S. Navy warships in international waters near the Strait of Hormuz. (The International Herald Tribune)

January 7, 2008 (Monday)

Litokwa Tomeing is elected as President of the Marshall Islands. (Radio New Zealand)
The Supreme Court of the United States hears arguments on whether execution by lethal injection is a violation of the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." (BBC News)
The war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor resumes at The Hague, Netherlands. (CNN)
A warehouse fire in Icheon, South Korea, kills at least 40. (BBC News)
Portions of Eastern Australia are affected by the worst floods in the last 20 years. (BBC News)
Two United States Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets, a F/A-18E and two-seat F/A-18F, flying off the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, crash in the Persian Gulf. The aviators were safely recovered. There was no indication of hostile fire. (CNN)
The government of Tanzania cannot account for Sh$260 million (approx US$200,000) in aid from the Global Fund initiative to fight AIDS and HIV. (allAfrica)

January 8, 2008 (Tuesday)

United States presidential election, 2008:
- Voters in New Hampshire go to the polls for the first primary election to determine presidential nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties.
- New York Senator Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic primary.
- Arizona Senator John McCain wins the Republican primary. (CNN)
Former relief pitcher Rich Gossage is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. (ESPN)

January 9, 2008 (Wednesday)

China will ban stores from handing out plastic bags as of June 2008. (BBC)
After conducting further research, NASA astronomers have determined that asteroid 2007 WD5 now has a 0.01% chance of striking Mars on January 30, 2008, effectively ruling out an impact. (NASA)
India's Tata Motors launches the world's cheapest production car, Tata Nano, in Pragati Maidan, Delhi. (CNN-IBN)
The price of gold in the London Gold Fixing rises above €600 per troy ounce for the first time. (€603.528, a.m. Fixing.) (LBMA)
Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charges Lucky Igbinedion, the former governor of Edo State, with 142 counts of money laundering. He is the eighth governor charged with corruption-related charges. (BBC News)
Peter de Villiers is appointed the first black coach of the South African rugby union team. (The Times)

January 10, 2008 (Thursday)

Operation Emmanuel: FARC guerrillas release Colombian hostages Clara Rojas and Consuelo González. (BBC News)
U.S. President George W. Bush says Israel must return to its pre-1967 borders to enable the establishment of a Palestinian state. (BBC News)
United States presidential election, 2008:
- Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson withdraws his candidacy. (CNN)
- Former presidential candidate John Kerry endorses Illinois Senator Barack Obama. (CNN)
- Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich calls for a recount in the New Hampshire primary, citing “unexplained disparities between hand-counted ballots and machine-counted ballots.” (Business Wire) (The Hill)
- Republican candidates debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. (FOX News)
Four people die after two tractor trailers collide crossing the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge on the Mexico–United States border. (CNN)

January 11, 2008 (Friday)

The Lithuanian government confirms a nuclear waste site. (Alfa)
Snow falls in Baghdad, Iraq for the first time in a century. (Reuters)
Former U.S. track and field athlete Marion Jones is sentenced to 6 months in prison for lying about performance enhancing drug usage and her role in a check fraud scheme. (CNN)

January 12, 2008 (Saturday)

A tanker crash, explosion and fire in Port Harcourt, Nigeria leaves at least 30 dead. (CNN)
A collision near Bathurst, New Brunswick results in the deaths of 7 Bathurst High School basketball team members. (CTV)
Republic of China legislative election, 2008: The Kuomintang (KMT) and its coalition allies win a landslide victory over the Democratic Progressive Party, garnering 86 of 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan. (ChinaPost) (BBC News)

January 13, 2008 (Sunday)

Atonement wins the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama at the 65th Golden Globe Awards. Sweeney Todd wins the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. (AP via Google News)
Floods in Mozambique kill 50 people, lead to the evacuation of 30,000 and make 72,000 homeless. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota announce the creation of a beating rat heart using cells from the heart of newborn rats and a heart structure from a dead rat. (The New York Times)

January 14, 2008 (Monday)

Alvaro Colom is sworn in as President of Guatemala. (AP via Google News)
MESSENGER, a NASA mission, flies by Mercury, the second spacecraft to do so and the first in thirty-three years. (BBC News)
The Taliban attacks the Serena Hotel in Kabul, resulting in the deaths of at least six people. (AP via Google News)
The European Commission opens two new probes on alleged anti-competitive behavior by Microsoft Corporation. (AP via The Melbourne Age)
War in Waziristan: At least seven Pakistani soldiers die in a clash with pro-Taliban militants in a tribal area near the Afghan border. Twenty-three tribal militants also die in the fighting in Mohmand agency. (BBC News)
Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert warns that "all options are being taken into consideration" to stop Iran from going nuclear. (Ynet News) (AP via Yahoo! News)
Bobby Jindal is sworn in as the 56th Governor of Louisiana. He is the first Indian American governor in U.S. history. (NPR)

January 15, 2008 (Tuesday)

20 Palestinians are killed by the Israeli Defense Forces including 14 fighters and five civilians, with 55 people wounded. Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar's son is killed. Dozens of rockets are fired into Israel by Hamas, landing in the town of Sderot, injuring 4 Israelis. An Ecuadorian laborer is also shot and killed by Hamas. (The Washington Post)
United States presidential election, 2008: Mitt Romney wins the Republican Michigan primary with John McCain finishing second. Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic contest but she was the only leading contender in that election. Democratic candidates brace for a competitive primary in Nevada while Republicans contend for the South Carolina primary. (Canadian Press via Google News) (AP via Google News) (CNN) (MSNBC)
Bombing of northern Iraq: Turkish warplanes bomb Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq, in the fourth aerial attack on rebel positions since the military launched a bombing campaign on 16 December. (Ynet)
War in Afghanistan (2001-present): The Pentagon announces plans to send 3,200 additional Marines to Afghanistan. (BBC News)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows the production and sale of foods derived from cloned animals. (BBC News)

Actor Brad Renfro is found dead in his Los Angeles apartment due to an accidental overdose.

January 16, 2008 (Wednesday)

The proposed lyrics for the Spanish national anthem are withdrawn. (AP via The International Herald Tribune)
The discovery of Tahina spectabilis, a palm in northern Madagascar that dies after flowering, is announced. (BBC News)
Three United States Army soldiers are killed and another two wounded by small arms fire in the northern Salahuddin province of Iraq. (Reuters)
War in Somalia (2006–present): A huge blast in Mogadishu targeted an Ethiopian army convoy as it drove through a major intersection, killing seven soldiers on board, witnesses reported. (Garowe Online)

War in Pakistan (2004–present); Sararogha Fort raid: Islamic militants overrun and capture a Pakistani military outpost, Sararogha Fort, close to the Afghan border in a battle that kills seven Pakistani soldiers and leaves 20 missing. The Pakistani military claims 50 attackers also died. (AP via Google News)
Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister, resigns from the Cabinet of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with 10 party colleagues resigning from the government as well. (AFP via Google News)
The Israel Defense Forces are dispatched to evacuate two settlements on the West Bank. (AP via Google News)
A roadside bomb hits a bus in Buttala in southeastern Sri Lanka killing at least 23 people and injuring 67 others. (AP via Yahoo! News) (CNN)
Sun Microsystems announces the acquisition of MySQL AB, a leading open source relational database management system vendor, for US$1 billion. (AP via Google News)

January 17, 2008 (Thursday)

NYSE Euronext, the holding company for the New York Stock Exchange, agrees to buy the American Stock Exchange for $260 million in stock. (Fox Business)
Russian security officer Vasily Khitryuk is convicted of spying for Lithuania. (PR-inside)
Crash landing at London Heathrow: A British Airways Boeing 777 flying from Beijing, China to London, England lands on the grass short of the south runway and continues onto the runway, stopping on the white stripes, injuring 13 people, but resulting in no fatalities. The chaos results in the cancellation of 200 flights. (BBC News)
War in Pakistan (2004–present): Another Pakistani security outpost near the border with Afghanistan is abandoned by government troops due to threats from pro-Taliban fighters. (Aljazeera)
Civil unrest in Kenya (2007–2008): Kenya's police fire into the air to disperse opposition supporters in cities across the country on the second day of protests against disputed polls. (BBC News)
The Russian government closes British Council offices in St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. (BBC News)

January 18, 2008 (Friday)

Former psychiatric patient Matthew Higa is charged with killing a two-year-old boy by throwing him off a pedestrian overpass and into oncoming traffic on Interstate H-1 in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii. (The Honolulu Advertiser)
Dana Stubblefield, a former defensive lineman in the NFL, pleads guilty to making false statements in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative investigation. (The New York Times)
A man wearing a tactical vest and carrying a loaded shotgun is arrested near the United States Capitol. (Reuters) (WUSA9)
Dr. Samuel Wood along with several colleagues used some of their skin cells to clone human embryos. (Newsday)
Israel kills one Palestinian and injures 40 as it temporarily closes all its border crossings with Gaza Strip. (BBC News)

January 19, 2008 (Saturday)

Adolfo Nicolás is elected as the thirtieth Superior General of the Society of Jesus. (BBC News)
United States presidential election, 2008:
- Voters in Nevada and South Carolina go to the polls to determine presidential nominations for the Republican and Democratic parties.
- Former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney wins the Nevada Republican caucus. (The New York Times)
- Nevada Democratic caucus: New York Senator Hillary Clinton wins 51% of state delegates, but Illinois Senator Barack Obama wins the state's national delegates 13 to 12. (CNN)
- Arizona Senator John McCain wins the South Carolina Republican primary. (CNN)
- California Congressman Duncan Hunter withdraws his candidacy. (CNN)

January 20, 2008 (Sunday)

NFL playoffs, 2007-08:
- The New York Giants defeat the Green Bay Packers 23-20 in overtime to advance to Super Bowl XLII. (The New York Times)
- The New England Patriots defeat the San Diego Chargers 21-12 to advance to Super Bowl XLII. (ESPN)
Chinese President Hu Jintao shakes hands with Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association leader Liu Bainian at a party-sponsored New Year's tea party. (The Washington Post)
Israel blocks fuel to the Gaza City power plant, causing a citywide blackout. (CNN)
A bus carrying pilgrims crashes near Nashik, India killing at least 37, including 5 children. (CNN)

January 21, 2008 (Monday)

A Turkish court bans YouTube for the second time because of clips deemed disrespectful to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. (PhysOrg.com)
An Israeli TecSAR spy satellite is launched aboard an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. (PhysOrg.com)
President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez disallows the exportation of agricultural goods and promises to nationalize any farm that does. (BBC News)
2008 stock market downturn:
- Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis. (BBC News) (thisislondon.co.uk)
- North American Markets: U.S. markets are closed for Martin Luther King Day. Stock futures are down, with March contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average trading 482 points lower to 11,624. S&P 500 futures are also down 55 points to 1,270.10 and Nasdaq 100 futures are down 72.25 points to 1,777.25. The Toronto Stock Exchange loses over 500 points during morning trading at 12,233. (MarketWatch) (CBC)
- European Markets: The French CAC 40 index closes down 6.8% at 4,744.45, the German DAX 30 index closes down 7.2% at 6,790.19, and the UK's FTSE 100 index closes down 5.5% at 5,578.20. (MarketWatch)
- Asian Markets: The Indian Sensex is down 1,408.35 points, or 7.4%, to 17,605.35, tumbling a record 11% down at one point in the day. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ends the day down 5.5% at 23,818.86. Japan's Nikkei falls 3.9% to 13,436.94. (MarketWatch)
A gas explosion at an illegal mine in Shanxi, China kills at least 20. (BBC News)
Former Liberian warlord Joshua Milton Blahyi confesses that he is responsible for at least 20,000 deaths during the First Liberian Civil War. (CNN)
The Na-Dene language of Eyak goes extinct with the death of Marie Smith Jones, its last native speaker. (BBC)

January 22, 2008 (Tuesday)

January 2008 stock market downturn: After further losses in international markets, the United States Federal Reserve System cuts its primary interest rate by 75 basis points to 3.5%, the largest move in the interest rate since 1982. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovers after initial losses of almost 500 points to close at 11,971.19, down only 1.06%. (AP via Yahoo! Finance)
Bird flu cases in poultry spread in India, as the H5N1 virus infects seven districts in the state of West Bengal. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
A study released by two non-profit journalism watchdogs concludes that the Bush administration released "an orchestrated campaign" of 935 erroneous public statements about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda in the months leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. (AP)
U.S. presidential election, 2008: Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson withdraws his candidacy. (CNN)
The nominees of the 80th Academy Awards are announced. (BBC News)
Actor Heath Ledger of Australia dies of a medication overdose.

January 23, 2008 (Wednesday)

20 people are killed in a military transport plane crash near Mirosławiec, northern Poland; senior Polish Air Force officers are among the victims. (BBC News)
Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo, being built for Virgin Galactic to become the world's first commercial spacecraft, is unveiled, and will begin test flights in mid-2008. (BBC News)
Contractors for the Big Dig project pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit from the Massachusetts government over a fatal tunnel collapse and associated flaws. (AP via Google News)
January 2008 stock market downturn:
- Asian stock markets recover, with the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index rising 10.7% and the Mumbai BSE Sensex rising 5.2%, but European markets are still weak, with the London FTSE 100 Index, the Paris CAC 40 and the Frankfurt DAX all posting significant losses. (AP via Yahoo! Finance)
- Despite early added losses, as much as 323 points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes up 298.98 points (2.5%) to 12,270.17. (AP via Yahoo! Finance)
Thousands of