Portal:Current events/2008 December 2
December 2, 2008 (Tuesday)
- The Government Accountability Office releases a report that claims that the oversight of the Troubled Assets Relief Program requires additional actions to ensure "integrity, accountability, and transparency". (Washington Post) (bloomberg.com) (Wall Street Journal) (CNN Money)
- The 2008 Zimbabwean cholera outbreak has claimed 425 lives and affected 10,000 people since August 2008. (Telegraph.co.uk)
- NATO 2008 Brussels summit
- NATO member countries decide not to offer MAP to Georgia and Ukraine, the war in South Ossetia and the Ukrainian government collapse being the main reasons.(Deutsche Welle)
- Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer says NATO will start "conditional and graduated re-engagement" with Russia. NATO-Russia relations were frozen since the 2008 war in South Ossetia. (BBC)
- United States Senate election in Georgia, 2008: Voters in the U.S. state of Georgia go to the polls for a runoff election between incumbent Senator Saxby Chambliss of the Republican Party and Jim Martin of the Democratic Party. Chambliss is reelected, ending the Democratic Party's hopes of having 60 Senators to avoid a filibuster. (Reuters), (New York Times)
- The Reserve Bank of Australia cuts interest rates by 100 basis points to 4.25%. (News Limited)
- 2008 Thai political crisis:
- A blast at Don Mueang Airport kills at least one anti-government protestor and injures another 22. (BBC)
- Thailand's Constitutional Court dissolves the People's Power Party (PPP), the Thai Nation Party and the Neutral Democratic Party due to voter fraud and bans party leaders including the Prime Minister of Thailand Somchai Wongsawat from participating in politics for five years. A new party, Puea Thai (For Thais) is to be formed and a vote on a new PM is expected on 8 December. (BBC), (Forbes)