Portal:Current events/2008 December 8
December 8, 2008 (Monday)
- 2008 Russian financial crisis:
- Standard & Poor's becomes the first credit rating agency to downgrade Russia since 1999, while data showed that the Central Bank spent US$30 billion in currency market interventions in November 2008. (MarketWatch)
- The Moscow City Court rules that former Yukos Oil Company vice president Vasily Aleksanyan, who is suffering from lymphoma, tuberculosis, and AIDS, will be freed on bail of 50 million rubles (US$1.78 million). (Moscow Times)
- A United States Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet crashes into the University City neighborhood of San Diego, California, two miles from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, killing four people. (BBC News)
- 2008 Canadian parliamentary dispute: Stéphane Dion announces his plans to resign as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. (The Ottawa Citizen)
- The Tribune Company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (Los Angeles Times)
- A bus crashes 30 kilometers southwest of Cairo, killing 11 people and injuring 30 more. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
- In a Guantanamo Bay Naval Base military commission, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants announce their intentions to plead guilty to charges relating to the September 11, 2001, attacks. (BBC)
- Quebec general election, 2008:
- Premier Jean Charest leads the Liberal Party to a third mandate and a majority government.
- Pauline Marois's Parti Québécois recovers and becomes the Official Opposition.
- Support for the ADQ collapses: it loses more than 30 seats and leader Mario Dumont announces his resignation.
- Québec Solidaire scores its first election victory, electing party co-leader Amir Khadir. (CBC)