Portal:Current events/2008 October 2
October 2, 2008 (Thursday)
- Sarah Palin and Joe Biden have their only scheduled debate for the vice presidency of the United States. (ABC)(WP)
- Ukrainian President, Viktor Yushchenko may face impeachment on charges of undermining national security, and illegal arms trade with Georgia months before the attack on Tskhinvali, South Ossetia, says Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Yushchenko earlier said the arms trade charges are "unsubstantiated". (USA Today) (Bikilar.Az) (The Times) (France24) (BBC News) (Izvestia)
- The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service and the most senior policeman in the United Kingdom, Sir Ian Blair, announces that he will stand down from his post in December of this year, citing a lack of support from London Mayor Boris Johnson. (BBC News)
- A search team finds the wreckage of the airplane flown by adventurer Steve Fossett in the mountains of Madera County, California, and what appears to be some of his personal effects nearby. Fossett had disappeared on September 3, 2007. (Sydney Daily Telegraph)
- Subprime mortgage crisis:
- The United States Securities and Exchange Commission says it would extend the short-sale ban to as long as October 17 or up to three business days after the passage of the proposed bailout plan, but will not make it permanent. (MarketWatch)
- The Wall Street Journal reports that the short-sale ban fails to prevent stock-price declines, increases the volatility in the stock market and makes trading more expensive for investors. (MarketWatch)
- U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says that no Democrats who opposed the proposed bailout plan earlier this week have pledged to back it. (Bloomberg)