Portal:Current events/2008 December 16

{{Current events|year=2008|month=12|day=16|content=

• Bilal Abdullah is convicted for his roles in the 2007 attack on Glasgow International Airport and an attempted bombing of London's West End. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7773410.stm (BBC)]
• President of Somalia Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed names former Interior Minister Mohamoud Mohamed Gacmodhere as Prime Minister, but incumbent PM Nur Hassan Hussein is supported in a parliamentary vote, requiring a confidence motion before Ahmed could replace Hussein. [http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/16/content_10513247.htm (Xinhua)]
• Global financial crisis of 2008:
• The United States consumer price index fell in November by 1.9% on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Labor Department reports, the biggest decline since the nadir of the Great Depression in January 1932. [http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Drop-consumer-prices-most-since/story.aspx?guid=%7B45513693%2D102D%2D4A67%2D8859%2DC73778BF4777%7D (MarketWatch)]
• Construction permits for single-family homes fell in October by 12.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 412,000, marking a 27-year low, the U.S. Commerce Department reports. [http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Housing-starts-drop-189-plumb/story.aspx?guid=%7BE21F7EFD%2D5EFF%2D445E%2D87C8%2D8AE300767217%7D&dist=hplatest (MarketWatch)]
• Five sticks of dynamite are found in the Printemps department store on the Boulevard Haussmann in Paris. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7785440.stm (BBC News)]
• United Nations special envoy to Niger Robert Fowler and Canadian diplomat Louis Guay are reported to be missing in Niger. [http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/12/16/canada.un.kidnap/ (CNN)]
• The Illinois House of Representatives votes unanimously to begin an impeachment inquiry against Governor Rod Blagojevich for corruption. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/us/politics/16illinois.html?ref=us (New York Times)]
• The Association of Southeast Asian Nations signs a charter to make itself a legal entity. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7783073.stm (BBC)]
• Twenty-four Russian tourists are killed when their bus plummets into a ravine near Eilat in southern Israel, making this road accident the deadliest in the state's history. [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728219835&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull (Jerusalem Post)]

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