Portal:Current events/2008 August 17
August 17, 2008 (Sunday)
- Ex-president Chen Shui-Bian is barred from leaving Taiwan over corruption charges. (AFP via Google News)
- Gunmen massacre 14 people at a quinceañera celebration in Creel, Chihuahua, Mexico. (Xinhua)
- 2008 Atlantic hurricane season:
- Tropical Storm Fay kills at least 4 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before heading for the Florida Keys where tourists are being evacuated. (Bloomberg)
- About 50 people die as a bus is swept away by flood waters near the town of Beaumont in the Grand'Anse department of Haiti. (BBC News)
- The Afghan National Army kills 28 Taliban insurgents as the militants attempt an ambush of a convoy in Zabul province. (Reuters)
- Iran announces it has launched a satellite launch-capable Safir rocket. (Reuters) (BBC News)
- 2008 South Ossetia war:
- Russian troops continue to withdraw from the Georgian city of Gori, where the major Georgian army base was dismantled by Russian troops soon after the conflict ended. Two Russian APCs still remain at a checkpoint near the city, Reuters reports. (Reuters)
- The BBC's Richard Galpin, who has spent the past two days travelling from the Black Sea port of Poti to Tbilisi, says Georgian forces seem to be surrendering control of the highway to the Russians. (BBC News)
- Russia has denied claims its forces have begun withdrawing from the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. (Sky News)
- 2008 Summer Olympics:
- China, having won 8 gold medals in one day, overtakes its record (32 gold medals) at Athens and leads the medal table with 35 gold medals. (BBC News)
- Jamaica dominates the Athletics Women's 100 metres event with Shelly-Ann Fraser taking the gold and Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart taking the silver. Officially, no bronze medal is awarded as Simpson and Stewart finish with an equal time of 10.98 seconds in second place. (AP via Yahoo! News)
- Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian is stripped of his bronze medal in the Men's 84kg Greco-Roman category after throwing the medal to the mat and leaving the medal ceremony in protest at the officiating of his semifinal match. (Reuters)
- Constantina Diṭă-Tomescu of Romania wins the Women's Marathon with a time of 2:26:44. At 38, she is the oldest woman to win the Olympic Marathon.
- American swimmer Michael Phelps wins gold as the butterfly leg of the winning Men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay team. With the relay victory, Phelps earns his eighth gold medal (5 individual, 3 relay), setting a record for most golds at an Olympic games, beating Mark Spitz's previous record of 7 set in 1972. (Bloomberg)
- The Australian Women's 4 x 100 metre swimming relay team of Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper and Libby Trickett wins the gold medal in world record time. (Reuters)