Portal:Current events/2008 August 19

August 19, 2008 (Tuesday)

The 39th annual Pacific Islands Leaders Forum opens in Niue, but is boycotted by Fijian leader Frank Bainimarama. (The Australian)
Egypt's upper house of Parliament is destroyed in a huge fire. (Reuters)
North Korea declares Sweden its enemy and a United States war puppet. (Swedish Armed Forces) (The Local)
A bomb at a paramilitary police training academy in the town of Issers 60 km east of Algiers kills at least 43 people and injures another 38. (BBC News)
French forces engage in heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents 50 kilometres east of Kabul, Afghanistan with 10 French soldiers dead. (AFP via Google News) (BBC News)
2008 South Ossetia war:
- Russian and Georgian forces exchange prisoners of war. (Reuters)
- Russia begins to withdraw troops from Georgia proper according to eyewitness accounts. (Reuters)
- Russia temporarily closes its borders with Georgia and Azerbaijan to prevent terrorist groups from crossing into Russia. (Delfi) (Reuters)
- A United Nations aid convoy which entered Gori on Sunday reports evidence of large-scale looting. "While the buildings did not appear to be very damaged, there are clear signs of massive looting of both shops and private accommodations," the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says. (The Vancouver Sun)
- Alexander Stubb, the current Chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe says that Russia has agreed to a beefed-up monitoring mission for Georgia's disputed region of South Ossetia. (AP via Google News)
- NATO cools relations with Russia. (BBC News) (Delfi) NATO says Russia is not honoring cease-fire terms.

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