Wikinews:Briefs/October 11, 2008
Audio Wikinews Brief for October 11, 2008
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From Wikinews, the free news source, this is the Audio Wikinews Brief for Saturday, October 11, 2008. I'm Kevin Fields, and here are today's current stories.
Stock markets across the world have fallen sharply with several seeing the biggest drop in their history. Asian markets saw the biggest sell-off. The Nikkei dropped 9.62% to reach a 20 year low. Japan also saw a collapse of a mid-size insurance company, Yamato Life Insurance Company, which declared bankruptcy. The Hang Seng, which was one of the few markets that was positive yesterday, fell 7.19%. Australia dropped by 8.4% and South Korea saw a 9% fall. In Europe, markets dropped at the open with the FTSE losing 11%. They have recovered only sightly with all European markets losing more than 5%. The European sell off was more about the Asian lows then any specific news. European banks and financial institutes saw the most selling. Also, oil related companies saw large drops as a result of a expected decrease in oil consumption. Oil has seen losses of more than $6 in trading with the current price of a barrel of oil less than $80. This is a year low for oil. News also came out that OPEC will hold an emergency meeting on November 18 to discuss the falling price of oil.
The U.S. markets opened lower with Dow Jones plunging 679 points, before a last-hour rally saw it climb back up to over 300 points over the day's opening, eventually settling 128 points down on the day. The nearly 1000 point trading margin was the largest in the index's history and capped off its worst week of trading since 1933. The index is at it's lowest level in five years at 8579.19, losing 7.3% of it's value. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both also saw brief rallies that occurred at the same time as the Dow Jones, The S&P 500 closed down 10.7 points at 899.22, the Nasdaq closed up 4.39 points at 1649.51.
The Nobel Peace Committee announced that Martti Ahtisaari, former president and Finnish diplomat, has received the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008. Norway's Nobel committee praised Martti Ahtisaari for his efforts to help secure peace in a number of conflict torn countries during his lengthy career as a United Nations diplomat, president of Finland for six years, and later as peace activist with his organization, the Crisis Management Initiative. Over the past 20 years, the Nobel statement said, Ahtisaari has played a prominent role in resolving serious and long-lasting conflicts in Namibia, Indonesia, Kosovo and Iraq - among other areas.
French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has claimed that Russia has failed to honour obligations agreed as part of a ceasefire brokered by the European Union. The deal ended a war with Georgia. In August, Russian troops joined on South Ossetia's side after Georgia moved in in an attempt to regain control of the breakaway region. Russia also moved troops into Abkhazia and nearby areas to create security zones. These buffer zones were vacated by troops this week, and today Russia was due to completely withdrawal from Georgia. France - who lead the brokering efforts as the EU's current presidential nation - say that Russian troops remain in the South Ossetian towns of Akhalgori and Perevi. According to the ceasefire, troops were supposed to return to their positions before the five-day conflict. Russia's President, Dmitry Medvedev, says Russia has fully complied with the terms agreed on. Russia has recognized South Ossetia as an independent nation, and had entered into a supporting military alliance.
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