Portal:Current events/2008 August 25

August 25, 2008 (Monday)

Canadian authorities report 12 people have died in the listeriosis outbreak traced to a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto. (Montreal Gazette)
The 2008 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party begins in Denver, Colorado. (BBC News)
Tropical Storm Gustav forms in the Atlantic Ocean and heads for the Dominican Republic and Haiti. (AP via Minneapolis-St Paul Tribune)^{[permanent dead link]}
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announces that he is withdrawing his Pakistan Muslim League (N) party from Pakistan's governing coalition. (Newsweek)
Russia is considering arming its Baltic Fleet with nuclear warheads for the first time since the Cold War. (Alfa)
Israel releases 199 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas as the United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits the area. (AFP via Google News)
Lovemore Moyo is elected Speaker of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe. He is the first opposition speaker since the country's independence in 1980. (BBC News)
2008 South Ossetia war:
- The Federation Council of Russia, the upper house of the Federal Assembly, urges the President to recognise the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. (BBC News)
- Traffic begins to return to Georgia's main east-west highway after the departure of Russian troops who had closed the road. (The Moscow Times)
- France called a summit of European Union leaders for next week to discuss the conflict in Georgia. (The Wall Street Journal)
- There is evidence that the Russian army took part in looting in Poti, Georgia. (The Times)