2008 Japanese Grand Prix, Race, Post-race
The top three finishers appeared in the subsequent press conference where Alonso said that the decision to run a shorter second stint than Kubica (between the first and second pit stops) was his decision: "Sometimes you can do it, sometimes you can't but today the car was perfect and I was able to do it." Alonso added that he had confidence in the car to perform at the remaining Grands Prix: "The feeling I have now is that we can do anything".


2008 Japanese Grand Prix, Race, Post-race
Kubica said that his second-placed finish was better than his win at the Canadian Grand Prix earlier in the season. He added that to finish on the podium after BMW Sauber's failure to improve the car from the beginning of the season was a "great result for the team in, I think, a very difficult moment". Räikkönen said that he was "a bit disappointed because being in first place in the first corner but then being pushed out didn't help and being in the front could have given us a better result but anyhow, that's racing". He added that Kovalainen's impact with him at the first corner had caused handling difficulties in his car, which left him unable to improve on his third-placed finish.


2008 Japanese Grand Prix, Race, Post-race
Forty minutes after the race, Bourdais received a 25-second penalty from the stewards for his collision with Massa on lap 50. This demoted him from sixth to tenth, and promoted Massa to seventh, giving him one more Championship point. Bourdais blamed Massa for the incident:


2008 Japanese Grand Prix, Race, Post-race
I did everything I could not to run into him and he just squeezed and turned and behaved like I didn't exist, like I wasn't there. What am I supposed to do? ... It's just a little bit of respect, you give each other room and then everything goes right, but if you don't for sure it's going to be an incident.


2008 Japanese Grand Prix, Race, Post-race
Massa denied responsibility, and agreed with the stewards' decision: "I think there's little to say: I had already entered the turn and he hit me from behind, spinning me round." The penalty was largely criticized in the media. GrandPrix.com called the penalty "bizarre", saying that Bourdais "could not just disappear". James Allen of ITV said that in light of FIA race director Charlie Whiting's announcement prior to the race, which indicated that cars exiting the pit-lane would have right of way, the penalty was "ridiculous".


2008 Japanese Grand Prix, Race, Post-race
French sporting newspaper L'Équipe criticized the stewards for their intervention, saying that both drivers held their lines and the collision was just a racing incident. Mark Blundell, who drove in Formula One for five years, called for former drivers to be part of the stewards meetings which award penalties: "You can examine pieces of paper, graphs, telemetry, but you don't know what's going on in a driver's brain until you've experienced it." Blundell's suggestion eventually became fact – the 2010 season introduced a system whereby a former Formula One driver acted as a steward during each Grand Prix.


2008 Japanese Grand Prix, Race, Post-race
Lewis Hamilton was criticized for his aggressive drive into the first corner by much of the British press. Edward Gorman of The Times described Hamilton's move as "impetuosity and untamed aggression", adding that Hamilton "gambled with a kamikaze attempt to get past Räikkönen". The BBC's Andrew Benson said that "Hamilton is still in a strong position but the Englishman will have to cut out the mistakes that have characterised his season if he is not to lose the championship for the second year in a row." In Italy, La Gazzetta dello Sport said that Hamilton's start suffered from "his usual excessive aggression". Hamilton said "I made a mistake and I paid for it."


2008 Japanese Grand Prix, Race, Post-race
Massa's touch on Hamilton's car on lap two was labelled by the McLaren driver "as deliberate as it could be". Massa rejected the allegation, saying "I had two wheels on the gravel. I could not stop the car and I was on the gravel because he pushed me into the gravel." Media coverage of the incident suggested that though the contact was Massa's fault, it was unintentional. Simon Arron, writing for The Daily Telegraph, said Hamilton's accusation of deliberate contact was "unworthy and unwise", adding that the contact was simply a racing incident. The gap between the drivers in the Drivers' Championship after the race stood at five points, in Hamilton's favour, with two races remaining. In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren's failure to score points, combined with Ferrari's third and seventh, moved Ferrari to a seven-point lead.


2008 Japanese Regional Football League Competition
The 32nd annual Japanese Regional Football League Competition took place from 22 November 2008 to 30 November 2008. It took place across the prefectures of Fukuoka, Kōchi, Tottori and Okinawa. It is the tournament which decided promotion to the Japan Football League for the 2009 season. As three teams were promoted from the Japan Football League to J. League Division 2, the top three teams in this competition were promoted: Machida Zelvia, V-Varen Nagasaki and Honda Lock.


2008 Japanese Regional Football League Competition, Tournament outline
Preliminary round – Four groups of four teams play each other once in a round-robin tournament. The top-placed team in each group advances to the final round. In the final round, the four winners from the preliminary round play each other once in a round-robin tournament.


2008 Japanese Regional Football League Competition, Tournament outline
Three points are awarded for a win in standard time and zero for a loss. If at the end of standard time the result is a tie, a penalty shoot-out is held; the winning team is awarded 2 points and the losing team 1.


2008 Japanese Regional Football League Competition, Tournament outline
If the number of points are the same, the league position is ordered by goal difference, then the number of goals scored, and finally the result between the respective teams. If the 1st-place position cannot be decided by these factors, a playoff will be contested between the top two teams.


2008 Japanese Regional Football League Competition, Participating teams, Runner-Up from selected leagues
Regional Leagues whose representative reached the final round in 2007, are eligible for a second team to represent them. This would normally be four teams, however this year there were only three.


2008 Japanese Regional Football League Competition, Participating teams, High performing teams in the All Japan Senior Football Championship
NEC Tokin were originally announced to participate, however due to poor business performances from their parent company, their entry was withdrawn and replaced by fourth place Matsumoto Yamaga.


2008 Japanese Super Cup
2008 Japanese Super Cup was the Japanese Super Cup competition. The match was played at National Stadium in Tokyo on March 1, 2008. Sanfrecce Hiroshima won the championship.


2008 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix
The 2008 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the fifteenth round of the 2008 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 26–28 September 2008 at the Twin Ring Motegi, located in Motegi, Japan.


2008 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix, Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)
Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round fifteen has concluded.


2008 Japanese television dramas
This is a list of Japanese television dramas often called doramas by fans.


2008 Japanese television dramas
The list is not complete, and aims to include all those Japanese television dramas that are somehow of interest for Wikipedia contents.


2008 Jelajah Malaysia
The 2008 Jelajah Malaysia, a cycling stage race that took place in Malaysia. It was held from 7 to 13 January 2008. There were seven stages with a total of 1,352.2 kilometres. In fact, the race was sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale as a 2.2 category race and was part of the 2007–08 UCI Asia Tour calendar.


2008 Jelajah Malaysia
Tonton Susanto of Indonesia won the race, followed by Ghader Mizbani of Iran second and Fredrik Johansson of Sweden third overall. Anuar Manan of Malaysia won the points classification and Hossein Askari of Iran won the mountains classification. Tabriz Petrochemical Team won the team classification.


2008 Jelajah Malaysia
A total of 20 teams were invited to participate in the 2008 Jelajah Malaysia. Out of 120 riders, a total of 91 riders made it to the finish in Kuala Lumpur.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round
The 2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round was the sixth and final round of the inaugural Superleague Formula championship, with the races taking place on November 23, 2008. Eighteen football teams were represented on the grid, the same number of teams as there was at the previous four rounds. There were two driver changes before this round of the championship: James Walker replaced Enrico Toccacelo in the Borussia Dortmund car and Bertrand Baguette returned to the Al Ain cockpit replacing Dominick Muermans. Paul Meijer had been expected to return, however his injury from the previous round at Vallelunga kept him out.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round
The meeting saw a second win for A.C. Milan and a first win for Borussia Dortmund. With a ninth in the first race coupled with other low placings for Liverpool F.C. and PSV Eindhoven, Beijing Guoan clinched the first Superleague Formula title. With a third in the final race, Beijing won the title with 413 points, some 66 points clear of PSV, and two points further back were Milan.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round, Report, Qualifying
After the random draw which split the eighteen-car field into two groups, the fastest four qualifiers from each progressed into the knockout stages to decide places 1 to 8 on the grid. Max Wissel (FC Basel 1893) and Bertrand Baguette (Al Ain) both missed out on the top eight, despite setting times faster than Group B 4th Borja García in the Sevilla FC car. As fastest drivers in their groups, Adrián Vallés (Liverpool F.C.) and Franck Perera (A.S. Roma) were expected to meet in the final, and sure enough, they did. Vallés became the first repeat polesitter in Superleague, with his 1:29.088 beating Perera's 1:29.328.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round, Report, Race 1
At the start, Vallés led away from Perera, with Andy Soucek (Atlético Madrid) passing Tristan Gommendy (F.C. Porto) for third on the opening lap. On lap five, Wissel spun out of tenth place, and this allowed Craig Dolby's R.S.C. Anderlecht car into the top ten and towards the front, Soucek passed Perera for second place. Lap seven saw the first retirement, with Alessandro Pier Guidi pulling the Galatasaray S.K. car off with engine troubles. Lap eight saw the first pitstop - Antônio Pizzonia (SC Corinthians) pitting from sixth position.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round, Report, Race 1
Vallés then brought in the Liverpool machine on lap nine, allowing Soucek through into the lead. Tuka Rocha retired on lap ten, having suddenly slowed the lap before in the CR Flamengo car, nearly taking out Davide Rigon's championship-leading Beijing Guoan car due to gearbox issues. Soucek continued to lead until his pitstop on lap 14 - except he didn't make it all the way to the garage. A spin on the way in, caused too much damage and Soucek retired.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round, Report, Race 1
Vallés thus returned to lead by over 10 seconds from Robert Doornbos (A.C. Milan), Pizzonia, Gommendy and Duncan Tappy (Tottenham Hotspur). Fifteen of the sixteen laps remaining passed and Vallés looked untroubled. However, the engine in the Liverpool car died on the final lap, and Vallés fell from first to seventh, and with it went the championship hopes.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round, Report, Race 1
Doornbos inherited victory ahead of Gommendy, Tappy, Dolby, Perera, García, Vallés, Yelmer Buurman (PSV Eindhoven), Rigon (which sealed the championship for Beijing Guoan), Baguette, Wissel, Pizzonia (who had been demoted due to pitting outside the window), Stamatis Katsimis (Olympiacos CFP), James Walker (Borussia Dortmund) and Ryan Dalziel (Rangers F.C. ), who was seven laps down.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round, Report, Race 2
Pier Guidi started from pole for the final race of the season, with Rocha alongside. Again, Soucek made up a place at the start, passing Walker for fourth. Pier Guidi's lead was up to nine seconds on lap six, when Soucek exited from fourth - spinning out to complete a miserable weekend. Lap eight saw a massive shunt, involving seventh-placed Katsimis and eighth-placed Wissel clashed in spectacular fashion - Wissel going over the back over the Olympiacos machine. Most teams started pitting on lap ten, with Pier Guidi pitting on lap twelve.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round, Report, Race 2
Pizzonia took the lead for one lap before his pitstop, handing Dalziel the lead. During these stops, Vallés and Tappy both retired with gearbox failures. Pier Guidi returned to the lead, leading by some fourteen seconds from Walker, Pizzonia, Rigon and Rocha. However, Pier Guidi was struggling with his new set of tyres, and within five laps, the lead was only four seconds and was one second by lap 23. The pressure got to the Italian as he spun down to fourth at the entrance to the back straight.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round, Report, Race 2
At the same time, Rocha exited fifth place with a spin into the barriers. That's how it finished, as Walker went on to claim the first victory for Dortmund, winning by 1.5 seconds from Pizzonia and Rigon, before a massive gap to the rest of the field led by Pier Guidi followed by Perera, Dalziel, Baguette, Dolby, Buurman, Doornbos, García and Gommendy.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round, Results, Race 1
* - Pizzonia penalised 30 seconds for pitting outside the compulsory window.


2008 Jerez Superleague Formula round, Results, Race 2
* - Soucek penalised two places for causing an avoidable accident.


2008 Jersey general election
The Jersey general election, 2008 was a series of elections that were taking place in two stages in October and November 2008 in Jersey.


2008 Jersey general election, Constable elections
For the first time since 1948 the elections of constables for the twelve parishes of Jersey have been synchronised so that polling, where necessary, will take place on the same day as the senatorial election on 15 October 2008, in accordance with the Connétables (Jersey) Law 2008 (registered 28 March 2008).


2008 Jersey general election, Constable elections
At Assemblies of Electors held in nine parishes on 17 September 2008, constables in five parishes were returned unopposed: St Brelade, St Martin, St Ouen, Trinity and St Saviour. The constables of the other parishes declined to stand down to recontest their seats, preferring to serve out their full term so that the provisions of the law will apply to the next mandate from 2011.


2008 Jersey general election, Constable elections, St Clement
Sitting Constable Derek Gray did not seek re-election. Senator Leonard Norman beat Deputy Gerard Baudains and Centenier Edgar Wallis.


2008 Jersey general election, Constable elections, St Helier
Following his 2008 re-election, Simon Crowcroft declared that he would not stand down to fight a second election in ten months, despite speculation that he would fight a senatorial campaign with a view to becoming Chief Minister.


2008 Jersey general election, Constable elections, St Mary
Sitting Constable Ken Le Brun is standing down. Deputy Juliette Gallichan beat former Chef de Police Terry Renouf.


2008 Jersey general election, Constable elections, St Peter
Procureur du Bien Public John Refault beat Deputy Collin Egré.


2008 Jersey general election, Senatorial election
The senatorial election took place on 15 October 2008. The election was island-wide and there were six seats available. At the Assembly of Electors held in Saint Helier on 16 September 2008, 21 candidates were nominated.


2008 Jersey general election, Senatorial election, Candidates
The following candidates were sitting deputies seeking who ran in the senatorial election:


2008 Jersey general election, Deputy elections
The election for deputies took place on 26 November 2008. Twelve new deputies were elected, five sitting deputies lost their seats and four were reelected without opposition.


2008 Jersey general election, Deputy elections, St Helier, St Helier No. 1
Incumbents Le Claire and Martin were joined by JDA candidate Trevor Pitman, husband of Shona Pitman re-elected in neighbouring St Helier No. 2


2008 Jersey general election, Deputy elections, St Helier, St Helier No. 2
All three seats taken by JDA candidates; Southern and Pitman as incumbents joined by de Sousa.


2008 Jersey general election, Deputy elections, St Helier, St Helier No. 2
On 20 February 2009 Geoff Southern and Shona Pitman pleaded guilty in the Magistrate's Court to charges of contravening the Public Elections Law with respect to irregularities in postal voting procedure, and were referred to the Royal Court for sentencing. They have also faced calls to annul the result of the election.


2008 Jersey general election, Deputy elections, St Helier, St Helier No.3/4
A recount to decide fourth place meant that incumbent Fox retained his seat by one vote. Incumbent Hilton topped the poll, but incumbent Huet lost her seat and incumbent de Faye, outgoing Minister for Transport and Technical services, was heavily defeated.


2008 Jersey general election, Deputy elections, St John
Ryan, an incumbent in St Helier No. 1, stood in his parish of residence but was defeated by Rondel who had been Deputy for St John before standing down in 2005


2008 Jersey general election, Deputy elections, St Saviour, St Saviour No. 1
Incumbent Duhamel topped the poll, but incumbent Scott Warren was defeated. 21-year-old Maçon became the youngest States Member ever elected.


2008 Jersey general election, CET referendum
A referendum on the question "Do you think that Jersey should adopt Central European Time?" was put to voters on 15 October.


2008 Jersey general election, Voting age reduced
The 2008 general election is the first in which 16- and 17-year-old voters will take part, following a law to reduce voting age to 16. The law was brought into force on 12 March 2008 and became effective on 1 April 2008.


2008 Jerusalem BMW attack
On 22 September 2008, a Palestinian drove a BMW saloon car into a group of civilians and off-duty soldiers in a terrorist ramming attack in Jerusalem, injuring 19 people. Stratfor Global Intelligence analysts say this attack represents a new terrorist tactic which is less lethal but could prove more difficult to prevent than suicide bombing.


2008 Jerusalem BMW attack, Background
The attack was a third in a series of terrorist attacks in Jerusalem involving a new tactic, using vehicles as weapons; the others were the 2 July 2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack and a similar attack with a Backhoe loader on 22 July. The Jerusalem Post has termed them "ramming terror attacks." According to Stratfor, the American global intelligence firm, "while not thus far as deadly as suicide bombing", this tactic could prove more difficult to prevent. No single group has claimed responsibility for the incidents.


2008 Jerusalem BMW attack, Background
On 2 July 2008, Husam Tayseer Dwayat, an Arab Israeli citizen from the Sur Baher neighborhood of East Jerusalem drove an earthmover along Jaffa Road in West Jerusalem, slamming into a bus and passing cars. Four people were killed and another 45 were injured.


2008 Jerusalem BMW attack, Background
Later that month, on 22 July 2008, Ghassan Abu Tir, from the Umm Tuba neighborhood of East Jerusalem, drove a front-loader into traffic on King David Street in West Jerusalem, slamming into a bus and passing cars. Sixteen people were injured.


2008 Jerusalem BMW attack, Background
Patrick Martin, writing in The Globe and Mail in 2016, discussed this attack as an example of copycat terrorism.


2008 Jerusalem BMW attack, The attack
On 22 September 2008, the perpetrator, Qassem Mughrabi (alt. Qasim al-Mughabi), a 19-year-old Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem's Jabal Mukaber neighborhood, drove a black BMW saloon into a group of civilians and off-duty soldiers standing on a Jerusalem street. 19 people were injured.


2008 Jerusalem BMW attack, The attack
Mughrabi was shot dead at the scene by off-duty soldier Lt. Elad Amar. Amar told Army Radio that the attacker "drove towards the soldiers at top speed, plowed onto the traffic island, ran over soldiers and civilians and then continued, ramming into a building. At that point I assessed that it was a terror attack and decided to neutralize the driver so that he wouldn't be able to reverse the car and continue the attack."


2008 Jerusalem BMW attack, The perpetrator
According to the Palestinian Ma'an news agency, Qassem Mughrabi was a member of Hamas. Mughrabi's family denied that the event was a terror attack. Mahmoud Mughrabi, Qassem's father, said his son did not have a driving license and apparently lost control of the car. "My son was murdered, they killed him. He did not carry out a terrorist attack. This was a car accident." However, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said authorities were convinced the attack was politically motivated. "We're 100 percent sure ... he deliberately drove into people," Rosenfeld said.


2008 Jerusalem BMW attack, The perpetrator
A number of Israeli Members of Parliament called for the demolition of the home of the perpetrator, as a means of discouraging future attacks.


2008 Jerusalem BMW attack, Vehicle ramming as a trend
This was one of a small cluster of terrorist vehicle-ramming attacks in Jerusalem in this period. Articles in New York Magazine, Breitbart News, Haaretz, The Times of Israel, and other publications cite this attack as harbingers of the terrorist vehicle-ramming attacks that would occur in many countries during the 2010s.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack
The Jerusalem bulldozer attack occurred on July 2, 2008, when an Arab resident of East Jerusalem identified as Hussam Taysir Duwait (also referred to as Hussam Duwiyat, Hossam Dawyyat, or erroneously as Jabr Duwait) attacked several cars on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem in a vehicle-ramming attack using a front-end loader (erroneously referred to as a bulldozer in the media), killing three people and wounding at least thirty other pedestrians, before being shot to death. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that an inquiry indicated the attacker had been acting alone. A motive for the attack could not immediately be determined, but police at the scene referred to the incident as a terrorist attack. Three copycat attacks have occurred since then.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack
This attack was the second incident in 2008 in which an Israeli Arab committed a violent act in west Jerusalem while carrying an Israeli ID Card (allowing for freedom of movement and travel throughout Israel), the first being the Mercaz HaRav massacre in early March 2008. On April 7, 2009, Duwait's house was demolished as a declared deterrent against future attacks, the first such demolition since 2005.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, The attack
Preliminary investigations suggest the Caterpillar 966 front-end loader was taken from a nearby construction site on Jaffa Road. The perpetrator then drove the vehicle against traffic, before hitting an Egged public bus near the city's old Central Bus Station. The impact flipped the bus onto its side, hitting nearby vehicles and pedestrians. The perpetrator, Hussam Taysir Duwait, was also heard yelling "Allahu Akbar" during the attack. After a traffic policewoman had shot the driver, the vehicle came to a halt but then started again and crushed another car, killing another person.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, The attack
At the point when the vehicle had stopped for the first time, three men had climbed up to the cabin: A 20-year-old off-duty soldier from Jerusalem, Moshe Plesser, who had recently enlisted at the Israel Defense Forces, an unnamed policeman, and Oron Ben Shimon, an armed civilian and manager of a regional security firm. According to Oron, while he was struggling with the driver inside the cabin, trying to get his feet off the accelerator and take over the wheel, he shouted at the soldier to shoot the driver. The soldier then grabbed Oron's handgun and killed Duwait with three shots to the head at point blank range. After the vehicle had immediately come to a halt again, motorcycle policeman Eli Mizrahi climbed the cabin and fired two more shots.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, The attack
Haaretz quotes the soldier as saying that "I got closer to the bulldozer, the whole time looking for my weapon to shoot him." Coincidentally, the soldier is the brother-in-law of Captain David Shapira, the paratrooper officer who shot and killed the perpetrator in the Mercaz HaRav massacre.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, The attack
The moments during which the perpetrator was shot and killed have been filmed from at least two different angles, which accounts for the greater level of directly available descriptive detail in comparison to the original attack which is documented only through eyewitnesses on the scene as well as images that were taken mostly after the incident itself.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, The attack
One witness is quoted as saying that Duwait was armed and 'shooting at a police officer'.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, The perpetrator
Duwait, a 32-year-old father of two from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sur Baher, was carrying an Israeli identity card, and was hired by a local construction firm for the Jerusalem Light Rail.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, The perpetrator
Three Palestinian organizations took responsibility for the attack: the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the Galilee Freedom Battalion (Hebrew: גדודי חופשיי הגליל), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Despite the Palestinian claims of responsibility, Israeli police chief Dudi Cohen said the attacker appeared to be acting alone and that "it looks as if it was a spontaneous act." Some two hours after the attack, a Hamas spokesman said that the attack is "a natural response to Israeli aggression." Nevertheless, he stressed that Hamas did not know who was behind the attack.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, The perpetrator
Shimon Kokos, the lawyer of the perpetrator's family, said that Hussam "had not belonged to any militant organization and may have acted out of temporary insanity" and that, "had [he] not been killed during his rampage, it is doubtful whether he would have been judged fit to stand trial." "My son never spoke of plans to carry out such an attack, if he had I would have tried to prevent it," Duwait's father, Tayseer told The Media Line as police officers were about to question him.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, The perpetrator
A Jewish ex-girlfriend of Duwait, commented that "he really didn't hate Jews. The fact is that he was with me. It's insanity, but the motivation was not nationalist" and also that his bad temper may have been related to his "[smoking] a lot of drugs." Other people have gone on the record as well alleging regular drug abuse by Duwait, one neighbour saying that he was "a drug addict [...]. He'd shoot up all the time. [ ...] He was really just a junkie."


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, Aftermath
Israeli Border Guard officers ordered the Duwait family to remove the mourning tent they erected in the neighborhood for their son. A Border Guard patrol passing through the area identified the construction of the tent and ordered the family to remove it. The family then disassembled the tent without any noted resistance. Two days after the attack, defense minister Ehud Barak ordered the demolition of Duwait's and Alaa Abu Dhein's (perpetrator of the Mercaz HaRav massacre) houses, as a stated deterrent against future attacks. Following the supreme court rejection of appeals by Duwait's family, his home was razed on April 7, 2009, the first such demolition since a military commission recommended against such action in 2005. During the demolition, police shot dead a Palestinian motorist who ran over and injured three police officers.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, Aftermath, Bulldozer attack of July 22
On July 22, another east Jerusalem Arab resident, Ghassan Abu Tir, rammed his bulldozer (this time it was a smaller backhoe loader) into cars and a bus on King David street in Jerusalem. He wounded 24 people, including one whose leg was partially severed. He was subsequently killed by a fusillade of gunfire from a Border Policeman and an armed pedestrian. The attack was seen as a copycat act of to the July 2 attack, causing fears of repeated copycat acts in an emerging new terrorist tactic of vehicle ramming attacks. The attack happened just down the road from the hotel where Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama was due to stay as part of a multi-country visit.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, Aftermath, BMW attack
On September 22, 2008, Qassem Mughrabi, a resident of East Jerusalem, drove a black BMW into a group of off-duty soldiers standing on a Jerusalem street injuring 19. Mughrabi was subsequently shot dead by one of the soldiers. Police spokesmen asserted the event was a terrorist attack, not an accident.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, Aftermath, March 5, 2009, attack
Two police officers were lightly wounded in Jerusalem when an Arab bulldozer driver overturned their police car and rammed it into a bus, before being fatally shot by police and an armed taxi driver. The attack occurred around 1 P.M. near the Malha shopping mall, on Menachem Begin Boulevard in southern Jerusalem. Police said that a copy of the Koran had been found in the bulldozer after the attack, and that the driver had not been carrying any identification.


2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack, Aftermath, March 5, 2009, attack
Israel Police and local residents later identified the man as Marei Radaydeh, a West Bank construction worker in his mid-20s who lived with his family in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina. Radaydeh was married and had a daughter. Hamas praised the attack, calling it a "natural response" to Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Arab East Jerusalem and to Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip.


2008 Jiangsu Classic
The 2008 Guolian Securities Jiangsu Classic was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4 and 8 June 2008 in two cities in the Jiangsu Province, China.


2008 Jiangsu Classic
The round-robin stage consisted of two groups of six players, eight top 16 players and four Chinese wild cards. The final was staged at the Wuxi Sports Center in Wuxi, while the rest of the tournament had been held at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Nanjing.


2008 Jiangsu Classic
Ding Junhui, the only player to have won all his matches, delighted his home crowd by taking the title with a tense final frame decider defeat of Mark Selby.


2008 Jiangsu Classic, Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:


2008 Jiangsu Classic, Round-robin stage, Group A
(breaks above 50 shown between brackets), breaks 100 and above will be indicated bold.


2008 Jiangsu Classic, Round-robin stage, Group B
(breaks above 50 shown between brackets), breaks 100 and above will be indicated bold.


2008 Jiangsu Classic, Knock-out stages
* 32–71, (51) 75–43, 1–75 (52), 1–81 (74), 22–97 (81)** (52) 75–21, (81) 85–0, (75) 120–1, (108) 120–0


2008 Jodhpur stampede
A human stampede occurred on 30 September 2008, at the Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, in which 224 people were killed and more than 425 injured. The 15th-century temple is dedicated to the goddess Chamunda Devi and is located within the premises of Mehrangarh Fort.


2008 Jodhpur stampede
About 25,000 Hindu pilgrims were visiting the temple to mark the first day of the nine-day-long Navratri, a major festival in Hinduism dedicated to the worship of Goddess Durga.


2008 Jodhpur stampede, Cause
The devotees scrambled towards the door the moment it opened, resulting in the destruction of the barricades. Many people were injured when they lost their footing on the slope approaching the temple.


2008 Jodhpur stampede, Cause
According to The Times of India, local reports suggest that a bomb blast in nearby Mehrangarh created panic among the pilgrims resulting in the stampede. However, the BBC News reported that a collapsing wall may have also caused the stampede. Some eyewitnesses told CNN-IBN that a rumour about a bomb being planted in the temple caused panic among pilgrims.


2008 Jodhpur stampede, Cause
Others said there was a scramble in the men's queue; some devotees slipped and soon there was a massive resultant stampede where a day of celebration turned into one of mourning.


2008 Jodhpur stampede, Cause
An eyewitness also said that the path leading to the temple was very narrow with no emergency exit routes.


2008 Jodhpur stampede, Aftermath
Indian Army doctors were called to assist the local authorities in the relief operation. Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajnath Singh assured speedy relief to the victims of the tragedy. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje visited the site and ordered inquiry into the incident.


2008 Jodhpur stampede, Aftermath
Local authorities revealed that most of the dead were men as the queue for women was separate.


2008 Jodhpur stampede, Reactions
Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri and Governor B L Joshi both expressed grief over the death of the pilgrims at the Chamunda Devi temple. A Raj Bhavan statement issued a condolence message saying Joshi conveyed his deepest sorrow to the bereaved families of the dead and said he would pray for the speedy recovery of those injured in the incident. Khanduri followed too in expressing grief over the accident. He also directed District Magistrates of all the 13 districts of his state to make special arrangements at religious places as they are expected to attract large crowds during the Navratra period.


2008 Jodhpur stampede, Reactions
Jodhpur Muslims decided to keep the Eid celebrations next day a low-key affair. Local Muslim youth joined rescue teams, ferried victims to hospitals and donated blood.


2008 Johan Cruyff Shield
The thirteenth edition of the Johan Cruyff Shield (Dutch: Johan Cruijff Schaal) was held on 23 August 2008 at the Amsterdam Arena. The match, which inaugurated the 2008–09 season in Dutch football, featured the 2007–08 Eredivisie champions PSV Eindhoven and 2007–08 KNVB Cup winners Feyenoord. PSV won 2–0.


2008 Jordan Rally
The 2008 Jordan Rally was the fifth round of 2008 World Rally Championship season and the third gravel round of the championship and also the second round of the Junior World Rally Championship. The event began with a ceremonial start on Thursday, April 24 in Amman, Jordan, near the Dead Sea.


2008 Jos riots
The 2008 Jos riots were riots involving Christians and Muslims over the result of a local election on 28 and 29 November 2008 in Jos, a city in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. Two days of rioting left hundreds injured and at least 761 dead. The Nigerian army was deployed and by 30 November order was restored.


2008 Jos riots, Causes
Electoral workers did not publicly list the winners of the elections, and rumours began that the election was won by the candidate of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), barrister Timothy Gyang Buba, defeating the candidate for the All Nigerian Peoples Party. People from the largely Muslim Hausa community, began protesting even before the results were released, which results to clash that claims hundred of lives between the Muslims and Christians, who largely supported Buba.


2008 Jos riots, Causes
Similar riots in 2001 between Christians and Muslims in Jos also killed hundreds. A 2004 riot in Yelwa, another town in Plateau State resulted in the so-called Yelwa Massacre. Fighting in the north-central Kaduna State when it tried to impose shari'a law in 2000, resulted in the partition of Kaduna. This was followed by the Kaduna riots of November 2002, resulting from Nigeria's hosting of the Miss World contest, which one of its contestants had won the previous year.


2008 Jos riots, Riots
The two days of rioting led to the death of at least 761 people, and homes, mosques, churches and schools were damaged or burned by mobs. The Nigerian Red Cross Society reported that 10,000 people fled their homes due to the riots, and were living in government-provided shelters. Nigerian soldiers were sent into Jos to break up the fighting and create a buffer zone between the Christians and Muslims. Flights to and from Jos were cancelled and roads to the north were blocked.


2008 Jos riots, Effects
Jonah Jang, the governor of the Plateau State, imposed a 24-hour curfew on four districts of the city, and soldiers were permitted to "shoot on sight" to prevent more violence. Human Rights Watch alleged that soldiers and police carried out more than 130 extrajudicial killings while responding to the riots. Many armed youths of both sides were arrested at military roadblocks. Police reported that more than 500 people were arrested as a result of the riots. But state officials said no one was successfully prosecuted.


2008 Ju-Jitsu World Championships
The 2008 Ju-Jitsu World Championship were the 8th edition of the Ju-Jitsu World Championships, and were held in Malmö, Sweden from November 28 to November 30, 2008.


2008 June Hong Kong rainstorm
2008 June Hong Kong Rainstorm was a rainstorm in Hong Kong on 7 June 2008, that caused flooding and landslides. It resulted in 2 deaths and 16 injuries. The Hong Kong Observatory recorded 145.5mm of precipitation at its headquarters from 08:00 to 09:00, setting the highest 1-hour precipitation record. 307.1 mm of precipitation was recorded during the whole day.


2008 June Hong Kong rainstorm, Precipitation
An active trough had been affecting the South China coast since May 29th, 2008. Around dawn on June 7th, rainfall arrived in Hong Kong. The rainfall mainly focused on Lantau Island, Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. The peak of the precipitation was from 08:00 to 09:00 in the morning. The Hong Kong Observatory recorded 145.5mm of precipitation, a record high, at its headquarters. Precipitation at Tung Chung for the entire day even surpassed 400mm. Former Chief Executive Donald Tsang, described it as "once in a century". The Civil Engineering and Development Department of Hong Kong estimated it as a "once in 1100 years" occurrence.


2008 June Hong Kong rainstorm, Rainstorm Signals
An Amber Rainstorm signal was issued at 05:15, and escalated to Red at 05:55. 112mm and 101mm of rain were recorded at the Eastern and Southern Districts respectively. 86mm was recorded at Sai Kung District. The Hong Kong Observatory eventually issued a Black Rainstorm Signal at 06:40 and it was sustained for 4 hours and 20 minutes. Red replaced Black at 11:00 and was then replaced by Amber at 11:30. All signals were cancelled at 13:30. A Landslide Warning was maintained from 01:00 June 7th till 12:00 June 8th.


2008 June Hong Kong rainstorm, New Territories (Excluding Lantau Island)
A retaining wall at Old Coffee Bay, Castle Peak Road, Tuen Mun fell and collapsed on a store with two residents. The two residents killed were cousins visiting from mainland China. Their bodies were not unearthed until 18:30 in the evening by firefighters despite efforts of nearby residents and firefighters.


2008 June Hong Kong rainstorm, Kowloon
A section of Hung Hom Road collapsed at 13:00 on June 8th due to heavy rainfall the day before, causing detours.


2008 June Hong Kong rainstorm, Hong Kong Island
1.5m flood was observed at Sheung Wan, as well as seawater back-flow. Village houses in Pokfulam were flooded, as were many roads, including Tai Hang Road, Pokfulam Road, Water Street and Hill Road, Wong Nai Chung Road, Tin Lok Lane and Wong Chuk Hang Road. A landslide was seen at Kennedy Town. 13 slopes were pronounced at high risk of landslide after the rainstorm.


2008 June Hong Kong rainstorm, Lantau Island
North Lantau Highway experienced the most severe flood ever. Major landslip occurred in Tung Chung, blocking all lanes of the highway. Ground commute between Tung Chung, airport and downtown was completely halted, except for train service.


2008 June Hong Kong rainstorm, Effects
- 326 landslips and 539 floods were reported- 410 flights were delayed, 14 were canceled on June 7th- Hong Kong Wetland Park and Disneyland Resort were temporarily closed in the morning- Ngong Ping 360 service was halted - All banks and judiciary organisations closed for the day- The central allocation of primary school was delayed - Many hiking trails were closed, detoured or permanently blocked, especially on Lantau Island


2008 June rugby union tests
The 2008 mid-year rugby union tests (also known as the Summer Internationals in the Northern Hemisphere) refers to the international rugby union played from May to July 2008; they were mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. For Australia, New Zealand and South Africa they were preparation for the 2008 Tri-Nations. The Barbarians, an invitational club side, also conducted a three-match tour.


2008 Junior League World Series
The 2008 Junior League World Series took place from August 10–16 in Taylor, Michigan, United States. Willemstad, Curaçao defeated Hilo, Hawaii in the championship game.


2008 Junior Oceania Cup
The 2008 Junior Oceania Cup was an international field hockey tournament hosted by Australia. The quadrennial tournament serves as the Junior Championship of Oceania organized by the Oceania Hockey Federation. It was held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia between 11 and 14 December 2008.


2008 Junior Oceania Cup
Australia won the tournament in both the men's and women's competitions. The tournament also served as a qualifier for the 2009 men's and women's Junior World Cups, with both Australia and New Zealand qualifying.


2008 Justice and Development Party closure trial
The closure trial of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey was a court case in 2008 to close the party and ban its 71 leading members from politics for five years, based on the charge that the party violated the principle of separation of religion and state in Turkey. The closure request failed by one vote, as only 6 of the 11 judges ruled in favour, with 7 required; however, 10 out of 11 judges agreed that the AKP had become "a center for anti-secular activities", leading to a loss of state funding for the party.


2008 Justice and Development Party closure trial, Background
Islamic parties, which were effectively predecessors of the AKP, had been previously closed for violating the separation of religion and state, including the National Order Party (1971) National Salvation Party (1981) Welfare Party (1998) and Virtue Party (2001).


2008 Justice and Development Party closure trial, Proceedings, Preliminary hearings
On 18 March 2008, documents requesting a closure trial of the ruling AKP were presented to the Constitutional Court of Turkey. On 31 May 2008, the Constitutional Court announced that it would accept the indictment of the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, and hear the case concerning the closure of the party. As for banning politicians, the indictment cited 61 speeches and actions by Erdoğan, 16 for Arınç, and 10 for Gül when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. Rapporteurs of the Constitutional Court then prepared a report for the judges to deliberate.


2008 Justice and Development Party closure trial, Proceedings, Preliminary hearings
Head rapporteur and Associate Professor Osman Can argued in his 70-page report that the documents presented to the Court should be revised; he said that the statements and evidence presented to the Court about Abdullah Gül (during his time as Foreign Minister) should be revised since Gül was now the President of Turkey.


2008 Justice and Development Party closure trial, Proceedings, Preliminary hearings
In a rare unanimous vote, the indictment to take up the case was accepted by all of the 11 judges. The prosecutor had also asked for 71 politicians to be banned from politics for five years, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Abdullah Gül, and former Speaker of the Parliament Bülent Arınç. While there was disagreement on Gül, with 7 votes for and 4 against his inclusion, the other 70 names were agreed on unanimously.


2008 Justice and Development Party closure trial, Proceedings, Preliminary hearings
After close to five hours of deliberations, the 11 judges of the Constitutional Court decided in a rare unanimous ruling to take up the case for closing the AKP and banning the prime minister and dozens of lawmakers from politics. Of the 11 judges, 7 would have sufficed to close down the AKP and ban its 71 figures from politics.


2008 Justice and Development Party closure trial, Proceedings, Trial
On 28 July 2008, 6 members voted for closure (Osman Alifeyyaz Paksüt, Fulya Kantarcıoğlu, Şevket Apalak, Zehra Ayla Perktaş, Mehmet Erten, and Necmi Özler), while 5 voted against (Haşim Kılıç, Sacit Adalı, Serruh Kaleli, Ahmet Akyalçın, and Serdar Özgüldür). The last vote was submitted two days later, after 10 members had already voted, by the President of the Constitutional Court Haşim Kılıç on 30 July 2008 at 6:00 pm. If he had voted for closure, the result would have been 7:4 for closure and the case would have succeeded. However, Kılıç voted against the closure, thus making the final vote 6:5, one short of the 7:4 needed for closure.


2008 Justice and Development Party closure trial, Proceedings, Trial
The second voting on the state funding of the AKP resulted in 10 out of 11 members voting to cut public funding for the party. The Court decision has cut the state funding of the AKP by 50%. The only vote against cutting the funding was given by President of the Constitutional Court, Haşim Kılıç.


2008 Justice and Development Party closure trial, Proceedings, Trial
With only 6 members voting for a closure (7 would have been needed), the Court has rejected the demands of the prosecutor and did not ban the party. The court gave its verdict on 9 July 2009 rejecting the demand, and the case against the Justice and Development Party was terminated. The European Union were relieved with the decision by Turkey's highest court not to ban the ruling AKP. Joost Lagendijk, a member of the European Parliament who works on matters regarding Turkey said: "Everybody is very happy with this decision, otherwise it would have created a hell of a situation for Turkey."


2008 K League
The 2008 K League was the 26th season of the K League. The regular season and playoffs' format was the same as the one used in the 2007 season. It began on March 8, and the final of the playoffs finished on 7 December.


2008 K League
On 2 August 2008, the first ever Jomo Cup kicked off. The K League All-Stars squared off against the J.League All-Stars at the Japan National Stadium. Lee Woon-jae was selected as the K League All-Star Team's captain and Cha Bum-kun managed the squad. The K League All-Stars won the game by a score of 3–1.


2008 K League, Top scorers
This list includes goals of the championship playoffs. The official top goalscorer was decided with records of only regular season, and Dudu won the award with 15 goals.


2008 K League, Awards, Main awards
The K League Players' Player of the Year was published by Korean edition of FourFourTwo in summer, and was not an official award of the K League, but 124 players participated in the selection process.


2008 K League Championship
The 2008 K League Championship was the twelfth competition of the K League Championship, and was held to decide the 26th champions of the K League. The top six clubs of the regular season qualified for the championship. The winners of the regular season directly qualified for the final, and second place team qualified for the semi-final. The other four clubs entered the first round, and the winners of the second round advanced to the semi-final. Each match was played as a single match, excluding the final which consisted of two matches. Suwon Samsung Bluewings became the champions by defeating FC Seoul 3–2 on aggregate in the final.


2008 K League Championship, Final, First leg
Assistant referees:Kim Yong-soo (South Korea)Jung Hae-sang (South Korea)Fourth official:Choi Kwang-bo (South Korea)


2008 K League Championship, Final, Second leg
Assistant referees:Kim Kye-soo (South Korea)Kim Jung-sik (South Korea)Fourth official:Lee Sang-yong (South Korea)


2008 K2 disaster
The 2008 K2 disaster occurred on 1 August 2008, when 11 mountaineers from international expeditions died on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth. Three others were seriously injured. The series of deaths, over the course of the Friday ascent and Saturday descent, was the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering. Some of the specific details remain uncertain, with different plausible scenarios having been given about different climbers' timing and actions, when reported later via survivors' eyewitness accounts or via radio communications of climbers who died (sometimes minutes) later in the course of events on K2 that day.


2008 K2 disaster
The main problem was reported as an ice avalanche occurring at an area known as "the Bottleneck", which destroyed many of the climbers' rope lines. However, two climbers died on the way up to the top prior to the avalanche. Among the dead were people from France, Ireland, Korea, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, and Serbia.


2008 K2 disaster, Expedition goal: K2
K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest, with a peak elevation of 8,611 metres (28,251 ft). K2 is part of the Karakoram range, not far from the Himalayas, and is located on the border between the Pakistani Gilgit-Baltistan region, and China's Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang Autonomous Region. It is regarded by mountaineers as far more challenging than Everest, and is statistically the second most dangerous mountain in the world in terms of fatality per summit.


2008 K2 disaster, Expedition goal: K2
The most dangerous section of the climb is the Bottleneck, a steep couloir overhung by seracs from the ice field east of the summit. The high risk of falling ice and avalanches means climbers aim to minimize time spent there. This section would prove especially deadly on this day.


2008 K2 disaster, Expedition goal: K2
The climbing season at K2 lasts from June to August, but in 2008 adverse weather prevented any groups from summitting during June and July. At the end of July, ten different groups were waiting for good weather, some of them having waited for almost two months. The months preceding the summit push were used for acclimatization and preparing for the camps higher on the mountain, the highest of them, Camp IV, at 7,800–7,900 m (25,600–25,900 ft) above sea level.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit
With July's end approaching and weather forecasts of improving weather, several groups arrived at Camp IV on Thursday, 31 July in preparation to try the summit as soon as weather would permit. Members of an American team, a French team, a Norwegian team, a Serbian team, a South Korean team along with their Sherpas from Nepal, an international team sponsored by the Dutch company Norit, and the teams' Pakistani high-altitude porters (HAPs) decided to work together on the Friday 1 August ascent. A few independent climbers (a solo Spaniard and an Italian pair) also pushed for the summit in the morning.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, Initial delays
The High Altitude Porters (HAPs) and Sherpas started to prepare fixed lines before midnight. They were joined by Spanish solo climber Alberto Zerain, who climbed from Camp III during the night and decided to continue his summit push early, rather than stay at Camp IV. The most experienced HAP, Shaheen Baig, had to go back down with symptoms of high altitude sickness. His experience as the only person in the collected teams to have previously summited K2, and his unofficial leadership of the HAPs and Sherpas, was sorely missed. Some confusion followed and ropes may have been left behind or placed too far down the slope from the Bottleneck.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, Initial delays
When the climbing groups started upward at 3:00 a.m., they found that the HAPs and Sherpas had started planting lines right above Camp IV, where they were not needed, up into the Bottleneck, and then had run out of rope for the traverse just above the Bottleneck. This forced the climbers to take the rope from the lower portion of the route and use it to prepare the lines above the Bottleneck, causing a dangerous unplanned delay in the climb schedule.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, Initial delays
At this point, Eric Meyer and Fredrik Sträng of the American group decided to abort and return to Camp IV, due to both the high probability of reaching the summit late, and the high exposure to ice fall in the crowded Bottleneck. Chris Klinke pushed on for a few more hours before abandoning the ascent, as did Jelle Staleman of the Norit team, who was also suffering frozen feet.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, Mandić and Baig fall
At 8:00 a.m., climbers were finally advancing through the Bottleneck. Dren Mandić, from the Serbian team, decided to unclip himself from the fixed rope to attend to his oxygen system and to pass Cecilie Skog of the Norwegian team. He lost his balance and fell, bumping into Skog. She was still clipped to the rope and was merely knocked over. Mandić, however, fell over 100 m (328 feet) down the Bottleneck. Some climbers at Camp IV claimed they could see he was still moving after the fall and sent a group to help recover Mandić. Swede Fredrik Sträng stated he took command of the recovery operation.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, Mandić and Baig fall
When Sträng reached the body, Serbian climbers Predrag Zagorac and Iso Planić, along with their HAP Mohammed Hussein, had already arrived. They had found no pulse and, judging by the severity of Mandić's injuries, pronounced him dead. The Serbian climbers decided to lower the body down to Camp IV, and Sträng assisted them. They were joined by Jehan Baig, a HAP from the French team, who had fulfilled his assisting duties and had been allowed to head down.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, Mandić and Baig fall
Several people later indicated Baig may have been suffering from high altitude sickness, since he had displayed questionable behaviour in abseiling down the Bottleneck. Sträng also noticed that Baig was incoherent, first offering to help in the rescue, later refusing to help, then returning moments later to assist them again. Baig lost his footing and bumped into Sträng, who then urged him to let go of the rope attached to Mandić's harness, before all four climbers would be dragged down.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, Mandić and Baig fall
Baig finally let go of the rope, but to Sträng's and the others' surprise, he did not try to stop his slide by using the self-arrest technique, which has about a 50% chance of arresting a fall, and Baig fell to his death. It is unclear why he did not try to stop his slide. Sträng then decided to descend without Mandić's body. The Serbian group aborted, wrapped Mandić's body in a flag and fastened him to the mountain, and started to descend. Nicholas Rice, a climber with the French team who had been delayed, also aborted at this point.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, Mandić and Baig fall
These delays, together with the traffic jam in the Bottleneck, resulted in most climbers reaching the summit much later than planned, some as late as 8:00 p.m., well outside the typical time for summitting of 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. All together, 18 people summited that day, though eight (plus one who stopped near the summit) would not survive the lengthy descent. On the descent, the Spaniard Alberto Zerain, who had topped out first and alone at 3:00 p.m., managed to pass through the Bottleneck without trouble.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, First serac fall
By 8:30 p.m., darkness had enveloped K2. Members of the Norwegian group – including Lars Flatø Nessa and Skog, who had both summitted two hours after Zerain – had almost navigated the traverse leading to the Bottleneck, when a serac (a large block of glacial ice) broke off from above. As it fell, it cut all the fixed lines and took with it Skog's husband Rolf Bae, who had abandoned the ascent only 100 m (330 ft) below the summit, telling Nessa to look after his wife, as he waited for her. Nessa and Skog continued descending without the fixed lines, and managed to reach Camp IV during the night.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, First serac fall
As a result of the serac's fall, the descent through the Bottleneck became more technical. Chunks of ice lay scattered around the route, and the mountaineers above were stranded in darkness in the death zone above 8,000 m (26,000 ft). Since the climbers had planned for the fixed lines, they were not carrying additional ropes or fall protection devices, forcing the climbers to "free solo" the descent through the notorious Bottleneck. According to team Norit's Dutch mountaineer Wilco van Rooijen, panic broke out among the climbers waiting above the Bottleneck. Some tried to descend in the darkness, while others decided to bivouac and wait until morning before descending.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, Midnight descents
The Norit team included a full climbing member named Pemba Gyalje, a Sherpa mountaineer who years earlier had been a support climber on Mount Everest. Gyalje descended in the darkness without fixed ropes to reach Camp IV before midnight. Sherpa Chhiring Dorje also descended the Bottleneck with "Little" Pasang Lama (who had been stranded without an ice axe) secured to his harness. "I can just about imagine how you might pull it off," writes Ed Viesturs in K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain. "You kick each foot in solid, plant the axe, then tell the other guy to kick with his own feet and punch holds with his hands. Don't move until he's secure. Still, if Pasang had come off [i.e., 'fallen'], he probably would have taken Chhiring with him. Talk about selfless!"


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, Midnight descents
Two members of the South Korean expedition, Kim Jae-soo and Go Mi-Young, also managed to navigate the Bottleneck in the dark, although the latter had to be helped by two Sherpas from the Korean B team, Chhiring Bhote and "Big" Pasang Bhote, who were supposed to summit the next morning. The men had climbed up around midnight without food or oxygen, and found Go Mi-Young stranded somewhere in the Bottleneck, unsure of which route she had to take. They guided her down safely.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, D'Aubarède's fall
Meanwhile, team Norit's Cas van de Gevel and the French team's Hugues D'Aubarède had each decided to manoeuvre the Bottleneck in the dark. As van de Gevel reached the bottom of the Bottleneck, he witnessed a climber falling to his death, a story corroborated by the two Sherpas Chhiring Bhote and "Big" Pasang Bhote, who also had witnessed one or two objects falling from the mountain. This climber was probably D'Aubarède, whom van de Gevel had passed just above the Bottleneck in the dark. D'Aubarède had run out of bottled oxygen hours before, and when van de Gevel had passed him, he had looked tired and insisted van de Gevel descend before him.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Friday, 1 August, D'Aubarède's fall
Italian semi-soloist Marco Confortola and Norit teammates van Rooijen and Irishman Ger McDonnell bivouacked above the traverse, as they could not find the fixed ropes leading across the traverse. Confortola claimed that during the bivouac, he heard screams and saw headlights disappear below him after a roaring sound came from the serac field. At that point, eight people were still above the Bottleneck.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August
The rescue efforts started in the base camp as a group was sent upwards with ropes to help those still stuck in the Bottleneck. The group included Sherpas Tsering Bhote and "Big" Pasang Bhote, who had previously helped Go Mi-Young down the Bottleneck; they now went to search for their relative Jumik Bhote, who had been stranded with the remaining climbers of the Korean expedition somewhere above the Bottleneck.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Second serac fall
Early in the morning, above the traverse, van Rooijen gave up the search for the fixed ropes and descended alone. His vision was deteriorating and he feared he was going snow blind, requiring him to get off the mountain quickly. Confortola and McDonnell did not follow him immediately. Later, van Rooijen reached the remaining Korean climbers (Confortola claims one of them was Kyeong-Hyo Park) and their guide Jumik Bhote.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Second serac fall
The men were tangled in several ropes and had clearly been hanging there, some upside down and bloodied, through the night, but all alive. It is unclear whether or not the men were the victims of a second serac fall, an avalanche, or perhaps a regular fall leaving them tangled in the ropes. Some sources mention only two Koreans and Jumik Bhote, while other reports indicate three remaining Koreans (one near death).


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Second serac fall
It could be that this was the event Confortola had witnessed during the bivouac the previous night, while it could also be that this was the second object Tsering Bhote and "Big" Pasang Bhote saw falling off the mountain—there is little direct evidence to clearly confirm either possibility. Van Rooijen handed Jumik Bhote his spare pair of gloves but was unable to help them any more. He claims Jumik Bhote informed him a rescue mission was under way from Camp IV. Van Rooijen decided to continue descending.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Second serac fall
Confortola and McDonnell reached the Korean group later in the morning and worked for several hours trying to free them. It is unclear what happened next. Confortola claims McDonnell, after working with Confortola for at least 1.5 hours, suddenly climbed back up the mountain, leaving him with the three stranded men. Confortola assumed McDonnell had succumbed to high-altitude sickness and was growing delusional, believing he had to climb back up. Left alone, Confortola did all he could for Jumik Bhote, giving him his own equipment.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Second serac fall
They had managed to get the Koreans back into at least a comfortable position, though they were still entangled. Confortola says he was able to radio Tsering Bhote and "Big" Pasang Bhote, who were on their way up to rescue the men. Confortola, having spent at least three hours with the entangled men, was exhausted and chose to continue down.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Second serac fall
Van Rooijen disputes Confortola's version of the events. Van Rooijen, who had seen Confortola and McDonnell helping the stranded Koreans and their guide from below, thinks McDonnell did not climb back up the mountain, but rather climbed up to the highest anchor supporting the three stranded men to try to transfer the load. He then could have returned to the three men and may have spent another several hours alone helping free the men from the ropes. In his book Surviving K2, van Rooijen provides some photographs he believes support these claims.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Third serac fall and avalanche
Confortola stated that some time after he left the three men, an avalanche struck just feet away from him. In the rubble of this avalanche, he spotted the remains of one climber. After investigating them, he concluded these were McDonnell's remains.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Third serac fall and avalanche
Just after noon, Tsering Bhote and "Big" Pasang Bhote had reached the bottom of the Bottleneck. There they found Confortola crawling on his hands and knees. The two Sherpas radioed Gyalje and van de Gevel to come up for Confortola, so Tsering Bhote and "Big" Pasang Bhote could continue the search for their relative Jumik Bhote and the Koreans. "Big" Pasang Bhote later radioed Gyalje that he had met Jumik Bhote and two members of the Korean expedition just above the Bottleneck—apparently they were freed after all.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Third serac fall and avalanche
He also radioed that a fourth climber, descending behind the two Koreans and the two Sherpas, had been swept away by a serac fall and was dead. The description of the climber's red-and-black suit matched McDonnell's, which suggests Confortola was mistaken in identifying the remains in the avalanche as McDonnell's and supports van Rooijen's theory that McDonnell freed the two Koreans and Jumik Bhote, before being killed in a different serac fall. Tsering Bhote, from his position at the base of the Bottleneck, has also claimed to have seen a serac fall strike the rescue party as they were descending near the top of the Bottleneck.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Uncertainties
Here, another mystery of the 2008 K2 disaster adds confusion to the sequence of events. There was one other climber still unaccounted for: D'Aubarède's HAP, Meherban Karim. Karim was last seen returning from the summit with D'Aubarède, in the later hours of 1 August. He and D'Aubarède must have gotten separated in the dark, as van de Gevel encountered only D'Aubarède above the Bottleneck. Van Rooijen, in his book Surviving K2, supports the theory that Karim bivouacked even higher on the mountain than himself, Confortola, and McDonnell.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Uncertainties
Again, van Rooijen provides photographic evidence: what looks like a climber can be seen above the serac field on the morning of 2 August. In a later photo, the figure seems to have disappeared, and there is a trail leading down the seracs. Van Rooijen and others, such as McDonnell's partner Annie Starkey, believe this figure was Karim. Disoriented from spending the night at such high altitudes without an oxygen mask, he might have gotten lost and stumbled onto the serac field, where he fell or got swept away by an avalanche or part of the breaking serac. He might even have actually caused one of the serac falls. Hence, it may have been Karim's remains Confortola had found earlier in the avalanche rubble.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Uncertainties
Graham Bowley, in his book No Way Down (2010), is unable to refute the evidence presented by van Rooijen but still deems the photos inconclusive at best. He is joined in his analysis by writer Michael Kodas. Both men edge towards the testimony of the only living eyewitness: Marco Confortola. In the photos taken by Gyalje, individual climbers cannot be made out. In fact, some of the figures assumed to be climbers could very well be rocks, and marks that look like trails are everywhere on the mountain.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Uncertainties
Confortola's statements were conflicting at best. Many of the things he said were later disproved. In his initial interview at Milan Airport, he stated that he had freed the Korean climbers. It was later determined that McDonnell had freed them. He may have also misidentified a body, later thought to be that of another climber, as McDonnell's. In regards to the night before, Confortola stated that he and McDonnell saw climbers being swept away, and they decided to bivouac until morning. He said van Rooijen joined them later. Van Rooijen disputed this claim.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Uncertainties
He told McDonnell's family that they had all started together and bivouacked together at the same time. Overall, much of the truth of the story came down to van Rooijen's and Gyalje's versions of events. Part of the reason Confortola's version of events were believed early on was because he was first to speak to the media. Gyalje was still trekking out of the mountain range when Confortola was giving his statements and it was days before Gyalje could give his version of events.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Uncertainties
Another possible explanation of the mystery is an error in "Big" Pasang Bhote's observations about the colour of the suit, meaning the last climber could have been Karim, who was wearing a pure red down suit. If so, Confortola had indeed identified McDonnell's remains in the avalanche earlier. The existence of multiple plausible scenarios underscores the uncertainty, even among eyewitnesses, pertaining to the course of events on K2 that day.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Uncertainties
In the book Buried in the Sky (2012), Amanda Padoan and Peter Zuckerman examine much more closely the Sherpa and HAP experiences of the 2008 disaster, and present plausible alternative scenarios and explanations of the events, including the possibility that McDonnell and Karim were still alive at the time of the fourth serac fall.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Fourth serac fall and avalanche
Minutes after "Big" Pasang Bhote had radioed in the news that he had found his relative Jumik Bhote and two Koreans, another avalanche or serac fall struck. It swept away the four men. Tsering Bhote, who had climbed more slowly than fellow rescuer "Big" Pasang Bhote, had not yet reached the top of the Bottleneck. Consequently, he survived the avalanche, as did Gyalje and Confortola at the bottom of the Bottleneck. The death toll had now risen to 11.


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Saturday, 2 August, Van Rooijen's descent
Meanwhile, van Rooijen was making his way down the mountain alone. He had climbed down a new route to the left of the Česen route, bypassing Camp IV. Van de Gevel and Gyalje descended from Camp IV to Camp III after they had heard van Rooijen was still somewhere on the mountain. Van Rooijen had managed several satellite phone calls that may have helped pinpoint his location. He would ultimately have to spend a second bivouac out on the mountain, suffering third-degree frostbite to his feet. Wilco van Rooijen is one of only a few people to survive two days above the 8000m "Death Zone".


2008 K2 disaster, Events between Camp IV and the summit, Evacuation
On Saturday, Van de Gevel and Gyalje made contact with van Rooijen on the Česen route early in the morning; the three managed to get down to the base camp at 10:00 p.m. The next day, Van de Gevel and van Rooijen were evacuated from base camp by helicopter, to Skardu. Confortola reached Camp II, the advance base camp. Pakistani authorities released a list of names of those killed and injured. Confortola was evacuated by helicopter the following day.


2008 K2 disaster, Rescue operation
The Pakistani military started a rescue operation early on 4 August 2008, using two helicopters. They rescued two injured and frostbitten Dutch climbers from the base camp, located approximately 5,000 metres (16,400 ft) above sea level. Four climbers, including an Italian, were making their own way down the mountain. The four were flown to Skardu for treatment. Van Rooijen was found using GPS coordinates sent out by his Thuraya satellite phone when he used it to call his brother.


2008 K2 disaster, List of fatalities
One of the three Koreans either died during the incident that caused their original fall and tangled the ropes, or the morning after before the others were freed. Some sources claim there were three Koreans tangled in the ropes, whilst McDonnell and Confortola were trying to rescue them. Others have the number at two Koreans and Jumik Bhote. What is certain is: only two Koreans were alive to encounter Pasang Bhote before the last serac fall.


2008 K2 disaster, Climbing on K2 since the disaster
There were no summits in 2009 and 2010, during which the renowned skier Fredrik Ericsson fell to his death in the Bottleneck. K2's summit was not reached again until 23 August 2011, when Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner (Austria), Maxut Zhumayev and Vassiliy Pivtsov (Kazakhstan), and Darek Zaluski (Poland) topped out via the North Pillar.


2008 K2 disaster, Climbing on K2 since the disaster
According to AdventureStats, the last 17 fatalities on K2 have all occurred in, around, or above the Bottleneck, once again proving the deadly nature of K2's upper slopes.


2008 K3 League
The K3 League 2008 was the second season of K3 League. It operated in two stages, with the winners of each stage and the two runners-up advancing to the post-season championship playoffs. The five clubs on high rank also earned a spot to the 2009 Korean FA Cup competition.


2008 K3 League
The league began on 22 May 2008, and ended on 6 December 2008.


2008 K3 League, Championship Playoff, Final
Yangju FC 2–2 Hwasung Shinwoo Electronics on aggregate. Yangju FC won by away goals.


2008 KB Extraliga season
The 2008 KB Extraliga Competition was a Czech domestic rugby club competition, operated by the Česká Rugbyová Unie (ČSRU). It began on August 16, 2008 with a match between Tatra Smíchov and Petrovice at the Stadion ragby Císařka in Prague, and ended with the final on November of that year with Tatra Smíchov beating Říčany 17-9 played on Synot Tip Arena in Prague.


2008 KB Extraliga season
Praga and Přelouč were added, increasing the number of teams to 10 from the 8 of the previous season.


2008 KB Extraliga season
Unlike most other years, the league was played over the course of only one year.


2008 KB Extraliga season, Schedule and results
From the official ČSRU site. Within each weekend, matches are to be listed in the following order:


2008 KB První Liga season
The 2008 KB První Liga Competition was a Czech domestic rugby club competition, operated by the Česká Rugbyová Unie (ČSRU). It began on August 31, 2008 with a match between Olomouc and ARC Iuridica, and ended with the final on 18 October of that year with Bystrc beating Olomouc 31-10.


2008 KB První Liga season
Unlike most other years, the league was played over the course of only one year.


2008 KB První Liga season, Schedule and results
From the official ČSRU site. Within each weekend, matches are to be listed in the following order:


2008 KBS Drama Awards
The 2008 KBS Drama Awards (Korean: KBS 연기대상) is a ceremony honoring the outstanding achievement in television on the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) network for the year of 2008. It was held on December 31, 2008 and hosted by Choi Soo-jong and Han Ji-min.


2008 KNSB Dutch Allround Championships
The 2008 KNSB Dutch Allround Championships in speed skating were held at the Kardinge ice stadium in Groningen, Netherlands on 27 and 28 December 2007. Although the event took place in December 2007 this was the 2008 edition as it is part of the 2007-08 speed skating season.


2008 KNSB Dutch Allround Championships
Sven Kramer defended his 2007 title by winning all four distances. In the women's tournament Ireen Wüst won the tournament with only winning the opening 500 m, young gun Marrit Leenstra won the 1500 m and veteran Renate Groenewold the 3000 m and 5000 m.


2008 KNSB Dutch Single Distance Championships
The 2008 KNSB Dutch Single Distance Championships took place in Heerenveen at the Thialf ice rink on 26–28 October 2007. Although this tournament was held in 2007 it was the 2008 edition as it was part of the 2007–2008 speed skating season.


2008 KNVB Cup Final
The 2008 KNVB Cup Final was a football match between Feyenoord and Roda JC on 27 April 2008 at De Kuip, Rotterdam. It was the final match of the 2007–08 KNVB Cup competition. Feyenoord beat Roda JC 2–0 after goals from Denny Landzaat and Jonathan de Guzmán. It was their eleventh KNVB Cup triumph.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack
The 2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack was an attack on the gym of the Kabul Serena Hotel, in Kabul, Afghanistan on January 14, 2008, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack
A Norwegian delegation under Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was staying at the hotel at the time of the attack. The attack claimed six lives, including Norwegian journalist Carsten Thomassen. Six others were also injured.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack
The Kabul Serena Hotel is a five-star hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, belonging to Serena Hotels, designed by the Montreal-based Group Arcop Architects and since its reopening in 2005 has been used by international media crews and politicians. The hotel also houses the Australian embassy in Afghanistan.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Attack
At 6:30 pm local time, three men disguised in police uniforms created a distraction while a fourth man entered the hotel compound to detonate his suicide vest. Taliban spokesman Zadihullah Mujahid said that the militants had been armed with AK-47 automatic rifles, hand grenades and explosive jackets. After a car bomb had detonated outside the hotel, the militants began firing around inside the compound. According to a NATO spokesman, one of the compound guards managed to kill one of the militants before they entered the hotel.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Attack
Two of the militants threw hand grenades at the guards outside, then entered the hotel complex itself. As they entered the hotel, one of the militants detonated a suicide vest, while at least one other, who was wearing an Afghan police uniform, began firing an AK-47.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Attack
The Norwegian photographer Stian Solum explained that he was one of those shot at by a man wearing an Afghan police uniform as he left the lift. According to Norwegian foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne Lene Dale Sandsten Norwegian officials were in a meeting one level down from the reception when they heard shooting and "a big blast".


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Attack
The militants were supposedly planning to target the hotel's exercise and spa facility, which is used by many foreigners.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Attack
After the attack, American and Afghan forces appeared at the scene in order to set up a perimeter around the hotel and search for the remaining assailants. Private Security Contractors employed by the U.S. State Department Worldwide Personal Protective Services of team Hammer 4 QRF were some of the first responders to arrive on scene. After arriving they began a methodical, room to room clearing of the hotel. They evacuated over 20 foreign nationals in armored Land Cruiser and Suburban vehicles. The Norwegian ISAF force in Kabul evacuated injured and others from the hotel. The Norwegians used two armoured vehicles, a Sisu XA-186 and a patrol car, including a medic and a nurse during the evacuation.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Fatalities
Six people are believed to have been killed and six wounded. Two Norwegians were shot and severely injured in the attack. One of them was Dagbladet journalist Carsten Thomassen, who was hit by three rounds and later died from his wounds; the other was a male employee from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs . They were transported by Norwegian soldiers to a Czech ISAF field hospital in Kabul, where Thomassen died during surgery due to his injuries.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Fatalities
Two hotel guards were killed in the attack as well as a Filipino female employee at the hotel and an American citizen, Thor Hesla, who was a long-time political campaigner for David Wu, Bill Bradley and Bill Clinton, among others.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Fatalities
One of the attackers was killed by security forces and a second killed in the explosion he caused. A diplomat from the United Arab Emirates was shot in the abdomen and severely injured.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, The perpetrators
A Western medic who arrived at the hotel after the attack said that of the four attackers, one was shot and killed in the lobby, one had detonated himself in the courtyard, one apparently locked himself on the hotel roof by mistake and then detonated his explosive vest, and the fourth had fled the scene and was captured by security guards.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre resided at Serena Hotel along with a large delegation from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time of the attack. Everyone attending the meeting located one floor below the lobby were ordered down on the floor by Norwegian Police Security Service guards. They remained lying while the guards were ready to use their weapons, in case the room itself should be attacked.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre
The delegation was then moved to safety in a bomb shelter in the basement of the hotel. At the time of the attack, Støre had just begun his meeting with the leader of the Afghan Human Rights Commission.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon later stated that the Norwegian delegation led by Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre had been the targets for the attack., while the Taliban released different statements. One source claimed the Norwegian foreign minister was not the target for the attack, although the Norwegian media said that the Taliban wished to attack the Serena Hotel while Støre resided there in order to intimidate on an "international level".


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Details, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre
Due to security reasons, Støre cancelled the rest of his visit to Afghanistan the day after the attack.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Controversy in Norway
The attack and Thomassen's death in particular triggered controversy in Norway when it became known that the Norwegian Foreign Ministry had ignored recommendations from the Norwegian Police Security Service and the Norwegian Intelligence Service regarding the security arrangements for Støre's visit. One particularly controversial decision, which may have contributed to the Taliban's choice of target, was to publish Støre's itinerary, including the name of the hotel where he would be staying, in advance of the trip.


2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack, Controversy in Norway
Furthermore, while it was standard operating procedure for the Norwegian ISAF forces to escort any Norwegian delegation in Afghanistan with a protection detail including a medevac APC, the Foreign Ministry had declined such an escort. Subsequent to the attack, sources within the Norwegian armed forces expressed dismay at the Norwegian Foreign Ministry's lack of proper contingency plans for medical evacuation.


2008 Kadima leadership election
An election for the leadership of Kadima was held on 17 September 2008 as a concession to Kadima's coalition partner, Labour, which had threatened to bring down the government if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert didn't stand aside following police investigations into alleged corruption during his terms as minister and as mayor of Jerusalem.


2008 Kadima leadership election
As Kadima remained the largest party in the Knesset and the coalition, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the designated new leader after balloting, had the chance to form a government without a need for elections.


2008 Kadima leadership election, Campaign
The two front-runners throughout the campaign consistently remained Mofaz and Livni, with Livni always holding a consistent lead in the polls. (Although, it should be noted, Israeli primary polls are frequently unreliable, due to poor sampling and turnout predictions. Most of the polls in the 2012 Kadima primary showed Livni ahead of Mofaz, yet Mofaz ended up winning by 24 points; likewise, Amir Peretz beat former Prime Minister Shimon Peres in the 2005 Labor leadership primary even though most polls predicted a solid Peres victory.)


2008 Kadima leadership election, Campaign
While both frontrunners supported a two-state solution, Mofaz attacked Livni for wanting to divide Jerusalem in a final peace deal with the Palestinians, and claimed that his military experience would make him a more qualified Prime Minister. Livni and her supporters claimed that a vote for Mofaz is the same as a vote for the Likud due to Mofaz's hawkish and more right-wing positions. They emphasized Livni's "clean" (free from corruption allegations) image and showed that Kadima led by Livni would win more seats in Parliament than Kadima led by Mofaz. Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert remained neutral in the primary, but was alleged to privately favor Mofaz.


2008 Kadima leadership election, Results
Exit polls released after the poll indicated a double-digit victory for Livni. The actual vote count turned out much closer, amid very low turnout, with Shaul Mofaz coming within a few hundred votes of winning an unexpected victory over Livni. Supporters of Mofaz called for a recount but Mofaz rejected any legal challenge of the declared result and called Livni to congratulate her on her victory, as did Sheetrit and Dichter.


2008 Kadima leadership election, Aftermath
After Mofaz's loss, he announced that he would be taking a break from politics and leaving the government and Knesset. However, he would remain a member of Kadima. Soon after, however, he announced his return and won the 2nd place in Kadima's Knesset list for the 2009 elections. In a rematch in 2012, he won the leadership, and in the 2013 election led the party to a stunning collapse, winning 2 seats.


2008 Kadima leadership election, Aftermath
After her election, Livni failed to form a governing coalition, having failed to reach an agreement with Shas. Subsequently general elections took place on February 10, 2009.


2008 Kagame Interclub Cup
The CECAFA Club Cup is a football club tournament organised by CECAFA. It has been known as the Kagame Interclub Cup since 2002, when Rwandan President Paul Kagame began sponsoring the competition. It is contested by clubs from East and Central Africa.


2008 Kakkonen – Finnish League Division 2
League tables for teams participating in Kakkonen, the third tier of the Finnish football league system, in 2008.


2008 Kandahar bombing
The 2008 Kandahar bombing of February 17, 2008 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, was an attack targeting a crowd of people watching a dog-fighting competition. With more than 100 killed, it was the deadliest attack on Afghan soil since 2001.


2008 Kandahar bombing
The target of the attack was believed to have been a local police commander who was killed in the blast, Abdul Hakim Jan. He was reported to be known in the area for the strong stand he took against Taliban forces. "He was a big wall for us; no one else can take his place," Ahmedullah, a 50-year-old farmer in the neighboring Arghandab District. "Now I guess that Arghandab can become a station of the Taliban. They were scared of our commander Abdul Hakim. Now we don't have any other person like him in the whole district."


2008 Kandahar bombing
Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said he'd tried to warn the police commander away from the event, saying he, the Governor, had known there were bombers active in the area.


2008 Kandahar bombing
"A Taliban spokesman calling himself Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told Canwest News Service that his group did not co-ordinate the first [Kandahar] suicide strike, but took responsibility for" a second the next day in Spin Boldak.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case
The 2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case refers to the gang-rape of a 28-year-old nun during the 2008 Kandhamal violence. The incident received media attention during the riots.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case
The violence broke out between Hindu nationalists and Christians after the murder of a Hindu monk and four disciples. During the violence in  Kandhamal district, a Catholic nun who worked with the tribals was taken away, along with a priest from the house where she took shelter, by a mob shouting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai". The mob took her to another place where she was raped till another mob came and paraded her half-naked through the roads, beat her, and attempted to strip her completely naked along the way to a market place, where onlooking police did not intervene. The priest was doused with kerosene and an attempt made to burn him alive. Later the nun and priest were taken into police custody.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case
The nun blamed the police for allegedly being friendly with the attackers and discouraging her from filing a police complaint.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case
Later 3 suspects were convicted for the rape, and 6 others acquitted for lack of evidence.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Background
The incident happened during anti-Christian violence that targeted Christian Churches, Institutions and homes where more than 395 churches and 5600 Christians' houses were burned, 39-100 Christians killed, and nearly 60,000 left homeless by groups led by the Hindu nationalist Sangh Parivar groups.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Background
The nun belonged to the Servite Order of the Catholic Church and was born in Sambalpur, Odisha, India. She was 28 years old during the time of the incident and worked with the tribals at the Divya jyoti Pastoral Centre in K Nuagaon, 12 km from Baliguda town in Kandhamal District.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Background
The nun was very active in spreading information about various central government employment schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGS) to the tribals. She was also helping the tribals with various micro-finance schemes. The non-tribal community were reportedly angry after their business took a hit from the nun's work. During 2007 and early 2008, the social service organization, Jan Vikas, where she worked was targeted several times. She asked for police protection, the day before the incident but the police did not respond.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Incident
During the evening of 24 August 2008, a large mob arrived in front of the Divya jyoti centre where the nun was staying and she ran out through the back door, along with a few others, into the forest and sheltered at the house of a Hindu man for the night. The mob later set the Divya jyoti centre on fire.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Incident
The rape incident happened around 1 p.m on 25 August. A mob of 2000 assembled near the house shouting "Bharat Mata ki jai", and about 40-50 men armed with iron rods, lathis, sickles, axes, spades and crowbars entered the house where she was staying. They slapped her and pulled her out of the house by her hair. The nun also claimed two men attempted to decapitate her with an axe. Another priest who also took shelter in the house where she stayed was also taken out and beaten.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Incident
The priest alleged that the men shouted pro-Hindutva slogans and wore saffron bandanas. The mob took her to a burnt down building, tore off her upper clothing, and she was gang-raped with two of the attackers standing on her hands. She lost consciousness and couldn't recall incidents after the assault. The priest was also beaten up and doused with kersone by the mob who threatened to set him on fire, as he protested. Another mob came there during the same time shouting "where is the nun" and "at-least hundred people should rape her". The nun claimed that the mob then took her and the priest outside and were searching for a rope to tie them up and burn them alive.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Incident
I was raped and now I don't want to be victimised by the police of Orissa. I want an investigation from the CBI.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Incident
The mob then paraded the nun half-naked without her upper clothing for more than a half-kilometer to a marketplace where people made lewd remarks such as “Hi beautiful” and commented on the size of her breasts. The mob kept beating her and attempted to strip her completely naked along the way. The nun claimed that when she asked for help from some policemen and sat beside them, they did not even flinch. As she was laying there in her blood, some people were collecting tyres to burn her and the priest alive.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Incident
The mob then took them to a police outpost along with a policeman. The nun claimed that the mob said they would return after taking a food break, and that the police were very friendly with a man who attacked her, and discouraged her from filing a first information report (FIR). The report by the Indian People's Tribunal confirmed all the incidents.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Incident
The nun and priest were then taken to a hospital for medical check ups, and in several instances, the police kept them inside the jeep or in the garages fearing attacks on the police station by mobs, and then took them to a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Incident
On the evening of the same day, the doctor who did medical tests on the nun confirmed that she had been raped.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Convictions
On 3 October 2008, the Police Chief of Khandamal district, confirmed the rape and arrested 4 people in connection with the incident. On 25 October 2008, the nun was asked by the police to help identify the rapists. 27 people were arrested in connection with the incident by 2012.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Convictions
On 14 March 2014, 3 people were convicted for the rape, and 6 people were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The key accused was given a jail time of 11 years, but was granted bail in 2016.


2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case, Aftermath
Her public appeal mounted pressure on the ruling party to ban Bajrang Dal, a Sangh Parivar group which was the most accused of orchestrating the Kandhamal riots. However the ruling party reportedly feared as such a move would mobilize the vote-banks towards the Bhartiya Janata Party.


2008 Kandhamal violence
The 2008 Kandhamal violence refers to widespread violence against Christians purportedly incited by Hindutva organisations in the Kandhamal district of Orissa, India, in August 2008 after the murder of the Hindu monk Lakshmanananda Saraswati. According to government reports the violence resulted in at least 39 Christians killed and 3906 Christian houses completely destroyed. Reports state, more than 395 churches were razed or burnt down, over 5,600 –  6,500 houses plundered or burnt down, over 600 villages ransacked and more than 60,000 – 75,000 people left homeless.


2008 Kandhamal violence
Other reports put the death toll at nearly 100 and suggested more than 40 women were sexually assaulted. Unofficial reports placed the number of those killed to more than 500. Many Christian families were burnt alive. Thousands of Christians were forced to convert to Hinduism under threat of violence. Many Hindu families were also assaulted in some places because they supported the Indian National Congress (INC) party. This violence was led by the Bajrang Dal, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the VHP.


2008 Kandhamal violence
Tensions reportedly started with violent incidents over Christmas 2007 which resulted in the burning of over 100 churches and church institutions, including hostels, convents, and over 700 houses. Three persons were also killed during the three days after Christmas. The Hindutva groups and activists of the Kui Samaj were mostly involved in the 2007 attacks.


2008 Kandhamal violence
After the riots 20,000 people were sheltered in 14 government established relief camps and 50,000 people fled to the surrounding districts and states. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom reported that by March 2009, and at least 3,000 individuals were still in government relief camps.


2008 Kandhamal violence, Background
Hateful anti-Christian campaigns in Kandhamal had already begun in the late 1960s, and continued for a long time, creating violence against minorities at frequent intervals including the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.


2008 Kandhamal violence, Background, Kandha–Pana tensions
The Kandhamal district houses more than 100,000 Christians where 60% of them converted from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and are locally called as the Pana Christians (Pana) and they speak Kui language like tribal Kondhs or Kandhas. The district has been ethnically divided for decades between the tribal Kui-speaking Kandha tribals, and lower caste Kui-speaking Panas, who occupy a dominant position in their society. The Kui Samaj or the Kui association claimed to represent all the Kandha tribals, who were nearly 52% of the population in the district


2008 Kandhamal violence, Background, Kandha–Pana tensions
The tribal Khonds were historically followed Hinduism , Shaktism &Tantra etc.The tribal Panas were also Hindus before their conversion to Christianity. by Christian Missionaries


2008 Kandhamal violence, Background, Kandha–Pana tensions
According to the Constitution, the reservation benefits are removed from the SCs after conversion and the Pana Christians demanded the Scheduled tribe (ST) status after the Presidential Order of 2002 which mentioned the Kui tribes in the ST category since they also speak the kui language. This was opposed by the VHP, the Kui Samaj and other political leaders who depend on Hindu tribals to supported their vote bank in the area. These tensions soon transformed into communal.