Yearbook 2008 Austria. A new revelation about slave-like captivity in the middle of a residential neighborhood shook the Austrians just two years after the fall of 18-year-old Natascha Kampusch, who managed to escape after being locked up for eight years. In April, 73-year-old Josef Fritzl was arrested in Amstetten after it was discovered that he…
Author: payhelpcenter
Australia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Australia. In connection with the opening of the new parliament on February 12, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to the Aborigines for the abuses the whites have committed against the indigenous peoples since the colonization. For the first time, Aboriginal enrollees were also included in Parliament’s opening ceremony. In particular, Rudd mentioned how…
Armenia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Armenia. The February presidential election was won as expected by incumbent Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, who was backed by the outgoing president. According to the official result, Sarkisian received 52.8 percent of the vote against 21.5 for opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian, who held the presidential office from 1991-98. ABBREVIATIONFINDER: Click to see the…
Argentina 2008
Yearbook 2008 Argentina. The year was largely dominated by large peasant protests. Argentina’s four farmers’ unions objected to increased export taxes for soy exporters, which is one of Argentina’s most important export crops, at the same time as the country suffered the worst drought in 100 years and increased production costs. The new export taxes…
Antigua and Barbuda 2008
Yearbook 2008 Antigua and Barbuda. In the fall, the death penalty was imposed for anyone who with a firearm or knife kills or seriously injures another person. Previously, the law’s most severe punishment had only been imposed for deliberate murder. The government decision was a direct result of the shooting of a young British couple…
Angola 2008
Yearbook 2008 Angola. Parliamentary elections were held in September for the first time since 1992. The elections had been postponed again and again, but the President promised that from now on, general elections should be held regularly every four years. The election was held in quiet forms but with several shortcomings in the arrangements, especially…
Andorra 2008
Yearbook 2008 Andorra. New legislation makes companies in Andorra obliged to hire auditors and to report on accounts, if assets, turnover and number of employees exceed a certain limit. Despite the new law and other reforms for increased public transparency in the financial sector, Andorra still remained at the end of the year on the…
Algeria 2008
Yearbook 2008 Algeria. At least 130 people – most police, military and militiamen but also a number of civilians – were killed during the year in police-military violence and the armed Islamist group al-Qaeda’s organization in the Islamic Maghreb. The bloodiest attack occurred on August 19, when 43 people, most of them applicants to a…
Albania 2008
Yearbook 2008 Albania. A major blast accident occurred in an armory at the village of Gërdec outside the capital Tirana in March. More than 20 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a series of explosions that were triggered when arming old Communist-era ammunition was disarmed. More than 300 buildings were completely destroyed…
Aland 2008
Yearbook 2008 Aland. In January, Å introduced a total ban on the sale of snuff on Åland ferries, after the EU Commission brought Finland to the European Court of Justice with a fine of two million euros in fines. The Åland Ferries’ sale of snuff in Swedish water was considered to violate the EU snuff…