What happened 2008 AD

In January 2008, Kaká was also named the 2007 Serie A Footballer of the Year, winning the award for the second time in his career.

Ibrahimović scored both goals in a 2–0 defeat of Parma on the final day of the 2007–08 Serie A season to give Inter a second consecutive Scudetto. Overall, he scored 17 goals in 26 league matches, and was named both Serie A Footballer of the Year and Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year.

In 2008, HTC unveiled the HTC Max 4G, the first GSM mobile phone to support WiMAX networks.

HTC joined Google's Open Handset Alliance and then developed and released the first device powered by Android in 2008, the HTC Dream.

In 2008, Buffett became the richest person in the world, with a total net worth estimated at $62 billion.

The company acquired Umbro, known as the manufacturers of the England national football team's kit, in 2008.

In 2008, he was signed at the age of 18 for €80,000 by Juventus under the recommendation of Ciro Ferrara. He went on to play with the Primavera formation.

The Cannes Advertising Festival has named Nike its Advertiser of the Year in 1994 and 2003, making it the first company to receive that honor twice.

Jerome Kerviel is a French trader who was convinced in 2008 for causing trading loss, breach of trust, forgery, and the unauthorized use of Societe Generale's computer. Jerome Kerviel has confessed to the fraud, which was worth $7 Billion at the time. Kerviel published a book in May 2010, in which he alleged that his superiors knew of his trading activities and said the practice was very common.

Nike sold Bauer Hockey in 2008.

In 2008, Nike introduced the Air Jordan XX3, a high-performance basketball shoe designed with the environment in mind.

Soon after the election, he was appointed the chairman of president-elect Obama's transition team. During the transition phase of the Obama administration, Biden said he was in daily meetings with Obama and that McCain was still his friend. The U.S. Secret Service codename given to Biden is "Celtic", referencing his Irish roots.

Biden declared his candidacy for president on January 31, 2007, after having discussed running for months prior. Biden made a formal announcement to Tim Russert on Meet the Press, stating he would "be the best Biden I can be." In January 2006, Delaware newspaper columnist Harry F. Themal wrote that Biden "occupies the sensible center of the Democratic Party." Thermal concludes that this is the position Biden desires and that in a campaign "he plans to stress the dangers to the security of the average American, not just from the terrorist threat, but from the lack of health assistance, crime, and energy dependence on unstable parts of the world."

In January 2008, Marvel Animation was incorporated to direct Marvel's efforts in animation and home entertainment markets including then animation efforts with Lionsgate and Nickelodeon.

About 10 billion CPUs were manufactured in 2008.

In 2008, Bettencourt-Meyers filed a criminal complaint against Francois-Marie Banier, accusing him of taking advantage of her mother’s difficult mental state to deceive an elderly heiress of more than $ 1 billion.

In Lynnwood, Washington, an 18-year-old woman, referred to as "Marie", reported being bound, gagged and raped at knifepoint to police. Following police confrontation about inconsistencies in her story, she said that it might have been a dream and later said that she made the incident up.

In early 2008, Ardern was elected as the president of the International Union of Socialist Youth, a role which saw her spend time in several countries, including Jordan, Israel, Algeria, and China.

Heartland Payment System a major credit card processor was attacked by a group responsible also for breaching TJX data, a data, an attack that also resulted in other credit card data large thefts. These international criminals were located in several countries. And eventually got caught and one of them was convicted Albert Gonzales was sentenced to 20 years after he confessed to the crime. Albert later withdrew his confession, he claimed that he was at secret services insider during the attack. 130M users lost their personal data. More than $100 million was reimbursed to Visa and Mastercard. The company spent around $140 million to deal with the massive Breach. It cost $3.5 million to settle with American Express, with legal fees amounting to at least $26 million. 130 million users lost their data.

In 2008, Arnault entered the yacht business and bought Princess Yachts for 253 million euros.

In 2008, Google announced its "project 10100" which accepted ideas for how to help the community and then allowed Google users to vote on their favorites.

O'Neal played 33 games for the Miami Heat in the 2007–08 season prior to being traded to the Phoenix Suns. O'Neal started all 33 games and averaged 14.2 points per game. Following the trade to Phoenix, O'Neal averaged 12.9 ppg while starting all 28 games with the Suns.

On January 4, 2008, the results of a mitochondrial DNA test, comparing the child's DNA with that of his potential grandmother Clara de Rojas, were revealed by the Colombian government. It was reported that there was a very high probability that the boy was indeed part of the Rojas family.The same day, FARC released a communique in which they admitted that Emmanuel had been taken to Bogotá and "left in the care of honest persons" for safety reasons until a humanitarian exchange took place. The group accused President Uribe of "kidnapping" the child in order to sabotage his liberation.

On 10 January 2008, Virgin Healthcare announced that it would open a chain of health care clinics that would offer conventional medical care alongside homeopathic and complementary therapies, a development that was welcomed by Ben Bradshaw, the UK's health minister.

on January 10, 2008, FARC released Rojas and Gonzalez through a humanitarian commission headed by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Afghanistan Blizzard was a fierce blizzard that struck Afghanistan on the 10th of January 2008. Temperatures fell to a low of -30 C, with up to 180 centimetres of snow in the more mountainous regions, killing at least 926 people. The weather also claimed more than 100,000 sheep and goats, and nearly 315,000 cattle died.

On January 11, 2008, Bank of America announced that it would buy Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion.

On January 13, 2008, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stated his disapproval with the FARC strategy of armed struggle and kidnapping saying "I don't agree with kidnapping and I don't agree with armed struggle".

In January 2008, Houston, Texas declared 14 January as "Muhammad Yunus Day".

In 2008, he led a group of Iranian investigators looking into the death of Imad Mughniyah.

Totti scored his 200th goal for Roma in a 4–0 victory against Torino, in the Coppa Italia, on 16 January 2008.

In January 2008, Bank of America began notifying some customers without payment problems that their interest rates were more than doubled, up to 28%. The bank was criticized for raising rates on customers in good standing, and for declining to explain why it had done so.

By 2008, Jolie was considered the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, earning $15–$20 million per film. While other actresses had been forced to take salary cuts in recent years, Jolie's perceived box office appeal allowed her to command as much as $20 million-plus a percentage.

After the resignation of Argentina national team coach Alfio Basile in 2008, Maradona immediately proposed his candidacy for the vacant role. According to several press sources, his major challengers included Diego Simeone, Carlos Bianchi, Miguel Ángel Russo and Sergio Batista.

On February 2008, FARC released four political hostages "as a gesture of goodwill" toward Chávez, who had brokered the deal and sent Venezuelan helicopters with Red Cross logos into the Colombian jungle to pick up the freed hostages.

In February 2008, Best Buy opened its first store in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Phoenix Suns acquired O'Neal in February 2008 from the league-worst Miami Heat, who had a record at the time of the trade of 9-37, in exchange for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.

In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament.

On 11 February 2008, a motorcade containing Gusmão came under gunfire one hour after President José Ramos-Horta was shot in the stomach. Gusmão's residence was also occupied by rebels. According to the Associated Press, the incidents raised the possibility of a coup attempt; they have also described as possible assassination attempts and kidnap attempts.

On February 12, 2008, then Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia may target its missiles at Ukraine if its neighbour joins NATO and accepts the deployment of a US missile defence shield.Russia

On 20 February 2008, in the wake of a major research on the ten-year-mismanagement, it was announced that Cruyff would be the new technical director at his boyhood club Ajax, his fourth stint with the Amsterdam club.

O'Neal made his Suns debut on February 20, 2008, against his former Lakers team, scoring 15 points and grabbing 9 rebounds in the process. The Lakers won, 130–124. O'Neal was upbeat in a post-game press conference, stating: "I will take the blame for this loss because I wasn't in tune with the guys [...] But give me four or five days to really get in tune and I'll get it."

After assuming what was envisioned as a temporary control over the presidency in 2006, on 24 February 2008 Raúl Castro won election as the new President of the Council of State and President of the Council of Ministers during a legislative session held at Cuba's Palace of Conventions in Havana.

In a February 2008 letter, Castro announced that he would not accept the positions of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief at that month's National Assembly meetings, remarking, "It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer". On 24 February 2008, the National Assembly of People's Power unanimously voted Raúl as president. Describing his brother as "not substitutable", Raúl proposed that Fidel continue to be consulted on matters of great importance, a motion unanimously approved by the 597 National Assembly members.

On February 25, 2008, Visa announced it would go ahead with an IPO of half its shares.

Pelosi was named Permanent Chair of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

The European Union imposed another fine of €899 million ($1.4 billion) for Microsoft's lack of compliance with the March 2004 judgment on February 27, 2008, saying that the company charged rivals unreasonable prices for key information about its workgroup and backoffice servers. Microsoft stated that it was in compliance and that "these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved".

He signed a contract extension through 2013 with Milan on 29 February 2008.

On March 1, 2008, the Colombian armed forces launched a military operation 1.8 kilometres into Ecuador on a FARC position, killing 24, including Raúl Reyes, member of the FARC Central High Command. This led to the 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis between Colombia and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, supported by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

The global financial crisis of 2007–08 led to public skepticism about the free market consensus even from some on the economic right. In March 2008, Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, announced the death of the dream of global free-market capitalism.

On March 3, Iván Ríos, also a member of the FARC Central High Command was killed by his security chief "Rojas". In March 2008 alone, FARC lost 3 members of their Secretariat, including their founder.

On March 5, 2008, Forbes ranked Slim as the world's second-richest person, behind Warren Buffett and ahead of Bill Gates.

On March 6, 2008, Infogrames made an offer to Atari Inc. to buy out all remaining public shares for a value of $1.68 per share, or $11 million total. The offer would make Infogrames sole owner of Atari Inc., thus making it a privately held company. On April 30, 2008, Atari Inc. announced its intentions to accept Infogrames' buyout offer and to merge with Infogrames. On October 8, 2008, Infogrames completed its acquisition of Atari Inc., making it a wholly owned subsidiary.

On March 6, 2008, Apple held a press event, announcing the iPhone SDK.

After collapsing at a House of Lords dinner, Thatcher, suffering low blood pressure, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in central London on 7 March 2008 for tests.

On 9 March, he reached his 500th overall appearance for Roma, scoring the second goal of the match from a penalty kick in a 2–0 away win over Napoli.

In March 2008, it was reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating Countrywide for possible fraud relating to home loans and mortgages.

Soleimani helped arrange a ceasefire between the Iraqi Army and Mahdi Army in March 2008.

In March 2008, a high-quality mode was added, which increased the resolution to 480×360 pixels.

Barbara retired as an Associate Circuit Judge in St. Louis County, Missouri, in March 2008.

March 17, 2008: The Federal Reserve guaranteed Bear Stearns' bad loans to facilitate its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase.

Research in 2008 by a geomorphology professor at Urbino University and an artist-photographer revealed likenesses of Mona Lisa's landscapes to some views in the Montefeltro region in the Italian provinces of Pesaro and Urbino, and Rimini.

In March 2008, the head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Nicola Cabibbo, announced a plan to honor Galileo by erecting a statue of him inside the Vatican walls.

The IPO took place on March 18, 2008. Visa sold 406 million shares at US$44 per share ($2 above the high end of the expected $37–42 pricing range), raising US$17.9 billion in the largest initial public offering in U.S. history.

On March 20, 2008, the IPO underwriters (including JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs & Co., Bank of America Securities LLC, Citi, HSBC, Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS Investment Bank and Wachovia Securities) exercised their overallotment option, purchasing an additional 40.6 million shares, bringing Visa's total IPO share count to 446.6 million, and bringing the total proceeds to US$19.1 billion.

On 20 March 2008, at the Church of Ireland St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, the Queen attended the first Maundy service held outside England and Wales.

On March 26, 2008, the European Commission opened an investigation into Visa's multilateral interchange fees for cross-border transactions within the EEA as well as into the "Honor All Cards" rule (under which merchants are required to accept all valid Visa-branded cards).

On March 29, 2008, Johnson appeared to induct his father and grandfather Peter Maivia and Rocky Johnson into the WWE Hall of Fame.

In Cambodia, KFC first opened on Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh in April 2008. Now there exist 7 outlets in Cambodia.

It has been claimed, by The Daily Telegraph in 2008, that in 2007, YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000.

The large population centers on Lake Ontario and the Lower Mainland in Canada have always attracted cross-border shopping into the US states, and as Black Friday (French: Vendredi Noir) became more popular in the US, Canadians often flocked to the US because of their lower prices and a stronger Canadian dollar. After 2001, many were traveling for the deals across the border. Starting in 2008 and 2009, due to the parity of the Canadian dollar compared with the American dollar, several major Canadian retailers ran Black Friday deals of their own to discourage shoppers from leaving Canada.

Though Major-General Sir Sebastian Roberts, General Officer Commanding the Household Division, had said William's deployment was possible, the Prince's position as second-in-line to the throne and the convention of ministers advising against placing that person into dangerous situations cast doubts on William's chances of seeing combat. These doubts increased after Prince Harry's deployment was canceled in 2007 due to "specific threats". William, instead, went on to train in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, obtaining his commission as a sub-lieutenant in the former and flying officer in the latter—both broadly equivalent to the army rank of lieutenant. After completing his training, William undertook an attachment with the Royal Air Force, undergoing an intensive, four-month training course at RAF Cranwell. Upon completing the course on 11 April 2008, he was presented with his RAF wings by his father, who had received his own wings after training at Cranwell. During this secondment, William flew to Afghanistan in a C-17 Globemaster that repatriated the body of Trooper Robert Pearson.

On 13 April 2008, when he reached two years' seniority, Harry was promoted to lieutenant.

In April 2008, Philip was admitted to King Edward VII's Hospital, London, for "assessment and treatment" for a chest infection, though he walked into the hospital unaided and recovered quickly, and was discharged three days later to recuperate at Windsor Castle.

Totti suffered a season-ending injury to his right knee during a 1–1 draw with Livorno on 19 April.

UNCTAD XII was held in Accra, Ghana, from 21 to 25 April 2008.

One campaign that Nike began for Earth Day 2008 was a commercial that featured basketball star Steve Nash wearing Nike's Trash Talk Shoe, which had been constructed in February 2008 from pieces of leather and synthetic leather waste from factory floors. The Trash Talk Shoe also featured a sole composed of ground-up rubber from a shoe recycling program. Nike claims this is the first performance basketball shoe that has been created from manufacturing waste, but it only produced 5,000 pairs for sale.

On April 26, 2008, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined the company $280,000 for not alerting customers that the analog televisions it sold would not receive over-the-air stations after the digital transition on June 12, 2009.

Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis was an extremely destructive and deadly tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar during early May 2008. The cyclone made landfall in Myanmar on Friday, 2 May 2008, sending a storm surge 40 kilometres up the densely populated Irrawaddy delta, causing catastrophic destruction and at least 138,373 fatalities.

In May 2008, Australian carrier Optus announced that it would establish a technology research facility with Huawei in Sydney.

In May 2008, a dozen jailed paramilitary leaders were extradited to the United States on drug-related charges.

After a phase (1990–2001) of structural strengthening, the tower has been undergoing gradual surface restoration to repair visible damage, mostly corrosion, and blackening. These are particularly pronounced due to the tower's age and its exposure to wind and rain. In May 2008, engineers announced that the tower had been stabilized such that it had stopped moving for the first time in its history. They stated that it would be stable for at least 200 years.

LaSalle Bank and LaSalle Bank Midwest branches adopted the Bank of America name on May 5, 2008.

Putin was barred from a third consecutive term by the Constitution. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was elected his successor. In a power-switching operation on 8 May 2008, only a day after handing the presidency to Medvedev, Putin was appointed Prime Minister of Russia, maintaining his political dominance.

On 11 May 2008, Vodafone sealed a trade agreement with the Chilean Entel PCS Chile, in which Entel PCS has access to the equipment and international services of Vodafone, and Vodafone will be one of the trademarks of Entel for the wireless business.

The 2008 Sichuan earthquake also known as the Great Sichuan earthquake or Wenchuan earthquake, occurred at 14:28:01 China Standard Time on May 12, 2008. Over 69,000 people lost their lives in the quake, including 68,636 in Sichuan province. 374,176 were reported injured, with 18,222 listed as missing as of July 2008.

Tremors were felt approximately five minutes after the earthquake in northern parts of Vietnam. The intensity was MM III in Hanoi.

Tremors were felt in Tuva, no casualties reported.

Persistent heavy rain and landslides in Wenchuan County and the nearby area badly affected rescue efforts. At the start of rescue operations on May 12, 20 helicopters were deployed for the delivery of food, water, and emergency aid, and also the evacuation of the injured and reconnaissance of quake-stricken areas.

Many rescue teams, including that of the Taipei Fire Department from Taiwan, were reported ready to join the rescue effort in Sichuan as early as Wednesday. However, the Red Cross Society of China said that (on May 13) "it was inconvenient currently due to the traffic problem to the hardest-hit areas closest to the epicenter".

Beijing accepted the aid of the Tzu Chi Foundation from Taiwan late on May 13. Tzu Chi was the first force from outside the People's Republic of China to join the rescue effort.

By May 14, the Ministry of Civil Affairs stated that 10.7 billion yuan (approximately US$1.5 billion at that time) had been donated by the Chinese public.

On the afternoon of May 14, 15 Special Operations Troops, along with relief supplies and communications gear, parachuted into inaccessible Mao County, northeast of Wenchuan.

Because of the magnitude of the quake, and the media attention on China, foreign nations and organizations immediately responded to the disaster by offering condolences and assistance. On May 14, UNICEF reported that China formally requested the support of the international community to respond to the needs of affected families.

By May 15, Premier Wen Jiabao ordered the deployment of an additional 90 helicopters, of which 60 were to be provided by the PLAAF, and 30 were to be provided by the civil aviation industry, bringing the total number of aircraft deployed in relief operations by the air force, army, and civil aviation to over 150, resulting in the largest non-combat airlifting operation in People's Liberation Army history.

Jolie also voiced the DreamWorks animation Kung Fu Panda (2008), the first work in a major family franchise.

On May 16, rescue groups from South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Russia, and Taiwan arrived to join the rescue effort.

On May 16, China stated it had also received $457 million in donated money and goods for rescue efforts so far, including $83 million from 19 countries and four international organizations. Saudi Arabia was the largest aid donor to China, providing close to €40,000,000 in financial assistance, and an additional €8,000,000 worth of relief materials.

Rescue efforts performed by the Chinese government were praised by western media, especially in comparison with Myanmar's blockage of foreign aid during Cyclone Nargis, as well as China's previous performance during the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. China's openness during the media coverage of the Sichuan earthquake led a professor at Peking University to say, "This is the first time [that] the Chinese media has lived up to international standards". Los Angeles Times praised China's media coverage of the quake as being "democratic".

On the evening of May 18, CCTV-1 hosted a special four-hour program called The Giving of Love, hosted by regulars from the CCTV New Year's Gala and round-the-clock coverage anchor Bai Yansong. It was attended by a wide range of entertainment, literary, business, and political figures from mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. Donations of the evening totaled 1.5 billion Chinese Yuan (~US$208 million). Of the donations, CCTV gave the biggest corporate contribution at ¥50 million.

In January 2008, Kaká was also named the 2007 Serie A Footballer of the Year, winning the award for the second time in his career.

Ibrahimović scored both goals in a 2–0 defeat of Parma on the final day of the 2007–08 Serie A season to give Inter a second consecutive Scudetto. Overall, he scored 17 goals in 26 league matches, and was named both Serie A Footballer of the Year and Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year.

In 2008, HTC unveiled the HTC Max 4G, the first GSM mobile phone to support WiMAX networks.

HTC joined Google's Open Handset Alliance and then developed and released the first device powered by Android in 2008, the HTC Dream.

In 2008, Buffett became the richest person in the world, with a total net worth estimated at $62 billion.

The company acquired Umbro, known as the manufacturers of the England national football team's kit, in 2008.

In 2008, he was signed at the age of 18 for €80,000 by Juventus under the recommendation of Ciro Ferrara. He went on to play with the Primavera formation.

The Cannes Advertising Festival has named Nike its Advertiser of the Year in 1994 and 2003, making it the first company to receive that honor twice.

Jerome Kerviel is a French trader who was convinced in 2008 for causing trading loss, breach of trust, forgery, and the unauthorized use of Societe Generale's computer. Jerome Kerviel has confessed to the fraud, which was worth $7 Billion at the time. Kerviel published a book in May 2010, in which he alleged that his superiors knew of his trading activities and said the practice was very common.

Nike sold Bauer Hockey in 2008.

In 2008, Nike introduced the Air Jordan XX3, a high-performance basketball shoe designed with the environment in mind.

Soon after the election, he was appointed the chairman of president-elect Obama's transition team. During the transition phase of the Obama administration, Biden said he was in daily meetings with Obama and that McCain was still his friend. The U.S. Secret Service codename given to Biden is "Celtic", referencing his Irish roots.

Biden declared his candidacy for president on January 31, 2007, after having discussed running for months prior. Biden made a formal announcement to Tim Russert on Meet the Press, stating he would "be the best Biden I can be." In January 2006, Delaware newspaper columnist Harry F. Themal wrote that Biden "occupies the sensible center of the Democratic Party." Thermal concludes that this is the position Biden desires and that in a campaign "he plans to stress the dangers to the security of the average American, not just from the terrorist threat, but from the lack of health assistance, crime, and energy dependence on unstable parts of the world."

In January 2008, Marvel Animation was incorporated to direct Marvel's efforts in animation and home entertainment markets including then animation efforts with Lionsgate and Nickelodeon.

About 10 billion CPUs were manufactured in 2008.

In 2008, Bettencourt-Meyers filed a criminal complaint against Francois-Marie Banier, accusing him of taking advantage of her mother’s difficult mental state to deceive an elderly heiress of more than $ 1 billion.

In Lynnwood, Washington, an 18-year-old woman, referred to as "Marie", reported being bound, gagged and raped at knifepoint to police. Following police confrontation about inconsistencies in her story, she said that it might have been a dream and later said that she made the incident up.

In early 2008, Ardern was elected as the president of the International Union of Socialist Youth, a role which saw her spend time in several countries, including Jordan, Israel, Algeria, and China.

Heartland Payment System a major credit card processor was attacked by a group responsible also for breaching TJX data, a data, an attack that also resulted in other credit card data large thefts. These international criminals were located in several countries. And eventually got caught and one of them was convicted Albert Gonzales was sentenced to 20 years after he confessed to the crime. Albert later withdrew his confession, he claimed that he was at secret services insider during the attack. 130M users lost their personal data. More than $100 million was reimbursed to Visa and Mastercard. The company spent around $140 million to deal with the massive Breach. It cost $3.5 million to settle with American Express, with legal fees amounting to at least $26 million. 130 million users lost their data.

In 2008, Arnault entered the yacht business and bought Princess Yachts for 253 million euros.

In 2008, Google announced its "project 10100" which accepted ideas for how to help the community and then allowed Google users to vote on their favorites.

O'Neal played 33 games for the Miami Heat in the 2007–08 season prior to being traded to the Phoenix Suns. O'Neal started all 33 games and averaged 14.2 points per game. Following the trade to Phoenix, O'Neal averaged 12.9 ppg while starting all 28 games with the Suns.

On January 4, 2008, the results of a mitochondrial DNA test, comparing the child's DNA with that of his potential grandmother Clara de Rojas, were revealed by the Colombian government. It was reported that there was a very high probability that the boy was indeed part of the Rojas family.The same day, FARC released a communique in which they admitted that Emmanuel had been taken to Bogotá and "left in the care of honest persons" for safety reasons until a humanitarian exchange took place. The group accused President Uribe of "kidnapping" the child in order to sabotage his liberation.

On 10 January 2008, Virgin Healthcare announced that it would open a chain of health care clinics that would offer conventional medical care alongside homeopathic and complementary therapies, a development that was welcomed by Ben Bradshaw, the UK's health minister.

on January 10, 2008, FARC released Rojas and Gonzalez through a humanitarian commission headed by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Afghanistan Blizzard was a fierce blizzard that struck Afghanistan on the 10th of January 2008. Temperatures fell to a low of -30 C, with up to 180 centimetres of snow in the more mountainous regions, killing at least 926 people. The weather also claimed more than 100,000 sheep and goats, and nearly 315,000 cattle died.

On January 11, 2008, Bank of America announced that it would buy Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion.

On January 13, 2008, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stated his disapproval with the FARC strategy of armed struggle and kidnapping saying "I don't agree with kidnapping and I don't agree with armed struggle".

In January 2008, Houston, Texas declared 14 January as "Muhammad Yunus Day".

In 2008, he led a group of Iranian investigators looking into the death of Imad Mughniyah.

Totti scored his 200th goal for Roma in a 4–0 victory against Torino, in the Coppa Italia, on 16 January 2008.

In January 2008, Bank of America began notifying some customers without payment problems that their interest rates were more than doubled, up to 28%. The bank was criticized for raising rates on customers in good standing, and for declining to explain why it had done so.

By 2008, Jolie was considered the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, earning $15–$20 million per film. While other actresses had been forced to take salary cuts in recent years, Jolie's perceived box office appeal allowed her to command as much as $20 million-plus a percentage.

After the resignation of Argentina national team coach Alfio Basile in 2008, Maradona immediately proposed his candidacy for the vacant role. According to several press sources, his major challengers included Diego Simeone, Carlos Bianchi, Miguel Ángel Russo and Sergio Batista.

On February 2008, FARC released four political hostages "as a gesture of goodwill" toward Chávez, who had brokered the deal and sent Venezuelan helicopters with Red Cross logos into the Colombian jungle to pick up the freed hostages.

In February 2008, Best Buy opened its first store in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Phoenix Suns acquired O'Neal in February 2008 from the league-worst Miami Heat, who had a record at the time of the trade of 9-37, in exchange for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.

In February–March 2008, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 3, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47 and finished as the tournament's third-highest run-getter and one of the three batsmen to score a hundred in the tournament.

On 11 February 2008, a motorcade containing Gusmão came under gunfire one hour after President José Ramos-Horta was shot in the stomach. Gusmão's residence was also occupied by rebels. According to the Associated Press, the incidents raised the possibility of a coup attempt; they have also described as possible assassination attempts and kidnap attempts.

On February 12, 2008, then Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia may target its missiles at Ukraine if its neighbour joins NATO and accepts the deployment of a US missile defence shield.Russia

On 20 February 2008, in the wake of a major research on the ten-year-mismanagement, it was announced that Cruyff would be the new technical director at his boyhood club Ajax, his fourth stint with the Amsterdam club.

O'Neal made his Suns debut on February 20, 2008, against his former Lakers team, scoring 15 points and grabbing 9 rebounds in the process. The Lakers won, 130–124. O'Neal was upbeat in a post-game press conference, stating: "I will take the blame for this loss because I wasn't in tune with the guys [...] But give me four or five days to really get in tune and I'll get it."

After assuming what was envisioned as a temporary control over the presidency in 2006, on 24 February 2008 Raúl Castro won election as the new President of the Council of State and President of the Council of Ministers during a legislative session held at Cuba's Palace of Conventions in Havana.

In a February 2008 letter, Castro announced that he would not accept the positions of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief at that month's National Assembly meetings, remarking, "It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer". On 24 February 2008, the National Assembly of People's Power unanimously voted Raúl as president. Describing his brother as "not substitutable", Raúl proposed that Fidel continue to be consulted on matters of great importance, a motion unanimously approved by the 597 National Assembly members.

On February 25, 2008, Visa announced it would go ahead with an IPO of half its shares.

Pelosi was named Permanent Chair of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

The European Union imposed another fine of €899 million ($1.4 billion) for Microsoft's lack of compliance with the March 2004 judgment on February 27, 2008, saying that the company charged rivals unreasonable prices for key information about its workgroup and backoffice servers. Microsoft stated that it was in compliance and that "these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved".

He signed a contract extension through 2013 with Milan on 29 February 2008.

On March 1, 2008, the Colombian armed forces launched a military operation 1.8 kilometres into Ecuador on a FARC position, killing 24, including Raúl Reyes, member of the FARC Central High Command. This led to the 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis between Colombia and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, supported by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

The global financial crisis of 2007–08 led to public skepticism about the free market consensus even from some on the economic right. In March 2008, Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, announced the death of the dream of global free-market capitalism.

On March 3, Iván Ríos, also a member of the FARC Central High Command was killed by his security chief "Rojas". In March 2008 alone, FARC lost 3 members of their Secretariat, including their founder.

On March 5, 2008, Forbes ranked Slim as the world's second-richest person, behind Warren Buffett and ahead of Bill Gates.

On March 6, 2008, Infogrames made an offer to Atari Inc. to buy out all remaining public shares for a value of $1.68 per share, or $11 million total. The offer would make Infogrames sole owner of Atari Inc., thus making it a privately held company. On April 30, 2008, Atari Inc. announced its intentions to accept Infogrames' buyout offer and to merge with Infogrames. On October 8, 2008, Infogrames completed its acquisition of Atari Inc., making it a wholly owned subsidiary.

On March 6, 2008, Apple held a press event, announcing the iPhone SDK.

After collapsing at a House of Lords dinner, Thatcher, suffering low blood pressure, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in central London on 7 March 2008 for tests.

On 9 March, he reached his 500th overall appearance for Roma, scoring the second goal of the match from a penalty kick in a 2–0 away win over Napoli.

In March 2008, it was reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating Countrywide for possible fraud relating to home loans and mortgages.

Soleimani helped arrange a ceasefire between the Iraqi Army and Mahdi Army in March 2008.

In March 2008, a high-quality mode was added, which increased the resolution to 480×360 pixels.

Barbara retired as an Associate Circuit Judge in St. Louis County, Missouri, in March 2008.

March 17, 2008: The Federal Reserve guaranteed Bear Stearns' bad loans to facilitate its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase.

Research in 2008 by a geomorphology professor at Urbino University and an artist-photographer revealed likenesses of Mona Lisa's landscapes to some views in the Montefeltro region in the Italian provinces of Pesaro and Urbino, and Rimini.

In March 2008, the head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Nicola Cabibbo, announced a plan to honor Galileo by erecting a statue of him inside the Vatican walls.