In 2008: On January 2, international crude oil futures prices exceeded the $100 per barrel mark for the first time.

On January 7, an explosion occurred in a cold storage in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

(See the "Current Affairs" column of this issue for details) On January 9, Georgia's Central Election Commission announced that former President Saakashvili won the presidential election.

On January 22, the U.S. Federal Reserve made an emergency interest rate cut of 0.75 percentage points, lowering the federal funds rate, or the overnight lending rate between commercial banks, from 4.25% to 3.5%.

On January 30, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by another 0.5 percentage points.

On January 24, Société Générale, France’s second largest bank, said that the bank’s futures trader Keviel had used bank funds without authorization to conduct illegal transactions over the past year, causing a loss of 4.9 billion euros to the bank.

On January 27, former Indonesian President Suharto died of illness.

On January 28, the Indonesian government held a state funeral for Suharto.

On January 28, US President Bush delivered the 2008 State of the Union address to Congress.

This was Bush's last State of the Union address during his term in office.

The 2008 US presidential primaries kicked off in early January.

On January 29, Shama Sundarwei, chairman of the People's Power Party, who was elected prime minister at the meeting of the House of Commons of the Thai Parliament, accepted the royal decree and officially became the 25th prime minister in Thai history.

On February 7, the U.S. House and Senate passed an economic stimulus bill of approximately US$168 billion to stimulate consumption and prevent the U.S. economy from falling into recession.

US President Bush signed this bill on February 13.

On February 13, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd proposed a motion to Parliament on behalf of the government to formally apologize for the harm caused to Aboriginal people by Australia's past implementation of the White Australia Policy.

On February 15, Serbia’s current President Boris Tadic was sworn in as the new president.

On February 17, the Kosovo Parliament held a special session and adopted a declaration of independence, declaring that Kosovo would break away from the Serbian Republic and become an "independent and sovereign country."

On February 19, Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced that he would no longer serve as President of the Council of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

On February 24, the National Congress of People's Power (Parliament) of Cuba elected a new Council of State and Council of Ministers, with Raul Castro as chairman.

On February 20, the European Parliament ratified the Lisbon Treaty.

From February 25th to 27th, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra of the United States visited Pyongyang.

This is the first American symphony orchestra to visit since the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 60 years ago.

On February 28, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to China, ending his life abroad since the military coup in Thailand in September 2006.

On February 29, the South Korean Congress approved Han Seung-soo as Prime Minister.

He officially took office that afternoon.

On March 7, Russia's Central Election Commission announced the results of the general election, and Medvedev was elected as the new president.

On March 9, Xinhua News Agency reported that according to the results of the Pakistan National Assembly and Provincial Assembly elections held on February 18 announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the People’s Party was leading in seats.

On March 13, Sudanese President Bashir and Chadian President Deby signed a peace agreement in Dakar to resolve border conflicts between the two countries.

From March 29th to 30th, the 20th Arab League (Arab League) summit was held in Damascus, the capital of Syria.

The meeting adopted the Damascus Declaration.

On March 31, the third Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting was held in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

From April 2 to 4, the NATO summit was held in Romania.

On April 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with US President Bush in the southern Russian city of Sochi.

On April 8, Iranian President Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges.

On April 8, the National Electoral Commission of Montenegro announced the official results of the presidential election. The current president and candidate of the ruling Socialist Democratic Party, Vujanovic, won.

This election is the first presidential election held in Montenegro since its independence in June 2006.

From April 8th to 9th, the first India-Africa Forum Summit was held in New Delhi.

The meeting adopted two programmatic documents, the Delhi Declaration and the India-Africa Cooperation Framework Agreement.

On April 10, Nepal will hold a Constituent Assembly election. The elected Constituent Assembly will determine Nepal’s future political system and the survival of the monarchy.

On April 25, the Nepal Election Commission announced the representative seats of each party in the Constituent Assembly, and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) became the largest party.

On April 13, after three days of high-level participation and dialogue, the Boao Forum for Asia 2008 Annual Conference concluded in Boao, Hainan.

On April 28, an Indian PSLV-C9 rocket lifted off carrying 10 satellites.

On May 2, Myanmar was hit by a tropical storm.