Portal:Current events/2008 February 22
February 22, 2008 (Friday)
- Russian President Vladimir Putin describes the recognition of Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence by several major world powers as "a terrible precedent," ... that "breaks up the entire system of international relations," ... which has taken "centuries to evolve." "And undoubtedly, it may entail a whole chain of unpredictable consequences to other regions in the world" and that will come back to hit the West "in the face." (Interfax) (AFP via Google News)
- The White House announces that U.S. Army National Guard Master Sergeant Woodrow W. Keeble will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor for his service in the Korean War, becoming the first Sioux to receive the award. (U.S. Army)
- The Swedish Academy, the body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature, names the professor of literature Anders Olsson as one of its members to succeed poet and writer Lars Forssell, who died in July 2007. (Dagens Nyheter)
- Turkey sends between three thousand and ten thousand troops into northern Iraq. (Reuters)
- The Northern Rock bank is formally nationalized by the British government. (BBC News)
- The United States warns the Serbian government that it has a responsibility to protect its assets after about 1,000 protesters set fire to the U.S. embassy in anger at Kosovo's declaration of independence. (BBC News)
- A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber crashes at Anderson Air Force Base on Guam. The two pilots ejected, with one hospitalized. It is the first B-2 to crash. (BBC News)