July 2, 2008 (Wednesday)
- LDU Quito wins the Copa Libertadores 2008 defeating Fluminense in the final after a penalty shootout. (ESPNsoccernet)
- 31 years after its launch, the Voyager 2 spacecraft sends a detailed view of the shock wave that marks the thinning of the solar wind, the charged particles streaming from the sun, confirming that the heliosphere is actually egg-shaped, possibly due to a tilted magnetic field in local interstellar space. (The Daily Telegraph) (AFP via Google News) (Fox News)
- Colombia
- Íngrid Betancourt, held captive by the FARC guerilla for six years, is rescued in an operation by the Colombian government. (BBC News)
- Three American hostages rescued at the same time as Ingrid Betancourt arrive at Lackland Air Force Base to be reunited with their families. (AP via Yahoo! News)
- Admiral Michael Mullen, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the United States, warns Israel of the dangers of an attack on Iran. (ABC News)
- The President of Zambia Levy Mwanawasa is flown to Paris for treatment after suffering a stroke at the African Union summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. (BBC News)
- 2008 Jerusalem bulldozer rampage: A man drives a construction loader into several vehicles on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, killing three and leaving dozens other injured, before being shot dead by an off-duty IDF officer. (Jawa Report) (Ynet)
- Nine oil workers are killed when a civilian Mi-8 helicopter carrying 16 people crashes in Siberia. (Turkish Press)