October 18, 2008 (Saturday)
- NASA launches Interstellar Boundary Explorer satellite that will study the edge of Solar System. (eFlux)
- Nine Chinese oil workers and two Sudanese drivers are kidnapped in the province of Kordofan in Sudan. (BBC)
- United States President George W. Bush meets with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to discuss a proposal for a summit of world leaders to discuss the current economic crisis. (The New York Times)
- Russia reports that two soldiers were killed and seven were wounded in an ambush by local Muslim separatists in Ingushetia. Other reports suggested as many as 40 Russian troops were killed. (BBC News)
- Modern techniques reveal several amino acids in vials left from the 1953 Miller-Urey experiment in addition to those that were detected by Stanley Miller. (BBC News)