September 24, 2008 (Wednesday)
- At least 17 civilians are killed in battles between Islamist militants and African Union peacekeepers in the Somali capital Mogadishu. (CNN)
- Subprime mortgage crisis
- President of the United States George W. Bush addresses the nation on prime time television to discuss the crisis and the Paulson plan. He warns that the United States faces a "long and painful recession" if the package is not passed. (AP via San Francisco Chronicle) (Canadian Press via Google News)
- Senator John McCain, the Republican Party nominee in the presidential election, postpones campaigning and seeks deferral of a presidential debate so that he can return to Washington D.C. to discuss the subprime mortgage crisis and the Paulson Plan. (The New York Times)
- President Bush invites Senator McCain, Senator Barack Obama the Democratic Party and leaders of the United States Congress to a meeting at the White House tomorrow to discuss the crisis. (AP via the New York Sun)
- Preliminary findings made for the American Geophysical Union that support the Clathrate gun hypothesis, indicate the possible release of millions of tons of methane, a greenhouse gas, from Arctic seabeds. (The Independent)
- The Diet elects Taro Aso of the Liberal Democratic Party as the new Prime Minister of Japan. (AP via CNN) (AFP)[permanent dead link]
- Tomislav Nikolić announces that his party (a splinter from the Serbian Radical Party) will be called Serbian Progressive Party and that it will be founded on 21 October 2008. (B92)
- Typhoon Hagupit hits Vietnam, the Philippines and southern China, killing at least eight. (BBC News)