August 2008.html

• The International Atomic Energy Agency unanimously approves a safeguards agreement with India, a precondition of the nuclear deal with the United States. (Sify)
• Unemployment in the United States rises to 5.7 per cent, its highest rate in more than four years. (VOA)
• Vietnam's capital Hanoi absorbs the neighboring province of Ha Tay, tripling its area and doubling its population. (Thanh Nien News)
• U.S. government officials conclude that elements of Pakistan's intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence, aided militants in the July 7 suicide car bomb attack on India's embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The government of Pakistan denied involvement. (The New York Times) (The Wall Street Journal) (AP via The New York Times)
• At least 20 people are killed after a fire breaks out on a passenger train in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, India. (BBC News)
• 2008 Summer Olympics:
  • The International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Organizing Committee reach an agreement on Internet access for the 2008 Olympic Games. (Reuters via The New York Times)
  • Several restrictions remain as the International Olympic Committee and Chinese organisers BOCOG claim they have lifted all Internet restrictions for media covering the Beijing Games. (The Times) (AFP via Google News)
• King Tupou V is crowned as the 23rd Monarch of Tonga. (The Times)
• At least 11 people die following the collapse of a three-story girls' dormitory due to an explosion in the village of Balcilar in Konya Province in central Anatolia, Turkey. (AP via Google News)
• The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation holds a summit meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, with terrorism high on the agenda. (BBC News)
• A total solar eclipse is visible from northern Canada (Nunavut), Greenland, central Russia, eastern Kazakhstan, western Mongolia and China. (AFP via Google News)

• Latvia holds a constitutional referendum on whether to allow referendums on dissolving parliament and calling early elections. Although the result was invalidated, as turnout did not meet the 50% threshold, the results (96% in favour of the change) is considered likely to press politicians to adopt a similar measure nonetheless. (AFP) (Reuters)
• Two climbers from an international expedition perish after ice fall on K2 mountain in the Himalayas, and six members of the team have gone missing. (BBC News)
• The International Olympic Committee strips the United States 2000 Summer Olympics 4×400 metre relay team of their gold medal after team member Antonio Pettigrew admits to doping. (Reuters)
• Members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation meet to discuss trade, terrorism, and poverty. Tensions between India and Pakistan threaten to overshadow the eight-nation gathering. (AFP via Google News) (Reuters)

• 162 people die in a stampede at a Hindu temple in Naina Devi in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. (AFP via Google News)
• North Korea says that it will expel "unnecessary" South Korean staff from the Kumgangsan resort and threatens military action in an escalation of tension over the shooting of a South Korean tourist. (Reuters)
  
• The third launch of privately developed SpaceX launcher Falcon 1 fails to reach orbit. (Spaceflightnow.com)
• Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority launches an investigation into safety at Qantas after three emergencies in two weeks, beginning with the explosion aboard Qantas Flight 30. (ABC News)
• At least 21 street cleaners are killed by a roadside bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia. (CNN)
• 12 people are killed when a minibus explodes in Baghdad, Iraq. (CNN)
• 11 climbers are feared to have died in an avalanche at K2 mountain in Pakistan. (CNN)

• U.S. conservative political commentator Robert Novak retires after 45 years. The only reason for retirement was a previously discovered brain tumour. Novak is also involved in the CIA leak scandal. (CBS News)
• Eleven climbers from an international expedition are reported dead after ice fall took out the fixed ropes on part of the route on K2 mountain in the Himalayas. (AP via Yahoo! News)
• A police post near Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China is attacked, leaving 16 officers dead and 16 others injured. (BBC News)

• Rwanda formally accuses senior French officials, including former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and late President François Mitterrand, of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and calls for them to be put on trial. (Reuters)
• U.S. President George W. Bush, on his way to Beijing to attend the Olympics, stops in South Korea and Thailand. (FOX News)
• A 6.0 magnitude earthquake strikes Sichuan, China, according to the US Geological Survey. (RTÉ News) (CNN)

• At least nine firefighters are missing presumed dead after a Sikorsky S-61 helicopter crashes in northern California. (The Oregonian)
• UNICEF releases The State of Asia-Pacific’s Children 2008. The report recommends focus on China and India, where 2.4 million preventable child deaths occur every year. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters) (The Straits Times)
• An explosion on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline halts oil supplies through one of the biggest pipelines in the world. ((Reuters) (Hürriyet)
• Salim Hamdan, the former driver for Osama Bin Laden, is convicted of supporting terrorism in the United States in the first military war crimes trial of a terror suspect captured after the September 11, 2001 attacks. (Bloomberg)
• A military coup d'état occurs in Mauritania with the Army, led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, seizing the President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed El Waghef and the Interior Minister. (ABC News Australia)
• A UH-1H helicopter of the Royal Thai Air Force crashes in Thailand, killing ten. (The Australian)
• Competitions start at the Beijing Olympic Games two days ahead of the Opening Ceremony with the Women's football tournament.
• The United States FBI claims scientist Bruce Ivins was responsible for the anthrax scares of 2001 that killed five people and made 17 others ill. (BBC News)
• Leader of Malaysian opposition Anwar Ibrahim is formally charged with sodomy, which he claims is a politically motivated charge. (BBC News)

• Salim Hamdan, Osama Bin Laden's former driver, is sentenced to 66 months in prison for war crimes. (The New York Times)
• The New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo reaches a $7 billion settlement with Citigroup to buy back auction rate securities from about 40,000 clients throughout the United States. (AP via Google News)
• The Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick is ordered to go to jail for violating the terms of his bond for an ongoing perjury trial. (NPR)
• Claims for unemployment benefits in the United States rise to 455,000, the highest level since March 2002. (USA Today)
• The leaders of the 2008 Mauritanian coup d'état promise to hold elections as soon as possible. (Xinhua)
• Georgian-Ossetian conflict:
  • Georgian and separatist South Ossetian forces have exchanged fire again near the town of Tskhinvali, wounding up to 20 people, officials say. (BBC News)
  • The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was concerned over Georgia's "military preparations," while a Georgian official said Russia would further undermine its role as peacekeeper if it failed to convince the South Ossetian side on talks. (Civil Georgia) (Civil Georgia)
  • Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, offers an immediate ceasefire to South Ossetian authorities. (BBC News)
• Pakistan's ruling coalition announces it will seek the impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf. (AP via Google News)
• The National Olympic Committee officially announces Durban, South Africa will be the host city of the 123rd IOC Session.(Hong Kong Government Press Release)

• The 2008 Summer Olympics starts with the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony at the Beijing National Stadium. (The Christian Science Monitor)
• 2008 South Ossetia War

• • Around 0:30 AM (local time), Georgia begins a full-scale attack on the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, using tanks, military aircraft, artillery, and infantry. Major-General Marat Kulakhmetov, the commander of a small force of Russian peacekeepers under CIS mandate in Tskhinvali makes a statement that Georgian 'heavy artillery shelling conducted for several hours' and 'has practically demolished the town' (The Times) (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia) (RIAN) After a night of heavy fighting, Georgian forces close in on the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali. (BBC News) (Reuters) Russian commanders reported that Georgian military forces attack a Russian peacekeepers' base in Tskhinvali with heavy artillery and missiles. Several peacekeepers reported dead and wounded. (RIAN)
    • President of Georgia, Milkeil Saakashvili agrees that the timing (the first day of Olympics, with many world leaders in Peking) of the 'magor military offensive' of Georgia, during which the 'South Ossetian capital' devastated 'was not coincidental'. (AP via YouTube)
  • The Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin warns Georgia against "acts of aggression" against South Ossetia and later declares that a "war has begun." In response, the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili declares that Russia "is fighting a war with us in our own territory." (AGI) (The New York Times)
  • Mikheil Saakashvili accuses Russian aircraft of attacking Tbilisi and outlying airfields. (Delfi) He calls for mobilization of Georgia's army, claiming Russia started an aggression on Georgia. (Alfa)
  • NATO and the European Union urge an immediate end to the violence in South Ossetia. (Reuters)
  • The Russian Ministry of Defence claims 10 Russian peacekeepers in the area were killed and 30 wounded so far during the Georgian army offensive. At least 15 civilians are also reported dead. (BBC News via YouTube) The Georgian Interior Ministry claims three Georgian soldiers were killed at an airbase outside of Tbilisi. (BBC News) Both Russian state television and Georgian sources report Russian troops and tanks moving into South Ossetia and approaching Tskhinvali. (CNN) (BBC News)
  • With most of the city of Tskhinvali in ruins, 1400 civilians reported dead during the first day of Georgian offensive. (RussiaToday via YouTube)
  • The United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls on Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia. (AFP via Google News) (CNN via YouTube)
• A car bomb in the town of Tal Afar in northern Iraq kills at least 21 people and injures about 70. (BBC News)
• At least 13 people die when a private charter bus falls off a bridge onto a creek north of Dallas, Texas. (MSNBC)
• Studenka Train Disaster: An express train crashes into a bridge near the town of Studenka in the Czech Republic resulting in 7 people dead and around 70 injured. (AFP via Yahoo! News) (AP via Yahoo! News)
• A terrorist group seeking an independent Muslim state in Xinjiang, China releases a video threatening an attack on the 2008 Olympic Games. (The New York Times)
• The President of the United States George W. Bush dedicates a new American embassy in Beijing. (VOA)
• Economic crisis of 2008:
  • UK home repossessions rise by 48%. (BBC News)
  • The OECD reports slower growth and declining employment in the U.S. (BBC News) (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Former U.S. Senator and Democratic ex-presidential candidate John Edwards admits to an affair with Rielle Hunter after having earlier denied it. (CNN)

• 2008 Summer Olympics:
  • Shooter Kateřina Emmons of the Czech Republic wins the women's 10 meter air rifle competition, the first gold medal of the 2008 Summer Olympics, setting an Olympic record for both the qualifying and final scores. (Los Angeles Times)
  • Woman's weightlifter Chen Xiexia sets Olympic records in both the clean and jerk and total weight lifted, winning China's first and the second gold medal of the summer. (BBC News)
• 2008 South Ossetia War:
  • Russia and Georgia continue to fight in South Ossetia and Georgia. The search for the dead and injured continues after at least 2,000 civilians were killed after two days Georgian offensive. Russia reported 12 peacekeepers killed and 30 wounded in the previous day during the Georgian tank and missile bombardment of Tskhinvali. (BBC News) (AP via Yahoo! News) (BBC News) (RIAN)
  • Russian jets attack military targets in the Georgian city of Gori, outside South Ossetia, killing 60 people; two are shot down. (BBC News) (BBC News)
  • Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia launched a military operation to help peacekeepers stationed in the region under UN mandate since the early 1990s defend their position after 15 were killed during Georgian operations and to protect South Ossetians many of whom hold Russian citizenship. (RIA) Russia's Foreign Ministry accuses Ukraine of encouraging Georgia to carry out "ethnic cleansing" in South Ossetia. (Reuters)
  • Georgia's parliament approves a state of war across the country for the next 15 days. (Reuters) Delegates from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, European Union, and United States head to Georgia to broker peace. (BBC News)
  • The Georgian-controlled section of the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia came under fire from aircraft. Abkhazia's foreign minister Sergei Shamba, said Abkhaz forces had launched an attack aimed at driving Georgian forces out of the gorge. Georgian television claimed the attacks were by Russians. (BBC News)
  • Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called for a cease fire which his Security Council secretary said means that Georgian troops will withdraw from Tskhinvali and stop responding to Russian shelling. (AP via Google News)
  • Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt evokes the memory of Adolf Hitler in condemning Russia's attacks on Georgia, saying the protection of Russian citizens there does not justify the assault. "Attempts to apply such a doctrine have plunged Europe into war in the past... And we have reason to remember how Hitler used this very doctrine little more than half a century ago to undermine and attack substantial parts of central Europe". (The Local)
• At least 38 Warao Indians are dead in Venezuela from a suspected outbreak of rabies from vampire bats. (CNN)
• A mudslide at an illegal gold mine in Burkina Faso causes at least 31 deaths. (AP via The Guardian)
• Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr announces the formation of a cultural unarmed group of the Mehdi Army militia. (BBC News)
• An uprising in the Burmese town of Taunggok, about 200 km northwest of Yangon, results in arrests. (BBC News)

• 2008 Toronto explosions:
  • Massive explosions at a propane facility just before 4 a.m. erupt in the Toronto, Canada community of Downsview, resulting in the evacuation of thousands of people. The explosions also caused the closure of Highway 401, North America's busiest highway, through that area of Toronto. At least 18 people are reported injured, one missing, and one firefighter has died in connection with the incident. (CP via The Globe and Mail)
• Monsoon rains in India kill at least 40 people with flooding heaviest in Andhra Pradesh with flooding in the capital Hyderabad killing 14 people. (BBC News)
• 2008 South Ossetian War:
  • Georgian troops are forced to withdraw from Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia by Russian army. (AP via Google News) According to Georgian field commanders, some units of Georgian army still stay in South Ossetia to fight with Ossetian and Russian forces. (The Times) Georgia withdraws forces that entered South Ossetia on Thursday, August, 7 after suffering heavy casualties. (Bloomberg)
  • Unnamed US official accuses Russia of launching ballistic missiles on Georgia: "They actually launched ballistic missile attacks on Georgian territory." This 'response has been far disproportionate to whatever threat Russia had been citing', he added. (AP via Google News)
  • Black bodies reportedly found among Georgian soldiers corpses on the streets of Tskhinvali. They were 'probably either mercenaries or instructors in the Georgian armed forces', high-ranking South Ossetian diplomat claims. (APA) (Kommersant) (RussiaToday)
  • President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev calls Georgian actions in South Ossetia 'a genocide' and asks Russian prosecutors to investigate and document all cases of murder of civilians in the region. (AFP via Lloyds) (The President of Russia) (NewsRu)
  • According to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, some 130 US military advisors that 'teach combat skills' to Georgian troops now stay in Georgia with no plans of pulling them off. US Georgia Train and Equip Program and Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program continued from April, 2002 to September, 2007. (Marine Corps Times) (US Embassy in Georgia) (US Department of State)
  • Authorities in the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia declare full mobilisation. (AP via Google News) S. Bagapsh, the President of the Republic of Abkhazia gave Georgia an ultimatum to withdraw Georgian troops from the upper Kodori Gorge, part of the breakaway republic. (Bloomberg)
• 2008 Summer Olympics:
  • Swimmer Michael Phelps of the United States wins a gold medal in the 400 metre individual medley setting a new world record. (AP via International Herald Tribune)
  • Stephanie Rice of Australia wins a gold medal in the women's 400 metre individual medley setting a new world record. (Fox Sports)
• A number of blasts in China's western Xinjiang province kill at least two people. (Reuters)
• Bolivia holds a Vote of confidence referendum over whether the president, vice president and most prefects should face re-election. Unofficial results indicate that President Evo Morales has won a decisive mandate.(BBC News) (Los Angeles Times)
• Pádraig Harrington wins the 2008 PGA Championship, becoming the first European to do so in 78 years. (AFP via Google News)

• An air strike by the United States kills 25 Taliban militants and 8 civilians in Orūzgān Province in southern Afghanistan. (The Australian)
• The United States team wins the 4x100 men's freestyle relay setting a new world record with France and Australia finishing second and third respectively. The top five teams all broke the previous world record and Australia's Eamon Sullivan in the lead-off leg broke the record for 100m. (The New York Times) (SI via CNN
• Taliban fighters force Pakistani troops to retreat from an outpost near the border with Afghanistan. (The New York Times)
• The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the Philippines are holding elections using for the first-time electronic voting as precedent to the Presidential elections in 2010. (ABS-CBN)
• 2008 South Ossetian War:
  • According to Ossetian and Russian sources, Georgian attacks leave 2000 dead in South Ossetia, most of which civilian population of Tskhinvali. (The Guardian)
  • Breakaway republic of Abkhazia launched an attack on Georgian forces in the Kodori Valley, the region of Abkhazia under control of Georgians, where the parallel Tbilisi-backed "Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia in exile" is situated. (AFP via News.Com.Au) (Al Jazeera)
  • Fearing an air raid, the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili run for cover during an interview in Gori. (CNN) (CNN via YouTube)
  • Russia is attacking Georgia in a cyberwar. (Ars Technica)
  • The President of the United States George W. Bush warns Russia to respect "Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. (The New York Times)

• A missile strike on a suspected militant training camp in South Waziristan in Pakistan kills at least nine people. (AP via Jerusalem Post
• Mark David Chapman is denied parole for a fifth time for the murder of ex-Beatle John Lennon in 1980. (AP via Google News)
• The United States Department of the Treasury imposes sanctions on five Iranian companies for assisting the development of the nuclear program of Iran. (Reuters)
• 2008 South Ossetia war:
  • President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev announced that the operation of Russian forces in South Ossetia is completed. He added that 'The aggressor has been punished, having sustained considerable losses. Its armed forces have been disorganised'. Medvedev also ordered the Russian Ministry of Defence to consider awarding the peacekeepers and military personnel that have 'showed their best' during the operation. (InterFax) (BBC News)
  • However, Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, said that signing a 'legally binding document on the non-use of force' by Georgia is a compulsory condition of starting the talks between the sides of the conflict. (BBC News)
  • Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze says that Russian jets are still targeting civilians. (Reuters)
  • BP shuts down two more oil and gas pipelines in Georgia 'as a precaution'. (AFP via Google News)
  • The Georgian security council files a lawsuit against Russia in the International Court of Justice for alleged ethnic cleansing. (AP via Jerusalem Post)
    • However, both South Ossetian and Abkhazian Presidents Eduard Kokoity and Sergei Bagapsh claim that it is Georgia, namely Mikheil Saakashvili, who organized the ethnic cleansing against the civilian population in the breakaway republic of South Ossetia during the conflict. The South Ossetian leader added "no talks are possible with state criminals" and that "they must be trialed, not talked to." (AP via Yahoo! News) (Novy Region)
  • The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev agree to a six point ceasefire plan proposed by the President of France Nicolas Sarkozy. (CNN)
  • U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain speaks against Russia’s military operations in Georgia, saying: "I know I speak for every American when I say today we are all Georgians." (Reuters)
• Floods and landslides associated with Tropical Storm Kammuri kill 28 people in southwest China and force 11,000 people from their homes. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• Michael Phelps of the United States wins his third gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 200-meter freestyle and sets a new world record and the 200-meter butterfly in qualifications. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/sports/olympics/12phelpsweb.html (The New York Times)

The Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox tie a modern MLB record scoring a combined 36 runs. The Red Sox won the game 19-17.

• Bill Gwatney, the current state Chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas is shot and killed at the Party headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. The man who shot Gwatney is later shot dead by police during a pursuit. (CNN)
• Princess Lilian of Sweden is taken to hospital after falling and breaking her hip. (The Local)
• American swimmer Michael Phelps breaks the record for most Olympic gold medals won by an individual athlete at the Beijing Olympics. (ESPN)
• 2008 South Ossetia war:
  • The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announces a national day of mourning in Russia in connection with the Battle of Tskhinvali and the death of a large number of Russian citizens there. Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II announced the national day of mourning for soldiers and civilians who died during the 2008 South Ossetia war. (ITARTass) (24.UA) (AOL news India) (Newsgeorgia via NitaPress)
  • The investigation of what Russian officials called a 'genocide' started in South Ossetia. Some witnesses say that a church with civilians inside was burned by the Georgian Army in the captured Ossetian village in the first day of Georgian attack. (Mail On Sunday)
    • Journalists may again enter the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali as the city is mostly secured after Georgian retreat. The articles give new evidence of what the city looks like and what people in Tskhinvali think of the recent events. (The Guardian) (BBC News) (AP)
  • No reports of fighting after ceasefire in the the war between Georgia and Russia holds.(HRW) (The Times) (Guardian)
  • Saakashvili accused Russia of bombing Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital, and invading Gori. However, journalists in Gori report no Russian tanks seen on the streets. Anatoly Nagovitsyn, the Russian military's deputy chief of staff, categorically denied that there were any tanks on the streets of Gori, saying Russian forces were at an abandoned Georgian artillery base near Gori, dismantling it, but not inside the town. (BBC News) (BBC News) (CNN)
    • Sky's Jason Farrell claims he witnessed Russian armor moving at the outskirts of the Georgian town of Gori. (Sky News)
    • British television's Sky Team was robbed near the Georgian town of Gori by a man who 'did not seem to be Russian'. The journalist Andrew Wilson claims 'he could not be sure the men who had pulled their car over were South Ossetian' either. (Sky News)
  • An unnamed 'senior U.S. NATO official' says that USA may withdraw from a major NATO naval exercise with Russia that is to begin on Friday. (Fox News)
  • President George W Bush has said the United States will use military aircraft and naval forces to deliver aid to Georgia. (BBC News)
    • President Bush sends United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Paris and then Tbilisi. (AP via Google News)
• A Fokker F27-500 cargo aircraft operated by Fly540 Logistics Ltd. crashes in Somalia. Three people died. (Bloomberg)
• An explosion at a police station in the Pakistani city of Lahore kills at least three people, on the eve of the 61^st anniversary of independence. (BBC News)

• Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, announces that the United States and Poland have reached an agreement on basing missile defense in Poland. (AP via Google News)
• The Consumer Price Index in the United States rises by .8 per cent in July 2008 giving an annual inflation rate of 5.6 per cent, the highest in 17 years. (The Times)
• 2008 South Ossetia war:
  • Russia says it will support whatever decision the people of breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will make during referendum on the future of their land (International Herald Tribune) (The New York Times)
    • Analysts 'see the conflict as a gamble initiated by Georgia, which is seeking EU and NATO membership, to test the strength of its Western allies in the face of Russia's unwillingness to see the West encroaching on its doorstep.' (CNN)
  • An Amnesty International worldwide movement for human rights reported on August, 14, that the assault of the Georgian Army on Tskhinvali included '14 hours of bombardment' of the city. Amnesty International is still gathering information on the reported heavy civilian casualties, as well as reported bombings of non-military targets leading to deaths of civilians and the destruction of civilian buildings. (Amnesty International)
  • Russia appeared 'to be handing over a key Georgian city Thursday', U.S. officials said. Senior U.S. General James Cartwright claims that 'Russian forces seemed to be complying with an internationally-mediated cease-fire'. (CNN)
  • Georgia's Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze claimed that more than 100 Russian vehicles, some of them armoured, had gathered outside the major western Georgian town of Zugdidi. However, Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defense, said that the Russian army is 'withdrawing their forces back towards Abkhazia and