Portal:Current events

Disasters

• A state of emergency is declared in Christchurch, New Zealand after the 2010 Canterbury earthquake with a curfew put in place. (The Guardian), (Waikato Times)
• Australian floods:
  • Heavy rain in the Australian state of Victoria causes flooding in the towns of Ballarat, Maryborough and Bendigo with landslides blocking roads in the Victorian Alps. (ABC News Online), (ABC News Online)
  • Floodwaters isolate the town of Birdsville in Queensland. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• A plane crash near Fox Glacier on the South Island of New Zealand is believed to have killed 9 people. (ABC News Online) (BBC)

Politics and elections

• Yu Myung-hwan resigns as South Korea's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade amid accusations of nepotism after his daughter is hired to a midlevel position in his Ministry. (Yonhap) (AP via ABC News America)

Armed conflicts and incidents

• Rebels in Darfur say armed men have attacked villages in the region leaving dozens dead in the last two days. (IOL) (AFP)
• A suicide bomber injures at least 25 Tajikistan police officers with several missing following an attack on a regional headquarters at Khujand. (AFP) (RIA Novosti)
• A Taliban bomb attack on a Shiite solidarity rally with the Palestinian people kills at least 53 people in Quetta, Pakistan. (MSNBC) (Reuters via Yahoo! Canada) (Xinhua) (The Times of India)

Business and economy

• Unemployment in the United States rises to 9.6% for August. (Market Watch)

Disasters

• United Parcel Service Flight 6 crashes in Dubai near the International Airport killing both crew members. (Emirates 24/7) (Gulf News) (BBC), (Al Jazeera)
• Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, Indonesia, erupts again. (AP via MSNBC) (Bernama)
• States in the New England region of the United States prepare for a possible impact from Hurricane Earl which has weakened to a tropical storm. (The Boston Globe), (AP via Yahoo! News)
• Forest fires flare up in the southern Russian regions of Volgograd and Saratov, killing two people and burning down 500 buildings. (AFP via The Courier Mail) (The Moscow News) (BBC)
• Landslides in the village of Wama near Baoshan in China kill at least 12 people with 36 missing. (Sky News Australia)
• A magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurs near Christchurch, New Zealand, causing widespread damage and power cuts but no deaths. (The New Zealand Herald) (Herald Sun)

International relations

• South Africa criticises a life sentence passed against former Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana, as it would "not help" the country's political situation. (BBC) (Business Day) (AllAfrica.com)
• Japan approves additional sanctions against Iran due to concerns over Iran's nuclear program. (AP via ABC News America)
• The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization calls a special meeting for 24 September to discuss rising food prices. (BBC)

Law and crime

• Miami International Airport in the US state of Florida is evacuated after a suspicious package is found. A passenger is taken into custody. (CNN) (CNN)
• The President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III, takes responsibility for the handling of the Manila hostage crisis in August. (Hindustan Times)
• Seven defendants are found guilty of abusing children in the Casa Pia child sex abuse trial in Lisbon, Portugal. (BBC)

Politics

• Pro-government crowds in Iran attack the home of opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi ahead of Al-Quds day protests. (Jakarta Post) (Al Jazeera)
• Militant Australian Islamic preacher Feiz Mohammad calls for Dutch politician Geert Wilders to be "beheaded" for denigrating Islam. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)

Science

• The Royal Mail in the United Kingdom launches the first intelligent postage stamp, the first to work with image recognition technology. (BBC)
• A study published in the journal Cell reports the discovery that the cerebral cortex of mammals shares a common evolutionary origin with mushroom bodies, brain structures involved in learning and memory in insects and other invertebrates. (Science Daily)

Sport

• The International Cricket Council charges three Pakistan cricketers who are then formally interviewed by police into a betting scam alleged by the News of the World. (The Guardian)
• UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying:
  • Qualification starts for UEFA Euro 2012 in European football, with wins for Germany and 2010 FIFA World Cup finalists Spain and the Netherlands. (Toronto Sun) (The Guardian)
  • France is booed by their fans after an embarrassing 1-0 home defeat against Belarus. (The Guardian)
  • Two hundred and eighty German and Belgian fans are arrested in Brussels for football hooliganism. (New Kerala)

Armed conflicts and incidents

• 10 civilians are killed and 2 others are wounded after being struck by NATO during an election campaign in Rostaq, Afghanistan. Originally, a spokesman had said a "precision air strike" had hit a militant vehicle. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Palestinians stone an Israeli car travelling through the West Bank resulting in a 12-year-old being injured. (YNet News)
• The Mexican Army claims to have killed 25 drug cartel gunmen in a clash in Tamaulipas state near the United States border. (BBC)

Disasters

• Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations Hussain Haroon calls for an inquiry after allegations emerge of Pakistani floodwaters being diverted into vulnerable villages in a bid to preserve crops. (BBC)
• 2010 Pacific typhoon season
  • Severe Tropical Storm Lionrock lands in China's Fujian province with warnings of strong winds and torrential rains. (Straits Times)
  • Typhoon Kompasu (Glenda) hits South Korea resulting in three deaths and leading to cancellation of flights and school classes. (Straits Times) (AP via Sign On San Diego)
• Hurricane Earl
  • A tropical storm warning is issued for the coast of Long Island in New York as Hurricane Earl approaches the east coast of the United States. (AP via Washington Post) (Reuters)
  • A state of emergency is declared in the states of North Carolina and Virginia. (Bloomberg)
• An oil rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in April, killing no people. (AP)

International relations

• Lebanon requests an Interpol arrest warrant for Ghassan al-Jidd, a former General in the Lebanese Army who allegedly spied for the Mossad. (Jerusalem Post)

Law and crime

• At least 17 migrants are kidnapped by suspected human traffickers in Tijuana, Baja California, in northwestern Mexico. (Al Jazeera) (RFI)
• Price riots continue in Mozambique, leaving a further four people dead. (AP) (Reuters Africa)
• Police in Brazil arrest almost the entire council in the city of Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, on suspicion of fraud and corruption, leaving the city without a government. (BBC) (Latin American Herald Tribune)
• Figures show that at least 2,000 British police officers had 3 or more complaints made against them in 2009-10. (BBC)

Politics and elections

• Independent Member of the Australian House of Representatives Andrew Wilkie announces that he will support the Gillard Labor Government on supply and confidence. (SBS)
• BP warns the United States Congress that it might not be able to pay compensation for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill if it is barred from getting new offshore drilling permits. (New York Times)
• Sebastian Vlădescu is replaced as Romanian Minister of Finance by Gheorghe Ialomitianu as part of a Cabinet reshuffle. (AFP via Google News)

Sport

• Pakistani cricket team in England in 2010
  • Pakistan's high commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan says 3 of his country's cricketers connected to allegations of betting corruption by the News of the World tabloid could have been set up. (BBC Sport) (Sky News)
  • The International Cricket Council charges Pakistan captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif with corruption offences and provisionally suspends them from international cricket pending hearings. (AFP via ABC Online)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 57,000 people are made homeless by heavy floods near Aweil, Northern Bahr el Ghazal in southern Sudan. (BBC)
• The People's Liberation Army Navy commences artillery exercises in the Yellow Sea in response to those being conducted by South Korea and the United States against North Korea. (BBC)
• At least 30 people are killed and 250 injured in three suicide bombing attacks on Shia procession in Lahore, Pakistan. (BBC) (Arab News) (DAWN) (The Guardian) (The Times of India) (Xinhua)
• At least 6 people die as Mozambique police fire rubber bullets as a protest in Maputo over rising food prices turns into a riot. (RFI) (BBC) (Reuters Africa) (Aljazeera)
• A border clash between Armenia and Azerbaijan occurs, leaving several soldiers dead and both sides blaming the other for the violence. (BBC) (Aysor)
• 2 Israelis are wounded in a shooting near Kochav HaShachar in the West Bank. (Haaretz) (Aljazeera)
• The Palestinian Authority arrests 250 members of Hamas following the shooting of four Israeli settlers at Beit Hagai. (Los Angeles Times)

Arts and culture

• Actor Michael Douglas speaks for the first time in public of his recent disgnosis with throat cancer during an interview on American television. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is rehospitalised in the United States after becoming unconscious. (BBC)
• Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's autobiography A Journey goes on sale in the United Kingdom and becomes a bestseller. (The Guardian)
• United States rapper T.I. and his wife singer Tameka Cottle are arrested on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles for illegal drug possession. (CNN)
• Archaeologists discover 200 year old bottles of beer in a shipwreck south of the autonomous Aland Islands in the Baltic Sea believed to be the world's oldest. (CNN)

Business and economics

• Apple launches Ping. (BBC)
• A trade agreement between Australia and the European Union comes into effect stopping Australian wine being marketed using terms such as champagne and port. (ABC Online) (BBC) (People's Daily)
• The U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit, upheld an injunction issued by a federal district court in Indiana in 2009, enjoining Teva Pharmaceuticals from the marketing of its drug for the treatment of osteoporosis. The district court found, and the appellate court agrees, that Teva's drug is in violation of a valid patent held by Eli Lilly & Co.. (Fierce Pharma)

Disasters

• 2010 Pakistan floods:
  • The World Bank pledges to loan an additional $100 million to Pakistan. (Hindustan Times) (Reuters)
  • Flood taxes are imposed in principle. (People's Daily)
  • UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg visits a relief camp in Sukkur to witness the devastation caused by the ongoing floods. (BBC) (The Times of India) (PA via The Independent) (Sky News)
• 2010 Copiapó mining accident:
  • The 33 miners involved in the 2010 Copiapó mining accident in Chile receive their first hot meal in 26 days: it consists of meatballs, chicken and rice through a tube. (BBC)
  • As the isolation of the miners is similar to a space mission, NASA sends a team of doctors, who recommend the miners abstain from cigarettes and alcohol while trapped. (The Daily Telegraph) (Reuters)
• The U.S. state of North Carolina orders the evacuation of Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke Island ahead of Hurricane Earl. (Christian Science Monitor)
• A tower block collapse in Saint Petersburg neither kills nor injures people. (BBC) (CNN) (People's Daily)
• Eight people are killed and 40 missing in landslides that hit Wama village in Yunnan province, near Baoshan. The overall death toll from the 2010 China floods rises to 3,185, with 1,050 more missing. (AFP)

International relations

• Several European countries summon their Kenyan ambassadors in a bid to determine why Kenya did not arrest President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir when he came to Nairobi for the new constitution ceremony. (BBC)
• The United States adds Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan to its list of what it considers "foreign terrorist organizations"; rewards are announced for the capture of its leaders. (Reuters) (The Hindu) (Los Angeles Times)
• President of the United States Barack Obama meets with a range of Middle East leaders in pursuit of peace between Israel and Palestine, including Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, King of Jordan Abdullah II and President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak. (CNN) (Aljazeera)

Law and crime

• Greece brings into force a smoking ban. (BBC) (AP via The Guardian) (The Independent) (Sky News)
• 92 Afghan asylum seekers escape from the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin, Australia as part of a protest with four people being hospitalised due to dehydration. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• 2 Yemenis are released from custody in Amsterdam, having been arrested after being suspected by the United States of plotting a terrorist act. No evidence was found against the men. (BBC)
• Swedish prosecutors decide to reopen a rape case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange; Assange denies the allegations. (Aljazeera) (The Guardian) (CNN) (The New Zealand Herald)
• A man upset with the Discovery Channel's environmental programs takes several people hostage at its headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, DC. Police snipers eventually kill him with the hostages being safe. (UKPA via Google) (Entertainment Weekly) (The Guardian) (People)

Politics and elections

• The Australian Greens agree to support a Gillard Labor minority government as negotiations continue to form a government after the recent election. (Reuters)
• Members of the United Kingdom Labour Party start voting in the leadership election with the candidates being Diane Abbott, David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Andy Burnham. (BBC)
• Christopher Myers, a special adviser to UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, resigns due to "untrue and malicious" allegations amid questions surrounding Hague's marriage. (BBC) (Channel 4) (The Independent)
• More than 150 Israeli academics say they will no longer lecture or work in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. (BBC)

Sport

• Mohammad Asif of Pakistan is dropped from an Indian movie due to the recent allegations of match-fixing. (BBC News) (Reuters)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• A roadside bomb and mortar attack in the Somali capital Mogadishu kill at least 14 people and injure several others. (Al Jazeera)
• 8 people are killed in a petrol bomb attack at a bar in Cancún, Mexico. (BBC) (APA)
• 4 Israelis are shot to death in an attack in the West Bank next to Kiryat Arba. (Ynetnews) (BBC)
• A roadside bomb kills 4 United States troops in eastern Afghanistan. (AP via MSNBC)
• An explosion occurs outside the head office of a government-run television station in Bangkok, Thailand. (Bangkok Post) (Xinhua)
• 3 Russian aircrew kidnapped in Sudan's Darfur region are released. (Reuters) (RIA Novosti)
• The Sudan People's Liberation Army pledges to demobilise all of its child soldiers by the end of the year. (BBC)

Business and economics

• Hewlett-Packard (HP), the world's largest computer maker based in the U.S. state of California, pays US$55 million amid allegations it defrauded the United States government. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (AFP via France24), (BBC)

Disasters

• Floodwaters continue to wreak havoc in Pakistan, affecting areas near Larkana. (DAWN)
• Four people die following a Cessna Citation crash on Misima Island in Papua New Guinea's Milne Bay Province. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald) (ABC Online)
• Hurricane Earl moves away from the Leeward Islands towards the east coast of the United States with a hurricane watch issued for most of the North Carolina coast. (Reuters) (MSNBC)

International relations

• The Russian embassy in the Belarussian capital Minsk is attacked with firebombs; Russia says the incident is "outrageous". (RIA Novosti) (Times of India) (Reuters)
• Iran's foreign ministry criticises state media for branding French first lady Carla Bruni as a "prostitute" over her support for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani who faces death by stoning after being convicted of adultery. (ABC News) (IOL) (AP)
• Following an Israeli-course on editing Wikipedia to further a national agenda, a Palestinian group initiates a plan to establish its view on the encyclopaedia.[1][2]

Law and crime

• The Danish-based Kurdish TV station Roj TV faces terror charges for supporting PKK. (Denmark.DK)
• Mexican authorities arrest top drug trafficker Edgar Valdez Villarreal. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
• A Chinese court accepts its first case relating to a man claiming job discrimination on the grounds he had HIV. (BBC) (China Daily) (AFP)
• Russian police detain more than 150 people including prominent opponents of Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin such as former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, following protests in Moscow and Saint Petersberg in support of freedom of assembly. (Irish Times) (Al Jazeera) (The Moscow Times)

Politics

• President of the United States Barack Obama delivers a televised Oval Office address to the United States commemorating the end of United States armed forces being directly involved in fighting in Iraq. (New York Times)
• The South African government improves a pay offer to more than a million striking public sector workers in an attempt to end the two week long strike. (AllAfrica.com) (BBC) (CNN)
• US Senator Lisa Murkowski concedes defeat in the Alaskan Republican primary election to challenger to Joe Miller.

(MSNBC)

• As part of a lengthy interview with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, Fidel Castro admits responsibility for the |persecution of homosexuals in Cuba after the revolution of 1959.(BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald)

Science

• Fossils of Balaur genus dinosaur are unearthed in Romania. (BBC)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Four Israelis, including a pregnant woman, are shot dead in a shooting outside Kiryat Arba, when a gunman opens fire on their car. Hamas claims responsibility for the murder. (Haaretz)
• A gunman opens fire in Devínska Nová Ves, a borough of the Slovak capital Bratislava, killing 8 people and injuring 14 others. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle) (The Guardian) (AP via The Hindu) (Xinhua) (Aljazeera)
• Marco Antonio Leal García, the Mayor of Hidalgo, Tamaulipas, in northeastern Mexico, is shot dead while operating his car; his 4-year-old daughter is wounded. (BBC)
• The presidential palace in Somalia is shelled. (Aljazeera)
• 6 civilians are killed and 19 others are injured in a shelling incident in Mogadishu. (The Guardian)
• 4 African Union peacekeepers from Uganda are killed during a mortar strike in Mogadishu, Somalia. (BBC) (AFP via France24)
• 4 people are killed and 3 others are injured due to a rocket launcher explosion in Pursat Province, northwestern Cambodia. (Xinhua)
• Two Russian pilots are abducted in Sudan's western Darfur region. (RIA Novosti) (BBC)
• Gunmen kidnap a politician in southern Nigeria, days after a supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan was also kidnapped. (News24) (Xinhua)

Arts and culture

• It is announced that Isabella Rossellini is to chair the judging panel at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011. (BBC) (Reuters) (UPI) (AFP via The Independent)
• Concern is expressed for more than 500 indigenous women who have gone missing in Canada on the International Day of the Disappeared. (Aljazeera)
• Alain "Spiderman" Robert climbs another building barehanded, this time in Sydney; he is later arrested. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (BBC) (Xinhua) (Sky News) (France24)

Disasters

• 2010 Pakistan floods
  • The historic city of Thatta is preserved by troops and volunteers fighting severe floodwaters in Pakistan; it had been thought of as being at great risk. (AP via Google News) (The Independent) (Daily Times)
  • More than 175,000 people flee, as the city virtually empties. (Aljazeera)
• Chile mining accident
  • The 33 miners involved in the accident make telephone contact with their families for the first time in 3 weeks. (BBC)
  • Rescuers are to begin drilling to rescue the trapped miners. (Santiago Times) (Al Jazeera)
• 2010 Atlantic hurricane season
  • Category 4 Hurricane Earl takes aim at the northern Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico with winds of up to 135 miles per hour (215 km/h) prompting hurricane warnings. (msnbc.com) (CNN) (BBC)
  • Tropical Storm Fiona forms in the central Atlantic Ocean with the potential to become the fourth hurricane of the season. (Huffington Post)
• Indonesia's Mount Sinabung continues to erupt with 21,000 people now evacuated from nearby areas of north Sumatra and two people dead. (AP via Fox News) (CNN)
• 9 people die and 480 are rescued following a fire at a retirement home in the Tver region of Russia. (CNN) (Al Jazeera)
• It is announced that a preserved corpse belonging to William Holland, an American mountaineer lost in the Canadian Rockies in 1989, has been located in Jasper National Park. (BBC) (AP via Google News)
• 42 killed, 11 injured in bus crash 55 miles south of Quito, Ecuador.(CNN)

International relations

• Ovadia Yosef, a senior rabbi from Shas, a party within Israel's coalition government, calls for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to "vanish from our world". The United States condemns the remarks as "deeply offensive". (BBC) (Haaretz) (The Times of India)
• The United States begins patrolling with troops its border with Mexico. (BBC)
• United States Vice President Joe Biden pays a surprise visit to Iraq. (Aljazeera) (Aswat al-Iraq)
• China and North Korea acknowledge the leader of North Korea Kim Jong Il visited China recently where he met with the President of China Hu Jintao. (UK Press Association via Google News) (Xinhua) (The Chosun Ilbo) (Daily Times)
• The President of the United States Barack Obama freezes the assets of three North Korean organisations and one individual in response to the sinking of a South Korean warship in March. North Korea has denied it is responsible. (The Guardian) (Xinhua) (Aljazeera)

Law and crime

• More than 100 Russian skinheads attack a music festival in central Russia, injuring at least 10 people and leaving one 14-year-old girl dead. (BBC) (RIA Novosti)
• 3,200 police officers have been fired so far this year by Mexico's federal police force due to extracurricular activities. (BBC) (AP via France24) (Aljazeera)
• The Indian government decides not to ban the controversial Blackberry devices for at least two months after the North American manufacturer allows "lawful access" to encrypted data it had been feared would be a security threat. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
• Indonesian detainees continue to riot at the Northern Immigration Detention Facility. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• South African rugby union player Bees Roux of the Bulls is charged with murdering a police officer in Pretoria. (AP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• Mexico captures alleged Mexican-American drug trafficker Edgar Valdez Villarreal in the state of Morelos near Mexico City. (ABC News Online)

Politics and elections

• Italian health minister Ferruccio Fazio apologises while visiting a woman subjected to violent confrontation between two doctors as her baby was on the verge of being born at a hospital in Messina, Sicily. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (AP via CBC News) (The Washington Post)
• Talks begin between the government and workers striking for better conditions in South Africa in the third week of a conflict which has seen troops deployed. (BBC) (TIMES Live) (Reuters)

Science

• The InterAcademy Panel on International Issues issues a report finding that The IPCC assessment process has been successful overall but making seven formal recommendations for improving the IPCC's assessment process, and that "“Straying into advocacy can only hurt I.P.C.C.’s credibility.” (Aljazeera) (The Irish Times) (The New York Times) (The New Zealand Herald)InterAcademy Council news release 30.August.2010

Sport

• The International Cricket Council states that Pakistan's tour of England is to continue despite yesterday's spot-fixing allegations exposed by a British newspaper. (BBC Sport) (AFP via France24) (The Guardian) (Aljazeera)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Eighty thousand people rally in Hong Kong after last week's fatal tourist coach hijacking hostage crisis in the Philippines. (Aljazeera) (BBC) (Bangkok Post) (The Independent)
• At least 19 people are killed in a fire fight between President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov's personal guards and protesters in Tsentoroi. (Aljazeera)
• A Palestinian man is killed by the collapse of a smuggling tunnel under the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. (AFP via Google News)
• Afghanistan
  • 7 American soldiers are killed in fighting in Afghanistan over the weekend. (AP via MSNBC)
  • Gunmen kill 5 campaign workers for a female candidate in the Afghan parliamentary election, 2010. (Reuters)
• The Catholic Church admits that during a meeting in April Godfried Danneels, the retired Catholic leader in Belgium, advised a person who had experienced abuse to remain secret until his abuser Roger Vangheluwe, the Bishop of Brugge, retired. (BBC)

Arts and Culture

• 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards
  • Mad Men wins the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. (Los Angeles Times)
  • Modern Family wins the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. (Los Angeles Times)

Disasters

• Floods worsen in Pakistan as more towns are threatened. (Press TV)
• 1 person dies as the Sumatran volcano Sinabung prompts a red alert by erupting for the first time in over 400 years and leads to Indonesia evacuating thousands of people. (ABC News Online) (AFP via Google News) (DPA via Monsters and Critics)
• At least 38 people, including the driver are killed in Equador when a bus falls down a cliff outside the capital Quito, reportedly after the driver fell asleep. (Reuters Africa) (Sky News Australia)

International relations

• The Palestinian Authority launches a United States funded advertising campaign supporting peace talks with Israel. (Jerusalem Post)

Law and crime

• Indonesian detainees riot and light a fire at the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin, Australia. (ABC News Online), (AFP via Yahoo! News)
• Unidentified gunmen assassinate Marco Antonio Leal Garcia, the mayor of the small town of Hidalgo in Tamaulipas, Mexico. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)

Politics

• Afghanistan's former deputy attorney-general Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar is sacked over his refusal to obstruct corruption investigations into senior government officials; Faqiryar is critical of President Hamid Karzai. (Aljazeera)
• Racism in Australia is shown to be subsiding as the country elects its first indigenous parliamentarian, Ken Wyatt. (BBC) (The Independent) (The Age)
• President of the United States Barack Obama pledges to restore the Gulf Coast on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in a speech in New Orleans. (Reuters via Toronto Sun) (Aljazeera)

Sport

• A man is arrested in connection to an alleged sports betting scam centered on the current Test match at Lord's Cricket Ground in London between England and Pakistan. (BBC)
• David Lekuta Rudisha lowers the 800 metres world record to 1:41.01 seconds. (IAAF)