August 2008

• A total solar eclipse is visible from northern Canada (Nunavut), Greenland, central Russia, eastern Kazakhstan, western Mongolia and China and partially Romania. (AFP via Google News)
• 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)

• 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' (Times Online) (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)
  • 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) (NYT)
  • 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 Defence Ministry claims 10 Russian peacekeepers in the area were killed and 30 wounded so far during the Georgian offensive. The Georgian Interior Ministry claims three Georgian soldiers were killed at an airbase outside of Tbilisi. At least 15 civilians are also reported dead. (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 Tskinvali in ruins, 1400 civilian citizens 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)
  • Estonia warns Russia to stop aggresion against Georgia. (Geopolitika)
• A car bomb in the town of Tal Afar in northern Iraq kills at least 21 people and injures about 70. (BBC)
• 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. (Voice of America)
• Economic crisis of 2008:
  • UK home repossessions rise by 48%. (BBC)
  • The OECD reports slower growth and declining employment in the U.S. (BBC), (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)
• Feng Yun defeats Yilun Yang to win the 2008 Ing Masters tournament at the 2008 U.S. Go Congress in Portland, Oregon. [3]
• 88888 Lights Out - An event by ExNoRa International. Asking citizens of the country to switch of their lights for 8 minutes on 8-8-8 at 8 PM. Lights were switched of at Arihant Majestic Towers, Raj Bhavan, IT Companies across Chennai, Many Apartments, Hotels, Plazas for the 8 minutes. This event was aimed at creating awareness on Global Warming, Individual responsibility, to be a part of the solution & a feel of togetherness.This will be followed by a 13 month period of tracking carbon foot print until 9-9-2009 at 9 PM.
• An ethanol biofuel blend containing bioethanol made from whey, a dairy byproduct, is released "mainstream" in New Zealand for the first time. (One News) A similar blend had been released commercially almost a year earlier on 1 August 2007. (New Zealand Herald)
• Pro-life conservative, Alan Keyes, is still running for President of the United States.(http://www.alankeyes.com)
  File:Alan Keyes.jpg
• While traveling around Ohio making speeches to the public, John McCain was recently asked to keep a certain business from switching to UPS air-freight; McCain responded, “That's just not what I'm about."(Hallett, Joe, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, Thursday, August 7, 2008)
• Romanian anime forums:
  • Athelfirth's raid on the Animax forum, started by himself and a few accomplices at about 4 AM Romanian time (+2 GMT) utilises inovative methods for him, like shock images and shock sites linked under them; the images last for about 8 hours, being considered a very succesful raid; later, a thread is opened (some say by Coyotee or one of his subordonats) in which responsability is thrown on users Anime-Club owners have spite; later, Konata claims on the same topic that it was useless, but does not confirm the topic creator's sayings, or that the posts lasted for more than 7 hours. (Thread about it on Animax )
  • guardian angel's 18th birthday
• Aggressive Media presents their first AMV complete project here on Youtube. Project on YouTube

References

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14 - August Celebration of Independence DayFile:Pakistan.GIF Pakistan Islamic Republic of Pakistan came in to being on Thursday 14 of August 1947 (27 Ramadan in Islamic Colander) Pakistan gains Independence from the British Indian Empire under the administration of United Kingdom and joins the British Commonwealth. All Pakistani celebrating Independence Day (14 August) not only in Pakistan also in whole world.