The Syrian government states that it has repelled a major attack on an air base near Aleppo; 341 detainees are released across the country. Rebels claim the capture of an airforce building in Deir ez-Zor. (BBC)(SANA)
An unidentified man throws a grenade to spectators of a festival in Paquibato district near Davao City, Philippines, wounding 41 people. (Inquirer)
Arts and culture
Former progressive Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini describes the Catholic Church as "200 years behind the times" in an interview published the day after his death. (CNN)
A nuclear reactor in Belgium shows up to 0.3 m-depth signs of erosion weakening the 1.2 m outer reinforced concrete mantle, three times deeper than previously reported. The owner and the nuclear regulator deny any risk since the reactor was already shut down due to another issue. (Le Soir)
The closing document reaffirms the determination of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to transform the global management system based on the principles of justice, peace and amity. (PressTV)(SunStar)
A pro-government militia in Kanum village near Kunduz kills at least eight villagers, apparently thinking the villagers killed one of them. (AFP via Asia One)
Local security sources say a drone attack kills ten suspected Al-Qaeda militants and three companion women in central Yemen. Other sources say, relating to the same incident, that a government air raid misses its target and kills ten civilians, of which two female, in a car. (Nahrnet)(Reuters)
Swaziland virgins perform an annual reed dance, paying homage to the king, pleasing tourists and compatriots. (Reuters)
Science and technology
Cracks in 3 of the 21 wooden beams of a European Parliament hemicycle roof lead to the temporary closure, among others, of the plenary debate room; parliamentary operations are reportedly unaffected. (European Voice)(Public Service Europe)
India and China plan bilateral military exercises in 2013, the first since 2008. (Voice of America)
Law and crime
A South Korean court orders the government to compensate a fisherman with 2.5 billion won (€ 1.75 million); he was falsely accused of spying for North Korea. (Yonhap)
Osvaldo Rivera is the suspect jailed in Camden County, New Jersey for the stabbing to death of a 6-year-old boy and the attempted murder of the boy's 12-year-old sister. Authorities say he was high on PCP-laced marijuana. (AP via Yahoo! News)
Police in Cambodia say The Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm, who was arrested on Sunday, "is to be deported", saying it's up to Sweden to decide where and not specifying when. There is no extradition agreement between the two countries. (BBC)
President-elect Peña Nieto of Mexico names his "transition team", ahead of his cabinet and December 1st inauguration. (NewsDaily)
Science and technology
Scientists develop a "magic carpet" with optical fibers to help prevent elderly people from falling by a warning when it detects unusual footsteps. (Daily Mail)
Beijing and Shanghai place orders for the world's longest bus, the 101 foot (31 m), five-axle, four-steering-axle, three-tieredAutoTram. It carries 256 passengers and costs about $10 million a piece. Due to advanced electronics, it is said to be as maneuverable and precise as a conventional bus. (Daily Mail)
The opening date of the new airport serving the Berlin area is delayed again, until late October 2013. (The Local)
The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements is published. For the first time, a browsable, analysable overview of the four million regulatory regions, or functional elements of the human genome found up to now, is made available to the general public. At least 80% of the human genome is biologically active, rather than mainly junk DNA as once believed. (ENCODE)(Nature)
For the first time in nearly eighteen months, a sign of life appears of four French nationals kidnapped by Al-Qa'eda in Arlit, Niger. A videotape shows them healthy; they ask France to negotiate their release. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
A main water supply pipe serving central Aleppo is allegedly struck by a government air strike. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants are left without drinking water. The Aleppo governor says "sabotage" damaged "two pumps serving three districts" and repair work is ongoing. Food, cooking gas and electricity are reported to be in short supply. (The New York Times)(AP via CBC)(Xinhua)
Two car bombs explode near a hospital in Aleppo that was recently turned into an army barracks. At least 17 people are reported killed and more than 40 others injured. (Reuters)
NestorLouis Michel calls Rwandan President Paul Kagame a "great leader" ("grootleider"). Kagame has been accused of war crimes during Rwanda's invasion of the DR Congo in 1996, and of having led a subsequent proxy war against the DR Congo by arming the CNDP until January 20, 2009. Congo currently accuses Rwandan defence officials of supporting a newdestabilisation of East Congo. Louis Michel urges the international community for "more time" to "objectivate the facts first" before taking any action. (De Zondag, p. 12-13, in Dutch)
Closing their annual summit, APEC leaders report progress in Vladivostok over environmental and trade barrier issues; some territorial issues remain unsolved. (Wall Street Journal)
Elections for the 70-member Legislative Council are held in Hong Kong. Forty seats are elected by direct popular vote, the remainder are attributed by the "functional constituencies": business and special interest groups. China has promised a fully popular vote by the year 2020; the roadmap is still being laid out. (BBC)(Xinhua)(Pakistan Today)(Washington Post)
Three people are killed and several others seriously injured after a coach taking people home from the Isle of Wight-based music festival, Bestival 2012 crashes in Surrey, England. (BBC)
Tariq al-Hashimi rejects the charges leading to his death sentence in Baghdad on Sunday. He, being a Sunni, claims to be a "target" of Shiite prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. He refuses to return to Iraq for an appeal as long as, according to him, the judicial system is "corrupt". He claims to put the verdict "on his chest as a medal". Al-Qaeda says "black days" are ahead. The reaction of Iraqi people on the street generally welcomes a fair rule of law but is wary of political influencing and sectarianism. (ABC News)(Euronews)
According to a parliamentary answer by the ministry of health, the value of a life lost during a clinical trial is 2.2 lakhrupees ($ 4,000) in India in 2011. This number is the average compensation paid for deaths during clinical trials. No rules governing compensations for clinical trial-related injury or death have been approved by the Parliament of India yet. (IRNA)[permanent dead link]
A car bomb targeting Yemen's defence minister, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, kills at least twelve people, including seven bodyguards of the minister and five civilians in Sana. (The New York Times)
A suicide bombing in front of a police station in the western Istanbul suburb of Sultangazi kills a policeman, the bomber, and injures several others. The leftist group Dev Sol claims responsibility. (BBC)
Two people are shot dead at close range in the center of Milan. Hours later, another shooting in plain view shakes the financial capital of Italy. (Reuters)
China's Ministry of Defence says the nationalization of the disputed Senkaku Islands by Japan is "illegal and invalid"; that it would closely monitor the "evolution of the situation" and "reserve the right to take reciprocal measures". (Xinhua)
China summons Japanese ambassador Uichiro Niwa to lodge a protest over Japan's nationalization of the Senkaku Islands. Beijing warned it will take "necessary measures" to protect its claim on the islands. (Bloomberg)(The Hindu)
Newly declassified documents confirm that the United States deliberately ignored Soviet involvement in the 1940 Katyn massacre, despite credible evidence to the contrary provided no later than 1943. While until 1945 this choice could be explained as World War II grand strategy, it is not known why the White House remained silent on the matter until now. (AP via New York Daily News)
Sources tell the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper that the German military spying agency MAD tried to recruit Uwe Mundlos in 1995. Mundlos refused to cooperate and subsequently participated in ten terrorist murders with the nazi group NSU. He died in 2011; police say he committed suicide. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Luo Zhaohui, the head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Asian department, vowed China would "never accept Japan's illegal occupation or so-called 'actual control'" of the islands. (Chicago Tribune)
Law and crime
Police in Bosnia and Herzegovina arrest 25 people on suspicion of multiple murders, drug-trafficking and robbery in the biggest crackdown on organised crime since the Bosnian War. (IOL)
Protestors breach the walls of the U.S. embassy compound in Sana'a, Yemen. Yemeni police fire warning shots in the air and four people are killed. The Egyptianministry of health says 224 people are injured in demonstrations around the embassy in Cairo. In Kuwait, 500 people gather and chant near the embassy. (BBC)(AFP via Google News)
The U.S. deploys destroyers and surveillance drones to Libya to hunt for those responsible for the attack in Benghazi. U.S. officials say they are investigating whether the protests over a film privately produced in the US denigrating the prophet Muhammad were used as a cover by the attackers, rather than being spurred by them. The Libyan Deputy Interior minister says there were two parts in the attack - the second attack was on the safe house of which the location was previously leaked. (CNN)(AP via Detroit News)[permanent dead link]
The US consulate in the suburbs of Berlin, Germany, is briefly evacuated due to suspicions over the contents of an envelope. (Reuters)
More details emerge about the privately produced anti-Islam film that sparks unrest in the world. Sam Bacile is also the name a Washington-based activist assumed to initiate forwarding the link last week. One reporter points to the suspected real name of "Abano(u)b Basseley". (Wall Street Journal)
Protesters in Tripoli, Lebanon, set fire to a KFC and a Hardee's restaurant, sparking clashes with local security forces. One protester is killed and 25 people wounded, including 18 police officers. (BBC)(AP via The Globe and Mail)
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge begin legal action after the magazine Closer published topless pictures of the Duchess taken during a holiday to France last week, and which their spokesman describes as “a grotesque and totally unjustifiable” invasion of privacy. (BBC)(The Telegraph)
HTV-3 detaches from the ISS for a burial in the Pacific Ocean. ATV 3 thrusts the ISS' orbit two kilometers up. TMA-04M will land on 17 September. ATV-003, named Edoardo Amaldi, is planned to disconnect on September 25th and burn up itself and a load of trash in the atmosphere over the same ocean. (RIA Novosti)(RIA)(ESA)
Chinese Vice President and Paramount Leader-designate Xi Jinping is shown on television for the first time in weeks, debunking rumours of serious illness. (Xinhua)(AFP via Google News)
Tens of thousands protest against Putin in Moscow. (Businessweek)
Eight female civilians are killed in a NATO airstrike in the eastern Afghan province of Laghman; NATO said the airstrike was attempting to target insurgents. (BBC)(AFP)
Japan's former ambassador to China, Yuji Miyamato, has emerged as the leading candidate to replace the late Shinichi Nishimiya, who died last Sunday. (Kyodo News via The Japan Times)
China says it reserves the right to further action against Japan over the Senkaku Islands, but adds that it hopes for a "peaceful and negotiated solution" to the issue. (Kyodo News via Mainichi Shimbun)
Ten Chinese surveillance ships sailed into the contiguous zone off the Senkaku Islands, following a similar incursion by a fishery monitoring ship earlier in the day. (Yomiuri Shimbun)
Following the world's first mother-to-daughter uterus transplants at the University of Gothenburg two women may now be able to give birth using the wombs in which they were carried. (BBC)
Teachers go back to work in Chicago after the union leadership votes to suspend its strike while the membership reviews a tentative pact with mayor Rahm Emanuel. (Los Angeles Times)
The Czech Republic temporarily imposes a ban on hard liquor after a spate of deaths related to bootleg hard alcohol poisoning. (Los Angeles Times)
Protesters in Beijing surround a car transporting US ambassador to China Gary Locke and attack it as it tried to make its way into the gate of the Japanese embassy. (Los Angeles Times)
Beijing informs its citizens via mass-text messages that it has imposed a ban on any further anti-Japan protests. (Yomiuri Shimbun)
Over 700 Chinese fishing vessels are operating in the contiguous zone surrounding Japan-controlled waters around the Senkaku Islands. The Japan Coast Guard is monitoring the situation. (Kyodo News via The Japan Times)
During a Green Day performance at Las Vegas' IHeartRadio music festival, Billie Joe Armstrong became agitated onstage and stopped the band's set midway through their performance. In an expletive-filled rant, Armstrong criticized the event's promoters for allegedly cutting short the band's performance before smashing his guitar and storming off stage.
The Libyan government asks the population to discriminate among "legitimate and non-legitimate" militias; Raf Allah al-Sahati, Feb. 17 and Libya Shield are supposedly "legitimate" militias. (AP via ABC News)
The National Coordination Body, an internal civilian opposition umbrella group in Syria, is to hold a conference in Damascus on Sunday. According to Xinhua, the 28-party conference is cancelled due to internal divisions. (Reuters)(Xinhua)
The Musée du Louvre in Paris opens a new wing dedicated to Islamic art. It holds 3,000 artifacts from the seventh to the 19th century. An Egyptian Mamluk portal, disassembled in France since 1889, is shown for the first time. (AFP via France 24)
Disasters and accidents
The drunken driver of a car, speeding at nearly 200 kilometre (124 miles) per hour, hits a bus stop on Minskaya Street in Moscow. Seven pedestrians who were waiting for the bus were killed. (Ria Novosti)(Xinhua)
A conference to "rescue Syria" is held in Damascus by the National Coordination Body and around 20 other parties. Twenty eight parties, which are also opposed to the militarization of the conflict, have not participated. The conference calls for a ceasefire and a peaceful political transition to succeed the Assad regime. The armed opposition considers the position as "too lenient on the dictator". (Xinhua)(AP via Washington Post)
KenyanAMISOM troops, advancing towards the al-Shabaab stronghold of Kismayo, "deliberately" shoot dead seven Somali civilians, according to a Somali Army spokesman. The Hizbul Islam faction announces that it leaves the al-Shabaab. (BBC)
Business and economy
Multiple reports suggest that North Korea is to introduce reforms allowing farmers to keep more of their produce, rather than handing it to the state. (BBC)
Three bloggers in Vietnam are sentenced to four, ten and twelve years' imprisonment for "anti-state propaganda". (Al Jazeera)
Former Israeli minister of industry, trade and labor Ehud Olmert, who is also a former prime minister, is given a fine and a suspended 1-year jail sentence for cronyism while in office. A bribery case related to a housing project in Jerusalem is still being investigated. (Reuters)
An academic report from the United States finds that American drone attacks "terrorize" the civilian population of northern Pakistan, further stating that the benefits of drone attacks for the U.S. are "ambiguous at best". (BBC)
A bombing in the eastern Turkish city of Tunceli kills at least seven people. (BBC)
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health voices concerns that the novel coronavirus, similar to SARS and reported to have originated from the country, might affect the Hajj, the religious pilgrimage set to occur next month. The ministry suggests that travelers take the necessary precautions. (ABC News)
The body of a missing Northwestern University student, a sophomore in the School of Engineering there, is found in Wilmette Harbor on Lake Michigan; police have thus far found no signs of foul play, but his family believes he had been kidnapped and had offered a $25,000 reward. (Northwestern University)
A mass shooting takes place at Accent Signage Systems, a sign company in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States; five people are killed, including the gunman who committed suicide, and four others are wounded. (Huffington Post)
The MarsCuriosity rover, for the first time, discovers what, upon further study, could be determined to be direct evidence of a fast-moving streambed- a past water source- on the planet, moving from speculation to potential proof of past water, a landmark step because such an area would be a logical site for a future base and for the discovery of past life. (Washington Post)
Nigeria suspends flights to Saudi Arabia after hundreds of Nigerian women attending the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca were deported for not traveling with a male escort. (Al Jazeera)(BBC)
Syrian Civil War: An Islamist group fighting Syrian government troops says it has captured five soldiers from Yemen, whom it alleges were sent to quell the uprising. (Straits Times)
In Kenya, a nine-year-old boy is killed and other children are wounded in a grenade attack on a church in Nairobi. Hours later, two policeman are shot dead in Garissa. Police suspect al Shabaab sympathizers for the attacks. (Reuters)
Arts and culture
Singer George Michael cancels the Australian leg of his tour due to "major anxiety", resulting from his recovery from life-threatening pneumonia last November. (BBC)
Business and economy
Spain's government says it expects debt levels to increase next year. (BBC)
