The second-in-command of the Islamic State militant group was killed during a US air strike in Iraq, the White House said on August 21, dealing a blow to the group that has sought to form a caliphate across the Muslim world.

Two turbo-prop planes carrying civilian parachutists rehearsing for an air show collided in mid-air in Slovakia on August 20, killing seven people, authorities said.

Rockets hit an Israeli village near the Lebanese border on August 20 and Israel struck back in the Syrian Golan Heights, saying the rare salvo had been launched there by an Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group.

Gunmen fired on police outside an Istanbul palace and a bomb killed eight soldiers in the southeast on August 19, heightening a sense of crisis as Turkey's leaders struggled to form a new government.

The German parliament approved a third bailout for Greece on August 19 after Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the country should get "a new start", while in Athens the government agonized over whether to call a snap election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend next month's UN General Assembly in New York and would "consider constructively" any request for a meeting there with President Barack Obama, Russia's foreign minister said on August 19.

German lawmakers are expected to vote overwhelmingly in favor of Greece's third bailout on August 19, even though Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a dangerous rebellion in her own party ranks that suggests she cannot ask parliament to help Athens again.

Thai authorities said on August 18 they were looking for a suspect seen on closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage near a popular shrine where a bomb blast killed 22 people, nearly half of them foreigners.

A bomb blast at a popular shrine in Bangkok that killed 22 people including eight foreigners did not match the tactics used by separatist rebels in southern Thailand, the country's army chief said on August 18.

The White House is seeking an agreement with Cuba to begin scheduled commercial flights between the two countries as soon as December, the Wall Street Journal reported on August 17, citing officials.