Brazilian authorities probed on August 22 the brazen hostage-taking of 35 people at an upscale central Rio de Janeiro hotel following a shootout between a gang and police that left one person dead.

Shahdadkot's half-million people frantically tried to flee their homes on August 21 as a wall of water threatened to burst mud berms and drown the entire city in Pakistan's Sindh province.  

Three Afghan police officers were accidentally killed in an airstrike and a bomb killed five Afghan civilians in separate incidents in northern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said on August 21.

Voters in Australia began casting ballots on August 21 to decide who will lead the country in what is likely to be the closest election in decades.

Israel and Palestine will resume direct peace talks in Washington in early September with the aim of reaching a deal within a year for an independent Palestinian state, US officials announced on August 20.

Iranian and Russian nuclear technicians made final preparations to start up Iran's first reactor on August 21 after years of delays.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin dismissed Russia's top forest official on Friday over criticism that he did little to combat deadly forest fires that were unleashed by a record heat wave and blanketed Moscow in smoke.

Taliban insurgents killed up to 30 Afghans working for a road-building company in the volatile south of the country, said officials on August 20.

Pakistan said on Friday that it will clamp down on charities linked to Islamist militants amid fears their involvement in flood relief could exploit anger against the government and undermine the fight against groups like the Taliban.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) said it has reached a consensus with China concerning the resumption of international talks on ending its nuclear arms programme, the DPRK official news agency reported.