Rescuers lifted the last group of seven miners to the ground on August 7 at a gold mine in eastern China where an underground blaze initially trapped more than 300.

The Moscow skyline of the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral vanished on August 6 as a blanket of thick, noxious smoke shrouded the metropolis, leaving many of the city's 10 million residents with sore throats and burning eyes.

The worst floods in Pakistan's history have hit at least 14 million people, officials say.

A train derailed outside of Naples, Italy, on August 6, killing one person and leaving about 40 injured, a railroad service spokesman said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has used an appearance at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial ceremony in Japan to advocate for his five-point plan for worldwide nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.

Iran's president told the leaders of Afghanistan and Tajikistan on August 5 that the three neighbors could provide a counterweight to NATO in Asia once foreign troops quit the region.

Al-Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan and its affiliates in Africa remain the biggest threats to US and its interests abroad, a US government report says.

A distress call from a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden reported pirates firing upon the ship and boarding it on August 5, the European Naval Force Somalia, Operation Atalanta said in a statement.

The worst flooding in Pakistan's history has now affected more than four million people and left at least 1,600 dead, says the UN.

Nine people were killed on July 3 in a shooting rampage at a beer distributor in Manchester, Connecticut, police said.