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- Former U.S. Senator and Democratic ex-presidential candidate John Edwards admits to committing adultery after having denied the affair in the 2008 presidential election. (CNN)
- A car bomb in the town of Tal Afar in northern Iraq kills at least 16 people and injures another 20. (AP via Google News)
- The 2008 Summer Olympics starts with the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony at the Beijing National Stadium. (The Christian Science Monitor)
- At least 13 people are dead when a private charter bus falls off a bridge onto a creek north of Dallas, Texas. (MSNBC)
- An express train crashes into a bridge near the town of Studenka in the Czech Republic resulting in 10 people dead and 100 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)
- 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)
- Georgian-Ossetian conflict / War in South Ossetia (2008)
- On August 8th, around 0:30 AM (local time), braking the Olympic ceasefire and a ceasefire that Georgian president mr. Saakashvili announced a day earlier, Georgia begins a full-scale attack on the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, using tanks, military aircraft, heavy artillery and infantry.(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) Georgian military forces attack a Russian peacekeepers base in Tskhinvali with heavy artillery and missiles. Several peacekeepers are 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 declared that Russia "is fighting a war with us in our own territory." (AGI) (NYT)
- Mikheil Saakashvili accuses Russian aicraft of attacking Tbilisi and outlying airfields. (Delfi) He calls for a mobilisation of Georgia's army, claiming Russia started an aggression on Georgia. (Alfa) The claims of Russian bombings are rejected by Russia and are not proved by independent sources. (BBC News)
- 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)
- 15:56 GMT: Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, is reportedly "almost entirely destroyed" by Georgian artillery. South Ossetian authorities report more than 1400 of Tskhinvali civilians killed during the first day of Georgian salvo missiles bombing of the town. (TF1) INTERFAX (NYT)
- The buildings of the University, the parliament of South Ossetia and Tskhinvali hospital were destroyed after Georgian salvo missiles bombardments of South Ossetian capital and further bitter fighting between attaking Georgian army and the Ossetian defenders of the city. The search for survivors starts as South Ossetian and Russian troops retake control of Tskhinvali.(Interfax)
- The United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls on Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia. (AFP via Google News)
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- Salim Hamdan, Osama Bin Laden's former driver, is sentenced to 66 months in prison for war crimes. (The New York Times)
- The New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo reaches a $7 billion settlement with Citigroup to buy back auction rate securities from about 40,000 clients throughout the United States. (AP via Google News)
- The Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick is ordered to go to jail for violating the terms of his bond for an ongoing perjury trial. (NPR)
- Claims for unemployment benefits in the United States rise to 455,000, the highest level since March 2002. (USA Today)
- The leaders of the 2008 Mauritanian coup d'état promise to hold elections as soon as possible. (Xinhua)
- Georgian-Ossetian conflict:
- Georgian and separatist South Ossetian forces have exchanged fire again near the town of Tskhinvali, wounding up to 20 people, officials say. (BBC News)
- The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was concerned over Georgia's "military preparations," while a Georgian official said Russia would further undermine its role as peacekeeper if it failed to convince the South Ossetian side on talks. (Civil Georgia) (Civil Georgia)
- Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, offers an immediate ceasefire to South Ossetian authorities. (BBC News)
- Pakistan's ruling coalition announces it will seek the impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf. (AP via Google News)
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