August 20, 2013 (Tuesday)
Attacks and conflicts
- Insurgency in the North Caucasus:
- Russian police kill nine suspected Islamist militants in the North Caucasus region. (Reuters)
- Narendra Dabholkar, a rationalist from India, is assassinated while out walking. (The Hindu)
Disasters and accidents
- The Whakaari / White Island volcano in the Bay of Plenty off New Zealand's North Island erupts. (Radio New Zealand)
International relations
- Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accuses American and Israeli influence of being the ouster of Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi; which are denied by both. (The Washington Post) (The Times of Israel)
Law and crime
- Three male youths are implicated in the murder of Australian baseball player Chris Lane in Duncan, Oklahoma. (news.com.au)
- A Pakistani court indicts former President Pervez Musharraf for his alleged involvement in the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. (Washington Post)
- Six gunshots are fired from an AK-47 at an elementary school in Decatur, Georgia, U.S. No one was injured, and premises were evacuated. Suspected gunman, a 20-year-old man arrested. (CNN)
- Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, reveals that the British authorities forced the newspaper to destroy computer hard disk drives containing material leaked by Edward Snowden. (BBC) (The Guardian)
- Egyptian authorities arrest Muhammad Badie, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, in Cairo. Mahmoud Ezzat, deputy leader of the Brotherhood, becomes temporarily the new Supreme Guide. (BBC)
Politics
- United States Senator Ted Cruz of Texas announces that he wants to renounce his Canadian citizenship, fueling speculation about a presidential run in 2016. (Washington Post)