Portal:Current events/August 2013

August 2013 was the eighth month of that common year. The month, which began on a Thursday, ended on a Saturday after 31 days.

This is an archived version of Wikipedia's Current events Portal from August 2013.

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Disasters and accidents
  • A man crashes his car into a crowd of pedestrians in Venice Beach, California, U.S., injuring eleven people and killing one. The driver fled the scene and was being sought by authorities, but later turned himself in. (CNN) (CBS Los Angeles)

Law and crime
  • 16-year-old Hannah Anderson was abducted after cheerleading practice from Sweetwater High School in National City, California. The suspect was later identified by authorities as 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio, owner of a home in Boulevard, California. The bodies of her mother Christina and brother Ethan Anderson and the family's dog, Cali, were found in DiMaggio's burned home. DiMaggio was later killed by FBI agents during a shootout at the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho, where he had been camping with Hannah Anderson. (Los Angeles Times)

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  • A gas explosion in an apartment block kills five people and injures a dozen in the Argentine city of Rosario. (USA Today)
  • A hot Air Balloon carrying an American family crashes killing one person and injures four in the Swiss town of Montbovon. (Huffington Post)
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  • A shooting spree in Dallas, Texas, U.S., kills 4, wounds 4 and the gunman is subsequently arrested. (CNN)
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  • American mob boss Whitey Bulger is convicted of racketeering. (Boston.com)
  • U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, in a major policy shift in the War on Drugs, announces that the federal government, following some states' stances, will direct its prosecutors to no longer insist on automatic mandatory minimum prison sentences for non-violent, low-level, non-repeat offender drug offenses where the defendant is not involved with gangs and/or cartels. (MSN)

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  • American politician and former House Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. is sentenced to 30 months in prison for spending $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items, and will serve his sentence first before his wife, former Chicago alderman Sandi Jackson, who was given a one year term for tax fraud. (NBC)

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Armed conflicts and attacks

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  • The Indian submarine INS Sindhurakshak (S63) sinks in Mumbai following a pair of onboard explosions killing 18 Indian Navy sailors. (Washington Post)

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Health
  • A group of researchers led by a team at the University of Milan unveils a device which uses a magnetic pulse to stimulate the brain and measure the resulting electrical waves in order to more accurately assess the remaining level of brain function and consciousness in brain-damaged individuals. (NBC) (Bloomberg)

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  • Australian native and East Central University (Oklahoma) Tigers senior baseball player Christopher Lane, 22, is shot and killed in Ada, Oklahoma, while jogging during a visit to his girlfriend. Two teenagers, James Francis Edwards, Jr., 15, and Chancey Allen Luna, 16, were then arrested and charged with first-degree murder with no bail; Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, was charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact. They stated they did it purely out of boredom. (NBC)
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  • While they are not yet ready to say they are reopening the case after the 2008 inquiry jury's final verdict and report (faulty driving and unlawful killing), the Metropolitan Police Authority Specialist Crime and Operations Command in London is investigating the credibility and accuracy of supposedly new information from an unspecified source regarding the August 1997 Death of Diana, Princess of Wales. (NBC)
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Arts and Culture
  • Chiribiquete National Park, in Colombia, is expanded from its previous 1.2 Million Hectares to 3 Million Hectares becoming one of the largest protected zones in the Amazon. This announcement was made by the Colombian government after Ecuador decided to open up Yasuni National Park to oil drilling after a six year initiative to protect the rain forest.[citation needed]

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  • The American electronic stock exchange NASDAQ shuts down for 3 hours due to a computer problem. (FOXBusiness)

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  • Real estate developers are reported to have severely damaged the UNESCO world heritage site of Cyrene, Libya. (France 24)

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  • The African Diaspora Maritime Corp. withdraws from the America's Cup amid controversy over being denied an opportunity to be the American defender in the competition based on ethnicity. (San Francisco Appeal)
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  • Syrian civil war:
    • Moscow evacuates nationals; Iran dismisses "ridiculous" reports of Assad in Tehran; UN inspectors return to site of alleged chemical attack. (The Times Of Israel)
    • The Saudi army is on full alert after the US-led West increased the level of its threats and said a strike on Syria may come within the next few days. (Fars News)
    • Russia: UN response to alleged attack still premature; Jordan says no Syria strike from its soil. (Haaretz)
    • United Nations Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi says any military action against Syria in response to apparent chemical attacks must be taken after a decision by the United Nations Security Council. "What they [American administration] will decide I don't know, but certainly international law is very clear," he adds. (Reuters)
    • US Vice President Joe Biden says there "is no doubt that Syria's government was responsible for a recent chemical attack in Damascus". (Al Jazeera)
    • British Prime Minister David Cameron says the UK's National Security Council has agreed that the "world should not stand by" after the "unacceptable use" of chemical weapons by the Syrian government. However, a full report from the UN investigation on the chemical attack is expected before taking any measure. (BBC)
    • Syrians in the capital Damascus race against time to prepare for a foreign strike, with many hoarding supplies and others scrambling to find accommodation further away from potential military targets. (Reuters)
    • Russian and Chinese officials walk out of the UN Security Council meeting in New York after U.S. Permanent Representative Samantha Power calls for immediate action on Syria. (Itar Tass)
    • Downing Street publishes the UK government's motion on Syria, which proposes waiting for a UN Security Council decision before MPs vote on any military action. (BBC)
    • UN chemical weapons inspectors resume their investigations in Syria (BBC)
    • Syria's deputy foreign minister says that the United States, Britain and France helped "terrorists" use chemical weapons in Syria, and that the same groups would soon use them against Europe. (Reuters)
    • Syria's ambassador to the United Nations accuses Britain of conspiring with rebel forces to carry out the chemical attack that killed hundreds of Syrian civilians last week. (Telegraph)
  • Iraqi insurgency (post-U.S. withdrawal):
    • At least 51 people are killed and dozens wounded in a series of bombings and attacks in and around Baghdad. (Sky News)

Arts and culture
  • The eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge closes forever as construction crews finish the replacement. The new span is scheduled to open Tuesday. (ABC)

International relations

Law and crime
  • Former U.S. Army Major and psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan is sentenced to death for the November 5, 2009, Fort Hood massacre that killed 13 and wounded 32 others. He will be granted an automatic appeal; the Army general (convening authority) who will review the case can grant him life without parole; any eventual military execution would need presidential approval. (CNN)
  • Iran pursues the 1953 Iranian coup d'état case, which was orchestrated by US and Britain, in the international courts at The Hague. CIA officially admitted role in the coup on 20 August 2013. (Fars News)
Armed conflicts and attacks
  • Syrian civil war:
    • The French frigate Chevalier Paul leaves the port city of Toulon, though the shipping authorities declined to confirm a media report that it was headed to Syria. (Reuters) (Voice of Russia)
    • The Parliament of the United Kingdom defeats a government motion supporting intervention in the war by 13 votes, effectively ruling out British military involvement in an international response to the chemical attacks. (BBC)
    • French President François Hollande says "political solution" is the ultimate goal for Syria, sounding more cautious than earlier. "Everything must be done for a political solution but it will only happen if the coalition is able to appear as an alternative with the necessary force, notably from its army," he said. (Reuters)
    • Russia sends two warships to the eastern Mediterranean. (Reuters)
    • Lebanon and Jordan say the Lebanese air space and the Jordanian territories would not be made available for military intervention in Syria. (Xinhua)
    • Allegations are made that the lines between Hezbollah and the Syrian regime are so blurred that Israel will hold Damascus responsible if Hezbollah bombards Israel in the coming days. (Jerusalem Post)
    • A Kuwaiti newspaper reports that Gulf leaders have been in touch with Israel, and have asked that Israel act “with restraint” in the event of an attack by Western nations on Syria. (Israel National News)
    • Britain is sending six Typhoon fighter jets to Cyprus to guard against potential retaliation by the Assad regime in the event of air strikes against Syria. (The Telegraph)
    • Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee concludes it is "highly likely" that the regime of Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attacks in Syria last week that have prompted moves towards launching military strikes. (The Guardian)
  • Aftermath of the 2013 Korean crisis:

Business and economy

Disasters and accidents
Health
  • 8.6 million Americans take prescription sleeping pills to catch some sleep, according to the first federal health study to focus on actual use. (NBC)
  • Scientists at Vienna's Institute of Molecular Biotechnology and Edinburgh University's Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, Scotland, clone a human mini-brain (a cerebral organoid), using stem cells; the first time brain tissue development has been replicated in three dimensions – which could help with schizophrenia and autism neurological research. (MSN)

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Politics and elections
  • Members of the UK's Fire Brigades Union vote to take industrial action in a dispute over pensions, threatening the country's first national firefighters' strike since 2002. (BBC)
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Science
  • Scientists discover an 800km long canyon that is up to 800m deep in places beneath the ice sheet that covers Greenland. (BBC)
Armed conflicts and attacks
  • Syrian civil war:
    • American President Barack Obama says that he is ready to order a limited strike, but will seek approval from Congress. (CNN)
    • The UN inspectors leave Damascus after concluding their inspection. (Los Angeles Times)
    • Several countries advise their citizens against traveling to Lebanon as regional tensions grow over a possible US military strike on Syria. (Jerusalem Post)

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Law and crime
  • A teenager is found guilty of taking part in the fatal gang rape of a woman on a Delhi bus last year and is sentenced to three years in juvenile detention. (BBC) (Reuters)
August 2013
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