Thousands of residents of a town in southwest China took to the streets on August 11, smashing police vehicles in the latest protest by citizens angered by the rough handling of local officials, according to news reports.

Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled on August 11 new measures to end the country's worst riots in decades, and admitted that the government could call in the army to quell the violence.

The U.S. stocks tumbled on Monday as S&P 500 and Nasdaq Index both dropped more than 6 percent and Dow lost more than 600 points after a historic downgrade of U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor's.

For the first time in five years, a relief agency dedicated to refugees airlifted emergency aid into the Somali capital of Mogadishu on August 8, according to a spokesman.

Thirty International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members, one civilian interpreter and seven Afghan commandos were killed when a coalition CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed in east Afghanistan on August 6. 

Chinese authorities have evacuated more than 200,000 people from its east coast as the region braces itself for its most powerful typhoon in years.

Thailand's caretaker Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said that he has paved an easy path for the next government during a televised public speech on August 4.

Nato is sending hundreds of extra troops to Kosovo amid rising tension in the north along its border with Serbia. 

Representatives from the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) concluded on Friday their two-day exploratory talks aiming at possible resumption of the long-stalled six-party talks on Korean Peninsular denuclearization in New York, with both sides describing the discussions have been "constructive and business- like."

His inauguration was being attended by regional leaders, although not by outgoing President Alan Garcia.

Three miners were also hurt in the explosion at the Sukhodilska-Eastern mine in the Luhansk region, the former Soviet republic's coal mining heartland, it said in a statement.

Representatives of Vietnam and other Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries discussed measures to boost cooperation in natural disaster management at a seminar in the central city of Da Nang on July 28.

With the clock ticking toward a debt default deadline, politicians in Washington are still wasting precious time on finger-pointing, public showdowns and tough backdoor bargains to secure the best deal for their own parties -- a testament to the entrenched political divisiveness in the United States before the 2012 presidential election.