01|In the Gilan province of Iran, more than 500 aid workers search for survivors of a landslide that is thought to have buried more than 100 people. Heavy rains in the area caused flooding which led to the landslide on July 31. It is confirmed that least 30 people have died.|
01|Newspapers in Pristina, capital of the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo, report that Yugoslavian military forces and Serbian police continue to attack separatist rebels, particularly in the province's southern region. On July 27, Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic assured officials of the European Union that he had suspended his military campaign against the Kosovo separatist movement. Kosovo's population is 90 per cent ethnic Albanian.|
01|In Nagoya, Japan, the world's oldest living twins, Kin Narita and Gin Kanie, celebrate their 106th birthday with a party attended by 140 members of their family. They receive congratulations from across the country. The twins were designated national treasures by the Japanese government in 1991.|
02|In Paris, the 85th Tour de France bicycle race ends, with Marco Pantani claiming first place. Pantani's victory, the first Italian win since 1965, is overshadowed by the controversy that has surrounded the race since allegations of drug abuse were made against riders at the start of the tour.|
02|Indian and Pakistani forces exchange artillery fire in the disputed border area of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. At least 80 people, mostly civilians, die in the barrage, which both India and Pakistan claim was started by the other.|
03|At Blackpool, in the United Kingdom, Richard Rodriguez sets a new world record for roller-coaster riding by completing 1,000 hours on the Big One. Rodriguez ate and slept on the ride during his 47-day attempt. Under record rules, he was allowed a maximum total time off the coaster of 1 hour in every 24.|
03|In Greece, forest fires continue to burn out of control, with flames reaching more than 20 metres high. Thousands of hectares of woodland have been destroyed, and the capital, Athens, is now under threat.|
03|Thirty-two people die in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, when a seven-storey apartment building collapses. Since 1995, eight major structures have collapsed in Mumbai, where officials estimated 18,000 structurally unsafe buildings housed as many as 1.2 million people.|
04|In London, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother celebrates her 98th birthday with a public walkabout outside her home, Clarence House. She becomes the longest-lived member of the British Royal Family.|
04|In Hubei Province, China, about 200 soldiers and civilians are washed away from the waterlogged dyke they were attempting to repair. All are feared drowned. This is the worst breach of the country's flood defences since the crisis began in June. The high water levels recorded in the Yangtze River show no sign of abating.|
05|In Yitzhar, near Nablus in the West Bank, the funerals of two Jewish settlers are attended by thousands of Jews, many of them calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Harel Bin-Nun and Shlomo Liebman were murdered by Arab gunmen in the latest escalation of violence during the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.|
05|Iraq announces that it is suspending cooperation with United Nations (UN) arms inspectors. Iraq also demands that the UN disarmament panel free itself from U.S. influence by moving from New York City to Geneva, Switzerland, or to Vienna, Austria. In February 1998, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein averted a U.S. and British military strike by pledging to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to cooperate fully with the disarmament commission and to grant the UN Special Commission and International Atomic Energy Agency unconditional access to all sites suspected of housing missiles or chemical or biological weapons.|
06|In the United States, Monica Lewinsky, a 25-year-old former White House intern, answers questions before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., about the exact nature of her alleged sexual relationship with U.S. President Bill Clinton. On July 28, independent council Kenneth Starr had granted Lewinsky immunity from federal prosecution in exchange for her promise to testify about her relationship with the president. Starr wanted to know whether Clinton lied under oath about his relationship with Lewinski and whether the president obstructed justice by encouraging Lewinsky to lie under oath about the relationship.|
06|In Bulgaria, the death is announced of the country's former communist dictator, Todor Zhivkov. Zhivkov, 86, had been suffering from bronchial pneumonia.|
06|On the 53rd anniversary of the exploding of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, Indians take to the streets to protest against their own country's nuclear test programme. About 250,000 demonstrate in Calcutta, and more than 5,000 others add their protests in New Delhi.|
07|Powerful car bombs explode outside the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. The Nairobi explosion killed more than 275 people, including 12 Americans, and injured more than 5,000. The Dar es Salaam blast killed 9 people and injured 70 others. U.S. intelligence agencies said that Islamic extremists topped the list of suspected culprits. Among the possible suspects is Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian millionaire considered by the State Department to be a major financier of Islamic extremists.|
08|Hospitals strain to treat the thousands of people injured in yesterday's car-bomb attack on the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Blood is in short supply despite hundreds of donors and the arrival of two U.S. cargo planes filled with medical personnel and supplies, as well as food and communications equipment.|
08|In Myanmar, formerly Burma, military leaders ban a demonstration that had been planned to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the massacre of pro-democracy protestors. The country has been under the control of a military junta since 1988. In spite of continued pressure from the National League of Democracy, the junta has not offered to hold new elections.|
09|In Nicosia, Cyprus, more than 130 people are admitted to hospital with exhaustion as a heatwave continues to affect the area. Temperatures reach as high as 43 degrees Celsius. At least 15 deaths have been recorded since the heatwave first hit the country a week ago.|
09|Flooding on China's Yangtze River reaches record levels and peaks for the fourth time in as many weeks. In Hubei Province, engineers order thousands of residents from their houses so that relief workers can dynamite levees to ease floodwaters threatening cities and farmland. More than 2,000 people have already died in the floods.|
10|In Brunei, Prince al-Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah is invested as Crown Prince, next in line to the Brunei throne. He is heir to his father, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th ruler in an unbroken 600-year old dynasty.|
10|The U.S. National Climatic Data Center announces that July 1998 was the hottest month globally since records began. It is expected that 1998 will become the hottest year on record, largely due to the effect of El Nino which is responsible for disturbed weather patterns around the world.|
11|In the Caribbean federation of the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, the results of a referendum on independent status for Nevis are announced. The Nevis premier, Vance Amory, fails in his attempt to gain independence from St. Kitts, winning less than the required 67 per cent of votes in favour of secession. Denzil Douglas, prime minister of the federation, offers to seek constitutional reforms to appease those Nevis people who are in favour of autonomy.|
11|The Dow Jones industrial average of stocks on the New York Exchange drops by 258 points, pulling the market down to 8,316. Stock prices slump on exchanges around the world. In Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, stocks fall by 3.62 per cent and 5.26 per cent, respectively. On Latin America exchanges, prices decline by as much as 7 per cent. In Moscow, blue-chip stocks fall 9.5 per cent, which follows an identical drop on August 10. Since the beginning of 1998, indexed stocks in Russia have declined by 72 per cent. Market experts begin to use the word "depression" to describe the current economic crisis in Asia and Russia.|
11|It is reported that 48 people have died from heat-related causes in Cyprus since August 7. (See August 9)|
12|A Titan 4A rocket, carrying a spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, blows up 40 seconds after launch, creating a spectacular fireball 6,000 metres over the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Canaveral, Florida. U.S. Air Force officials say they have no idea what caused the rocket to explode. The satellite was intended to monitor radar and missile activity, possibly in Iraq.|
12|In New Zealand, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and four other ministers walk out of a cabinet meeting, prompting a government crisis. Prime Minister Jenny Shipley pledges to stabilize the governing coalition, but states her determination to continue as a minority leader if necessary.|
13|In Maseru, capital of the African state of Lesotho, thousands of people are forcibly dispersed from outside the royal palace after a ten-day vigil. The demonstrators had been demanding that King Letsie III should order a new election, as they believed the previous one was rigged.|
13|Antigovernment rebels, believed to be backed by the government of neighbouring Rwanda, reach the outskirts of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, after only 10 days of insurrection. The rebels seize the Inga Dam, the largest hydroelectric generator in Africa, and cut off electrical power to Kinshasa, a city of 5 million people. The speed with which the rebels moved west across the vast Congo from headquarters in Goma, in the far east, suggests that government troops are offering only token resistance. Congo President Laurent Kabila himself seized power in 1997 after leading a rebellion against longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.|
14|In Myanmar, formerly Burma, the government sentences 18 foreigners to five years hard labour for inciting unrest, but then expels them from the country. The dissidents are from Indonesia, America, and Australia.|
14|In Ulsan, South Korea, workers continue to occupy the Hyundai car plant after nearly a month of protest against job cuts. Hyundai, the country's biggest car manufacturer, closes its strike-affected factories across the country.|
15|A car bomb explodes in the Northern Ireland town of Omagh, 88 kilometres west of Belfast, the capital, killing 28 people and injuring more than 200. The bombing shatters a cease-fire in effect for more than a year. The Real Irish Republican Army, a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army, claim responsibility for the blast. Catholic and Protestant politicians fear that the attack will affect the fragile April 1998 Irish peace agreement, which citizens in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland strongly supported in a May referendum.|
15|In Copenhagen, Denmark, hundreds of neo-Nazis gather for a rally to mark the 11th anniversary of the death of Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess. Police use tear gas to disperse the group and make more than 50 arrests.|
16|King Hussein of Jordan issues a decree from a hospital bed in Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.A., that gives his brother and heir, Crown Prince Hassan, the constitutional power to reorganize the country's government. Hussein is undergoing treatment for cancer at the Mayo Clinic. Jordanians had been highly critical of the government for its inattention to domestic problems during the king's absence.|
17|President Bill Clinton admits in a television address that he misled grand jury prosecutors and the public about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern. The admission came after Clinton testified at the White House for more than four hours before prosecutors under the direction of independent counsel Kenneth Starr. The president described the relationship as "wrong" and "not appropriate."|
17|The government of Russia attempts to avoid economic collapse by devaluing its currency and permitting banks to postpone payment on 43 billion U.S. dollars in short-term foreign debts for 90 days. The government allows the value of the rouble to fall as low as 9.5 to the dollar on international monetary markets--a 34 per cent devaluation. Economists say that the devaluation could possibly force the country to pay much higher prices for imported grain and other food, a scenario that would raise the Russian cost of living.|
18|Heavy rains cause mud slides in two Himalayan villages approximately 320 kilometres east of New Delhi in Uttar Pradesh state. More than 200 people were buried alive, including 60 Hindu pilgrims who had camped in the villages on their return from a religious journey to Mount Kailash, in Tibet.|
19|In Jordan, Fayez Tarawneh, chief of the royal court, is appointed to form a new government following the resignation of the cabinet. Scandal over contamination of the country's drinking water prompted the government to resign before the results of an investigation ordered by King Hussein are made public.|
20|The United States launches 75 cruise missiles from ships in the Arabian and Red seas at two targets, one in Afghanistan and the other in Sudan. Officials describe the target in Afghanistan as a terrorist training camp and the Sudanese target as a facility for making certain elements of chemical weapons. U.S. President Bill Clinton describes the operation as an "act of self-defence" and "retribution" for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said it had linked the embassy bombings and the Afghani and Sudanese sites to a Saudi Arabian millionaire, Osama bin Laden, who lived in Afghanistan and was suspected of funding terrorist activities against the United States.|
21|Chinese President Jiang Zemin announces that he will postpone state visits to Japan and Russia, scheduled for September, because of massive flooding along the Yangtze River and its tributaries in China's industrial northeast. Since the flooding began in midsummer, 13.8 million people were evacuated and 5.8 million houses were destroyed, leaving millions homeless and subject to infectious diseases. (See August 9.)|
22|The president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, warns that he will invade the Democratic Republic of Congo if Angola and Zimbabwe do not immediately withdraw their troops from the Congo. The Angolan and Zimbabwean forces came to the aid of the Congolese army in its attempt to end a rebellion against President Laurent Kabila. The rebels were backed by Rwanda and Uganda.|
23|Russian President Boris Yeltsin replaces Sergei Kiriyenko, who has held office as prime minister for only five months, with Viktor Chernomyrdin, who was himself dismissed as prime minister on March 23 in favour of Kiriyenko. The move is subject to approval by the Russian parliament. With Russia teetering on the edge of economic collapse, observers interpret Yeltsin's move as a desperate appeal for political support among Russia's new and powerful economic elite, who have long supported Chernomyrdin as Yeltsin's heir apparent.|
24|In Bangladesh, the government appeals for international aid as floods continue to devastate the country. Sixty per cent of the land has become submerged since flooding began a month ago. More than 500 people have already died, and 20 million others are without food and medicine.|
24|In Anyarsu, Burma, Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi ends her protest against being held under house arrest. Suu Kyi had spent the last ten days camping in her van, unable to get past troops and into Rangoon. In the city, troops use batons to disperse about 150 students protesting against the ruling military junta.|
25|The rouble falls on Moscow currency exchanges, dropping 9 per cent against the dollar before the Russian Central Bank intervenes by suspending trading. Bankers attempting to transfer bank funds out of roubles and into dollars triggered the decline, which caused runs on banks and massive price instability across the nation. In the Kremlin, Viktor Chernomyrdin, the acting prime minister, unveils another plan to stretch out the repayment of government debt and suggests the possibility of setting up a coalition government to include members of the Communist opposition in parliament.|
25|In Cape Town, South Africa, a bomb explodes in an American-owned restaurant, killing two and injuring more than thirty others. The bombing is believed to be a Muslim-led revenge attack for the U.S. missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan. (See August 20, 7.)|
25|In the state of Carolina, U.S.A., more than half a million people are evacuated from their homes as Hurricane Bonnie approaches. The hurricane is expected to hit land at the mouth of Cape Fear River some time during the next 24 hours, with winds of 185 kilometres per hour and heavy rain.|
26|In Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, rebel troops attempt to capture the main airport, 24 kilometres east of the city, prompting fears that Kinshasa will soon be invaded. People living near the airport flee their homes. Kinshasa is deserted as a curfew is imposed and soldiers set up road blocks and checkpoints.|
26|The rouble falls 40 per cent against the German Deutsche mark on a Moscow currency exchange after the trading of roubles for dollars was suspended for the second day in a row. The Russian Central Bank also announces that it lacks the funds to further protect the value of the currency. Flying to the Crimean resort of Simferopol, acting Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin meets with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Michel Camdessus, to convince the IMF to release 4.8 billion U.S. dollars in loan payments that might help Russia stave off economic collapse. Political and economic experts in Moscow described Russia's current situation the most serious crisis to confront the country since the fall of Communism in 1991.|
27|Stock market investors worldwide react to dire economic news from Russia and Asia by selling securities. In New York City, Dow Jones industrial average stocks fall 357.36 points or 4.19 per cent. NASDAQ shares slide 4.62 per cent. In Tokyo, the Nikkei dips by 3.04 per cent. Key indexes on European exchanges drop 3 to 6 per cent, while the values of stocks on Latin American markets plummet 6 to 10 per cent.|
27|The Central Bank of Russia announces that currency exchanges will be closed for "some time to come," which makes it impossible in Russia to legally trade roubles for dollars or any other foreign currency.|
27|Government officials in Kuala Lumpur release statistics confirming that the Malaysian economy shrank in the second quarter of 1998 by 6.8 per cent and is in severe recession. In Seoul, the Bank of Korea issues a statement that the South Korean economy, which contracted by 6.6 per cent in the second quarter, is also officially in recession.|
28|The Tokyo Stock Exchange drops 3.5 per cent, ending the week at its lowest level since 1986. During the week of August 23, the value of all stocks on the Tokyo exchange fell by a total of 241 billion U.S. dollars, a sum that exceeded the value of the annual output of the Russian economy. Yields on long-term bonds on Tokyo markets sink to 1.07 per cent, which economists calculate to be the lowest interest rates on long-term investments in recorded history.|
28|In Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif introduces a constitutional amendment to replace the legal code of his country with the Sharia, or Islamic, law. The move is opposed by liberals in Pakistan who claim that Sharif is merely appeasing Islamic militants who have been demonstrating against bomb attacks by the United States last week on suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan. They fear that the Sharia could be used as a repressive tool against activists who disagree with government policies.|
28|In Zimbabwe, President Mugabe inaugurates his government's plan for redistribution of land ownership by handing over the first land bought from a white farmer to 40 black families in need of resettlement. The Zimbabwe government plans to resettle 150,000 poor black families on about 5 million hectares, which will be compulsorily purchased from white owners during the next five years.|
29|A Cuban Tupolev-143 jet catches fire and explodes on a third takeoff attempt from the Quito, Ecuador, airport, killing 79 of the 90 people aboard.|
30|In Australia, Prime Minister John Howard announces an early general election will be held on October 3. The election is widely regarded as a testing ground for the popularity of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party. Hanson's party opposes immigration and equal opportunities programmes for minority groups in the country. Opinion polls currently show equal support for the government and its opposition Labor Party.|
30|In the Marches region of Italy, south of Rimini, about fifty kilometres of coastline are declared too dangerous for swimmers after a white shark attacks a fishing boat near the town of Senigallia. The shark, normally an inhabitant of the Mediterranean Sea, has not previously been seen in the Adriatic Sea. Experts suggest that the shark's geographical habitat is changing due to global warming.|
30|Scientists, fearing the possibility of a major eruption of Sicily's Mount Etna, step up surveillance after at least seven earthquakes rattle the volcano.|
31|Around the world, the first anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, is marked by the laying of flowers. All-night vigils are held at Kensington Palace, London, and at the scene of the fatal car crash in Paris. Private memorial services are held by the Spencer family at Althorp, where the Princess is buried, and by the Queen and members of the Royal Family at Balmoral, Scotland.|
31|Dow Jones industrial average stocks on the New York Stock Exchange fall 512.61 points, or 6.4 per cent. The decline was the second largest point drop in the Dow's history. Standard and Poor's 500 index stocks sagged by more than 69 points, or nearly 7 per cent. The NASDAQ composite index fell by 140 points, or 8.6 per cent, the greatest point drop in the exchange's history.|
