Portal:Current events/2015 August 29

August 29, 2015 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

South Sudanese Civil War
- A ceasefire starts between the forces of President Salva Kiir and rebel forces with claims of breaches already being made. (AFP via The Times Live), (AFP via The Daily Star)
Syrian Civil War
- Turkey launches its first air strikes against ISIL in Syria. (The Daily Sabah)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
- Roadside bombings in Iraq leave at least 10 people killed. (al-Arabiyah)

Disasters and accidents

A bus traveling between Butterworth and Willovale in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, drives off a cliff killing thirty-five people. (News 24)
A Pacific Northwest windstorm, with winds of up to 87 miles per hour (140 km/h), leaves two dead and over 450,000 people in the Seattle metropolitan area without power. (The Seattle P-I)
A man, who fell from the upper deck of Atlanta's Turner Field during Saturday night's Braves-New York Yankees baseball game, dies. (CNN)
2015 Atlantic hurricane season
- Five deaths occurred in Haiti as Tropical Storm Erika dumped heavy rains there, on the Dominican Republic, and on Puerto Rico. The storm weakened to a Tropical Depression before it hit Cuba (max winds 56 kph (35 mph), heading to the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. (WTSP), (Relief Web), (Deutsche Welle), (NHC)

International relations

2015 Thalys train attack
- European interior ministers and transport officials hold emergency talks in Paris following the recent attack on the Thalys train between Amsterdam and Paris. (BBC)
European migrant crisis
- The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon calls for a "collective political response" to the crisis as the death toll from the latest boat to sink in the Mediterranean Sea rises to 171. (BBC), (CTV News)

Law and crime

2013-15 detention of Al-Jazeera journalists by Egypt
- An Egyptian court sentences Al Jazeera journalists Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy, and Baher Mohamed each to three years jail for "aiding a terrorist organization" and falsifying news. Greste, who earlier was deported to Australia, was tried in absentia. Mohamed, an Egyptian, was sentenced to an additional six months for possession of a spent bullet casing; Fahmy is a Canadian national. (ABC Australia), (Al Jazeera)
2015 Bangkok bombing
- Thai police report a man with a fake passport has been arrested in a Bangkok suburb in connection with the Erawan Shrine bombing. The man was allegedly in possession of bomb making material and dozens of passports. (AP), (The Banjkok Post), (BBC)
U.S. police in Harris County, Texas, arrest Shannon Miles for the alleged murder of Sheriff Deputy Darren Goforth on Friday. (ABC 13)

Politics and elections

Bersih 4 rally, 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal
- Tens of thousands of Malaysians rally in the capital Kuala Lumpur calling for Prime Minister Najib Razak to step down over a financial scandal where a MYR 2.672 billion (USD 700 million) payment was made to his bank account from unnamed foreign donors. (BBC News)
A legislative commission urges the Congress of Guatemala to remove President Otto Pérez Molina's immunity from prosecution over a corruption scandal that has caused former Vice President Roxana Baldetti to be jailed and much of the Cabinet to resign. (ABC News)
Climax of the 2015-16 Lebanese protests: Around 150 000 protest against the Garbage Crisis, sectarianism, corruption and police brutality.

Sports

2015 World Championships in Athletics
- American athlete Ashton Eaton sets a new world record in the decathlon on the penultimate night of competition at Beijing. (ABC Australia)