• Karen Drambjan, a left-wing Estonian lawyer, storms the Defense Ministry in Tallinn and takes two hostages, but is killed when special police forces storm the building. (RT)
• At least five people including four police officers are killed after a bomb explodes near a police van in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. (BBC)

• August 2011 stock markets fall and rebound
  • Stock markets in Asia and Australia fall on the back of a sharp decline in Wednesday's trading on the New York Stock Exchange. (MarketWatch) (MarketWatch)
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 423.37 points, the fourth-straight day U.S. stocks have changed by over 400 points. The market dropped on Monday and Wednesday, and registered increases Tuesday and today. (Hartford Courant)

• The City Council in the New Zealand city of Christchurch announces plans to rebuild its central business district after the recent earthquake. (TV New Zealand)

• Final approval is given for the building of 1,600 Israeli settler homes in disputed East Jerusalem by Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai despite a diplomatic rebuke Tuesday from the United States over earlier construction plans. (BBC) (Toronto Globe and Mail)

• Umar Patek, a key suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings, faces trial on terrorism charges in Jakarta after being extradicted from Pakistan to Indonesia. (AP via News Limited)

• The Parliament of the United Kingdom comes back from its summer break to debate the 2011 England riots. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• The Philippine Senate Electoral Tribunal proclaims Aquilino Pimentel III as the winner of the 2007 election days after Juan Miguel Zubiri resigned due to alleged electoral fraud. (BBC News)