• Al Arabiya television reports that three rockets have hit the border area between Kuwait and Iraq. (Reuters)
• As many as ten people are feared dead after a bomb explodes at a United Nations building in Abuja, Nigeria. (The Guardian) (Sky News)

• The Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China bars 100 songs from music download sites including Lady Gaga's "Judas" and Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)". (AP via Google News)

• Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, gives a keynote address at a central banks conference at the US resort of Jackson Hole, Wyoming as statistics show that the US economy grew by 1%. (Reuters via CNBC)
• The Federal Reserve announces that it will hold hearings on the proposed acquisition, by Capital One, of ING Direct, a potential $9 billion deal. (Reuters)

• Hurricane Irene:
  • Hurricane Irene approaches the east coast of the United States ahead of making landfall on Saturday with 50 million people in its path. (WRAL) (Reuters)
  • The United States Navy sends its Second Fleet out of its base in Naval Station Norfolk to ride the storm out at sea. (Reuters)
  • A state of emergency is declared in a number of states including North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut as well as the city of Baltimore in the state of Maryland. (BBC) (AP via San Luis Obispo Tribune) (Fox News)
  • The unveiling of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington D.C. is postponed indefinitely. (Daily Mail)
  • The casinos in Atlantic City close as gamblers and residents evacuate from the New Jersey coast. (AP via NJ.com)
  • The Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg orders the mandatory evacuation of some low-lying parts of the city, and the shutdown of the subway. (International Business Times) (AP via YouTube)
  • The President of the United States Barack Obama urges Americans in the path of the hurricane to take appropriate precautions for a "historic storm". (CBS News)

• The Japanese National Police Agency reveals that 90 per cent of cyberattacks on its web site on July 10 came from Internet Protocol addresses in the People's Republic of China. (MDN)
• The Associated Press reports that U.S. President Barack Obama's uncle, Onyango Obama, 67, is stopped on suspicion of drunken driving in Framingham, Massachusetts. (Peoria Journal Star)

• Oh Se-hoon resigns as the Mayor of Seoul after losing a referendum on free school lunches. (AP via Google News)
• Naoto Kan announces his resignation as Prime Minister of Japan after the Parliament passes two key pieces of legislation. (AP via NineMSN) (AP via San Jose Mercury News)
• An investigation by the consultancy firm Deloitte clears Iris Robinson, the wife of the Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson, of any wrongdoing over a council contract which was awarded to an individual with whom she was conducting an affair. (BBC)
• Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen calls for Parliamentary elections to be held on September 15 - nearly two months ahead of the scheduled date. (Xinhua)

• Scientists at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne announce their discovery of J1719-143, a planet made entirely of diamond orbiting a pulsar - only the second time such a planetary mass has been discovered. (CBC)