• Syrian civil war:
  • Syria's opposition claims that 200 civilians are trapped in a mosque in a Damascus suburb while fighting rages outside. (CTV)
• Unknown attackers kill six people in and near the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. (Press Association via Independent Ireland)
• Four policemen are killed in Russia's restless Dagestan region as gunmen open fire on their car. (Reuters)

• Pope Francis sends greetings in a letter to Cardinal Ossa, the Special Envoy to the celebrations of the 3rd World Apostolic Congress on Mercy (WACOM III) at Bogota, Colombia, 15-19 August 2014. (Vatican, Pope Francis letters), (Catholic Key)

• Typhoon Soulik kills three people in China's Guangdong province after having killed two people in Taiwan. (BBC)

• The Mexican Army captures Miguel Treviño Morales, a leader of the Los Zetas criminal gang. (CBS News)

• Protests occur in several American cities following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in relation to the shooting of Trayvon Martin. (AAP via News Limited)

• In athletics, six athletes are announced to have failed drug tests including American Tyson Gay and Jamaican Asafa Powell. (The Guardian)