August 6 – East Asia: CAMBODIA
More than 30 years after the fall of Cambodia’s brutal Maoist regime of Khmer Rouge, Cambodia’s UN-backed tribunal sentences two of the most powerful leaders of that regime to life in prison for crimes against humanity. Nuon Chea was a chief ideologist and second in command in the Khmer Rouge government. Khieu Samphan was the president from 1976 until 1979 and served as Cambodia’s head of state. As General Secretary, Pol Pot was the most powerful official in the party. Chea and Samphan are also being tried for genocide in a separate trial.
August 7 – Europe:
UKRAINE / RUSSIA / EUROPEAN UNION / NATO
In response to economic sanctions for its support of Ukrainian separatists, Russia imposes a one-year embargo on meat, fish and agricultural products from the European Union countries, Norway, the United States, Canada, and Australia. The European Union, in its response to Russia’s embargo, makes an announcement that it will compensate those EU farmers who get hit by Russia’s embargo. The EU’s biggest exporters of agricultural products to Russia are Poland and Lithuania. Russia’s embargo has already had a negative effect on its own market, with rising prices and shortages of many basic foods, such as pork. (August 22): A convoy of dozens of Russian trucks enters Ukraine without permission. Russia says trucks carry humanitarian aid, but Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accuses Russia of moving troops and weapons into Ukraine to support the rebels. (August 28): NATO releases satellite images that show Russian troops and military equipment within Ukraine’s borders.
August 8 – Middle East / North America:
IRAQ / SYRIA / UNITED STATES
The United States launches air strikes in Iraq against militants from the Islamic State (formerly ISIS) who control vast areas in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. planes and drones attack IS targets near Irbil, capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, and help Iraqi forces to break the siege of Mount Sinjar, where people from religious minorities fled the brutality of IS. (August 14): Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is forced to step down and is replaced by Haider Al-Abadi who is expected to form a government of national unity. He was Minister of Communication from 2003 to 2004, in the first government after Saddam Hussein. (August 19): In response to American airstrikes in Iraq, the IS beheads U.S. journalist James Foley who was held captive since November 2012.
August 21 – East Asia: THAILAND
Thailand’s parliament nominates General Prayuth Chan-ocha as the country’s interim prime minister. General Prayuth was the leader of the May military coup that ousted Yingluck Shinawatra and her government. The military hand-picked him for this position, but promises to hold elections in 2015. The military also picked their people to run foreign affairs, justice, defense, and commerce ministries.
August 24 – Africa: NIGERIA
An Islamic organization, Boko Haram, announces that it has established an Islamic state in the northeastern area of Nigeria that is under its control. The government has deployed several hundreds of troops to the area, but so far the Boko Haram insurgents were able to push the soldiers across the border to Cameroon together with thousands of fleeing civilians.
August 24 – Africa: LIBYA
The Libya Dawn alliance, one of the rival militia groups in Libya, captures the international airport in the capital, Tripoli from another militia group, the Zintan, which held it for the last three years. The airport was the last link to its full control of the city. Libya’s newly elected parliament, the Council of Representatives, which relocated to Tobruk because of the violence in Tripoli, calls for the militias to put down their arms and join the national army. The former parliament, the General National Congress (GNC) dominated by Islamists, refuses to concede and continues to operate from Tripoli.
August 28 – Europe / Middle East: TURKEY
After serving three terms as prime minister, Recap Tayyip Erdogan becomes Turkey’s president after winning the first publicly-held presidential election. The country’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is elected as head of the governing AK Party and is set to become the country’s next prime minister.
August 30 – Europe: EUROPEAN UNION / POLAND / ITALY
The European Union leaders choose Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Italy’s Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini to be the EU’s new European Council President and Foreign Policy Chief respectively. They will work closely with the new European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker. These are three top jobs in the structures of the EU. Tusk is the first leader from a former Soviet bloc country to hold such a high-level position in the EU.