August 1, 2008 (Friday)
- The International Atomic Energy Agency unanimously approves a safeguards agreement with India, a precondition of the nuclear deal with the United States. (Sify)
- Unemployment in the United States rises to 5.7 per cent, its highest rate in more than four years. (VOA)
- Vietnam's capital Hanoi absorbs the neighboring province of Hà Tây, tripling its area and doubling its population. (Thanh Nien News)
- U.S. government officials conclude that elements of Pakistan's intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence, aided militants in the July 7 suicide car bomb attack on India's embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The government of Pakistan denied involvement. (The New York Times) (The Wall Street Journal) (AP via The New York Times)
- At least 20 people are killed after a fire breaks out on a passenger train in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, India. (BBC News)
- 2008 Summer Olympics:
- The International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Organizing Committee reach an agreement on Internet access for the 2008 Olympic Games. (Reuters via The New York Times)
- Several restrictions remain as the International Olympic Committee and Chinese organisers BOCOG claim they have lifted all Internet restrictions for media covering the Beijing Games. (The Times) (AFP via Google News)
- King Tupou V is crowned as the 23rd Monarch of Tonga. (The Times)
- At least 11 people die following the collapse of a three-story girls' dormitory due to an explosion in the village of Balcilar in Konya Province in central Anatolia, Turkey. (AP via Google News)
- The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation holds a summit meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, with terrorism high on the agenda. (BBC News)
- A total solar eclipse is visible from northern Canada (Nunavut), Greenland, central Russia, eastern Kazakhstan, western Mongolia and China. (AFP via Google News)