August 23, 2009 (Sunday)
- Tens of thousands of people in the Baltic states mark the twentieth anniversary of the 'Baltic Way' - when two million people formed a human chain to protest against Soviet Union rule. (Aljazeera), (Guardian), (Baltic Times).
- Tens of thousands of people protest against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage in Bamako, Mali. (BBC) (Afrique en ligne)
- 26 men accused of plotting attacks on tourist resorts and ships in the Suez Canal on behalf of Lebanon's Hezbollah group go on trial in an Egyptian security court. (IOL) (BBC)
- Thousands of people are evacuated as forest fires reach the outskirts of the Greek capital, Athens. (Associated Press) (BBC) (Daily Mail) (RTÉ)
- North Korean envoys meet the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak for the first time since he took office. (Al Jazeera) (Yonhap)
- A new picture of Fidel Castro is published in the Juventud Rebelde state-run newspaper, apparently showing Cuba's ailing former leader in much better health. (BBC) (CNN) (IOL)[permanent dead link] (Reuters Africa)
- Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main rival Abdullah Abdullah alleges fraud in the presidential election. (Xinhua) (The Guardian) (The Times of India)
- Yemeni troops claim to have killed more than 100 Shia rebels in the past two weeks, including two leaders, but the rebels deny their leaders, Mohsen Saleh Gawd and Salah Jorman, are dead and no independent confirmation is made available. (BBC)
- A leak at an offshore oil rig that caused a large oil spill off the coast of Australia "could take weeks" to be plugged. (Associated Press) (The Australian)[permanent dead link]
- A severe drought in northern China leaves 5 million people short of water and damages 8.7 million hectares of farmland. (The Straits Times) (Press Trust of India) (China Daily)
- England reclaim The Ashes with a 2-1 series win over Australia. (BBC)
- Iraq broadcasts a video of former police chief Wissam Ali Kadhem Ibrahim, a Saddam Hussein loyalist, confessing to orchestrating a truck bombing at the finance ministry, the first of two bombings that killed 95 people and maimed hundreds more in Baghdad on 19 August. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Straits Times)
- ZANU-PF party members walk out of a meeting of Zimbabwe cabinet members to review the work of a unity government it has formed with its opponents, over charges of electoral fraud. (Reuters Africa)
- Honduras's Supreme Court rejects a Costa Rica-brokered deal to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya to power and orders his arrest if he returns. (BBC)
- Stefania Fernandez of Venezuela was crowned Miss Universe 2009 by her compatriot Dayana Mendoza, the first in the history. She was crowned at the Atlantis Paradise Island, Nassau, The Bahamas.