August 3, 2009 (Monday)
- Bolivia becomes the first country in the history of South America to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves. (MercoPress)
- Georgia accuses Russia of trying to seize more of its territory as the anniversary of the 2008 war between the two countries approaches. (BBC).
- Several earthquakes, including one of 6.9 magnitude, hit northwestern Mexico. (USGS) (BBC)
- Continental Airlines Flight 128, from Rio de Janeiro to Houston, makes an emergency landing in Miami after severe turbulence, injuring dozens. (New York Daily News)
- Evidence that haggis was invented by the English is unearthed. (IOL) (News.com.au)
- Iran is reportedly ready to build a nuclear weapon, according to Western intelligence services. (The Times)
- Barclays posts a profit of £2.98bn for the first half of the year, up 8% on the same period of 2008. (Sky News)
- Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei formally approves the second-term presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (BBC) (Press TV) (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
- Water supplies in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, China, are cut off to over 580,000 people after contaminants caused the hospitalization of 4,125 people due to gastrointestinal illness. (Xinhua) (Associated Press)
- A town in Qinghai, China, is sealed off after a second person dies of pneumonic plague. (Xinhua) (The Times) (Al Jazeera)
- Somali pirates release a Malaysian tugboat with 11 Indonesian crew after being held for more than seven months. (Reuters) (People's Daily) (The Straits Times)[permanent dead link]
- The Washington Post newspaper in the United States reports that officials are considering a plan to move Guantánamo Bay detainees to a prison camp. (RTÉ)
- An Australian radio show is axed and presenter Kyle Sandilands sacked from a television show after a lie detector stunt sees a 14-year-old girl say she was raped so her mother could claim Pink tickets. (Bangkok Post) (BBC) (CTV) (The Guardian) (Herald Sun) (IOL)
- 185 people are killed in tribal clashes in South Sudan. (Associated Press) (AHN) (BBC)
- The death sentences of more than 4000 prisoners in Kenya are commuted to life imprisonment. (BBC) (Capital FM)