August 1, 2012 (Wednesday)
Arts and culture
- Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 suspense thriller Vertigo is named as the greatest film of all time in a poll by the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine. (BBC)
Business and economy
- Power is restored in India following an earlier blackout in three grids that left over 600 million people without power. (AFP via France 24)
- Saudi Aramco is ranked by Forbes as the first among the world's 25 largest oil companies. (Global Financial Network)[permanent dead link]
Disasters
- Heading toward Taiwan, slow-moving Typhoon Saola's torrential rains lead to the deaths of at least 12 people and displacement of 154,000 in the Philippines. (The Washington Post)
Law and crime
- The Tal Law, which granted a sweeping exemption from military service to a majority of the Israeli ultra-Orthodox population in Israel, expires. As a result Defense Minister Ehud Barak orders the Israeli Defense Forces to prepare for a universal draft of ultra-Orthodox Jewish males in 30 days. (BBC) (Jerusalem Post) (Ynet) (USA Today)
- Somali security forces kill two suicide bombers trying to infiltrate a meeting of 825 Somali elders discussing the country's new constitution in Mogadishu. (AP via Chron.com)
- Prosecutors formally charge three Mexican Army generals, including active General Roberto Dawe Gonzalez and retired General Tomás Ángeles Dauahare, and a lieutenant-colonel for their alleged links to a drug trafficking organization known as the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel. (The Washington Post)
- Four coordinated low intensity bombs explode in the Indian city of Pune. (CNN-IBN) (DNA India)
Politics and elections
- A second Israeli who set himself on fire in protest of economic difficulties in Tel Aviv dies of his injuries in hospital. (Reuters)
Sport
- 2012 Summer Olympics: The Badminton World Federation charges eight women's doubles players from South Korea, China and Indonesia with "not using one's best efforts to win a match". (BBC)