Suicide attacks hit two of Pakistan’s largest cities — thirty people are killed in a blast in near  Pakistani army headquarters in Rawalpindi, and two suicide bombers and a policeman are killed in a car bombing at a police checkpoint in Lahore.

French-Senegalese writer Marie NDiaye becomes the first black woman to win France’s top literary award, the Prix Goncourt, for her book Trois Femmes Puissantes (Three Powerful Women), about three women, each with one foot in France and the other in Africa.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic says he will appear at his war crimes trial in the Hague tomorrow after having boycotted last week.

Members of the Iranian opposition plan to use Wednesday’s 30th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran to renew their challenge to the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The U.K.’s Telegraph reports that, in an act sure to anger the current regime, opposition leaders plan to apologise to the U.S. for the 1979 takeover.

The Taliban and Al Qaeda deny involvement in yesterday’s bombing that killed over 100 people in a crowded market in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Kuwait’s highest court rules that female parliamentarians do not need to wear a headscarf. The ruling comes a few weeks after another victory for women’s rights in the country, in which the court ruled that married women do not need their husbands’ approval in order to obtain a passport.

On the sidelines of an E.U. summit in Brussels, the discussion of who will be named the bloc’s first president heats up. Britain’s Tony Blair, Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker and Latvia’s Vaira Vike-Freiberga top the list of possibilities.

At least 14 Americans are killed in two separate helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, the largest number of Americans killed in a single day in Afghanistan in more than four years.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic boycotts the first day of his own war crimes trial in the Hague, forcing the judge to adjourn the case for the day and infuriating survivors who had traveled from Bosnia to see Karadzic face justice.

Juanita Castro, the younger sister of Fidel and Raúl Castro, says she collaborated with the CIA in the 1960s both from inside Cuba and after going into exile in Miami in 1964.

Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency inspect Iran’s newly-revealed nuclear plant near Qom.

Taliban militants assassinate a Pakistani army brigadier and his driver. Brigadier Moin-ud-din Ahmed was deputy force commander of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, and was home in Islamabad on vacation when two assailants on a motorbike shot at his army jeep in rush-hour traffic.

Twenty-five years after a the famine that killed nearly a million people, Ethiopia’s government asks the international community for emergency food aid for 6.2 million people.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadizic announces that he will boycott his trial for genocide scheduled to start in the Hague next Monday, complaining that he has not been given enough time to prepare his defense.

Israeli sources report that Israel and Iran both attended nuclear talks in Cairo last month and that the Israeli and Iranian delegations met several times, the first direct contact between the two nations in 30 years. Iran denies that such talks took place.

The U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission finds that thousands of votes for Afghan President Hamid Karzai were fraudulent, leaving Karzai’s share of the vote in the disputed August election at only 48% — not enough to avoid a runoff.

Forty-two people are killed as Iran is hit by the country’s worst suicide bombings in years. Iranian officials claim that the attack was launched from Pakistan with American and British involvement.

Prosecutors accuse Sudanese rebel leader Bahr Idriss Abu Garda of planning an attack that killed 12 African Union peacekeepers in the first Darfur-related case to reach the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

No one will be awarded this year’s $5 million Mo Ibrahim prize for good governance in Africa because the selection committee could not find a suitable candidate.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Russia’s Foreign Minister to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. A senior Russian official says that further sanctions against Iran would be “counterproductive,” and Clinton agrees that “we are not at that point yet.”

Russia and China agree to a framework for the export of Russian oil and gas supplies to China. The deal is part of $3.5 billion worth of trade agreements signed at a meeting between leaders of the two countries in Beijing.

Romania’s Democratic Liberal Government falls after loosing a vote of no confidence in parliament; the first such collapse since the end of Communist rule in 1989.

South African police fire tear gas and rubber bullets as thousands protest demanding basic services such as sanitation, electricity and housing in several northeastern townships.

At rare talks between Iran, the U.S. and other world powers, Iran agrees to allow weapons inspectors into its newly disclosed nuclear plant, and both sides agree to continued negotiations.

The People’s Republic of China celebrates its 60th anniversary by parading military personnel and equipment through downtown Beijing and hosting an evening gala complete with fireworks in Tienanmen Square.

Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, forms a new coalition which brings together Sunni and Shia parties to represent “all Iraqis.”

The U.S. will withdraw 4,000 troops from Iraq by the end of October and is on track to withdraw all combat troops by September 2010, according to an advanced copy of an address that General Ray Odierno, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, is expected to give to the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee today.

Israel plans to release 20 female Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a videotape that proves that an Israel soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Palestinian militants in 2006, is still alive.

Pakistani and Indian reports obtained by The New York Times show that ten months after terrorists killed 163 people in Mumbai, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant organization behind the attacks, is still intact and determined to strike India again.

Talks between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers begin tomorrow in Geneva.

Iran test fires three missiles with range sufficient to strike Israel, parts of Europe, and American bases in the Persian Gulf, just days after the leaders of the U.S., France and Britain disclosed the existence of a secret nuclear plant in Iran, and only a few days before the first direct contact between Iran and the U.S. in decades, in talks between Iran and six major world powers scheduled to take place in Geneva on Thursday.

The Philippine government struggles to cope with the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana, locally known as Ondoy, which killed at least 140 people. With thousands of Filipinos still trapped by floods, the death toll is expected to rise.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is re-elected. Her center-right Christian Democratic Union will will almost certainly form a new governement with the pro-business Free Democratic Party, leaving behind the center-left Social Democrats who are part of the current governing coalition.

Members of the Iranian opposition clash with the supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ruling party during the annual al-Quds Day demonstrations. Al-Quds Day, meaning Jerusalem Day, is a day of pro-Palestinian marches traditionally held on the last Friday before the end of Ramadan. See photos of the demonstrations on flickr.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin praises President Obama for canceling the Bush-era antiballistic missile system that was planned to be built in Eastern Europe, calling the decision “right and brave.” Putin did not say whether Russia would respond with concessions on nuclear proliferation.

Marking the anniversary of the military coup that followed a pro-democracy uprising in 1998, Burma’s military government announces that it will free 7,114 prisoners, but it is unclear if any of those granted amnesty are political prisoners.

A trade dispute between China and the U.S. heats up, as China files a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization over tariffs the U.S. has placed on Chinese tire imports. The Chinese government also took steps towards imposing its own tariffs on U.S. exports of chicken and automotive products.

Iran agrees to begin talks with six major world powers on October 1st, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterates that Iran’s “inalienable rights” to a nuclear program are not on the negotiating table.

Nearly 20 women and children are suffocated and killed in a stampede while waiting in line for free flour handouts in Karachi, Pakistan.

Norwegians vote in what is expected to be a close race between the ruling left-leaning government and right-wing opposition parties opposed to the country’s high taxes and liberal policies on immigration.

The Iranian parliament votes to approve Marzieh-Vahid Dastjerdi as Minister of Health, making her the first female cabinet minister in the history of the Islamic republic. The parliament rejected two other women candidates put forward by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Members of a drug gang are suspected of executing 17 people at a drug rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, near the U.S. border. Mexican drug gangs have recently started targeted rehabilitation centers that they say protect members of rival groups.

Tens of thousands of members of minority ethnic groups gather in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi to protest random syringe attacks against dozens of people. The attacks have raised ethnic tensions in a city where riots killed 197 mainly Han Chinese in early July.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis calls for early elections, which he says are needed to deal with fallout from the global financial crisis. The move comes just two years after 2007 elections brought Karamanlis to power.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe contracts the AH1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, during a trip to a summit of South American leaders in Argentina. Uribe is responding well to treatment and is expected to recover.

Three different candidates for the presidency of Gabon, including the son of former President Omar Bongo, declare victory in Sunday’s election. The winner will become president of Africa’s fourth biggest oil producer and second biggest wood exporter.

In an indication of softening national support one month ahead of Germany’s general election, the Christian Democratic Union party of Angela Merkel loses control of two states in Sunday’s state elections. The CDU retains a 15-point opinion poll lead over its closest rival, the Social Democrats, for the national election.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces growing internal opposition over his cabinet minister choices. His selection of Ahmad Vahidi as defense minister has also sparked international controversy. Vahidi is wanted by Argentina for a 1994 bombing that killed 85 at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

Thousands gather in Tehran to mourn the death of a leading Iraqi Shi’ite cleric and politician, whose passing may intensify political turmoil ahead of Iraq’s national elections. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim headed the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, one of Iraq’s most powerful Shi’ite parties. Several car bombs erupt in Baghdad ahead of the return of his body to the city for a funeral procession there.

The outgoing head of the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur defends his soldiers against persistent criticism of their effectiveness, and insists they have ended the massacres that long plagued the Sudanese region.

Hours after Taiwan’s president announces a planned trip by the Dalai Lama to Taiwan, Chinese officials say they oppose the visit. China accuses him of advocating independence for Tibet. The Dalai Lama is expected to visit some areas in southern Taiwan that were hardest hit by Typhoon Morakot.

Afghan officials delay releasing further results from the nation’s disputed presidential election, and analysts expect the contest to undergo a second round. With 17 percent of votes counted, President Hamid Karzai leads his main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, by about 43 percent to 34 percent. The final tally is expected in late September.

China launches a national organ donation system in a bid to shake off its dependence on executed prisoners as a major source of organs for transplants and as part of efforts to crack down on organ trafficking. The system will mainly be operated by the Red Cross Society of China, and begins as a pilot project in 10 provinces and cities.