Former President Bill Clinton arrives in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on a surprise visit to seek the release of two U.S. journalists jailed since March. He meets the ailing Kim Jong-il, who hosts a dinner for him. Clinton’s visit may rekindle long-stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

Australian police arrest four men linked to a hardline Somali group, charging them with planning a suicide attack on a military base. Police say a warehouse turned makeshift mosque in North Melbourne was a key hub in a sprawling militant Islamist network, whose base in the Horn of Africa is a center of global terrorism.

Sudanese riot police fire tear gas to disperse more than 100 protesters who gather outside a Khartoum courthouse in support of a woman journalist who faces up to 40 lashes for dressing “indecently” in a pair of trousers. Judges delay their verdict until September 7.

Iran’s security officials confirm the arrest of three American nationals in the western city of Marivan, charging the detainees with “illegal entry” and beginning their interrogation. The two men and one woman were in a popular hiking area. One of the men is a journalist whose editor says he was working in Kurdistan.

Survey respondents in China consider sex workers trustworthy, putting them in third place after farmers and religious workers, and ahead of scientists, teachers and government officials. “A list like this is at the same time surprising and embarrassing,” reads an editorial in the China Daily English-language newspaper.