August 30, 2014 (Saturday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Prime Minister Tom Thabane of Lesotho flees to South Africa as the army allegedly stages a coup. (BBC)
- Taliban insurgency
- Taliban insurgents attack the National Directorate of Security building in Jalalabad resulting in at least six deaths. (CNN)
- At least 230 people have been injured in clashes between opponents of Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and police in Islamabad. (AFP/Reuters via ABC News Australia)
- Somali Civil War:
- Somali government and African Union troops oust al-Shabab Islamic militants from a southern town of Bulo Marer. (ABC News)
Disasters
- Twenty gold miners are rescued from a collapsed mine in Nicaragua but five are still missing. (Reuters, AFP via ABC News Australia)
- A Ukrainian Antonov An-12 aircraft with seven people on board crashes in the Sahara Desert in Algeria. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
- Six people are found dead after a fire in a mobile home in the American town of Clinton, North Carolina. (CNN)
- Nine tourists are killed as a bus crashes returning from Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni salt flats to La Paz. (AAP via The Australian)
International relations
- Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, is chosen as the President of the European Council, while Federica Mogherini is chosen as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. (France 24), (ITV)
Politics and elections
- Judith Collins resigns from the New Zealand Cabinet following allegations that she undermined the head of the Serious Fraud Office in 2011 when she had ministerial responsibility. (New Zealand Herald)
- United States Senate election in Kentucky, 2014
- United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign manager Jesse Benton resigns after being involved in an alleged bribery scandal involving Iowa state Senator Kent Sorenson switching his support from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul in the 2012 United States presidential election. (The Huffington Post)
- Brazilian general election, 2014
- Environmentalist Marina Silva widens a sudden lead in opinion polls over current president Dilma Rousseff to 10 percentage points. (Reuters)
Sports
- In motor sports, Australian driver Will Power wins the drivers championship while Team Penske wins the teams championship in the 2014 IndyCar Series season. (AP)