Portal:Current events/2011 August 3

• 2011 Syrian uprising:
  • Syrian forces shell and advance on the city of Hama. (Al Jazeera)

• South Africa agrees to loan Swaziland 2.5 billion rand (US$368 million) to ease the latter's economic crisis. (Mail & Guardian) (AFP via Google News)
• The Chinese Dagong Global Credit Rating downgrades the United States credit rating from A+ to A with a negative outlook. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• The plans of cable entrepreneur John Malone to purchase book store chain Barnes & Noble may have hit a snag, especially over how to value the B&N eReader, the Nook. (New York Post)

• More than 26,000 people have permanently left New Zealand's Canterbury Region since the 2011 Christchurch earthquake in February. (AAP via News Limited)
• Ten people die as a Bell 412 helicopter crashes in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province. (Jakarta Post)

• Computer security firm McAfee uncovers one of the largest series of cyber attacks against the International Olympic Committee, Indian government, the United Nations, the steel industry and defence and security firms. (BBC)

• The former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, leaves the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to return to Cairo for his trial. (AFP via The Melbourne Age)
• News International phone hacking scandal:
  • Charity campaigner Heather Mills tells the BBC's Newsnight that a senior Mirror Group journalist admitted hacking voicemails left for her by Sir Paul McCartney while they were together. (BBC)

• Luke March, who was charged with investigating the United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal, resigns from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority after refusing to name those under suspicion. (BBC)
• The Iranian parliament confirms four new ministers including Rostam Ghasemi as Minister of Petroleum. (Tabnak)
• David Wu resigns his seat representing Oregon's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives as a result of a sex scandal. (The Oregonian)