AUG 5

US President George W. Bush to visit Seoul, South Korea to hold talks with counterpart Lee Myung-bak on North Korea. Lee is expected to raise the issue of disputed Liancourt Rock islets. Sharing of defence costs for US troops in South Korea will also be discussed.

AUG 6

Olympic torch relay arrives in Beijing after its 130-day world tour. It's also Hiroshima Day, commemorating the dropping of the atom bomb in 1945. In Johannesburg, a tentative strike of South Africa's biggest miners’ union could halt production in the world's biggest source of platinum.

AUG 7

Tenth anniversary of 1998 bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed over 220, injured more than 4,000.

AUG 8

Start of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Also, 20th anniversary of 8-8-88 uprising in Yangon in military-ruled Myanmar. The student protests were crushed with an estimated 3,000 dead.

AUG 9

The city of Nagasaki commemorates the dropping of the atom bomb in 1945.