Saudi Arabia hosts Iraq-Kuwait talks
1990 - Senior Iraqi and Kuwaiti envoys met behind closed doors in Jeddah for two hours to discuss their rift over oil, money and land. Kuwaiti Crown Prince and Prime Minister Shaikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah and Izzat Ebrahim (above), vice-chairman of Iraq’s ruling Revolutionary Council, were joined in their talks by other senior officials. Iraq warned it wanted no stalling on its demands in their explosive quarrel. Shaikh Saad and Ebrahim began the talks after meeting King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz. The Saudi monarch, who played an important role in bringing the negotiators to this Red Sea port, met both envoys and wished them “success in their mission”. US officials in Washington said that Iraq had amassed a very significant military force near its border with Kuwait.
July 31
1658 - Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mogul Emperor of India.
1789 - Austrian and Russian troops defeat Turks at Focshani in Romania.
1865 - The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.
1954 - An Italian team led by Ardito Desio makes the first ascent of the world’s second-highest peak, Mount Godwin-Austen (K2).
1955 - Marilyn Bell of Toronto Canada becomes the youngest person to swim the English Channel.
1969 - US Spacecraft Mariner 6, coming to within 3,219km of Mars, transmits the first pictures of the red planet.
1985 - Former vice-president Paulo Muwanga is appointed Uganda’s Executive Prime Minister.
1991 - US and the Soviet Union sign landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
1992 - A Thai Airways Airbus crashes into a mountain in Kathmandu, killing 213 people.
1994 - Austrian Gerhard Berger wins a dramatic and explosive German Grand Prix.
2006 - Nato forces take over security duties from a US-led coalition in violence-plagued southern Afghanistan.
2007 - Deployment of British troops to support Northern Ireland police officially ends after 38 years.
2008 - Guinness Book of World Records award the UAE for having largest date dish at the Fourth Liwa Festival in Abu Dhabi.
2009 - Britain pulls its troops out of Iraq, ending six years of military involvement in the war-torn country.
2010 - Seventeen are killed and 68 more are injured in a coal mine blast in northern China.
2011 - A full-scale military attack against Hama City in Syria left 150 killed and more that 1,000 injured.
