WORLD AGENDA JULY 2003

July, Singapore (undated): The first attempt to separate adult craniopagus (joined at the head) twins will be made when Iranian law graduates Laleh and Ladan Bijani, aged 28, undergo the surgery in the first week of July.

July 3, Iraq: Baghdad's famous antiquities museum, ransacked by looters during the US-led war on Iraq, reopens after the recovery of many of its treasures, including the 5,000-year-old Vase of Warka, and the Treasure of Nimrud, gem-studded gold Assyrian jewellery.

July 5-27, France: Lance Armstrong makes his bid for a record-equalling fifth consecutive title in the 100th Tour de France. The 31-year-old Texan, who recovered from advanced testicular cancer in 1996, will try to match Spain's Miguel Indurain who won from 1991-95.

July 7-12, Africa: US President George Bush makes his first trip to Africa, visiting Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria with an agenda expected to include AIDS, counter-terrorism and economic development. The trip was postponed in January amid the run-up to the war against Iraq.

July 11-13, Belgrade: Echo, a summer music festival on Great War Island to reunify Serbian youth culture with the rest of Europe, will feature 100 modern music acts, the widest draw since the 1990s Yugoslav war plunged Serbia into a decade of isolation.

July 12, Kashmir: More than 100,000 Hindus from around the world begin their month-long pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath amid tight security. The annual pilgrimage, in India's sole Muslim-majority state, has been the target of militants in previous years.

July 13, France: Lovers of Van Gogh, born 150 years ago, can see a moonrise as he painted it 114 years ago. Astronomers calculate that when the moon rises in Saint-Remy-de-Provence it will be in almost exactly the same spot and phase as in 'Evening Landscape with Rising Moon', painted in 1889.

July 18, Amsterdam: A verdict is due in the appeal against an 18-year jail term by animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf, convicted of the murder in May 2002 of far-right Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn.

July 19, London: The former deputy chairman of Britain's Conservative Party and best-selling novelist Jeffrey Archer will be freed on parole, midway through a four-year sentence for perjury. Archer lied to win a libel case after a newspaper said he slept with a prostitute.

Parliamentary elections in Kuwait (July 5), Mexico (July 6) and Cambodia (July 27).