WORLD AGENDA JULY 2004

July 1, Seoul: South Koreans will probably find out where their new administrative capital will be built when the results of a study on the four candidate regions, all in the North and South Chungchong provinces south of Seoul, are announced.

July 3-25, Liege, Belgium: American cyclist Lance Armstrong starts his bid for a record sixth victory in the gruelling Tour de France.

July 4, Lisbon: Who will be crowned soccer champions of Europe? The Euro2004 final decides.

July 5, Indonesia: The first ever direct presidential election looks set to unseat Megawati Sukarnoputri, the 57-year-old daughter of founding president Sukarno.

July 5, The Hague: Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic opens his defence against charges of war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. The 62-year-old has conducted his own defence since the trial opened in 2002.

July 7, Manila: An award-winning documentary about the life of Imelda Marcos opens in the Philippines if the former first lady fails in her attempt to obtain a court injunction to have the film, called simply Imelda, stopped.

July 8, New York: Celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart, who turned a small catering company into a multimedia empire, faces 10-16 months jail when she is sentenced, along with her broker Peter Bacanovic, for making false statements about a stock sale. Stewart has requested a retrial after it emerged that a government witness may have lied under oath.

July 9, Athens: The Olympic torch returns to Greece for a final tour before entering the Olympic stadium to light the cauldron on August 13.

July 26, Washington: The independent commission investigating September 11 delivers its final report sharply criticising the FBI and intelligence agencies and suggesting the attacks were preventable.

Mid-July, United States: Senators vote to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban homosexual marriage. Republicans called for the move after San Francisco and Massachusetts allowed gay couples to wed, spawning lawsuits calling on other states to recognise same-sex marriage.

July (undated), Baghdad: As Iraq embraces self rule, a national conference to select a new chamber to advise and support the interim prime minister and his cabinet is held. And a new U.S. Embassy, led by Ambassador John Negroponte, opens.

July (undated), India: Nathu La, a Himalayan pass used centuries ago by silk traders but closed since 1962 when war broke out between India and China, is expected to reopen. The symbolic move precedes the resumption of trade between the worldÕs two
most populous nations.

Parliamentary elections in Vanuatu (July 6) and Japan (Upper House, July 11). Presidential elections in Indonesia (July 5).