WORLD AGENDA OCTOBER 2004

October 2-14, Bangkok: Tougher rules governing the protection of commercially valuable plants and animals Ð that fetch high prices on the black market Ð are expected to be agreed at the 5,000-delegate Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species conference in Thailand

October 8-9, Hanoi: BurmaÕs progress towards democracy, and in particular the detention of campaigner and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, will come under the spotlight at the Asia-Europe summit in Vietnam. Suu Kyi, released briefly in 1995, has been under house arrest since 1990

October 9, Kabul: A war-weary and ethnically-divided people will choose their leader for the first time when Afghanistan holds its debut presidential election. Eighteen candidates, including U.S.-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai, will stand in a vote which the ousted Taliban have vowed to disrupt

October 9, Australia: Prime Minister John Howard bids for a fourth consecutive term in government when Australians go to the polls in the countryÕs closest election contest in 30 years. The leader of the eight-and-a-half-year-old conservative coalition stands against LabourÕs maverick Mark Latham

October 11, Beijing: A three-city, six-month tour of 50 masterpieces from France opens, the first time China has exhibited impressionist paintings on this scale. The show will include work by Claude Monet, Edouard Manet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir

October 25, London: Cornelius ÒNeilÓ Horan, the former priest from Ireland who sabotaged the menÕs Olympic marathon by tackling Brazilian race leader Vanderlei de Lima, who then finished third, stands trial on child indecency charges relating to events 10 years ago

October, United States: The American Muslim Taskforce is expected to make an endorsement for the November 2 presidential election, a decision which could prove decisive in the battleground states of Michigan, Ohio and Florida, where there are strong Muslim communities

October, Indonesia: Controversy will surround the launch of an autobiography by the militant convicted of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people. Imam Samudra, now on death row, wrote ÒI Fight TerroristsÓ from his prison cell

Parliamentary elections in Slovenia (Oct 3), Australia (Oct 9), Lithuania (Oct 10), Belarus (Oct 17), Kosovo (Oct 23) and Tunisia (Oct 24). Presidential elections in Afghanistan (Oct 9), Cameroon (Oct 11), Ireland (Oct 22), Tunisia (Oct 24), Ukraine (Oct 31) and Uruguay (Oct 31, first round)
/ENDS