WORLD AGENDA APRIL 2005

April 2, Turkey: The Istanbul Film Festival opens without its guest of honour, French actress Emmanuelle Beart, who is boycotting the event because of police brutality at a womenÕs demonstration on March 6 in which officers were seen hitting and kicking women

April 6, Italy: The trial begins of 28 policemen over the 2001 raid on the G8 summit in Genoa in which one person died and hundreds were injured during three days of rioting

April 7, Damascus/Beirut: A date will be set for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon when military officials from both sides meet to draw up a timetable for a complete pullout. SyriaÕs military presence in its smaller neighbour has been unbroken for 29 years

April 7, Kashmir: The first bus to travel between the Indian and Pakistani sectors of the disputed Himalayan territory sets off, breathing life into the sluggish peace process. It will travel 170kms on the highway between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad

April 8, London: The heir to the British throne marries fellow divorcee Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony followed by a church blessing at St GeorgeÕs Chapel, Windsor. Prince Charles divorced his first wife, Princess Diana, in 1996, a year before she died in a car crash in Paris

April 9, Wisconsin: The worldÕs oldest stone, a 4.4 billion year-old grain of zirconium silicate, will appear on stage alongside New York band Jazz Passengers in a rock concert held in its honour. Scientists believe the stone, found in Western Australia, suggests the EarthÕs surface may have cooled much earlier than once thought

April 11, Turkey: Hearings begin against 69 suspected Islamic militants charged in connection with four al-Qaeda-linked suicide bombs in Istanbul that killed more than 60 people in November 2003

April 11-13, Jakarta: At least 35 countries take part in the golden jubilee of the famous Bandung Conference Ð the 1955 gathering by Asian and African leaders against colonialism in which they called for racial equality and rights of self-determination

April 18, Philadelphia: Suspected Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Killen, an 80-year-old Baptist minister, goes on trial charged with the notorious 1964 murders of three civil rights workers, dramatised in the 1988 film Mississippi Burning. The trio, all in their 20s, were taken to a remote road and shot

April 18, Berlin: German scientist Albert Einstein, who formulated the theory of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921, died 50 years ago today

April 19, Swaziland: King Mswati III, whose country is crippled with poverty and has the worldÕs highest AIDS infection rate, celebrates his 37th birthday with a $1.7 million (1.2m euros) party. The lavish lifestyle of AfricaÕs last absolute monarch has attracted international condemnation

Parliamentary elections in Burundi (April 22) and New Zealand (April 30). Presidential elections in Djibouti (April 8), Central African Republic (second round, April 10), Northern Cyprus (April 17), Burundi (April 22) and Togo (exact date unknown)
/ENDS