WORLD AGENDA AUGUST 2006

August 1: Efforts to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon look unlikely to succeed while Hezbollah rockets continue to target Israeli cities and Israel steps up its attacks with the green light of the Bush administration.

August 1: Nato forces take command of security operations in AfghanistanÕs highly dangerous south. The opium crop -- which is fuelling a Taliban resurgence -- has grown 20% since 2005 to a record 104,000 hectares.

August 6: BoliviaÕs newly elected constitutional assembly begins work on rewriting the countryÕs legal and political framework. Left-wing president Evo Morales wants the new constitution to give a better deal to indigenous people who make up two-thirds of BoliviaÕs population.

August 6: The Edinburgh Festival Fringe -- the worldÕs largest arts festival -- raises the curtain on its 60th year, with 28,000 performances of 1,867 shows scheduled at 261 venues during the three-week entertainment extravaganza.

August 8: AustraliaÕs 2006 Census will reveal the impact of Prime Minister John HowardÕs drive to massively increase immigration of skilled workers. Australia welcomed 123,424 new immigrants in 2004-05, the highest number in more than 15 years.

August 8: World Trade Center, Oliver StoneÕs movie about the 9/11 bombings, has its premiere in the United States. The film, starring Nicholas Cage, has already provoked controversy for its handling of the story.

August 11: BeijingÕs Great Hall of the People, seat of ChinaÕs annual parliament, hosts its first-ever pop concert -- with three of the acts coming from Taiwan, viewed by China as a renegade province.

August 13: CubaÕs President Fidel Castro, the worldÕs longest-serving leader, celebrates his 80th birthday with the help of visiting VIPs and four days of street parties in Havana.

August 13-19: Canada hosts the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto. The government has taken a lead in the fight against the disease, recently deciding to amend the patent act to allow the production and export of generic HIV/AIDS medications to developing nations.

August 21: Saddam Hussein, already in court charged with killing 148 Shia Muslim men and boys, is due to face a second trial -- with six co-defendants including a former Iraqi general known as Chemical Ali -- for a genocide campaign against  Kurds in the late 1980s.

August 22: Iran says it will respond by today to a package of incentives that have been offered by western governments in a bid to resolve the crisis over its nuclear programme.

August 27: Stars of American primetime television gather in Los Angeles for the annual Emmy Awards, with Steven SpielbergÕs epic series, Into the West, leading the field with 16 nominations.

August 28, Cape Canaveral: NASA aims to launch STS-115 Atlantis. The 19th mission to the International Space Station will deliver and attach the next port truss and other key components and an associated set of power-generating solar arrays. The original date for the flight was May 2003, but it was set back by the explosion of shuttle Colombia in February of that year

August 30, Utah: President George W. Bush visits Utah -- the state that loves him the most -- where he enjoys a 51% approval rating. Elsewhere, only 37% of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president.
/ENDS