WORLD AGENDA AUGUST 2008

August 1, Vienna: The International Atomic Energy Agency considers IndiaÕs plan for inspections of its civilian nuclear facilities, approval of which may lead to a deal under which India obtains access to U.S. nuclear fuel and technology.

August 5, Seoul: U.S. President George Bush visits South Korea, site of violent protests over the reintroduction of U.S. beef. The country had been the third-largest overseas market for the produce until it banned imports in 2003 because of mad cow disease.

August 6, Johannesburg: South African mine workers down tools in a national strike that could halt production at the worldÕs biggest source of platinum and gold. The protest against job losses is linked to the countryÕs power crisis and soaring prices and interest rates.

August 8-24, Beijing: One of the most controversial Olympic Games in modern times takes place with an opening ceremony attended by U.S. President George Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy but not UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel or British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

August 10, Bolivia: Evo Morales, the first president of indigenous descent in South AmericaÕs poorest nation, faces a recall vote. The crisis follows a power struggle with right-wing regional governors who want more autonomy and have opposed MoralesÕs land redistribution plan.

Mid-August, Rangoon: United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari visits Myanmar to promote democracy. It will be his fourth trip since the ruling junta cracked down on monk-led protests last September and the first since Cyclone Nargis ravaged the Irrawaddy Delta in May.

August 23, Wales: A week after turning 50, Madonna, the worldÕs most successful female recording artist of all time, kicks off her three-month Sticky and Sweet tour in Cardiff. Venues include cities across Europe and the Americas.

August 25-28, Denver: Barack Obama moves one step closer to the White House when he accepts the Democratic presidential nomination at the partyÕs national convention.

August (undated), Tehran: The United States is expected to announce plans to establish a diplomatic presence in the Iranian capital for the first time in 30 years. Diplomatic ties between the two countries were severed during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis.

August (undated), Geneva: Physicists hope to glimpse the elusive Higgs boson, the particle that gives all other particles their mass, when the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider gets up and running producing 40 million collisions a second in a 27-kilometre underground loop. The new flagship research facility, which will employ some 9,000 international scientists, will be reduced to just 1.9 Kelvin (-271 degrees C), equal to that of deep space, ahead of ints inauguration in October.
/ENDS