WORLD AGENDA APRIL 2009

London, April 2: Anarchists threaten chaos at the G20 summit where U.S. president Barack Obama makes his debut on the world stage. Meanwhile, leaders tackling the global economic crisis will be urged to honour aid, trade and climate change pledges.

Strasbourg, April 3-4: France marks its return to Nato’s military command by co-hosting with Germany the organisation’s 60th anniversary summit. President Nicolas Sarkozy won parliamentary backing for full participation four decades after the country’s self-imposed exile.

Pyongyang, April 4-8: Pacific Rim stability may be jeopardized if North Korea goes ahead with plans to launch a long-range rocket it says is for communications purposes. The U.S. claims it is to test a weapon that can reach its territory.

Beijing, April 15: China pays for a group wedding for 20 couples who lost their spouses in the Sichuan earthquake last May. Each couple can invite eight guests to the ceremony and will be given a free trip to Hainan island.

New Delhi, April 16: The world’s largest democracy kicks off a month-long general election in which 714 million people will be able to cast their vote. The process takes place in five stages to allow security forces to move around the country.

Trinidad and Tobago, April 17-19: U.S. President Barack Obama faces intense challenges at the Summit of the Americas. Pressure to drop a 40-year-old trade embargo against Cuba and an encounter with Venezuela’s anti-Washington leader Hugo Chavez are both likely.

Geneva, April 21-24: Israel and Canada boycott the UN’s highly sensitive World Conference Against Racism amid fears Arabs will use it as a platform to attack Zionism. The wording of a draft declaration was altered to prevent other countries staying away.

Johannesburg, April 22: The ANC’s corruption-dogged leader, Jacob Zuma, is likely to become president if, as expected, the ruling party is re-elected in what will nevertheless be South Africa’s most closely fought election since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Russia, April 26: Andrei Lugovoi, the prime suspect in the murder of a Kremlin critic, is set to run for mayor in the southern city of Sochi. The MP denies involvement in the radioactive poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London in November 2006.

Washington, April (undated): Doubts over plans to expand a controversial U.S. ballistic-missile shield into Eastern Europe may intensify when a spending plan is presented to Congress. President Obama has indicated he may axe the George W. Bush-conceived scheme.
/ENDS