WORLD AGENDA DECEMBER 2009

December 1, Buenos Aires: Latin America’s first legal same-sex marriage takes place in Argentina on World Aids Day. Gay rights groups hope the ceremony, between Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello, will pave the way for other homosexual weddings in the heavily Catholic continent.

December 3, Bhopal: Controversy surrounds the commemoration of 25 years since the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the world’s worst industrial accident, which killed at least 8,000 people. Campaigners say up to 25,000 died and that the plant still contains highly toxic material.

December 5, Geneva: Presidents Barack Obama, of the U.S., and Dmitry Medvedev, of Russia, expect to sign a new disarmament deal by the time the landmark 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires. Intensive discussions have taken place after negotiations stalled under George W. Bush.

December 7-18, Copenhagen: The deadline for agreeing an international deal to combat global warming at the UN climate change summit is widely expected to be missed. Western leaders want a 2010 pact but anti-poverty campaigners say it is a missed opportunity.

December 9, Los Angeles: Thousands of asteroids and millions of galaxies never seen before may be revealed when NASA launches its Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescope. The six-month mission will search for objects too dim or distant to have been detected so far.

December 10, Oslo: Barack Obama receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation amid claims that the honour is too much too soon. The U.S. president has said he will donate the $1.4 million prize money to charity.

December 23, Colorado: Richard and Mayumi Heene, parents of a six-year-old child whose hoax brush with death in a helium balloon created a media storm, are sentenced. The couple face prison and may have to repay some of the rescue attempt costs.

Early December, Perugia: A verdict is due in the Meredith Kercher murder trial, which has gripped millions. American student Amanda Knox, 22, and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, are accused of killing the 21-year-old British student in a drug-fuelled sex game in 2007.

December (undated), Brussels: Serbia is likely to apply for membership of the European Union, according to President Boris Tadic. The EU is divided over whether the country’s failure to capture suspected war criminal General Ratko Mladic should prevent Serbia’s accession.

December (undated), Taipei: Taiwan begins trade talks with China to secure a deal that would warm relations between the two rivals and open the isolated island to trade pacts around the world. China claimed sovereignty over Taiwan in 1949.
/ENDS