WORLD AGENDA JUNE 2010

June 2, London: A diary recording meetings with Roosevelt, Stalin and the King George VI is the star lot in an auction of the most extensive collection of British wartime leader Winston Churchill’s private memorabilia. Letters and a cigar are also included.

June 9, The Netherlands: A general election takes place following the government’s collapse in February over disagreements on the deployment of Dutch troops in Afghanistan. With the economy dominating the campaign, analysts believe the vote is likely to see a lurch to the right.

June 11, Johannesburg: The world’s biggest sporting event, the month-long Soccer World Cup, kicks off with half a million fans in South Africa – and many more millions around the world – watching 32 teams playing 63 matches in nine cities. Tournament favourites are Spain and Brazil.

June 12-20, Havana: The Vatican’s foreign minister visits Cuba amid growing concerns over the island’s human rights record. Archbishop Dominique Mamberti is expected to press authorities to release political prisoners, branded as mercenaries and subversives in the pay of the United States. 

June 14, Abuja: Vincent Ogbulafor, recently resigned chairman of Nigeria’s ruling People’s Democratic Party, appears in court on corruption charges. The case is seen as part of a leadership struggle in the PDP, which dominates Nigerian politics, prior to presidential elections in 2011. 

June 15-19, Jakarta: American president Barack Obama visits Indonesia as a film about his childhood there opens on June 17. “Obama, A Menteng Kid” tells the story of the four years (1967–71) he spent living in the capital. 

June 21-25, Agadir: The International Whaling Commission meets in Morocco to consider a controversial “peace plan” to legitimize but reduce whaling. The proposal, under which Japan, Iceland and Norway would cut their whale kills over the next decade, has been roundly criticized by environmentalists.

June 22, London: Debt-wary markets watch as Britain’s new chancellor, George Osborne, the country youngest finance minister in 120 years, delivers an emergency budget. The recently elected Conservative-Liberal Democrat government is tackling a record deficit. 

June 25, United Kingdom: Glastonbury, the largest greenfield festival in the world, held in south west England, celebrates its 40th anniversary. The 137,500 tickets for the event – as famous for rain and mud as for music – sold out within 24 hours of release.

June 26, Toronto: Proposals to introduce a global bank tax, to pay for future bailouts, will dominate a G20 summit. The United States and Britain are leading calls in favour while hosts Canada, along with Japan and Australia, are against. 

June (undated), Kandahar: More than 23,000 Nato and Afghan troops launch their biggest military offensive of the war in an effort to drive the Taliban from their stronghold. A growing insurgency has put violence in Afghanistan at its worst level in four years.

June (undated), Gulf of Mexico: The scale of the environmental disaster caused by a massive oil spill when a BP rig exploded killing 11 workers on April 20, is likely to become clearer. The crude, still gushing from the sea floor, has reached four shorelines.
/ENDS