WORLD AGENDA DECEMBER 2012

Dec 1, Kuwait City: Kuwait holds its second parliamentary election this year amid escalating protests against new voting rules which opposition parties say favour pro-government candidates. The emir-led state has so far avoided the mass pro-democracy unrest seen in other Arab countries.

December 6, United States: Owning an ounce of marijuana becomes legal in Washington state, despite a federal law banning the drug. The move is designed to legalise recreational use, though selling it remains unlawful.

December 9, Bucharest: Romanians go to the  polls following months of in-fighting between the right-wing president, Traian Basescu, and leftist prime minister Victor Ponta who tried to impeach him. The EU’s second-poorest country faces austerity measures to comply with an IMF aid deal.

December 15-16, Los Angeles: Photo stills from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Mountain Eagle, one of the British Film Institute’s most searched for lost movies, are expected to fetch more than $25,000 at auction. The film was the second of 50 by the director.

December 16, Japan: The Liberal Democratic party, rulers almost continuously for more than half a century until 2009, are expected to regain power, but without a majority, in a general election. Leader Shinzo Abe, prime minister from 2006-2007, would return to the helm.

December 18, Los Angeles: A signed, hand-written letter by John Lennon to legendary guitarist Eric Clapton suggesting they form a band together could fetch $30,000 at auction. The draft was written on September 29, 1971, the year after the Beatles broke up.

Dec 31, United States: President Barack Obama and Congress have until the end of the month to remove the threat of $600bn worth of tax increases and spending cuts set to begin in 2013 that could push the economy over the “fiscal cliff” and into recession.

Early December, Algiers: French President Francois Hollande visits Algeria in a bid to improve relations and in the hope the country will back an African-led military intervention against Islamic militants in northern Mali. Paris fears extremists there may launch attacks on France.

Early to mid December, Washington: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before Congress on the handling of the September 11 attack this year that killed four Americans, including U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens, in Benghazi, Libya. Critics say the American government should have heeded warnings.

Mid December, Helsinki: An international conference on banning weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East is in doubt. Iran, suspected of building a nuclear arsenal, has said it would attend while Israel, assumed to already have one, has not.

December, Sudan: Efforts to contain a Yellow Fever outbreak in Darfur intensify after warnings of a global epidemic speeded the start of a vaccination programme. Local reports say there have been 150 deaths and 400 cases since the disease struck in September.
/ENDS