WORLD AGENDA MARCH 2013

March 1, Vatican City: The world's cardinals gather in Rome to set a date for the conclave to elect the successor to Pope Benedict XVI. The Holy See wants a new pope in place before the start of Holy Week on March 24, the most important period in the Christian calendar.

March 3-14, Bangkok: Elephant poaching across Africa is at its highest level in 20 years, delegates at the 16th Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) will be told. In Gabon, ivory poachers have killed more than 11,000 since 2004.

March 4, Nairobi: Uhuru Kenyatta, facing trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, stands for the Kenyan presidency. Running a close second to Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Kenyatta is accused of orchestrating fighting that killed 1,200 people after the 2007 election.

March 5, Moscow: The 60th anniversary of the death of Josef Stalin, one of the most powerful and murderous dictators in history. Estimates of the number of people killed in the quarter of a century of his Soviet rule vary from 10-60 million.

March 8, Virginia: Two unidentified U.S. Civil War sailors, whose remains were found in the wreck of USS Monitor, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The interment date was chosen to mark the ironclad warship's role in the Battle of Hampton Roads.

March 10-11, Stanley: Falkland Islanders vote in a referendum on whether to remain British as Argentina renews its claim of sovereignty over the territory. The Argentine government, which calls the islands Las Malvinas, claims they will be under its control within 20 years.

March 15, Syria: The second anniversary of the increasingly bloody uprising against President Bashar al-Assad which began as part of the Arab Spring. Up to 60,000 have died and more than 500,000 have fled to neighbouring countries in the past two years.

March 16, Harare: The date set for a constitutional referendum that would limit presidential terms -- though not retroactively -- meaning Robert Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since 1980, could stand again. Pro-democracy campaigners say the vote is being rushed through.

March 19, Baghdad: The 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq sees "low-level war" continuing with hundreds of civilians dying in sectarian clashes each month. The once-ruling Sunni minority accuses the Shiite government of second-class treatment of its community.

March 20: President Barack Obama is to visit Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, raising the prospect of a new U.S. push to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Obama's trip will be his first to Israel since taking office.

March (undated), Bamako: France begins withdrawing the 4,000 troops it sent into Mali in January to oust Islamist rebels who seized control of the north of the country.
/ENDS.