WORLD AGENDA APRIL 2013

April 2, Los Angeles: Michael Jackson's mother and three children seek £26 billion in damages from concert promoter AEG Live. Katherine Jackson, 82, along with Prince, 16, Paris, 14 and Michael Jnr, 10, are claiming lost future earnings following the singer's 2009 death.

April 3/26, Hong Kong/New York: Dinner with Ferran Adria, the celebrated chef of Spain's now closed elBulli restaurant, is auctioned, along with its wine cellar and memorabilia. Adria, 50, headed the world-famous three-Michelin star restaurant in Catalonia for 27 years until it closed in 2011.

April 5, Los Angeles: Captain Kirk's rifle and Superman's outfit go under the hammer in a “Hollywood Legends” auction. The Star Trek prop is expected to fetch $50,000 to $60,000 and the flying suit, with cape and boots, $20,000 to $30,000.

April 7, Doha: A donors' conference seeks to raise money for development projects in Darfur though the 10-year war continues to rage. More than 130,000 people have been forced from their homes since the start of the year.

April 11-14, Georgia: Golfing great Tiger Woods, brought down by a sex scandal in 2009, looks back on to form heading into the Masters. A 15th major win for Woods, now dating skier Lindsey Vonn, would secure his return to the top of the game.

Apr 12, South Korea, Japan, China: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will make his first trip to Asia as America's top diplomat, with North Korea expected to top the agenda. Kerry flies to Seoul after attending a G8 meeting of foreign ministers in London from April 10-11.

April 13, Cairo: The retrial of 84-year-old Hosni Mubarak begins. The former president, who ruled Egypt for 30 years, was jailed for life last June for ordering the killing of demonstrators in the Arab Spring of 2011 that unseated him.

April 14, Caracas: Acting President Nicolas Maduro, successor to the hugely popular Hugo Chavez who died March 5, is expected to comfortably win his own mandate in elections. He faces Henrique Capriles, 40, who put up a convincing challenge to Chavez in October.

April 27, Reykjavik: Iceland's centre-right Independence Party, blamed for triggering 2008's international banking crisis, which hit Iceland first and hardest, looks set to regain power. The centre-left pairing of the Social Democrats and Left-Greens has ruled since 2009.

Apr 30, 2013, Amsterdam: Willem Alexander, Prince of Orange, becomes the first King of the Netherlands in more than a century when his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicates after 33 years on the throne. His Argentine-born wife, Princess Maxima, will become Queen consort.

April (undated), Washington: American Army Sergeant John Russell faces a court martial for the 2009 killing of five fellow servicemen at a counselling centre in Iraq. Russell, who served five combat tours, may have been suffering combat fatigue at the time.

April (undated), Riyadh: Free speech in Saudi Arabia comes under the spotlight when a judge rules on the appeal of two human rights campaigners sentenced to 10 years in jail. Mohammed Fahad al-Qahtani and Abdullah al-Hamed called for a constitutional monarchy and elections.
/ENDS