WORLD AGENDA MAY 2013

May 5, Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia votes in a general election expected to be the closest in the country's history. Prime Minister Najib Razak needs to reverse huge gains made in 2008 by the opposition led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

May 7, Washington: South Korean president Park Geun-hye visits the White House for her first summit with U.S. President Barack Obama. Park's first overseas trip since she took office in February is expected to focus on how to rein in an increasingly rancorous North Korea.

May 11, Islamabad: Pakistan holds general elections after the government completes a full term for the first time in the country's 66-year history. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, ousted in a coup by Pervez Musharraf in 1999, is frontrunner to win back his old job.

May 15, London: The auction of Beach Boys memorabilia, discovered in a Florida storage facility, is expected to fetch millions of dollars. Handwritten scores to Good Vibrations and California Girls were in an unopened box sold off because payments had not been made.

May 15-26, Cannes: Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover, and Roman Polanski's Venus in Fur, are among a heavily international line-up at the Cannes Film Festival. The event is cinema's most important showcase.

May 20-28, Geneva: The World Health Assembly is expected to endorse a plan to protect and promote the human rights of people with mental health conditions. Around 85% of sufferers in developing nations and 50% in rich countries are unable to get help.

May 24, Paris: Gerard Depardieu, who twice failed to appear in court on drunk driving charges, is summoned a third time. The French actor, 64, apprehended while driving his scooter last November, faces a $4,500 fine and up to two years in prison.

May 25, Addis Ababa: The Organisation of African Unity, renamed the African Union in 2002, celebrates 50 years. Set up during the decolonisation struggles of the 1960s, it established a pan-African parliament in 2004 and plans a human rights court and a single currency.

May (undated), Beirut: The United Nations says it will cut food aid to 400,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon in May unless it receives new funding. Aid agencies warn the crisis in Syria is on the brink of becoming a humanitarian catastrophe.

May (undated), Maputo: Voter registration begins for elections in October 2014 as outbreaks of violence trigger fears that Mozambique's political stability could be undermined. The country has enjoyed two decades of peace since its 16-year civil war ended in 1992.

May (undated), Tunis: Tunisia is expected to sign a $1.75 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund. The support is designed to ease financial problems since the Arab Spring revolution that toppled the regime of strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two years ago.
/ENDS