WORLD AGENDA JUNE 2013

June 2, Cairo: Egypt's highest court rules on the legality of the upper house of parliament as the country continues to struggle with power transition since 2011's uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak. A ruling against the Shura Council could result in its dissolution.

June 6, Boston: The trial begins of alleged mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, accused of 19 murders and working as an FBI informant during 16 years on the run. The 83-year-old, portrayed by Johnny Depp in the 2014 movie "Black Mass", faces the death penalty.

June 7-8, California: Barack Obama meets Xi Jinping for the first time since the Chinese president took office in March. The private talks are aimed at improving ties strained by renewed U.S. military focus on Asia and U.S. accusations of Chinese cyber-espionage.

June 10-12, Geneva: The proposed date the United States and Russia, backers of opposing sides in the Syrian war, hope to bring President Bashar al-Assad's government and opposition to a peace conference. The two-year conflict has killed over 80,000 people and displaced millions.

June 11, New York: The publication date for "With Patience and Fortitude", a memoir by lead mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, who struggled for 10 years with bulimia and alcohol abuse. Quinn, openly gay, stands to become the city's first female mayor in November's elections.

June 12, Global: Efforts to reduce child labour must accelerate if the goal to eliminate the worst forms by 2016 is to be achieved, say organisers of World Day Against Child Labour. Worldwide 215 million children work, down from 222 million in 2004.

June 14, Tehran: Iran votes in a new president from a list of candidates sanctioned by the authoritative Guardian Council. It is the first presidential election since 2009 when protests against official results triggered an uprising by pro-democracy Greens subsequently silenced by a brutal crackdown.

June 16-27, Phnom Penh: The near-symmetrical, snow-capped Mount Fuji in Japan is expected to be given World Heritage status at a UNESCO meeting in the Cambodian capital. The 3,776-metre volcano, with five lakes and the Shiraito Falls, last erupted in 1707.

June 17-18, County Fermanagh: G8 leaders gather amid the biggest security operation ever mounted in Northern Ireland where sectarian violence raged until the 1990s. British PM David Cameron said he hoped the choice of location would send the message that the peace process had worked.

June 26, London: Unpublished lyrics of an anti-nuclear song by Bob Dylan could fetch up to £35,000 at auction. "Go Away You Bomb" was written in 1963 around the time the singer, dubbed "the spokesman of a generation", rose to global fame.

Jun 26-Jul 3, Africa: President Obama travels to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania to reinforce U.S. ties with sub-Saharan countries. The trip is the longest journey of his presidency so far to the continent of his father's family.

June (undated), Bulgaria: The European Union's poorest country faces a rerun of May's parliamentary elections if the centre-right GERB party fails to form a coalition. Protests over living standards, corruption and crime swept the party from power in February.
/ENDS