WORLD AGENDA OCTOBER 2013

October 1, U.S.: The defining act of Barack Obama’s presidency, health care reform, comes to fruition when subsidised insurance goes on sale. Seven million Americans are expected to sign up in the first year, rising to 22 million by 2016.

October 2, Vatican: Pope Francis receives Sister Angelique Namaika, winner of the UN’s Nansen Refugee Award, who has helped over 2,000 women and girls abused and displaced by conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

October 6-12, Kuala Lumpur: Barack Obama tours Asia and becomes the first U.S. president in nearly half a century to visit Malaysia. Relations between the two countries soured when Mahathir Mohamad, a strident critic of the west, was prime minister between 1981 and 2003.

October 10, Parma: Concerts and performances take place in Italy and around the world to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, one of the most influential opera composers of the nineteenth century.

October 13, Addis Ababa: African leaders call for a mass withdrawal from the International Criminal Court in protest at the trial of Kenya’s deputy president William Ruto. The African Union accuses the court of “hunting” the continent’s leaders.

October 18, Luxembourg: The European Union is expected to agree on business talks with China, paving the way for a possible free-trade deal between two of the world’s biggest markets. Trade between the markets rose to $435bn last year.

October 20, New York: The stage version of author John Grisham’s first novel, A Time To Kill, published in 1989, opens on Broadway. Nine of his nearly two dozen novels, which have sold 250 million books worldwide, have been made into films.

October 25-26, Prague: Elections in the Czech Parliament could hand a share of power to the Communist Party for the first time since the 1989 Velvet Revolution ended its totalitarian rule. The Social Democrats are set to win the most seats.

October 28-31, Khartoum: German business leaders are likely to come under fire from activists for attending a conference aiming to boost economic ties with Sudan. The isolated African country is shunned by most western firms because of a trade embargo over human rights.

Mid-October (undated), Geneva: A second UN peace conference on Syria is planned amid evidence of deepening divisions among the opposition.  Recent findings that rebel war crimes are committed predominantly by Jihadist fighters from 20 countries could prove an obstacle to talks.

Late October (undated), Rome: Silvio Berlusconi is expected to be expelled from parliament after being convicted of tax fraud. The 76-year-old billionaire media tycoon, who has served as prime minster four times, has declared he will remain at the centre of Italian politics.
/ENDS