WORLD AGENDA NOVEMBER 2013

November 1, Damascus: UN deadline for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons production and mixing equipment following a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds in August. The country's 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents are to be scrapped by June 2014.

November 7-8, Geneva: Diplomats are playing down expectations of a deal when six world powers hold talks with Iran over its nuclear programme. It will be the first such meeting since relative moderate President Hassan Rouhani took office in August.

November 9, Moscow: The Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, meets President Vladimir Putin amid growing tensions between the two countries. A Dutch diplomat was beaten up in Moscow, a Russian envoy assaulted in the Netherlands and Russia is detaining two Dutch Greenpeace activists.

November 9-10, Los Angeles: X-rays and doctor's notes on Marilyn Monroe, indicating the Hollywood sex symbol had plastic surgery, are expected to fetch US$15,000-$30,000 at auction. They are dated June 7, 1962, two months before the actress died, aged 36, from a barbiturates overdose.

November 12, The Hague: Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta goes on trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, after post election violence killed 1,200 in 2007. It is the court's highest ever profile case and the first against a sitting president.

November 15-17, Colombo: Rights activists are urging Commonwealth leaders to boycott a summit in Sri Lanka because of its alleged war crimes during the civil war. Canada's Stephen Harper has said he won't attend while India's Manmohan Singh may not.

November 17, Santiago: Voters in Chile go to the polls in an election likely to see former President Michelle Bachelet return to power. Bachelet, who was president from 2006-10, is widely regarded as one of Chile's most popular politicians.

November 19-21, Kabul: A Loya Jirga, a meeting of 3,000 tribal elders and other prominent people, meets to agree the future role of U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014. Most combat troops are to be withdrawn next year.

November 22, United States: 50 years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theories surrounding his death refuse to go away.

November 22-23, Geneva: The possible date for international peace meeting on Syria, as announced by Damascus. The United States and Russia are behind efforts to convene long delayed talks to find an end to the conflict that has killed more than 100,000.

November 24, Tegucigalpa: Drug violence, which last year turned Honduras into the world's most murderous country with 85 homicides for every 100,000 people, is the central issue in presidential elections. Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, wife of former president Manuel Zelaya, leads in polls.

November (undated), Rome: The Senate votes on expelling former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi from the upper house. If carried, the 76-year-old billionaire, who faces legal cases, would lose his parliamentary immunity from arrest and be banned from public office for six years.
/ENDS