WORLD AGENDA OCTOBER 2014

October 1, Hong Kong: Pro-democracy group Occupy Central is planning to
lock down the city’s financial district after Beijing’s decision to vet candidates for the city’s next leader. The election in 2017 will be the first in which the Hong Kong chief executive is directly chosen by voters.

October 4, Mecca: Health officials in Saudi Arabia say they are doing all they can to avoid spreading the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) coronavirus at the annual Hajj pilgrimage. The virus has killed 302 people in Saudi Arabia since it first emerged in 2012.

October 5, Brasilia: Brazil’s presidential election is expected to go to a run-off on October 27 between leftist incumbent Dilma Rousseff and popular environmentalist Marina Silva, who surged in the polls after joining the race on the death of her party’s original candidate in August.

October 5, Sofia: Bulgaria's centre-right GERB party, led by former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, is tipped to win a snap general election after an inconclusive poll in May 2013. The EU's poorest state is facing its worst banking crisis since the 1990s.

October 5-19, Vatican City: Pope Francis's expressions of tolerance are put to the test when bishops from all over the world gather to discuss the family, marriage, divorce and contraception. The Argentine pontiff wants the Roman Catholic Church to be more open and inclusive.

October 8, Milan: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi hosts a meeting of EU leaders to discuss growth and jobs. The summit is expected to focus on youth employment, one of the major problems facing the EU as it tries to revive its stagnating economy.

October 11, Hawaii: More than 2,500 triathletes compete in the gruelling World Ironman Championship. The 4km open water swim, 180km bike ride and full marathon all take place in 100-degree heat and high humidity.

October 12, Cairo: Egypt hosts a conference on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, following the seven-week war with Israel. The Palestinian Authority, in its most comprehensive estimate to date, puts the cost at $7.8bn.

October 12, La Paz: President Evo Morales, who became Bolivia’s first indigenous president in 2006, is seeking a third term after winning a Supreme Court ruling allowing him to stand again under a new constitution.

October 13, Pretoria: Paralympian Oscar Pistorius faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced for the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Judge Thokozile Masipa accepted the double amputee believed he was tackling a burglar.

October 15, Maputo: Opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama contests a presidential election after two years in hiding and clashes with government forces. Fighting between Renamo guerrillas and Frelimo had raised fears of the return of civil war, which ravaged Mozambique from 1975 to 1992. 

October 26, Tunis: The Islamist Ennahda and secular Nidaa Tounes parties are frontrunners in a parliamentary election that completes Tunisia’s transition to
democracy. A new constitution in January followed the 2011 overthrow
of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the Arab Spring.

October (undated), West Africa: The pressure on wealthy nations to send medics to help contain the Ebola epidemic steps up as the death toll tops 2,400. Cuba is set to deploy 165 doctors and nurses to Sierra Leone, the largest foreign contingent so far.

October (undated), Brussels: New sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis will be lifted if a fragile truce is upheld. European Union governments stepped up travel bans and asset freezes in September but said they would be reversed in October if Moscow complied.
/ENDS