WORLD AGENDA DECEMBER 2014

December 1-12, Lima: An upbeat tone is expected at UN environment talks after nearly $10bn in pledges to the Green Climate Fund to help poorer countries address the effects of climate change. The meeting is an important step towards a new agreement, due to be signed in December 2015.

December 4, Cape Canaveral: NASA is to launch its next-generation Orion spacecraft on an unmanned test flight. The capsule is designed to carry astronauts deeper into space than ever before, to an asteroid or even to Mars.

December 7-9, United States: Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate visit New York for the first time to see the September 11 memorial. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as the couple are officially known, are expecting their second child in April.

December 8-9, Monaco: The International Olympic Committee votes on the most significant changes to the Games in decades. Making the bidding process easier and including new sports more quickly will, it is hoped, make the Olympics more attractive to fans and sponsors.

December 9, London: One of English literature's best-loved images, from AA Milne's The House at Pooh Corner, is expected to fetch up to £150,000 at auction. The EH Shepard illustration is of Winnie the Pooh playing Poohsticks with Piglet and Christopher Robin.

December 9-10, Doha: The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council is due to hold its annual summit amid tensions over host country Qatar's support for Islamists. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain say Qatar's position undermines their domestic security.

December 14, Tokyo: Japan goes to the polls after prime minister Shinzo Abe called a snap election following figures showing the nation had slipped back into recession. He also delayed the introduction of an unpopular tax rise.

December 10-20, Rabat and Marrakesh: Morocco, which declined to host the African Nations Cup in January because of fears over Ebola, hosts the Club World Cup. The tournament, which also took place in Morocco last year, features the champion clubs of each continent.

December 11, New York: Joan Fontaine's 1941 best actress Oscar statuette is expected to fetch up to $300,000 at auction in a rare sale of Hollywood's top prize. Fontaine won the honour for her role opposite Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion".

December 17-18, Mutare: Zimbabwe's 90-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, is expected to retain his post as party leader at Zanu-PF's congress, despite moves by his deputy Joice Mujuru to replace him. Mugabe has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.

December 22, Managua: Construction is due to begin on Nicaragua's $50 billion inter-oceanic canal amid increasing concerns over the environmental impact of the 278km waterway – wider, deeper and 3.5 times the length of the Panama Canal.

Mid-December (undated), Monrovia: U.S. military troops sent to build Ebola treatment centres in Liberia are due to peak at 3,000. They are expected to have completed 17 units as well as mobile testing labs by the end of the year.
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iGRAPHIC EXTRAS

December 3, London: The earliest known bird's eye painting of a British garden is expected to fetch up to £600,000 at auction. The artwork, showing an Italianate garden in Wales, has been in the same family since its commission by Mutton Davies in 1665.

December 11, Paris: The French Senate holds a symbolic parliamentary vote on recognising Palestine as a state, a move likely to anger Israel. Sweden and Britain recently agreed to recognition and similar moves are proposed in Spain and Ireland.

December 19-20, Cairo: A deal creating a 27-nation free-trade zone in Africa is due to be signed, uniting 58% of the continent's economic activity. The initiative will allow foreign investors to reach 260 million consumers more easily.

December 31, Kabul: The United States cuts its troop numbers in Afghanistan to 9,800 on the date Nato's combat mission had been due to end. Their task expands beyond training to allow the targeting of Taliban fighters.

December (undated), UK: Filming begins on the 24th James Bond movie on location in Mexico, Morocco, Austria, Italy and London. Double Oscar winner Christoph Waltz stars opposite Daniel Craig, who is making his fourth appearance as Bond.

December (undated), United States: Mass murderer Charles Manson, aged 80, is expected to marry 26-year-old Afton Burton in Corcoran prison, California, this month. The couple were granted a licence, which lasts 90 days, on November 7.

December (undated), United Nations: Lack of funds could force a break in World Food Programme supplies to refugees as winter starts, the UNHCR has warned. About 13.6 million people have been displaced by conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

December (undated), Tashkent: Millions of children and adults were forced to work in Uzbekistan's cotton fields this year, according to a report by the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights. The work resulted in 17 deaths, harassment and extortion.
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