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Thu, 30 Sep 2010
The United States Department of Energy plans to have the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada closed down by Sep 30. Some 90 miles from Las Vegas, the site is designed to store the growing stockpile of nuclear waste from reactors around the nation. Washington and several other states are suing to keep it open, but their court appeal won't be on time. Due to begin on 23 Sep, the hearing has been put on hold.
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Thu, 23 Sep 2010
The European Union describes the gathering of European Union defense ministers in Ghent as one of the most important events in the Belgian Presidency of the European Union. HRH Prince Philippe of Belgium will open the meeting. It is intended to showcase EU defense capability, Belgium's own defense forces and defense industry, and to show off East Flanders. The ministers have to wrestle with the implications of huge anticipated defense budget cuts in many EU states.
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Mon, 20 Sep 2010
Yukiya Amano, who succeeded Mohamad ElBaradei as director-general on Dec 1, will preside over the 2010 conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The veteran Japanese diplomat, who held senior arms control posts in Japan and was Tokyo's IAEA representative, listed goals when he took office that do not include pressuring Tehran to make a deal or mention sanctions against Iran. The omission suggests he might try to steer the debate away from Iran to other pressing issues.
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Mon, 20 Sep 2010
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hosts the United Nations High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals, also referred to as the MDG summit, with the aim of accelerating progress towards all the MDGs by 2015. Pakistan's worst-ever floods will be discussed, either as part of the summit or a separate meeting on the sidelines.
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Sun, 19 Sep 2010
Sweden's Riksdag election on 19 Sep pits the ruling center-right Alliance for Sweden coalition against the four-party center-left opposition led by the Social Democrats. The ruling party's platform centers on trimming taxes and social services and privatizing more state assets. The opposition Social Democrats sees a roll back on certain tax cuts as a way to finance more spending on services. An opposition win could give Europe another female head of government and Sweden its first.
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Sat, 18 Sep 2010
Chile marked the centenary of its independence drive in 1910 by inaugurating many public buildings. The bicentennial celebrations in 2010 are likely to see more of the same--plus cultural events that emphasize the country's rejection of military dictatorships. Coins and stamps, probably depicting Bernardo O'Higgins, can be anticipated. The bicentenary is likely to be a flashpoint for the Mapuche, as as 200 years of post-colonial government has not restored their ancestral lands.
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Sat, 18 Sep 2010
The 200th anniversary of the world's biggest public festival can be counted on to draw many more visitors than the usual 6 million or so and raise the level of terror threats. The first will please Bavaria's brewers. The second poses security worries for the authorities. Police received terror threats in 2009 ahead of the country's election. Landmarks that included the Oktoberfest appeared on a Taliban video. Police cancelled flights over the festival as a precaution.
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Sat, 18 Sep 2010
Black September, Jordanian King Hussein's war on the Palestine Liberation Organization, happened 40 years ago. It still reverberates. Tempers are raw after the deadly Israeli raid in May on a flotilla delivering aid to besieged Gaza Strip Palestinians. And September also sees the 10th anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Intifada and other events that haven't been forgiven. In a region committed to vengeance, the 40th anniversary represents another prompt for retaliation and counter retaliation.
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Thu, 16 Sep 2010
In 2010 Mexico celebrates the bicentenary of the start of its independence movement from Spain in September and the centenary of the start of the Mexican Revolution in November. The entire country celebrates on 16 Sep, and a re-enactment of the call for an uprising is likely to takes place in city halls throughout the country. The country's turnaround from a 6.5 per cent contraction of the economy in 2009 to expected growth in 2010 of 4-5 per cent gives Mexicans something else to celebrate.
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Thu, 16 Sep 2010
Pope Benedict XVI will visit England in September. In addition to meeting with Church and politial figures, he is expected to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman on Sep 19, deliver an address at Oxford University and another at Westminster Hall, where Saint Thomas More was tried and convicted before his beheading in 1535. The visit comes amid tensions with Britain's Anglican church.
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Wed, 15 Sep 2010
The World Trade Organization, the 153-nation body that deals with the rules of trade between nations, holds a public relations exercise at a time when it needs to explain itself. The Doha Round of negotiations, aimed at fostering global trade, is on indefinite hold after 15 years, and the WTO has irked most of Europe by ruling in favor of United States aerospace company Boeing over its European rival. The event starts with a Public Forum 15-17 Sep, followed by the Open House on Sep 18.
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Tue, 14 Sep 2010
The 65th Ordinary Session of the United Nations, over which Swiss politician Joseph Deiss, will preside, opens Sep 14 with a prayer. General debate runs Sep 23-25 and Sep 27-30. Sustained economic growth and sustainable development top the preliminary agenda for the debate. A review of UN peacekeeping operations and of UN efficiency are also listed for debate. Other expected topics are Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment and Israel's May 31 raid on Gaza-bound aid boats.
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Sun, 12 Sep 2010
Turkey goes to the polls on the 30th anniversary of its military coup to decide on amendments to its 1982 constitution. Drafted following the coup, it has been criticized as restricting fundamental rights and freedoms. Parliament passed a package of reforms in May that were presented as strengthening Turkey's European Union membership bid, but the secular Constitutional Court annulled changes that would have curbed the power of the judiciary and the army.
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Sun, 12 Sep 2010
The army seized power on 12 Sep 1980 at a point when Turkey appeared on the verge of civil war after years of clashes between left and right wing political groups. During military rule, which ended in 1983, as many as 650,000 people were detained, 230,000 tried, 50 executed and 14,000 stripped of citizenship. A bid for constitutional changes to end the immunity of the coup leaders, proposed in 2009, appears to have been scuttled.
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Fri, 10 Sep 2010
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries turns 50 on 14 Sep 2010. OPEC was established at the Baghdad Conference on 10-14 Sep 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, then formally constituted in Jan 2011. OPEC is battered by the global recession and now has oil-producing rivals, but it has suffered and overcome other bad times. The year could be a time for large gestures to restore its fortunes and clout. There is again talk of dropping the US dollar for oil trades.
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Fri, 10 Sep 2010
The foreign ministers of the European Union meet informally on Sep 10-11 to prepare for their formal foreign affairs/general affairs meeting on Sep 13-14. In her new role as EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton will preside. With the most taxing of the Lisbon Treaty decisions behind them, ministers can return to issues such as enlargement of the bloc. Serbia could get an invitation to join the European Union because it recently lost a case in the International Court of Justice.
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Thu, 09 Sep 2010
The 35th Toronto International Film Festival, the event regarded as the starting gun for the Oscars race six months later, will be held in new, swanky permanent headquarters. The TIFF Bell Lightbox, in downtown Toronto, will have five cinemas, 1300 cinema seats, two galleries, three studios, a three-storey public atrium, a center for film students and scholars, staff offices and a restaurant, and a lounge. At previous festivals, the films were screened at theatres spread over the downtown.
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Mon, 06 Sep 2010
North Korean newspapers say a conference of key delegates of the ruling party will be held in September, only the third such meeting since the founding of the nation in 1948. They are believed to be meeting to choose and name a successor to ailing leader Kim Jong-il, who is thought to have suffered a stroke in 2008. He has not named one of his three sons to succeed him, raising the possibility of a power struggle at his death or even the end of the dynasty.
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Mon, 06 Sep 2010
The main business of the 33 foreign ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is fine-tuning the agenda for the Jul 2011 summit of the bloc, when it will be inaugurated formally. The goals of CELAC, which groups all the countries of the Americas except the United States and Canada, are to tighten trade and institutional cooperation in the region in line with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's so-called "Plan Caracas."
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Wed, 01 Sep 2010
Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland 25 years ago on Sep 1. The supposedly unsinkable ocean liner had gone down with massive loss of life in 1912. The date promises video replays of the discovery and media about Ballard and his other celebrated finds. Sep 1 is one of a trio of anniversaries related to the sinking of the Titanic almost 100 years ago that promise to boost interest in Titanic memorabilia -and prices - as the date approaches.
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