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World News Forecast Preview - 2008 |
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Fri, 06 Jun 2008
A challenge before the physicians and other medical professionals meeting for the 68th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association in San Francisco, California, is sorting out whether the conventional treatment for diabetes poses a deadly risk. Conflicting information from two recent studies has left some 20 million Americans with type 2 diabetes in limbo.
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Sun, 01 Jun 2008
Government ministers and a few leaders from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean at the Organization of American States 38th General Assembly are likely to begin by applauding the organization for averting a war. Will they reconsider Cuba and Malvinas issues?
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Sun, 01 Jun 2008
The 10th birthday of one of the world's most important central banks, the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, will be watched for announcements. The most anticipated one, particularly by France, is that a decision has been made on reform of the body responsible for monetary policy covering the Eurozone. To date, wrangling has prevented significant movement on the issue.
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Sun, 01 Jun 2008
When cetacean experts gather ahead of the annual International Whaling Commission meeting (23-27 Jun), one of their sessions will look at the future of the organization. Conservation bodies are worried the IWC is at risk of extinction.
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Sat, 31 May 2008
The United Nations has set aside May 31 each year as World No Tobacco Day. In 2008 it follows closely on the World Health Organization's first ever global report on tobacco control. The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic-2008, that says tobacco use killed 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century and could kill 1 billion people in the 21st. The date and report could increase pressure on the United States and other holdouts to ratify the WHO's new antitobacco treaty.
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Fri, 30 May 2008
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurates the country's first greenfield airport, Bangalore International Airport, in Bangalore, Karnataka, the Silicon Valley of the country and capital of its information technology sector. An employee strike caused a postponement from March to May. Social activists and organizations plan to mark the occasion with a protest march.
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Wed, 28 May 2008
Some 2500 delegates and media from the 205 member nations of the F d ration Internationale de Football Association descend on Sydney for the 58th FIFA Congress. International football's "parliament" will meet under the still controversial chairmanship of Sepp Blatter, who was elected to a third term as FIFA president in May 2007.
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Wed, 28 May 2008
Pakistan observes the 10th anniversary of its nuclear tests amid concerns in the Western world and India about the possibility that Islamic extremists, sympathetic to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, could take control of Pakistan s nuclear arsenal. The nuclear weapons concerns increased with the instability related to the country's election and the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
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Wed, 28 May 2008
The 2008 Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Yokahama, hosted jointly by the Japanese government, the Global Coalition for Africa (GCA), the United Nations and the World Bank, meets with a focus on African development and environment. TICAD is held every five years. The findings from TICAD IV will feed into the agenda of the G8 summit in Tokyo in July. Japan has chosen African development as one of two main themes for the G8 leaders to discuss.
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Wed, 28 May 2008
On his 80th birthday, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the former medical pathologist known for his antics in support of voluntary euthanasia will be on parole from prison. In a speech at Florida University in January, he indicated he is not free to say much about euthanasia because of the conditions of his parole. At the same time, he made it clear he hasn't changed his mind about "assisted suicide," insisting he didn't cause death but ended suffering.
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Sun, 25 May 2008
NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander is due to touch down on an icy plain on the Red Planet after a 423-million-mile journey. It will be the first ever landing in the arctic region of Mars. Once there, it will dig with a robotic arm into the ice and run laboratory tests to determine if the chemical environment beneath might favor microbial life. Evidence of vast amounts of underground ice were uncovered at both poles of the planet by NASA's orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft in 2002.
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Thu, 22 May 2008
When Serbia hosts the 53rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which is second only to the soccer World Cup in the size and ardor of its television audience in Europe, its winning diva of 2007 could be singing for another country. Marija Serifovic, is being lined up to represent Switzerland a year after winning the contest for her native Serbia with the song, "Molitva."
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Thu, 22 May 2008
Italy legalized abortion on 22 May 1978 and the furore hasn't died down. The confiscation of an aborted foetus by Italian police in February has rekindled the charged debate. The Radical Party is planning rallies across Italy in support of the law.
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Wed, 21 May 2008
Moscow hosts the first all-English final in the history of soccer's Champions League, and is gearing up for the arrival of some 50,000 fans from England. And it is the first time the final of football's most prestigious event -- after the FIFA World Cup -- will be played in Moscow. It is the farthest East the cup final has ever been played. The visa system could be designed to weed out England's infamous football hooligans so Russia only has its own to worry about.
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Tue, 20 May 2008
At the 2007 summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, the leaders asked ministers and officials to report back in 2008 with a summary of steps taken to promote regional economic integration. When they meet in Arequipa, trade ministers, as bidden, can be expected to look again at progress towards the body's overall goal -- free and open trade among the developed nations of the 21 country Pacific Rim forum by 2010 and by 2020 for its developing countries.
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Fri, 16 May 2008
May 16 has been chosen for "Listen! - International Day for Sharing Life Stories." The May date was chosen to honor two pioneers in the tradition - Studs Terkel in the United States and Professor Paul Thompson in England. May 16 is Terkel's 86th birthday and is also Thompson's retirement date from the Department of Sociology at Essex University. Tributes to both men will be the highlight of public storytelling events.
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Fri, 16 May 2008
The 2008 Meeting and Exhibits of the National Rifle Association in Louisville, Kentucky, falls in a nationwide election year. It's an occasion for the NRA to fine-tune its endorsements of candidates. Other business includes assessing the effectiveness of the damage control that was required after a gunman's deadly rampage at Virginia Tech in 2007 and commemorating Charlton Heston, the actor and NRA past president who died in April.
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Thu, 15 May 2008
Marches and rallies on 15 May and for about a week afterwards in the region and in some European and American cities will mark the 60th Nakba (Catastrophe) Day for Palestinians, hundreds of thousands of whom were dispossed by the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948 and the wars that followed. Some Nakba demonstrations incorporate protests against the Israeli West Bank barrier.
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Wed, 14 May 2008
The Cannes Film Festival has always been among the more glamorous events in the movie calendar, and the 61st festival promises to dish up a wide array of films seeking the holy grail of film making -- the Palme d'Or. The opener is reported to be Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Hollywood is also represented with the closer, Barry Levinson's new film, What Just Happened?
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Sun, 11 May 2008
As the debate continues and the government hangs in imbalance over the Indo-United States nuclear deal, India observes the 10th anniversary of Pokharan-II or Operation Shakthi. These refer to test explosions of five nuclear devices, three on 11 May and two on 13 May 1998, conducted by India at the Pokhran test range. They resulted in sanctions against India by a number of states, including the United States.
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