A weekly round up of world events from Monday, 10 to Sunday, 16 October from ForesightNews
By Nicole Hunt
The two men charged with the April 2010 murder of South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terre’Blanche go on trial in Ventersdorp on Monday. Chris Mahlangu and an unnamed teenager are accused of killing the leader of the Afrikaner Weerstasbeweging (AWB) party over a wage dispute.
EU Foreign Ministers meet in Luxembourg, with Syria expected to be on the agenda after a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria was vetoed by Russia and China last week and Syrian opposition members officially formed a National Council.
Liberians go to the polls on Tuesday to elect their president for the next six years. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who became Africa’s first female leader when she was elected in 2005, is hoping to win a second term.
A verdict is expected in the corruption trial for Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko in Kiev, who is accused of ‘misspending’ some $280m during her time as Prime Minister.
In New York City, alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout’s trial for selling weapons to Colombian rebel group FARC gets underway.
The European Commission presents its 2011 enlargement package in Brussels on Wednesday, which includes a formal favourable opinion on Croatia’s accession and a much-awaited opinion on Serbian accession following the arrest earlier this year of alleged war criminals Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.
The European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan hold the first of three unlimited US dollar auctions, which were announced last month and are designed to flood the financial market with dollars to support banks through the EU debt crisis. Two more auctions are planned for 9 November and 7 December.
On Thursday, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara pays his first visit to the country’s troubled western region since taking power in May following months of post-election violence and a power struggle with former President Laurent Gbagbo. Violence has continued in the west, where suspected Gbagbo loyalists are thought to be conducting armed raids over the Liberian border.
In France, journalist Tristine Banon publishes her book Le Bal des hypocrites, detailing her accusations of attempted rape against former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors begin a two day meeting in Paris on Friday, with the EU debt crisis expected to be high on the agenda.
In Dublin, the OECD publishes its latest Economic Survey of Ireland. The last edition was published in 2009, so there should be plenty of new material given the country’s economic woes in the interim.
The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee begins its annual gathering on Saturday. The meeting is seen as a key part of the power handover that should see Xi Jinping replace Hu Jintao as President next October.
Elections are held in Oman to name the 83 members of the country’s lower house of parliament, the Majlis al Shura, a consultative assembly which was granted legislative and regulatory powers in March as the Arab Spring spread across the region. The upper house is still appointed by the monarchy.
France’s Socialist Party holds the second round of voting in its presidential primaries on Sunday, choosing the person who will go up against Nicolas Sarkozy in the 22 April presidential election. Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been a favourite to win the party’s candidacy before he was charged with sexual assault in May; despite the charges being dropped, he opted not to run.
It’s also Blog Action Day, which encourages bloggers worldwide to post about the same topic in hopes of driving collective action and sparking global discussion. This year’s theme is food, with the date chosen to coincide with World Food Day. Around 5,600 bloggers from 143 countries participated in last year’s event, which focused on water.