What's Happening Today - Wednesday 29 October

North Korea: 

Watching developments after Kim Jong-un, youngest son of leader Kim Jong-il, has been appointed member of ruling Workers' Party Central Committee and deputy chairman of National Defence Commission in a move widely seen as paving way to succeed his father

South Korea: 

Parliament holds hearings for Prime Minister-designate Kim Hwang-sik 

South Korea: 

UN Food and Agriculture Organization holds regional conference in Gyeongju; agricultural officials and experts from 44 Asia-Pacific member countries discuss regional food shortages (-1 Oct) 

South Korea: 

Kazakh Defence Minister Adilbek Zhaksybekov visits to weapons contracts with counterpart Kim Tae-young; also visits defence contractors and military units

South Korea:

South Korean farmers hold anti-government rally in Seoul.

Russia: 

Presidential envoy Aleksandr Khloponin reports on comprehensive strategy for restive North Caucasus at meeting of Federation Council (parliament's upper house)

Russia:

A Moscow court will sentence on a group of nationalists accused of trying to assassinate reformer Anatoly Chubais in 2005.

Kyrgyzstan:

Two-thirds of the military advisers in the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Border Guard Service will be moved from the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek to Osh, the director of the service said 

Tajikistan:

The United States has said it will get more involved in protecting the Tajik-Afghan border. US Ambassador to Tajikistan Kenneth Gross said Washington will fund a 1,200 meter bridge over the Panj River, which allows 24-hour transport communication for Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but also for an anti-terrorism center in southern Tajikistan.  In addition, the United States will increase financial aid to Tajik security agencies. A US-Tajik agreement has been signed that will provide for a Natural Guard of Tajikistan training center worth about $10 million.

Tajikistan:

Dushanbe hosts Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) ministerial meeting on energy and petroleum (- 1 Oct); member states are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan:

Uzbek gas distribution company Oztransgaz told Tojiktransgaz it will cut natural gas supplies to Tajikistan by half, beginning today, unless a $1.8 million debt is settled

Pakistan:

Watching for reaction as US Gen. David Petraeus warned senior Pakistani commanders that the United States may engage in unilateral ground operations in Pakistan's tribal regions if Islamabad fails to do more to dismantle the North Waziristan militant networks

Pakistan:

Pakistan warned NATO leaders in Brussels it will stop protecting supply lines into Afghanistan if US and NATO aircraft continue to conduct airstrikes on sovereign territory 

Pakistan:

A US drone killed four people, whose names remain unreported or unknown, in the latest extrajudicial killing of militant suspects in Zeba village, west of Wana, in South Waziristan.

Pakistan:

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari promoted Lt. Gen. Khalid Shamim Wayne to general and appointed him chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC). He will assume his new role after incumbent Gen. Tariq Majid retires in early October, just as Pervez  Musharraf is to return to Pakistan from exile in the UK.

Azerbaijan:

Appeal hearing for imprisoned journalist Eynulla Fatullayev who was sentenced to 11 years in jail for drug offences, slandering army; European Court of Human Rights ruled in April that Fatullayev should be freed 

Turkey: 

Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum (- 1 Oct); Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz, Iraqi Oil Minister Husayn al-Shahristani attend

Iraq:

US Vice President Joe Biden called on Iyyad Allawi to accelerate talks to form an "inclusive" government though his office emphasized that Washington is not supporting specific candidates.

Qatar: 

New round of Darfur peace talks between government and rebel Liberation and Justice Movement takes place in Doha

Israel: 

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell visits, meets Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Mahmud Abbas today to discuss peace talks after Israeli freeze on West Bank construction expired on 26 September; Palestinians threatened to walk out if construction resumes

Egypt: 

Joint Turkey-Egypt Naval Military Exercise Friendship Sea-2010 (- 4 Oct)

Egypt:

Egypt's parliamentary elections will be held during the last week of November, a ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) spokesman said. The NDP has scheduled a conference on strategy for mid-November. No specific date for the elections has been announced, but it is probably 29 November.

Sudan:

Sudanese authorities have announced a three-week delay in registering voters for a referendum on southern Sudanese independence. Election commission chair Mohammed Ibrahim Khalil said he hopes to meet the January 9 deadline, but voter registration may begin later than planned to allow staff members to deliver registration forms to 3,600 centers. Khalil expects the forms to be delivered to the centres by November 15.

Libya: 

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa visits to discuss upcoming extraordinary Arab summit in Sirte on 9 October

Kenya: 

International Criminal Court investigators visit to investigate post-election violence of 2008, when more than 1,500 people died; final day 

Belarus:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) objected to plans to raise public sector pay in Belarus by one-third before the country's forthcoming presidential election, saying the increases lacked economic basis and broke agreements

Poland: 

Interior ministers from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, as well as security officials from UK and USA (G6 Plus USA), begin two-day meeting in Krakow (-30) 

Kosovo:

An explosion in the northern Serb-dominated region of Kosovka Mitrovika has destroyed Kosovo's Ipko telecommunications antenna that had been on top of a residential building and is latest attack on Serbian communication systems in the country.

Norway:

A suspect in Norwegian custody confessed that he and two accomplices planned to attack Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. Norwegian authorities are interrogating 39-year-old Norwegian citizen Mikael Davud, a Chinese Uighur, and 31-year-old Norwegian resident David Jakobsen, an Uzbek. 

Norway:

Norwegian Oil and Energy Minister Terje Riis-Johansen expressed concern about electrical supplies in the winter due to some outages at Swedish nuclear reactors and low reservoir levels at hydro-power plants.  Swedish nuclear reactors have faced problems with maintenance due to a lack of recruits in the sector 

EU: 

Trade unions across Europe stage day of action against austerity measures 

Italy: 

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi expected to address Parliament and is expected to outline the priorities for the government until the end of its term.

Belgium: 

European Commission expected to reach decision on whether to launch proceedings against France following deportations of Roma migrants

France:

French government presents its 2011 budget.

Spain:

Spain's largest union expected to hold a general strike to protest against plans of the Socialist government to reform the labour market after two years of talks between unions, business and government ended without agreement.

Ireland:

Irish trade unions hold protest against govt economic and banking policies outside Anglo Irish Bank HQ.

Cuba:

Cuban labour reforms, which will eliminate 500,000 jobs in the next six months, could cause up to 80 percent of all public workers to be directly linked to production. The reshuffling of labourers to other sectors will be based on each person's "demonstrated ability" and will be carried out with the aid of advisory committees and the state labor union.

US:

House of Representatives votes on bill putting pressure on China to raise value of yuan amid trade row.  Major US trade associations warned such legislation which punishes the allegedly undervalued yuan could prompt a counterproductive trade feud, costing US jobs

Venezuela:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his government is considering a nuclear energy program for peaceful purposes. Venezuela needs an atomic energy program and will not be stopped as it conducts initial studies, Chavez stated during a news conference.

Posted via email from luay's posterous