The AFP news calendar

Monday, February 11 to Sunday, March 10

Monday, February 11

BANGKOK: Thailand, US to hold annual military drills with Myanmar observing for the first time (to 21)

BRUSSELS: Eurozone finance ministers meet

CAIRO: Egypt marks two years since president Hosni Mubarak's ouster following a street uprising

GEORGETOWN, Malaysia: South Korean rapper Psy to perform his "Gangnam Style" at the ruling coalition's Chinese New Year party ahead of polls

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court resumes hearing the case of seven terror suspects held without trial since 2007 and another investigating the death of an official probing a corruption case involving the prime minister

MILAN: Hearing in former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's trial for paying for sex with an underage prostitute

US NAVAL BASE AT GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba: New preliminary hearings before a military commission of the alleged 9/11 plotters, including confessed September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. (to 15)

VATICAN CITY: Vatican holds consistory in which the pope is due to announce the canonisations of Christians killed by Ottoman invaders in southern Italy, as well as of a Colombian nun and a Mexican nun

Tuesday, February 12

BRUSSELS: EU finance ministers meet

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court resumes hearing a contempt case against the chairman of an anti-corruption watchdog

MOSCOW: US State Department Assistant Secretary for Arms Control visits for talks on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (until 15)

JERUSALEM: Fifth anniversary of assassination of former Hezbollah leader Imad Mugniyah which the Shiite militant organisation blames on Israel

MANILA: Start of the campaign period for national candidates in May elections

MANILA: Manila Bay human chain protest against a reclamation project

PARIS: Deliberations in trial of Zoe's Ark charity workers convicted of child kidnapping

TEL AVIV, Israel: Israeli court rules on challenge to legality of West Bank separation barrier

VIENNA: OPEC releases monthly report

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama gives state of the nation address to Congress

Wednesday, February 13

ACCRA: Fresh extradition hearing against Justin Kone Katinan, who served as spokesman to Ivory Coast's then president Laurent Gbagbo: Ivory Coast wants to try him for murder and economic crimes

ATHENS: Greece, Italy and Albania to pledge participation in the Transadriatic gas pipeline project in a ceremony

BUCHAREST: Hearing in the trial of Romanian diplomat charged with manslaughter in Singapore hit-and-run accident

PANAMA: 54th general assembly of governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (to 17)

ROME: The UN rural agency International Fund for Agricultural Development elects a new head

STRASBOURG: European Court of Human Rights hold hearing over Polish complaint about inadequacy of Russian investigation into the 1940 Katyn massacre of Polish officers by Soviet forces

TEHRAN: Resumption of talks between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the controversial Iranian nuclear programme

Thursday, February 14

BOSTON, Massachusetts: Annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (to 18)

CAPE TOWN: South African President Jacob Zuma delivers the state of the nation address to parliament

MANAMA: Second anniversary of the Shiite-led uprising in Bahrain, where protesters have been calling for a constitutional monarchy in the kingdom ruled by the Sunni minority

SINGAPORE: Verdict due in the sex-for-favours case against the former head of Singapore's narcotics police

VIENNA: UN anti-drugs body UNODC holds conference on sale of counterfeit medicine

Friday, February 15

ALLAHABAD, India: Twenty million people expected to bathe in the Ganges on the main day of India's Kumbh Mela, the world's biggest religious festival

FRANKFURT: Opening of a Yoko Ono retrospective at the Schirn Kunsthalle museum to mark her 80th birthday

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's top court resumes hearing on a petition over the law and order situation in the restive southwestern province of Baluchistan

KHARTOUM: African Union deadline for Khartoum to conduct direct talks with rebels fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile

LONDON: Fashion Week (to 19)

MOSCOW: Meeting of G20 finance minsters and bank governors (and 16)

THE HAGUE: Judges announce the winners of the prestigious 56th World Press Photo Awards

Saturday, February 16

BERLIN: Winners of the Berlin Film Festival announced

LISBON: Protests planned in major cities over austerity measures

RIYADH: Two-day international conference on combating terrorism

Sunday, February 17

ABU DHABI: Opening of the International Defence Exhibition & Conference (IDEX) (to 21)

ALGIERS: Trial of 14 people, including a Frenchman, suspected of child trafficking

GAPYEONG, South Korea: The Unification Church holds a mass wedding for 3,500 couples

GENEVA: International Committee of the Red Cross marks 150th anniversary of founding

JERUSALEM: Corruption trial of former Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman

PRISTINA: Kosovo celebrates the fifth anniversary of its declaration of independence from Serbia

QUITO: Ecuador presidential election

Monday, February 18

ABUJA: Nigeria oil and gas industry conference (to 21)

BRUSSELS: Court to consider child killer Marc Dutroux's request for early release

BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers meet

- EU industry ministers meet (and 19)

GENEVA: UN Council for Human Rights considers controversial report on Israeli settlements on Palestinian land

ISTANBUL: Hearing in trial for world-renowned pianist Fazil Say, who has been charged of insulting Islam and offending Muslims

LECH, Austria: Photo call with the Dutch royal family on their annual ski holiday, a year after Queen Beatrix's son Prince Friso was caught in an avalanche that has left him in a coma

PAZARDJIK, Bulgaria: Trial resumes of 13 Muslims, most of them imams, accused of propagating radical ideas

YEREVAN: Armenians vote in presidential election with President Serzh Sarkisian expected to retain power

Tuesday, February 19

GENEVA: The Fifth Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy starts in the run-up to the next UN Human Rights Council session which opens on February 25

THE HAGUE: Confirmation of charges hearing at the International Criminal Court for former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, suspected of crimes against humanity committed during the bloody 2010-11 post-election crisis.

Wednesday, February 20

ATHENS: Unions call a general strike against a new austerity round imposed by the government to maintain access to EU-IMF loans

MADRID: Spanish parliament debates state of the nation, with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy present

MALABO: Third African-South America summit, with heads of state meeting on 22.

Thursday, February 21

ISTANBUL: Trial in absentia continues of four Israeli ex-military chiefs over a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish ship

Friday February 22

BRUSSELS: EU energy ministers meet

DJIBOUTI: Parliamentary elections

HEBRON, Palestinian territories: Fourth international campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Hebron (to 25)

PARIS: France holds its top annual cinema awards, the Cesars

STOCKHOLM: French Interior Minister Manuel Valls visits

Saturday, February 23

BINDURA, Zimbabwe: Celebrations for President Robert Mugabe's 89th birthday two days earlier

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain: King Juan Carlos' son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin to appear in court for questioning in corruption probe

PARIS: France's annual international agricultural fair (to March 3)

OUAGADOUGOU: FESPACO, Africa's biggest cinema festival (to March 2)

Sunday, February 24

LOS ANGELES: Oscars award ceremony

ROME: Italy holds general elections (and 25)

SOFIA: Bulgarian Orthodox Church names new patriarch

Monday, February 25

ABU DHABI: Verdict in the appeal trial of 10 pirates jailed for life after they were convicted of hijacking a ship east of Oman in the Arabian Sea in 2011

ANKARA: German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Turkey for talks over Turkish-European Union relations

BARCELONA: Opening of Mobile World Congress, the top mobile telecom trade fair (to 28)

BRUSSELS: EU agriculture ministers meet (and 26)

DOHA: Verdict in the appeal trial of poet Mohammed al-Ajami, who was jailed for life after he was accused of incitement against the Qatari regime through his writing

GENEVA: 22nd session of the Human Rights Council

LONDON: British interior minister Theresa May appeals against the decision to allow radical Abu Qatada, who is wanted by Jordan on terror charges, to stay in Britain.

MANILA: 27th anniversary of dictator Ferdinand Marcos's downfall

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana: Civil trial begins against oil giant BP, accused of negligence over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

SEOUL: Park Geun-Hye to be inaugurated as South Korea's first female president

SINGAPORE: Government unveils national budget

Tuesday, February 26

ALMATY: Iran and the P5+1 -- the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- meet for the first time since last June to discuss Tehran's disputed nuclear programme

PARIS: Paris Pret-a-Porter Fashion Week (to March 6)

OSLO: Myanmar President Thein Sein visits Norway

Wednesday, February 27

CAPE TOWN: South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan presents national budget to parliament

HONG KONG: Finance Minister John Tsang delivers annual budget speech

LISBON: The troika of international lenders -- IMF, EU, ECB -- starts seventh evaluation of reforms introduced exchange for a 2011 bailout

Thursday, February 28

JOHANNESBURG: A South African court starts hearing arguments in the sentencing of Nigerian Henry Okah, convicted of deadly bombings in Nigeria's oil-producing region (to March 4)

NEW DELHI: Government to present federal budget

VIENNA: Film release of "3096", chronicling Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch's eight-year cellar ordeal, with British actress Antonia Campbell-Hughes in the title role

Friday, March 1

BRUSSELS: EU releases latest unemployment figures

Saturday, March 2

LISBON: Demonstration against government austerity measures

BUDAPEST: Prime Minister Viktor Orban expected to name the new central bank chief

Sunday, March 3

BANGKOK: International meeting on efforts to tackle trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora. (To 14)

BANGKOK: Bangkok gubernatorial election

VIENNA: Regional elections in Lower Austria and Carinthia

Monday, March 4

BRUSSELS: Eurozone finance ministers meet

MILAN: Hearing in Rubygate trial of Silvio Berlusconi

NAIROBI: Presidential, legislative and local elections

OSLO: The Norwegian Nobel Committee reveals the number of nominees for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, to be announced in October.

VIENNA: The International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors meets. (To 8)

Tuesday, March 5

ANKARA: Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visits

BRUSSELS: EU finance ministers meet

BEIJING: Start of annual session of the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, which is expected to see Xi Jinping take over as president and Li Keqiang as premier, cementing a generational change in power

Wednesday, March 6

WARSAW: French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, join summit of Visegrad nations (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia

Thursday, March 7

BRUSSELS: EU interior ministers meet

LONDON: Meeting of the international "Friends of Yemen" group to discuss the security situation there.

Friday, March 8

BRUSSELS: EU justice ministers meet

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications director Andy Coulson and a former top aide of Rupert Murdoch, who are charged with making illegal payments to public officials, appear in court for a preliminary hearing.

WASHINGTON: US releases unemployment figures for February

Friday, March 10

FALKLAND ISLANDS: Residents of the Falkland Islands vote in a referendum on whether they want the archipelago to remain a British overseas territory. Argentina lays claims to the islands. (To 11)

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