?Thursday, Feb. 27:
BRUSSELS — DAY 2 of NATO defence ministers’ meeting, with focus on Afghanistan and Ukraine. News conference by alliance secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen scheduled at 1240 GMT.
MANILA — U.N. Humanitarian Chief Valerie Amos to hold a press conference on her latest visit to areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan three months ago to assess relief work and plans for rehabilitation and reconstruction.
LONDON — Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the Houses of Parliament, has lunch at Downing Street and tea with the queen as part of Prime Minister David Cameron’s charm offensive to persuade the German leader to back EU treaty changes favouring Britain.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide are rallying in the Haitian capital to mark the 10-year anniversary of the leader’s ouster and call for his return.
TUCSON — Fernando Gonzalez (aka Ruben Campa), one of the so-called Cuban Five intelligence agents convicted on spy charges in the United States, is scheduled to be released from prison at the Federal Correctional Institution in Safford, Arizona.
WASHINGTON — Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting. Through Friday.
WASHINGTON — Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on international abductions of children by a parent.
BESANCON, France — They once hunted from the Mideast to India, but fewer than 400 Asian lions are believed to exist in the wild. The birth of three cubs in a French zoo raises hope that a program to breed in captivity could help save the species.
VINA DEL MAR — Believed to be one of the largest musical events in Latin America, the annual 5-day Vina del Mar festival was first inaugurated in 1960.
HAVANA — Competition between cigar smokers to see who can create the longest unbroken ash.
LONDON — One of only two surviving draft scripts for “Citizen Kane” belonging to Orson Welles is going up for sale, as part of an eclectic trove from an eccentric American collector. Other items include 100 million-year-old dinosaur eggs, Winston Churchill’s armchair and Al Capone’s cocktail shaker. 1300 GMT.
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen testifies about the economy and monetary policy before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
WASHINGTON — Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on recycling electronics.
BERLIN — Germany’s Federal Labor Agency releases February unemployment figures for Europe’s biggest economy.
FRANKFURT, Germany — Insurer Allianz SE reports fourth-quarter and full-year earnings figures.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Legislators are expected to approve a bill that would authorize the U.S. territory to sell up to $3.5 billion in bonds amid recent downgrades to the island’s credit rating. 2200 GMT.
LONDON — Royal Bank of Scotland outlines its new strategic vision that will streamline the taxpayer owned bank and set the stage for a dramatic pullback from international business, particularly those in the United States. As many as 30,000 jobs could go, though Thursday’s earnings are unlikely to offer definite numbers. 0830 GMT.
MADRID — Telecommunications company Telefonica presents Q4 results. Ciaran Giles. 0730 GMT.
SYDNEY — Qantas releases interim earnings results, tipped to announce thousands of jobs will be cut.
WASHINGTON — Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims, 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT); Commerce Department releases durable goods for January, 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT); Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, releases weekly mortgage rates, 10 a.m. (1500 GMT).
NEW YORK — Sears Holdings Corp. reports quarterly financial results.
NEW YORK — Best Buy Co. reports quarterly financial results.
NEW YORK — Gap Inc. reports quarterly financial results.
?Friday, Feb. 28:
LONDON — The National Archives released previously secret MI5 documents dealing with vital national security issues. Details not yet available but many are expected to show close relationship with U.S. intelligence and to deal with matters important to both countries.
HONG KONG — Verdict expected in money laundering trial of Birmingham City football club owner Carson Yeung.
TORQUAY, England — The Euroskeptic party currently benefiting from Britons’ political disillusionment holds its spring conference.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is expected to speak at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting.
VATICAN CITY — First anniversary of the historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
TOKYO — Japan economic data for January released.
FRANKFURT, Germany — Drug and chemical company Bayer AG reports fourth-quarter and full-year earnings figures.
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s statistical office releases new monthly data on unemployment rates across the bloc and the latest inflation figures for the 18-nation eurozone. 1000 GMT.
WASHINGTON — Commerce Department releases fourth-quarter gross domestic product, 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT); National Association of Realtors releases pending home sales index for January, 10 a.m. (1500 GMT).
?Sunday, March 1:
HAVANA — Cigar week dinner gala with celebrity guests including crooner Tom Jones. Several fancy and even gaudy humidors will be auctioned off for sums reaching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
SYDNEY — Annual gay and lesbian Mardi Gras parade.
PARTAY, Brazil — Costumes are the name of the game at most of Rio de Janeiro’s nearly 500 raucous Carnival street parties, with revelers dressed up as everything from devils to firefighters to sexy angels. But at the Bloco da Lama, a Carnival street celebration in the town of coastal resort town Paraty, there’s only one acceptable disguise: swamp monster. Founded 23 years ago by two local crab hunters who took part in Carnival celebrations wearing a thick covering of mud, the street party now attracts mud-covered participants from as far away as France and China. 1900 GMT.
JAKARTA — Indonesia hosts the second Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development (CEAPAD) in the capital, Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to open the meeting initiated by Japan to back the realization of peace through the “two-state solution”.
?Monday, March 2:
DHARAMSALA — Exile Tibetans celebrate New Year.
RIO DE JANEIRO — They don’t have the glitter and glitz of the scantily clad and often famous Carnival queens leading the official samba group parades that start Sunday night, but the massive drum corps that pound out frenetic rhythms are the heart and soul of the spectacle. Mostly comprised of young men from the slums, we’ll hear from the percussionists themselves and also experts on the spectacle about just what makes the rhythm section so important.
HONG KONG — Airline Cathay Pacific reports 2013 earnings.
?Tuesday, March 3:
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C.
GENEVA — The U.N.’s top human rights body opens a monthlong session expected to be dominated by reports of abuses in Syria’s civil war, stunted progress toward reconciliation in Sri Lanka, violence in Central African Republic and upheaval ranging from Egypt to South Sudan to Ukraine.
?Wednesday, March 4:
PANAJI, India — A court holds a bail hearing in the case of Tehelka editor Arun Tejpal, charged with sexually assaulting a female colleague in the elevator of a five-star resort hotel in Goa.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Spot coverage of Carnival street parties.
GENEVA — European automakers unveil the latest models at the Geneva Motor Show that opens to media on Tuesday, reflecting trends that in recent years have catered to cost-conscious buyers and reflected environmental concerns, the economic downturn and European austerity measures.
