Diary

ANKARA

Here are the main topics Anadolu Agency’s English Desk plans to cover Tuesday Feb. 23, 2016 (coverage may change depending on developing/breaking stories):

TURKEY

ISTANBUL - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to attend security, state-building, political reconciliation forum on Somalia.

EUROPE

GERMANY

BERLIN - Wikileaks reveals U.S. spy agency NSA bugged meetings between world leaders including climate change discussions between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

FRANCE

PARIS - Prime Minister Manuel Valls to meet EU Commissioner Marianne Thyssen.​

UNITED KINGDOM

LONDON - Europe Minister David Lidington to give evidence to parliamentary committee as EU referendum campaign gets underway.

SPECIAL REPORT: Uncertainty looms days before Irish general election

By Michael Sercan Daventry

LONDON (AA) - “Stalemate” has been the word on the lips of most Irish political pundits in the last week of Ireland’s short general election campaign.

BELGIUM

BRUSSELS - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to address European parliament on alliance’s 2016 priorities.

AMERICAS

UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State John Kerry to testify at Senate committee on State Department budget.

WASHINGTON - Kerry to hold a news conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

WASHINGTON - Maj. Gen. Richard Clarke, commander of coalition forces in Iraq, to brief media from Baghdad.

WASHINGTON - Republican Party caucus​ in Nevada.

NEW YORK - Turkey's Development Minister Cevdet Yilmaz to meet UN Development Program chief Helen Clark.

PERU

LIMA - French President Francois Hollande on state visit.

SOUTH ASIA

AFGHANISTAN

SPECIAL REPORT: Afghans hope for brighter future as Pashto enters digital age​

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL (AA) - Afghans across the globe are pleased to see the inclusion of Pashto - their mother tongue - in Google’s popular online translation service, Google Translate.​

MIDDLE EAST-NORTH AFRICA

PALESTINE

SPECIAL REPORT: Gaza dairy industry defies Israeli wars, decade-long siege

By Hedaya al-Saidi

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Mamoun Dalloul is busy rebuilding his dairy factory, which was destroyed for a third time during the most recent Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip.

SOUTHEAST ASIA-PACIFIC

THAILAND

BANGKOK - Junta rejects offer of talks from deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, saying he must first surrender to police.

MYANMAR

YANGON - Government prohibits tourists from climbing monuments that offer views over Bagan, capital of 11th-13th century kingdom.

INDONESIA

JAKARTA - Verdict due in case of alleged Daesh sympathizer accused of sending Indonesians to fight in Syria.