This week's look ahead

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Kabul, Afghanistan - NATO peacekeeping mission is expected to take over from US troops in southern Afghanistan.

Dhaka, Bangladesh - Indian and Pakistani officials are expected meet on the sidelines of a South Asian conference. India had put off peace talks following this month's Mumbai (Bombay) bomb blasts.

Johannesburg - Former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma faces a high court corruption trial.

Brussels - EU foreign ministers to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis in Lebanon.

Brussels - Microsoft faces an increased fine of up to €3 million a day if it continues not to comply with a 2004 antitrust ruling. The EU alleges that the company did not disclose and document Windows Server technology to rival companies. The EU already fined Microsoft €280.5 million on July 12 for defying the antitrust ruling.

Wednesday, Aug. 2:

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan visits to observe operations of the two-year-old UN peacekeeping mission.

Sunday, Aug. 6:

La Paz, Bolivia - Newly elected delegate assembly begins work on rewriting Bolivia's constitution.

Hiroshima, Japan - The US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima 61 years ago today, killing or wounding about 160,000 people.

Edinburgh, Scotland - Edinburgh Fringe Arts Festival starts (runs to Aug. 28).

- Reuters, The Associated Press

		CULTURAL IMPORT: Officials in Beijing and Tokyo may be at loggerheads, but Hong Kong teenagers are embracing Japanese anime characters, and dressing up like them. VINCENT YU/AP More cultural snapshots

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