Diary

ANKARA (AA) – Here are the main topics Anadolu Agency’s English Desk plans to cover on Friday, September 20, 2019 (coverage may change depending on developing/breaking stories):

TURKEY

ISTANBUL - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to attend Second International Congress of Social Sciences at Istanbul University.

ANKARA - Vice President Fuat Oktay and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Prime Minister Ersin Tatar to attend "Cyprus Last Word" panel at Turkish Bar Association.

ANKARA - Turkish Statistical Institute to release Consumer Confidence Index for September.

ANKARA - Central Bank of Turkey to announce International Investment Position data for July.

ANKARA - Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey to reveal established and liquidated companies figures for August.

ANKARA - Treasury and Finance Ministry to release central government debt stock statistics for August.

US

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump to hold joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at White House.

NEW YORK - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ahead of next week's UN General Assembly.

BELGIUM

BRUSSELS - UK Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay to meet with chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

UK

LONDON - Prime Minister Boris Johnson to host Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

FRANCE

PARIS - President Emmanuel Macron to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

RUSSIA

ORENBURG - President Vladimir Putin, Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov to attend Centre 2019 strategic military drill.

MOSCOW - Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to hold news conference.

SYRIA

ALEPPO / IDLIB - Monitoring developments in Syrian civil war.

KENYA

NAIROBI - Climate change protest to be held in capital.

WORLDWIDE - Global general strike and protests -- including school walkouts -- calling for immediate action against climate crisis.

SPECIAL REPORT

Skardu: Mountaineers' paradise in Pakistan

By Mehmet Ozturk and Islamuddin Sajid

SKARDU, Pakistan (AA) - Skardu, a scenic valley with blue water and high mountains, is located at an elevation of over 7,300 feet (2,225 meters) in Pakistan's northern Gilgit-Baltistan region.

SPECIAL REPORT

India: Making Hindi national tongue rankles opposition

By Iftikhar Gilani

ANKARA (AA) – Pushing for a common national tongue in India -- home to more than 19,500 languages, including 22 recognized in the Constitution -- has been a contentious issue since the nation declared independence over 70 years ago.

SPECIAL REPORT

Universal Postal Union meeting to revise int'l rates

By Gokhan Ergocun and Arife Yildiz Unal

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Universal Postal Union (UPU) will gather on Tuesday for a third extraordinary congress in Switzerland to revise calculating methods of remuneration rates for the delivery of inbound international letters and small packages.

SPECIAL REPORT

Global protests to sound alarm on climate crisis

By Burak Bir

ISTANBUL (AA) - Millions of people around the world on Friday will leave their offices and schools and take to the streets to sound the alarm on the globe's dire climate crisis.