Our editors will be looking ahead today to these developing stories ...
Make-or-break moment looms for Mars mission
Nasa's Curiosity rover, the most advanced robot yet sent to another world, is expected to land on Mars on Monday (as depicted in this artist's impression). The key objective of the two-year mission is to determine whether microbial life ever existed on the Red Planet. The previous existence of life on the planet could be proven by the discovery of indicators of water, sources of energy or sources of carbon. The rover, launched by the Mars Science Laboratory from Florida's Cape Canaveral on November 26, will land in Gale Crater, which scientists believe held water billions of years ago.
Vietnam holds its first gay pride parade
Vietnam's first gay pride parade takes place tomorrow in Hanoi. The country is socially conservative, but the government restricts the kind of politicised religious movements that push back against same-sex marriage in other countries. Gay pride events also seem to pose little threat to the Communist Party. The Justice Ministry has also proposed including same-sex couples in its overhaul of marriage law, which could make it the first country in Asia to allow same-sex couples to marry or legally register and receive rights.
UN human rights envoy tours Myanmar
Following this week's visit to Myanmar by the World Bank's vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific, Pamela Cox, United Nations human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana holds a news conference in Yangon today on his latest mission to the country. News agencies report that the UN special rapporteur on human rights will meet a range of government officials, lawmakers, judicial officials and presidential advisers. Quintana's next report to the General Assembly is due to be submitted in October. Cox announced on Wednesday that the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank had reopened their offices in Yangon.