By Nicole Hunt

Two persistently-delayed court hearings are scheduled to take place in Manama on Monday, though whether they’ll actually go ahead is never certain. 21 opposition activists, including hunger striker Abdulhadi al Khawaja, are due to hear the verdict in their appeal against life sentences for conspiring to overthrow the government. The decision was delayed from 23 April. Meanwhile, another appeal hearing is scheduled for 20 medical staff who were convicted in September of a variety of offences, including attempting to topple the monarchy and occupying the Salmaniya Hospital.

Libyan authorities have until Monday to submit information to the International Criminal Court on their case against Saif al Islam Gaddafi in a bid to convince the court that he should be tried in Libya. Gaddafi has been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity, but Libya has so far refused to hand him over for trial, preferring that he face the courts in Tripoli.

Tuesday is May Day, and as workers the world over take some time off to celebrate, France will be engaged in a bit of a popularity contest for right wingers. Front National leader Marine Le Pen – who won nearly 20 per cent of the vote in the first round elections – hosts her party’s traditional May Day rally, which also celebrates Joan of Arc. Incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, who is facing defeat at the hands of Francois Hollande in the second round if he can’t find a way to woo Le Pen’s supporters, has scheduled his own rally just down the Seine.

Speaking of right wingers, Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders takes a break from bringing down the Dutch government to launch his new book in New York on Tuesday. While launch details are still under wraps, it may be that Marked for Death: Islam’s War Against the West and Me is Wilders’ bid to dredge up support and make his mark in America.

And if patriotism is what Wilders is hoping to tap into, then he’s picked a good day to do it: Tuesday marks the one year anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden, who was killed by US special forces at his secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Hungary holds the first of eight elections taking place this week (more if you count the UK’s local and mayoral elections on 3 May), when MPs elect a new President on Wednesday following the 2 April resignation of Pal Schmitt over allegations of plagiarism. Janos Ader and Kristzina Morvai are the only two candidates that have been put forward, as smaller parliamentary groups know they don’t have the 78 votes required to push through their own choice.

Sarkozy is back in the news on Wednesday, this time up against Hollande rather than Le Pen. The two run-off candidates go head-to-head in the traditional debate held between the two electoral rounds. Sarkozy will be hoping that the power of TV has a Kennedy effect to help him overcome polling deficits that predict Hollande will win comfortably in Sunday’s vote.

Wednesday also marks the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano by the British submarine HMS Conqueror. 323 people were killed in the sinking, just over half of Argentina’s total losses during the Falklands War. Two days later, the HMS Sheffield was sunk by a missile fired from an Argentine navy plane, killing 21 people.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner are in Beijing on Thursday to take part in the fourth US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue with Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councillor Dai Bingguo. The talks follow Geithner’s remarks last week that the US is willing to further open its markets to China if China institutes its own reforms. Clinton travels on to Bangladesh and India after the two-day talks in China.

UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples James Anaya holds a press conference in Washington on Friday to discuss the findings of his 12-day mission to the United States to assess the situation of Native Americans in the country. During his visit, Anaya met with federal and state government officials, indigenous peoples and human rights groups in Washington, D.C., Arizona, Alaska, Oregon, South Dakota and Oklahoma.

Iranians are back at the polls for the second round of voting following the 2 March parliamentary elections. 65 of the 290 seats are still up for grabs after no candidate managed to gain 25% of the vote the first time around, but opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have already won 220 seats, meaning he could still be in trouble when parliament resumes sitting.

While the Kentucky Derby and the Berkshire Hathaway AGM both take place on Saturday, they’re likely to be overshadowed by the small matter of the arraignment hearing for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi – otherwise known as the 9/11 masterminds. The five men face a military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, charged with planning and executing the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Have I mentioned the French election? It’s all finally over and done with on Sunday when the second round of voting takes place. While Francois Hollande has long been expected to win, the fact that he needs to garner support from far-right voters who cast their ballot for the Front National in the first round, and that France’s shares fell when he won the first round, means there’s still some room for Sarkozy to claw back support.

It’s not just France’s political future that will affect the stock market on Monday: Greeks, Italians and Germans are all set to vote on Sunday, too. The Greek election has been looming since George Papandreou resigned in November to make way for Lucas Papademos’ technocratic government to push through austerity measures. Former Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leads Papandreou’s PASOK party.

Local elections are taking place in over 700 municipalities across Italy on Sunday and Monday, while regional elections are being held in Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein state. Both countries are due for full parliamentary elections next year, and the fortunes of the ruling parties in this weekend’s elections are being closely watched as a barometer for national support. Italy’s elections are the first since Mario Mon
ti took over from Silvio Berlusconi as Prime Minister.

Finally, Armenians and Serbians are also going to the polls. Parliamentary elections are taking place as scheduled in both countries, but Serbian President Boris Tadic has also called an early presidential vote, which hadn’t been due until 2013. Tadic resigned on 4 April to trigger the vote, saying Serbia needs strengthened institutions as it faces ‘sweeping reforms’.

By Nicole Hunt

The day after the Bahrain Grand Prix, 21 Bahraini activists, including hunger striker Abdulhadi al Khawaja, are due in court in Manama on Monday to hear the outcome of their appeal against life sentences handed down in June 2011 for conspiring to overthrow the government during last year’s protests. The decision to schedule the hearing after the Grand Prix was a controversial one, as al Khawaja’s deteriorating health two months into his hunger strike raised the very real possibility that he could die before the race took place. UK supporters said al Khawaja’s death would be a ‘stain on Bahrain’.

Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is set to take up her seat in the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives), following a landslide victory by her National League for Democracy in 1 April by-elections, though there have been suggestions that NLD MPs will boycott the opening over an oath of allegiance that forces them to swear to safeguard the constitution. Suu Kyi’s parliamentary debut comes amid news that she may travel to the UK and Norway in June, where she would be able to see her grandchildren for the first time and finally pick up her Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in 1991.

The late Malawian President Bingu wu Mutharika, who died of a heart attack on 5 April, is laid to rest at his family farm in Thyolo. There is speculation that close ally Robert Mugabe and Sudanese President Omar al Bashir could be among attendees at the state funeral; Malawi came under fire from the International Criminal Court last year when it failed to arrest Bashir during a visit to the country for a regional summit. Bashir is wanted by the court for alleged war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region.

All eyes stateside on Tuesday as a pre-trial hearing begins at Fort Meade, Maryland, for Private First Class Bradley Manning, who has been charged with a variety of offences, including aiding Al Qaeda, for his alleged role in leaking sensitive military material to WikiLeaks, among which was a video which later became WikiLeaks’ Collateral Murder film.

In New York, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to give the keynote speech at the Time 100 Gala Dinner, being held in honour of those named to Time’s 100 Most Influential People list on 18 April. In addition to Clinton and President Barack Obama, this year’s list also included the likes of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and, of course, Kate and Pippa Middleton.

And, just for good measure, Republican primaries also take place in New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Connecticut, though now that everyone is agreed that Mitt Romney will win everything, it’s a less exciting race.

Why will journalists be fighting for a place at the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee meeting on Wednesday? Because US property tycoon Donald Trump – who at one point pictured himself being the focus of those Republican primaries – is scheduled to appear to give evidence on government plans to build an offshore windfarm near his £1bn golf resort. In written evidence submitted ahead of his appearance, Trump said the plan would destroy Scotland’s countryside and coastline, and was tantamount to ‘committing financial suicide’ – a jibe that would have stung even more after the controversial Skintland issue of the Economist.

Charles Taylor’s nine-year war crimes case comes to a head on Thursday as the Special Court for Sierra Leone announces its verdict. While media coverage in the summer of 2010 suggested that perhaps Taylor was on trial for giving Naomi Campbell a diamond or two, the former Liberian President has actually been tried for crimes against humanity, violations of Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law – including, of course, allegedly giving Sierra Leonean rebels arms in exchange for so-called ‘blood diamonds’.

In a less groundbreaking trial – though one that receives headlines whether models are involved or not (and they frequently seem to be) – former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi returns to court in Milan on Friday to face charges of paying for underage sex. While the trial is now over a year old and coverage has been relegated to the Italian press for some time, recent hearings have reignited international interest as the lurid details of Berlusconi’s ‘bunga bunga’ parties have been disclosed.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton begins a three day trip to Myanmar on Saturday, where she is scheduled to meet with government officials and opposition members (including Aung San Suu Kyi) and is expected to open the EU’s new embassy in Yangon. Her visit follows a meeting on Monday of EU foreign ministers, during which they are expected to relax sanctions on Myanmar in the wake of recent political improvements.

Guinea-Bissau had been scheduled to hold its presidential run-off vote on Sunday, following first round polls on 18 March, but as front-runner Carlos Gomes Junior was arrested as part of a military coup d’état on 12-13 April, the election will not be going ahead. The military junta has announced a two-year timeframe for new elections, which has been agreed by opposition parties but not Gomes’ ruling party.

Sunday also marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Los Angeles riots, which left 53 people dead and over 2,000 in three days of violence following the acquittal, by an all-white jury, of four police officers who were videotaped beating black motorist Rodney King. The anniversary comes amid heightened racial tensions in the US following the delayed arrest of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin.