By Nicole Hunt

Following the horrific shooting at the Dark Knight Premiere in Aurora, Colorado on Friday that killed at least 12 people and injured 58, suspect James Holmes appears in court on Monday morning. Police spent much of the weekend disabling explosives in Holmes’ apartment, and are still trying to piece together a motive for the attack.

EU Foreign Ministers meet in Brussels to discuss a host of issues, from energy policy to South Sudan. But the real focus will be on Syria – French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed last week that ministers would seek to impose new, stronger sanctions on the Assad regime, a move which gained renewed importance after China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on 19 July that would have authorised stronger global sanctions.

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is in Moscow to hold his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Syria is on the top of their agenda, too. Given Russia’s recent stance, though, it’s unlikely that Monti will be able to persuade Putin to change his mind, so their time might be better spent discussing bilateral issues.

Officials from the IMF, EU and ECB make their quarterly-ish visit to Greece on Tuesday to check on how economic plans are progressing. The mission is the first since Greece’s new government under Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took over after elections last month, and was delayed from June due to Samaras’ health problems. Discussion will reportedly focus on securing a ‘bridging loan’ for Greece while the new government tries to find nearly €12bn in further spending cuts.

Tuesday also sees the latest hearing in Baghdad in the trial of Iraqi Vice President Tareq al Hashemi, who is accused of operating a death squad. The trial was postponed earlier in the month to allow an appeals court to review the case and rule on the conduct of the trial, including a request by Hashemi’s lawyers to call senior government figures as witnesses, which was denied by the trial court.

The Pakistani Supreme Court has given new Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf until Wednesday to issue a letter to Swiss authorities asking them to re-open graft investigations against President Asif Ali Zardari. Ashraf’s predecessor Yousuf Raza Gilani declined to submit the same request to Switzerland; he was subsequently found to be in contempt of court and disqualified from standing as Prime Minister, so it’s a deadline Ashraf will be looking at with some consideration.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is in London on Thursday. In addition to attending the Olympic opening ceremony and reportedly meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Chancellor George Osborne, Labour Leader Ed Miliband, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Romney is also playing host to two fundraisers for wealthy American ex-pats. Those whose wallets can only spare $2,500 will attend an evening reception with Romney, while donors who can dig up $75,000 will find themselves sitting down to dinner with the man himself.

Friday…Friday…Well there must be something going on Friday. Oh yes, the small matter of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. The Queen officially opens the Games, and in return she and other attendees can enjoy Danny Boyle’s ‘Isles of Wonder’ spectacle, a concert with Paolo Nutini, Stereophonics, Snow Patrol, Duran Duran and Paul McCartney, and a Red Arrows flypast.

Meanwhile, the mood may be a bit less celebratory in Spain, where the latest quarterly unemployment figures are released. Despite relatively positive figures recently, including a drop in unemployment of 100,000 last month, figures still hover near the 25 per cent mark, and hundreds of people took part in demonstrations in Madrid last week to protest against unemployment and austerity.

Former US President Bill Clinton delivers the closing address at the AIDS 2012 Conference in Washington on Friday. He caps off a week of speakers that have included his wife (otherwise known as Secretary of State) Hillary, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former First Lady Laura Bush, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, and Sharon Stone.

Romney continues his international jaunt on Saturday with a three-day trip to Israel, where he’s planning to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and US Ambassador Dan Shapiro. In addition to bolstering his international credentials – and probably making much of the fact that his Democratic rival hasn’t made the trip to the holy land during his presidency – Romney is also hosting another of his ex-pat fundraisers on Sunday.

Romanians go to the polls on Sunday to decide whether or not President Traian Basescu should be impeached. Basescu was suspended from his post in a 6 July parliamentary vote, after Prime Minister Victor Ponta accused him of exceeding his authority and acting in a partisan manner. Basescu and his supporters have in turn accused Ponta of trying to oust the president in order to consolidate his own power.

By Rosie Scammell

The Forum opened to a full house on Wednesday evening for a clash of opinions over the problems facing Pakistan.

With BBC journalist Owen Bennett-Jones acting as chair, the government and military soon took centre stage, a relationship described as “A power struggle that has characterised Pakistan since its inception,” by Chatham House associate fellow Dr Farzana Shaikh.

Anatol Lieven, a professor at Kings College London, was quick to dismiss the suggestion of another military coup, and described the army as “with all its dreadful faults, a comparatively efficient institution”.

Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan Director at Human Rights Watch, made no effort to hide his disagreement, “It’s a corrupt behemoth that is holding the country hostage. I know that Professor Lieven tends to have a rose-tinted view of the Pakistani military.”

Journalist Omar Waraich backed up this view of the military by describing a string of human rights abuses at the hands of the Pakistani army, including disappearances and torture.

Despite differences of opinion, there was broad agreement of the military’s negative role in vetoing cooperation with India, severely impeding the country’s development prospects.

In the face of such an overbearing military, Shaikh described the “extraordinary measures” taken by the government in recent years such as constitutional amendments, although said the government had perhaps been too preoccupied with political survival over passing legislation.

“It’s important to see these achievements, modest though they may appear, in the context of a country that is also at war; that is mired in conflict,” she added. Hasan agreed, citing mechanisms for a transition of power, devolution to the provinces, and improvements made to women’s rights legislation as key markers of change.

Open to the floor, the Forum buzzed with questions from nuclear weapon sales to Imran Khan’s election prospects.

The people of Pakistan at last made their debut in the debate, described by one audience member as a “resilient” populace – a term which was quickly questioned by Shaikh.

“Because the ordinary person is resilient, he or she can take anything, and nothing will break Pakistan. That in a way is troubled because in a sense it gives license to violence which is inflicted at every level on the assumption that people are resilient.”

As attention moved to the oft-forgotten Balochistan region and its prospects for autonomy, Hasan said the situation was not comparable to Kashmir, as “you can’t use patriarchy as an excuse for military abuses”. In response Lieven denied saying anything of the sort and called on his fellow panellist to correct himself.

It was left to Bennett-Jones to prevent the Pakistan debate descending into its reality, silencing the speakers and reminding the audience that it is the government’s ability to hold onto power until the 2013 election that determines Pakistan’s future.

Political tensions are rising in Pakistan following the the Supreme Court’s decision to charge Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani with contempt for failing to re-open corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The government has also been under pressure as a result of what’s become known as “memogate” after an unsigned memo emerged asking for US help to avert a coup by the Pakistani army.

With the outlook for the Pakistani government so uncertain, there is concern that the country’s many and complex problems, including its dire economic situation, dealings with its domestic Taliban, drone attacks, as well as the aftermath of floods and other natural catastrophes will be overlooked.

We will be bringing together a panel of experts to discuss the deepening political crisis in Pakistan and what lies ahead.

Chaired by the BBC’s Owen Bennett-Jones, he was BBC Pakistan correspondent between 1998 and 2001 and is author of Pakistan: Eye Of The Storm.

With:

Omar Waraich, he has been covering Pakistan for TIME Magazine and The Independent since 2007. He regularly appears as a commentator on Al-Jazeera English, CNN and NPR. Twitter: @OmarWaraich

Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan Director, Asia Division at Human Rights Watch. Previously he was a senior editor at Pakistan’s premier independent, political news monthly magazine, Herald.

Professor Anatol Lieven, of King’s College London, he has travelled extensively for research in Pakistan and is author of Pakistan: A Hard Country.

Dr Farzana Shaikh, is an associate fellow and convenor of the Pakistan study group at Chatham House. Born and brought up in Pakistan, she has written widely on the country’s history, culture and politics. She has most recently published, Making Sense of Pakistan.

By Nicole Hunt

Towards Healing and Renewal, the Catholic Church’s four-day long symposium on sexual abuse within the Church, begins on Monday in Rome. The conference brings together over 200 representatives from bishops’ conferences and other religious orders, as well as doctors, theologians and child abuse specialists.

Anders Behring Breivik is in court in Oslo again, for what will probably be a routine remand hearing ahead of his trial in April. Breivik is scheduled to stand trial on 16 April, pending a psychiatric report due some time before then. An initial assessment declared Breivik insane and unfit to stand trial.

This week also sees two back-to-back big anniversaries in the UK: Queen Elizabeth marks 60 years since her accession to the throne in 1952 on Monday, while the country marks 200 years since the birth of Charles Dickens on Tuesday.

Italy’s Constitutional Court convenes in Rome on Tuesday to hear a motion brought by the Senate requesting that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s trial for abuse of power and paying for underage sex be moved from Milan to a special minister’s court. The motion was passed by the Senate on 14 September, 2011, when Berlusconi still headed the government.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg issues its judgement on two cases involving media coverage of celebrities. One of the cases was brought by Princess Caroline of Monaco and her husband Prince Ernst August von Hannover, challenging the publication of photos of their family under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which protects the right to respect for family and private life.

News Corporation announces its second quarter results on Wednesday, covering October to December 2011. During that period, the company faced threats of a revolt against James Murdoch at its AGM in October, allegations that it tried to bribe an Australian Senator, and calls to reform a stock structure that ‘disenfranchises’ the vast majority of News Corporation’s shareholders.

The Pakistani Supreme Court Commission investigating the ‘memogate‘ scandal sits in Islamabad on Thursday, hearing further evidence from Mansoor Ijaz, the man who revealed the existence of the memo, in which President Asif Ali Zardari appears to offer increased cooperation with the US in return for staving off a coup by military figures.

The European Central Bank’s Governing Council meets in Frankfurt to decide whether to raise, lower or maintain the euro zone’s interest rate. At last month’s meeting, the Council decided to maintain the record-low rate of one per cent.

In Frankfurt on Friday, a verdict is expected in the case of Kosovan Arid Uka , who is charged with two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in connection with the 2 March, 2011, shooting of US soldiers outside Frankfurt airport.

Meanwhile, two men on trial for the November 2010 murder of British honeymooner Anni Dewani are before a Cape Town court. Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Oxlile Mngeni are charged with murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and kidnapping; Zola Tongo has already been tried for his role in the killing, while Dewani’s husband Shrien, who is accused of arranging his new wife’s death, is awaiting an extradition judgement in the UK.

Saturday sees the celebration of two successful revolutions, though the celebrations are expected to be quite different. Iranians celebrate Victory of the Revolution Day, the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s monarchy, typically with mass rallies and parades.

Though mass rallies are likely in Cairo to mark the one year anniversary of the resignation of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after 17 days of protests, celebrations may be muted in the aftermath of the football tragedy. Demonstrations in recent months have been increasingly angry with the speed of the handover from military to civilian rule, a fact likely to be exacerbated by the failure of security services to stop the football violence.

Presidential elections take place in Turkmenistan on Sunday. Incumbent Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow stands for a second term against a number of candidates – all members of the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, the only party in town.

Venezuelans also go to the polls to choose which opposition candidate will face off against Hugo Chavez in the country’s 7 October election. Miranda state governor Henrique Capriles is currently the front-runner to lead the Democratic Unity coalition.

Finally, the Africa Cup of Nations tournament wraps up as the final takes place in Libreville, Gabon.