A round up of world news in the week ahead from journalist resource ForesightNews.

Monday 17 December

Monday marks two years since Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation, an act of protest that that inspired millions to challenge the status quo across the Middle East. Two years on, despite regime change in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, the continuing unrest in countries such as Syria, Egypt and Bahrain suggests the region’s upheaval has some time to run yet.

In North Korea, they will be marking the first anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-Il. The successful satellite launch last week means there is considerably less pressure on his son Kim Jong-un as he completes his first year at the helm of the secretive communist state.

Meanwhile, a hearing is due to take place in Milan in Silvio Berlusconi’s trial over his alleged sexual exploits with Moroccan dancer Karima el Mahroug. Ruby, as she is also known, was supposed to be testifying at the hearing but is in Mexico with no plans to return until next month.

Gujarat in Western India holds the second and final phase of its assembly elections. The state is led by Narendra Modi of the BJP and his expected re-election would bolster his case for one day becoming India’s Prime Minister. Counting takes place on 20 December.

Finally, in Washington DC,  the IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde is due to submit a report to member’s of the fund’s board on actions taken by Argentina to address serious concerns about the reliability of its official growth and inflation data. The fund has warned Kristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s government that failure to adequately address concerns could result in ‘additional measures’ being taken by the fund.

Tuesday 18 December

On Tuesday, imprisoned former Ukranian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is due back in court facing charges of embezzlement dating back to the 1990s. Convicted of abuse of power in October last year, she is currently awaiting the judgement of an appeal lodged with the European Court of Human Rights, which may be handed down as early as this month.

In The Hague, the International Criminal Court is scheduled to hand down its judgement in the case of Congolese militia leader Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, who stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Lastly, in the United States, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is due to speak at the National Press Club about challenges facing America’s military.

Wednesday 19 December

Wednesday is election day in South Korea. Leading candidates to replace Lee Myung-bak are Park Geun-hye of the incumbent New Frontier party, and Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic United party. Whether North Korea’s successful launch has an impact on the presidential poll remains to be seen; both figures have vowed to take a more conciliatory approach with Pyongyang than that taken under President Lee.

In France, an appeal court is due to decide whether or not pursue its investigation into suggestions that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF head and one-time French presidential contender, was involved in a prostitution ring. This follows last week’s settlement in New York of the civil case brought against Strauss-Kahn by Sofitel employee Nafissatou Diallo.

French President Francois Holland is due to begin an official a two-day visit to Algeria, where he is to meet his counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

In New York, the UN Security Council will have plenty to talk about at its regular monthly meeting on the Middle East.

Finally, there are further protests planned in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires against Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s policies.

Thursday 20 December

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to hold an annual press conference where is likely to face questions on a raft of issues, not least his position on Syria as Russia appears to be distancing itself from Bashar al Assad’s regime.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, still holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, is due to speak to supporters.

Friday 21 December

On Friday, US President Barack Obama is scheduled to head to Hawaii, where he plans to spend the holidays with the First Family. However, it remains to be seen whether the impasse over fiscal cliff negotiations ends up forcing the president to stay in DC. As the New Year deadline looms, partisanship in the US capital shows no sign of abating.

In Italy, Mario Monti is due to hold his end of year press conference. He has vowed to step down as Prime Minister once he has pushed through next year’s budget, with elections now expected in February. It remains to be seen whether Silvio Berlusconi’s announcement that he plans to seek to lead Italy once more is enough to change Mr Monti’s mind.

Finally, Vladimir Putin is due to travel to Brussels for the EU-Russia summit.

Saturday 22 December

On Saturday, Egyptians are due to vote in the second phase of a referendum on the country’s new constitution, with opponents of President Mohamed Morsi urging people to reject the new constitution. Regardless of the result, more unrest seems certain.

Sunday 23 December

Finally, Japan’s Emperor Akihito turns 79 on Sunday. He traditionally meets with reporters on his birthday, and may be asked about regional tensions.

Some images courtesy of fotostory / Shutterstock.com.

By Nicole Hunt

A week filled with big summits and conferences kicks off in Seoul on Monday, where Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, US President Barack Obama, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti are among representatives from more than 50 countries that will convene to discuss nuclear safety, in all likelihood defying North Korean calls to leave their nuclear programme out of it. Obama is scheduled to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the summit.

With Afghanistan in the news for all the wrong reasons, Tajikistan hosts the fifth Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan in Dushanbe. The annual conference looks at reconstruction and promoting regional integration and stability, increasingly important goals as the eventual withdrawal of ISAF forces looms. Representatives from the UK, US, Afghan, Russian and Pakistani governments are expected, alongside officials from the UN, the World Bank, the WTO and the World Food Programme.

Amnesty International releases its annual report on Death Sentences and Executions on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see whether last year’s Arab Spring had any discernible effect on the number of people sentenced to death in the Middle East; the 2010 report recorded at least 53 executions in Yemen, 27 in Saudi Arabia, 18 in Libya, 17 in Syria, five in the Palestinian Territories, and one in Bahrain. Observers will also be keeping an eye out for Iran in the report, after several high-profile death sentences garnered worldwide criticism in 2011.

Just a week after Greece’s big debt repayment deadline passed, the OECD releases its Economic Survey of the European Union. Considering the last Survey was published in 2009, we can guess that this year’s report is going to be significantly different from its predecessor, which noted that the financial crisis ‘has already triggered reforms to tackle weaknesses in the financial system which, if implemented effectively, should support financial stability and longer term growth prospects.’

Dominique Strauss-Kahn faces two legal battles on Wednesday – he’s due to appear before magistrates in Lille to face questioning over his alleged links to a prostitution ring, while in New York, a hearing takes place in the civil case filed against him by Nafissatou Diallo, the chambermaid who accused Strauss-Kahn of raping her in May 2011.

In New Delhi, the Indian Supreme Court hears what may well be the last day of a six-year long legal battle involving Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis. Novartis is challenging provision 3(d) in Indian patent law, which allows companies in India to manufacture low-cost, generic drugs. The case centres on a leukemia drug called Gleevac, but the outcome of the case could have repercussions for the availability of cheap, life-saving medication for HIV/AIDS and other diseases in the world’s poorest countries.

Staying in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosts the annual BRICS Summit on Thursday, welcoming his counterparts from Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa to discuss trade. Also on the agenda is the appointment of the new World Bank President to replace Robert Zoellick when his term expires at the end of June.

The oft-delayed Arab League Summit, which was last supposed to take place in May 2011 but was postponed due to widespread political unrest in the region, finally goes ahead in Baghdad amid a backdrop of very tight security following a spate of recent bombings in the country.  The summit is expected to focus heavily on Syria, which will not be represented at the meeting after being suspended from the regional bloc in November.

Spanish unions have called a general strike on Thursday to protest against what they say are unfair labour reforms, hoping to bring the country to a standstill the day before Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy presents his budget. Following a readjustment of Spain’s deficit target to 5.3%, Rajoy is under pressure from Brussels to implement yet more austerity measures to bring the deficit down to the EU-agreed limit of 4.4%. Spanish Finance Minister Luis De Guindos can expect to hear all about it – again – at an informal meeting of the EU finance ministers in Copenhagen on Friday.

The trial of Curt Knox and Edda Mellas – better known as the parents of Amanda Knox – is due to begin in Perugia, where they face charges of slander for repeating their daughter’s claims that she was beaten by Italian police into confessing to the murder of British student Amanda Knox in 2007. Knox went home to the US when her conviction was overturned on October 3 last year, but her lawyer announced in January that she may return to Perugia if necessary to testify at her parents’ trial.

The European Freedom Initiative, a loose collective of far-right groups in Europe which includes the English Defence League, holds a public meeting and rally in Aarhus on Saturday to discuss sharia law, halal food, and the ‘Islamification of our countries’. Speakers at the event, which is hosted by the Danish Defence League, include EDL founder Tommy Robinson (aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), Stop the Islamification of Europe founder Anders Gravers, and Austrian Elisabeth Sabbaditch Wolff, who was convicted last year of denigrating Islam.

The four-day Boao Forum for Asia begins in Boao, China, with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, former Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, and Chinese Premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang among those gathering to discuss business and growth in the Asia Pacific region.

By-elections take place in 48 seats in Myanmar/Burma on Sunday, one of which will be challenged by National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The elections, and the democracy activist’s participation in them, are a sign of reform from the ruling military junta, who have also consented to have election observers from the US and the EU present for the first time during the polls.

Finally, jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev (and 32 other people in unrelated cases) could find out the outcome of a review of the ‘legality’ and ‘basis’ of their December 2010 convictions for theft and money laundering. The two were accused of stealing billions from Yukos production subsidiaries, but their prosecution and conviction have widely been viewed as politically motivated. President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Russian Prosecutor General to review t
heir case by 1 April.

By Nicole Hunt

The two men charged with the April 2010 murder of South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terre’Blanche go on trial in Ventersdorp on Monday. Chris Mahlangu and an unnamed teenager are accused of killing the leader of the Afrikaner Weerstasbeweging (AWB) party over a wage dispute.

EU Foreign Ministers meet in Luxembourg, with Syria expected to be on the agenda after a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria was vetoed by Russia and China last week and Syrian opposition members officially formed a National Council.

Liberians go to the polls on Tuesday to elect their president for the next six years. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who became Africa’s first female leader when she was elected in 2005, is hoping to win a second term.

A verdict is expected in the corruption trial for Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko in Kiev, who is accused of ‘misspending’ some $280m during her time as Prime Minister.

In New York City, alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout’s trial for selling weapons to Colombian rebel group FARC gets underway.

The European Commission presents its 2011 enlargement package in Brussels on Wednesday, which includes a formal favourable opinion on Croatia’s accession and a much-awaited opinion on Serbian accession following the arrest earlier this year of alleged war criminals Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.

The European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan hold the first of three unlimited US dollar auctions, which were announced last month and are designed to flood the financial market with dollars to support banks through the EU debt crisis. Two more auctions are planned for 9 November and 7 December.

On Thursday, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara pays his first visit to the country’s troubled western region since taking power in May following months of post-election violence and a power struggle with former President Laurent Gbagbo. Violence has continued in the west, where suspected Gbagbo loyalists are thought to be conducting armed raids over the Liberian border.

In France, journalist Tristine Banon publishes her book Le Bal des hypocrites, detailing her accusations of attempted rape against former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors begin a two day meeting in Paris on Friday, with the EU debt crisis expected to be high on the agenda.

In Dublin, the OECD publishes its latest Economic Survey of Ireland. The last edition was published in 2009, so there should be plenty of new material given the country’s economic woes in the interim.

The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee begins its annual gathering on Saturday. The meeting is seen as a key part of the power handover that should see Xi Jinping replace Hu Jintao as President next October.

Elections are held in Oman to name the 83 members of the country’s lower house of parliament, the Majlis al Shura, a consultative assembly which was granted legislative and regulatory powers in March as the Arab Spring spread across the region. The upper house is still appointed by the monarchy.

France’s Socialist Party holds the second round of voting in its presidential primaries on Sunday, choosing the person who will go up against Nicolas Sarkozy in the 22 April presidential election. Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been a favourite to win the party’s candidacy before he was charged with sexual assault in May; despite the charges being dropped, he opted not to run.

It’s also Blog Action Day, which encourages bloggers worldwide to post about the same topic in hopes of driving collective action and sparking global discussion. This year’s theme is food, with the date chosen to coincide with World Food Day. Around 5,600 bloggers from 143 countries participated in last year’s event, which focused on water.