By Nicole Hunt

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Israel on Monday, where he’s scheduled to attend the unveiling of a national memorial to Red Army soldiers killed during World War II. Putin is also due to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is likely to raise concerns over Russia’s relationship with Syria. Putin also visits the West Bank and Jordan on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton will be hosting a joint ministerial council of the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council in Luxembourg, with talks focusing, once again, on Syria and Iran.

Monday may or may not be a momentous day in the US. The Supreme Court is due to sit for the final time this term, which means it should issue judgements on the cases it’s currently considering – namely, the two cases challenging Arizona’s controversial immigration law and President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill. However, if the Court has too many remaining cases to wrap up, it could opt to extend the sitting to later in the week (likely Wednesday or Thursday), with the health care judgement likely to be the last one issued.

The African National Congress opens its National Policy Congress on Tuesday, a conference held every five years ahead of its December electoral conference. Controversial proposals for the nationalisation of mines are due to be discussed, but following the expulsion of ANC Youth Leader Julius Malema, a major proponent of nationalisation, the proposals have lost a bit of their momentum. Of greater interest will be how President Jacob Zuma fares at the conference, with his reception seen as an indicator of whether he’ll be selected to run for a second term at the December conference.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) publishes its annual World Drug Report, looking at consumption, production and trafficking across the world. The 2011 report found that cannabis remained by far the most widely-consumed drug.

The OECD has several high-profile reports on the agenda this week, beginning with the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2011-2020, a joint publication with the Food and Agriculture Organization looking at the market forces driving volatility in commodity prices. The Economic Survey of the United States, the OECD’s regular assessment of the US economy, is launched in Washington on Tuesday, followed by the OECD International Migration Outlook in Brussels on Wednesday.

The District Court of Assen in the Netherlands is scheduled to rule on an application by the Public Prosecutor on Wednesday to dissolve and ban the Martijn organisation, which lobbies for the social acceptance of paedophilia and sexual relationships between adults and children.

The UN Human Rights Council receives an update from the Commission of Inquiry on Syria in Geneva. The COI was set up following the Council’s emergency session on 1 June specifically to look into the 25 May Houla massacre.

The report comes the day before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begins a three-day visit to Russia on Thursday. While the trip has been scheduled for some time around the APEC Women and The Economy Forum, Clinton also has the opportunity to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss Syria. The meeting will be the first since Clinton publicly accused Syria of sending helicopters to the Assad regime, which Lavrov countered by accusing Washington of arming the opposition rebels.

Mongolians go to the polls to elect members to the State Great Khural, in an election which has been most notable for who’s not running. Former President Mambaryn Enkhabyar had been planning to head up a new party, but he was instead arrested, charged with corruption, and banned from standing for parliament. His 25-year-old son Batshugar Enkhbayar was also ruled inelgibile because he hasn’t yet served his two years of compulsory military service.

US financial sanctions on the Iranian oil trade, which were introduced as part of the National Defense Authorization Act in December, come into effect, meaning that banks in countries which have failed to ‘significantly reduce’ the volume of purchases of crude Iranian oil can be barred from doing business in the US financial market. The US has granted waivers to several countries, including India, Turkey, and South Korea, allowing them to continue imports for another six months because they’ve already reduced the amount of crude they’re importing.

Thursday also marks the deadline for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to apply to the European Court of Human Rights for an interim order to halt his extradition from the UK to Sweden to face questioning for alleged sexual assaults. If Assange has not applied by Thursday, his extradition window in the UK opens, giving authorities 10 days to arrange extradition. Of course, the whole matter is further complicated by Assange’s current residency at the Ecuadorian embassy, where he’s asked for asylum.

Keeping with the legal theme, Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire is expected to find out on Friday whether she’s been found guilty or acquitted on charges of association with a terrorist group, propagating genocide ideology, revisionism, and ethnic division, for which prosecutors have requested a life sentence. Ingabire’s supporters say the charges, which she denies, are politically motivated.

George Zimmerman, the man accused of second degree murder in the 26 February shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, appears for a bail hearing in Sanford. Zimmerman had his bail revoked earlier this month when it emerged that he was in possession of a passport and had access to more funds than had been established at his initial bond hearing.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick’s five-year term expires on Saturday. Holding with the tradition that usually sees an American head the Bank while a European leads the IMF, Korean-American doctor and former Dartmouth College president Jim Yong Kim assumes the role on Sunday.

Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson is looking to win a fifth term in presidential elections, though the vote will not be as comfortable as he’s accustomed to – incumbents traditionally run unopposed, but six other candidates have put their hats in the ring this time around. His toughest competition is journalist Thora Arnorsdottir, whose popularity in the polls slipped after she took some time off from the campaign to give birth to her third child.

Saturday has also been bandied about as the favoured date for a meeting of the Syria Contact Group – if the members of the group can actually agree on its existence. The UN (per its Special Envoy Kofi Annan), the UK, the US, Russia and France have all been generally supportive of the idea of a meeting, but have failed to agree on the sticking point of Iranian participation. Russia insists that Iran must be present and part of any international solution, while the UK and the US have said Iranian involvement is ‘unworkable’ due to Tehran’s support for the Syrian regime.

Traditionally quiet Sunday is anything but this week, with presidential and legislative elections in Mexico, parliamentary polls in Senegal, and the introduction of Australia’s landmark carbon tax just the beginning.

Sunday is the deadline for Israel to demolish five apartment blocks in Givat Ulpana, which the Supreme Court ruled on 7 May had been built illegally on private Palestinian land. While the residents and the government came to an agreement last week that should see them leave voluntarily, reports that some settlers have been barricading the area mean a peaceful departure is not guaranteed.

The EU’s embargo on Iranian oil, which was approved by Foreign Ministers in January, comes into effect. The sanctions prohibit the import, purchase and transport of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products, and come just days before technical teams are due to resume discussions on Iran’s nuclear programme in Istanbul.

By Nicole Hunt

Former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde is back in front of the Landsdomur court in Reykjavik on Monday. Haarde is charged with negligence over the country’s banking collapse in October 2008, though charges that he neglected his duties and that he failed to conduct a proper risk analysis have already been dropped. The Landsdomur was set up over 100 years ago to try parliamentarians, but had never been used until Haarde was charged.

Despite reportedly being denied permission from city authorities, Muscovites are likely to take to the streets in protest following Sunday’s presidential election. While former President/current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is expected to be returned comfortably to the top post for a third term, the thousands of people who have protested in recent months are unlikely to disappear quietly.

The long-awaited Deepwater Horizon trial is scheduled to begin in New Orleans, having been delayed from 27 February at the last minute to allow more time for negotiations. Judge Carl Barbier has been tasked with trying to ascertain which companies should share the responsibility, and therefore cost, for the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, which devastated the Gulf of Mexico coast. The trial is expected to be divided into three phases, and is likely to last the rest of the year, if not longer.

Tuesday is, of course, not just your regular everyday ordinary Tuesday – it’s Super Tuesday (in the US, at least). Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virgina all hold their Republican primary contests, bringing us just shy of the halfway point; only 27 more primaries to go!

In election news that will attract considerably less international attention but is being closely watched domestically, results from elections in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarkhand are due to be released on Tuesday. Although a general election isn’t due until 2014, the results will be viewed as an indicator of party support.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey are testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. The hearing is focused on Syria, which is notable both because of the current situation in the country and because the Armed Services Committee doesn’t usually meet to discuss countries the US military isn’t actively involved in – let alone with senior military figures.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies launches its annual Military Balance report in London, assessing the military capabilities and defence economics of 170 countries, as well as general defence expenditure trends. Last year, the report looked at when China’s military might become a threat to US power in the Pacific.

And heads up to the Apple fanboys out there (though any dedicated follower should know already): Apple is due to launch the iPad 3 in San Fransisco.

On Thursday, Continental Airlines’ appeal hearing opens in a Versailles court. The airline is challenging a December 2010 judgement which found it responsible for the 25 July, 2000 crash of a Concorde airliner after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport, which killed 109 people on board and four on the ground. Continental was fined €200,000, while its mechanic John Taylor was given a 15-month suspended sentence; three French employers of Aeorspatiale, Taylor’s supervisor Stanley Ford, and France’s aviation authority were cleared of responsibility.

Foreign Secretary William Hague appears before Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee’s annual hearing on developments in UK foreign policy. Expect questions on Syria and Iran, as well as discussions on the EU following the signing of the EU fiscal stability treaty.

Thursday is also International Women’s Day.

The UN’s Commission of Inquiry into Libya, which was established in February 2011 to investigate alleged violations of international human rights law in the country then led by Muammar Gaddafi, is due to present its final report to the Human Rights Council on Friday. While the report will focus on Gaddafi-era abuses, it follows recent allegations that pro-Gaddafi prisoners have been tortured at the hands of liberating militias.

Greece’s provisional fourth quarter GDP figures are released on the same day that the Finance Ministry launches a €200bn debt swap for private bondholders as part of a new rescue package. Bondholder responses to the debt swap will be closely watched; the offer closes on 12 March.

The week rounds out with two elections on an otherwise fairly quiet and sombre weekend. 

Slovakians elect 150 members to their National Council on Saturday, with the current opposition parties hoping to capitalise on public resistance to Slovakia’s involvement in EU debt bailouts. Prime Minister Iveta Radicova’s coalition government was brought down in October over changes to the European Financial Stability Facility, which Slovakians felt put them on the hook for bailing out larger and wealthier countries.  

On Sunday, El Salvador holds a vote to elect 84 members to the Congress, with municipal elections also taking place across the country. Polling shows that the conservative Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) are leading the race, ahead of the leftist Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN) party, led by President Mauricio Funes.

Sunday also marks the first anniversary of the devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake off of Japan’s Honshu coast, causing a 10m tsunami that wiped out whole towns and triggered a nuclear crisis at the country’s Fukushima power plant. Over 15,000 people are known to have died, while over 3,200 are still missing one year on.

By Nicole Hunt

This week is filled with high-profile trials and judgements around the world, kicking off on Monday with six big-name hearings, including several former world leaders: ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his sons and former Interior Minister Habib Al Adly are all on trial over protester deaths in Cairo; former French President Jacques Chirac’s corruption trial resumes in Paris; former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde’s trial for negligence over the country’s banking collapse starts in Reykjavik; former Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa’s ‘Patria’ corruption trial begins in Ljubljana; Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire goes on trial in Kigali for promoting genocide; and Sizwe Mankazana, who was driving the car which crashed and killed Nelson Mandela’s great-granddaugther on the eve of last year’s World Cup faces the court in Johannesburg.

The focus is on austerity in Europe on Tuesday, as Italy braces for a general strike over debt-cutting measures proposed by Silvio Berlusconi’s government.

In Berlin, the German government begins a four-day debate of its 2012 budget. Wednesday’s general debate with Chancellor Angela Merkel coincides with the country’s Contitutional Court’s decision on a constitutional challenge to a May 2010 law guaranteeing the maintenance of Greece’s financial stability and solvency, authorising up to €22.4bn in loans.

In Algiers, the Algerian government hosts a two-day conferennce on regional security, focusing on the threat from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Back to the Paris courts on Thursday, where the verdict is expected in the trial of disgraced fashion designer John Galliano, who is accused of hurling anti-Semitic abuse at a member of the public in February.

Meanwhile, a hearing is scheduled to formalise the extradition of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, who was convicted of money laundering last summer and sentenced to seven years in prison. He is expected to be sent back to Panama, where he has been sentenced in absentia to 60 years in prison for human rights violations committed between 1983 and 1989.

G7 Finance Ministers begin a two-day meeting in Marseille on Friday. Officials from the EU, IMF and World Bank also attend to discuss issues ahead of the IMF/World Bank annual autumn meetings later this month.

The Rugby World Cup kicks off in Auckland with New Zealand v Tonga. The tournament runs until 23, October.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou delivers his annual economic address at the Thessaloniki Trade Fair on Saturday. Unions and activists plan to hold demonstrations outside the fair, protesting against the government’s austerity measures.

Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the United States. President Barack Obama and former President George W Bush are among those attending a memorial service at Ground Zero, which begins at 8:40am EDT to mark the time the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Centre.

While all eyes are on the US, Guatemalans will quietly elect a new President. A planned bid by Sandra Torres, ex-wife of current President Alvaro Colom, was ruled unconstitutional. The couple divorced to enable Torres to run, hoping to circumvent a law that ruled the President’s spouse ineligible.