Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak returns to court on Monday. Along with his sons Alaa and Gamal he appears charged with premeditated murder in connection with the deaths of protesters during the 25 January revolution.

Monday also sees the publication of Japan’s Q2 stats. The country’s GDP shrank 3.7 per cent in Q1, largely attributed to the 11 March disasters, and a similar decline is expected as the country copes with power shortages following the nuclear crisis.

It’s the turn of Europe to brace itself for GDP figures on Tuesday, with the official publication of the euro zone GDP figures. Publication comes amid recent fears growing over the global economy and the recent agreement to give Greece a second bailout.

Eyes are drawn to the International Criminal Court on Wednesday, as former UN employee Callixte Mbarushimana appears charged with five counts of crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009. Mbarushimana is also believed to have been involved in the Rwandan genocide, but has never been charged over the atrocities.

Angola also hosts a summit of the Southern African Development Community in Luanda on Wednesday. The two-day affair is expected to focus on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his refusal to fully implement the Global Political Agreement, as well as the recent fuel protests in Malawi.

Pope Benedict XVI makes an apostolic journey to Madrid on Thursday, to attend a gathering of Catholic youth to mark World Youth Day. Visit includes a Holy Mass at Cuatro Vientos Airport on 21 August.

In the UK, thousands of students learn what their future holds when A Level results are published on Thursday, and students scramble for (often) oversubscribed university places.

Friday sees the last day in office for Romanian Health Minister Attila Cseke, who tendered his resignation earlier this month following a dispute over funds for his brief. Under Romanian law Cseke had to continue his post for 15 days at a maximum until Prime Minister Emil Boc nominated a successor.

On Saturday the UN Panel of inquiry, led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, is expected to release its report. The report has been delayed several times, most recently from 27 July, and could well be postponed again.

The 2011 Homeless World Cup begins on Sunday, giving homeless and socially marginalised players from across the world the opportunity to represent their country at the beautiful game.

On Sunday a national memorial service takes place in Norway, commemorating the 77 people who were killed in the 22 July Oslo bombing and Utoya shootings. Ceremony takes place in Oslo Spektrum and was announced by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg ‘to take care of each other and show compassion’.

The revolution in Egypt was “a moment whose time had come” said author and commentator Ahdaf Soueif at the Frontline Club on Wednesday.

The author of the bestselling Map of Love told BBC News presenter Mishal Hussein how she had been in Jaipur in India at a literary festival on 25 January when the first protests took place but returned in time for the Friday “day of anger” on 28 January.

We were waiting, [in Embeba] basically loitering near the small mosque there and the preacher went on forever at the end. Before he finished a shout went up, it was one of the young men on the shoulders of another one or two and all in all it was about 15 people.

The sound was that mix between a shout or a chant or cheer that you must have heard if you were following the Egyptian revolution. It’s very rousing and makes your heart go with it. We started moving through the streets and the idea was that this core group goes through the neighbourhood and the particular chant that was used was one that was designed to attract people and make them come down from their homes and join the protest.

Soueif described how groups had been “hanging about” in several locations in Cairo and elsewhere in the country, waiting for the right moment at the end of Friday prayers. The scale of the protests had surprised everyone, she said.

What had begun as a young people’s movement was joined by “everybody” said Soueif who added that “four generations” and all sectors of society took part, from those who worked for daily wages to those “who parked their Mercedes by the opera” to join protests.  Rural and urban people were also represented by delegations sent by other cities and towns.

It was accepted that decisions would come out of Tahrir and so they were there to give it legitimacy and be part of the process of decision making.

In those 18 days in Tahrir square people formed circles on the ground and by evening time you would see 150 people sitting talking about politics and ideas and when a group agreed on something it would pass over to other groups and eventually there was a central point, what they called ‘Broadcasting House’ where there was a microphone with people in charge of it.

An idea, if it was good enough, would reach the microphone and would be broadcast and it would be either booed or cheered and hence rejected or adopted.

The decision to send in “the cavalry and the one camel that was supposed to defeat the revolution” was “completely strange” and made the people in the Square even more determined, said Soueif.

They resented how the regime claimed that they were not ready for democracy and that without the regime to “sit on our necks permanently, then you’re going to get a society so fanatic, so extreme, so violent, there will be rivers of blood that will wash across Europe”

The Egyptian people had been pleased to “find themselves” and “re-find their image and redefine it and declare it, said Soueif:

Suddenly we go from a progressive people who know what they want and are demanding dignity and freedom to being attacked with camels in best Orientalist Daniel Pipes fashion.

Fiction and film had allowed people to “exercise their muscles of empathy” towards the Egyptian people and that partly explained why there was so much support for them and their protest.

Another thing is that the spectacle of the revolution was done with such grace, it was so relaxed and it was so nice to look at and if you understood the jokes it was funny, yet it could raise its game and defend itself when they came at it with bullets or with stones.

On the night they attacked, the peripheries of the Square were fighting a battle, a very efficient and ferocious battle against the paramilitaries and in the heart of the Square there were stand up comics.

What you saw in Egypt was humanity in diverse forms at its best and that was very attractive, and not because it’s Egyptian, but because it’s a human spectacle. It’s humanity at its best in diverse forms.

Picture credit: Sophia Spring

If you want to hear more about the revolution in Egypt there is a fantastic opportunity to hear some of the key players at tonight’s event at the British Institution Protest, technology and the end of fear.