By Nicole Hunt

Monday looks to be the biggest day of what should be an interesting week internationally. Kicking off with the ongoing EU debt crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin to iron out amendments to the new EU fiscal stability treaty that was agreed last month.

Italian bank Unicredit opens its €7.5bn rights issue, having discounted shares by about 43 per cent in a bid to raise funds. Investors will be watching the sale closely to gauge market support for European banks.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak begins a three-day visit to China at the invitation of President Hu Jintao. Discussions are expected to focus heavily on regional security in the wake of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial, which has dragged on for nearly two years, finally comes to an end as the jury is scheduled to deliver its verdict in Kuala Lumpur. In addition to Ibrahim’s freedom – he faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty – the verdict will also determine who will run against Prime Minister Najib Razak in the country’s next elections, which are not due until June 2013 but look increasingly likely to be called this year.

Attentions turn Stateside on Tuesday as New Hampshire Republicans cast their ballots in the presidential primary. Following the 3 January Iowa Caucus, in which Mitt Romney beat Rick Santorum by just eight votes, Michelle Bachman announced that she was dropping out of the race.

In Washington, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announces whether to move the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock, which represents how close humanity is to ‘catastrophic destruction’. The last time the clock was moved, in January 2010, the BAS’ outlook was somewhat positive, moving the minute hand back one minute from five to six minutes before midnight.

Tuesday also marks the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the Guantánamo Bay detention centre.

The High Court in London is expected to rule on Wednesday whether the Occupy London protesters can remain in their camp outside of St Paul’s Cathedral. Despite legal action from the City of London Corporation, the camp has been in place since 15 October.

The World Economic Forum releases its annual Global Risk Report ahead of the Davos Forum, which opens on 25 January. Last year’s report found that the financial crisis had ‘drained’ the world’s ability to deal with shocks.

The European Central Bank’s Governing Council meets in Frankfurt on Thursday to decide whether to raise, lower, or maintain the euro area’s interest rate. After last month’s meeting, during which the interest rate was decreased to 1 per cent, ECB President Mario Draghi announced major refinancing operations to support bank lending and market activity.

Alleged al Qaeda member Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who pled guilty in October to attempting to set off an explosive device in his underwear on a Detroit flight on Christmas Day in 2009, is sentenced in Detroit.

India is hoping to celebrate a milestone anniversary on Friday. If no new cases of polio are reported between now and then, the country will mark its first-ever year without any new cases. The World Health Organisation considers a disease to be eradicated when no new cases are reported for three consecutive years. Apple is set for a massive sales boost as the iPhone 4S goes on sale in China and 21 other countries in South America, the Caribbean and Africa.

Apple is set for a massive sales boost as the iPhone 4S goes on sale in China and 21 other countries in South America, the Caribbean and Africa.

Saturday marks the one year anniversary of the resignation of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, whose 23-year rule was ended after nearly a month of protests dubbed the Jasmine Revolution. The success of protests in Tunisia spurred similar movements across the region, with widely varying results in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco and Syria.

In Taiwan, voters go to the polls to elect a new President for a four year term. Incumbent Ma Ying-jeou faces challenges from China-sceptic Tsai Ing-wen and pro-Beijing James Soong.

Elections also take place in Kazakhstan on Sunday, following President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s snap decision to dissolve Parliament on 16 November. The vote is expected to see at least one opposition party enter Parliament, usually dominated by Nazarvbaeyev’s Nur Otan party, though that party is likely to be close ally Ak Zholl.

This event will be moderated by Mitchell Albert associate editor of Steppe Magazine.

Swiss photographer and writer Daniel Schwartz has been travelling and documenting the Central Asian republics since the early years of their independence from the Soviet Union. His artistic book about the region Travelling Through the Eye of History reflects on the entangled histories of the Silk Roads as well as present-day political and economic interdependencies linking the Caspian Sea and Kashmir, Iran and Western China via Afghanistan and the Pamirs.

Central Asia has been conquered and fought over for centuries. Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, the Russian and British empires during the Great Game and present day British and American troops have all battled there. Yet so little of what goes on between the countries and peoples that inhabit this vast swathe of land penetrates the Western media.

Schwartz is the recent recipient of the culture prize of the canton of Zurich, for his photographic achievement if the past 30 yrs, for bringing seemingly detached realities in front of the eyes of a saturated Swiss and Western public.

Photograph: Daniel Schwartz. Earning a Living on the Smuggler’s Road between Herat and the Iranian border- Afghanistan 2001.

The diplomat also explained the logic behind this move to a local newspaper:

If you remember, the president said that friends called him Sultan when [he was] a child. And we all know that His Excellency Nursultan Nazarbayev considers Astana his child. So why not name this city after him?

Besides, he said that it "would be logical to give the city a new name, which also would be consistent with the name of the former capital Kazakhstan – Alma-Ata."

Kazakhstan has moved its capital from Alma-Ata to completely rebuilt city of Akmola and renamed it Astana back in 1997. "Astana" means "the capital city" in Kazakh language.

The Eurasian Media Forum is run by Dariga Nazarbayeva, the daughter of Kazakhstan’s president; she’s also a media magnate and a leading political player in her own right. At a forum on blogging, a young woman stood up in front of the powerful Nazarbayeva and condemned a proposed new law which campaigners claim will put serious restrictions on internet journalists and bloggers and potentially allow the authorities to block sites on political grounds. Wearing a home-made T-shirt which read:Shhh! Censorship in the Room”, Yevgenia Plakhina said that six other activists had just been detained while trying to stage a protest against the planned legislation.

The Eurasian Media Forum is partly meant to demonstrate to the ‘international community’ how open and free Kazakhstan is becoming, despite its post-Soviet political system. Plakhina’s unexpected intervention showed, at least, that while young people are willing to take risks and stand up for their beliefs, there is hope. More on the incident from my colleague Shaun Walker here.