By Nicole Hunt

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meets in Vienna on Monday, with Iran likely to be high on the agenda following last week’s report expressing increased concerns over ‘undisclosed nuclear related activities’ in the country.

Bouthaina Shaaban, political adviser to Syrian President Bashar al Assad, is in Moscow, where she is scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and hold a press conference for international media. Shaaban was one of three Syrian officials slapped with sanctions by the US Treasury Department at the end of August.

The African National Congress is expected to wrap up disciplinary proceedings against controversial ANC youth leader Julius Malema on Tuesday, having recently moved the hearing from the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House to an undisclosed location in Johannesburg following violent protests last week. Malema is accused of bringing the ANC into disrepute and sowing divisions within ANC ranks after he encouraged the overthrow of Botswana’s government.

In Brussels, the OECD publishes its annual Education at a Glance report, analysing the education systems and performances in member states. For the first time, this year’s report also looks at education in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg hears a complaint on Wednesday brought by four people who say they were illegally deprived of their liberty without justification while they were held in a police ‘kettle’ during the 2001 May Day protests in London.

In New York, the UN Security Council holds a debate on drought-stricken Somalia, where security issues have compounded problems as aid struggles to get into the country and people struggle to get out.

Parliamentary elections take place in Denmark on Thursday. Recent polls say Helle Thorning-Schmidt could be the country’s next Prime Minister, as her opposition Social Democrat party looks poised to win the most seats.

A court in The Hague is due to rule on Apple’s application to ban sales of Samsung’s Galaxy phones. A temporary injunction banning sales and distribution throughout much of Europe was issued on 11 August, but is not due to come into effect until 13 October.

Following debates this week in several European parliaments on new powers for the European Financial Stability Fund, European finance ministers begin a two-day meeting on Friday.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague holds a confirmation of charges hearing for Callixte Mbarushimana, a former UN employee charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009. Mbarushimana is alleged to have been the executive secretary of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and directly responsible for at least 32 deaths in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide while still employed by the UN, but has never been charged.

Libyan schools are scheduled to re-open on Saturday, with a brand new curriculum devoid of Gaddafi-era subjects such as the Green Book.

At the Dead Sea in Israel, photographer Spencer Turnick stages another mass nude photoshoot, hoping to bring awareness to the fact that the famously salty lake is drying up.

The week wraps up with state elections in Berlin, the sixth in Germany this year. The regional elections have generally proven disastrous for Angela Merkel’s CDU party, which has suffered losses country-wide to the Social Democrats, a trend that many expect to continue into the 2013 federal election.

By Allan Williams

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega has until Monday to appeal against his extradition to Panama. The 77-year-old is currently serving a prison sentence in France after being convicted of money laundering in July 2010.

On Tuesday attention turns to Japan when the Parliament elects its sixth Prime Minister in five years. Incumbent Naoto Kan announced he was stepping down over plummeting approval ratings, following the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year.

Wednesday sees Canada release its second quarter GDP figures. Fears of the economy contracting grew following an announcement earlier this month that manufacturing sales declined 1.5per cent in June, to their lowest level since November 2010.

Also on Wednesday South African President Jacob Zuma makes a state visit to Norway at the invitation of King Harald V. The two-day trip includes a wreath-laying ceremony at the National Monument and a meeting with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

In the UK, on Thursday, repatriations of deceased British troops move from RAF Lyneham to RAF Brize Norton. RAF Lyneham and the parade through the nearby town of Wootton Bassett have made the headlines with the dignified way locals have mourned the fallen.

In Thailand that same day, Chiranuch Premchaiporn, editor of the liberal news website Prachatai, has her trial for lese majeste offences recommence. It is alleged that Premchaiporn failed to screen comments on her website that were critical of the Thai royal family, and if convicted faces up to 20 years in prison.

Attention turns stateside on Friday, when a US district court decides whether to order a retrial of former baseball star Roger Clemens, who was accused of lying to Congress in 2008 when he denied using anabolic steroids. The original trial was declared a mistrial on 14 July.

In London on Saturday the far-right English Defence League are expected to demonstrate in the borough of Tower Hamlets, against what it sees as militant Islam. The march is expected to be banned by the Home Secretary, but the action group Unite Against Fascism has arranged a counter-protest against the EDL.

On Sunday the UN Special Representative on Somalia Augustine Mahiga convenes a conference in the east African nation to provide clear timelines and benchmarks for the Transitional Federal Institutions.

And in Germany there’s a test for Chancellor Merkel’s coalition when state elections take place in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with local elections coming under increasing scrutiny as a gauge of popularity for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.

According to Mediaforum, Elmira Akhundova, the author of the proposal told the Parliament on 1 February:

28 April is the birthday of prominent academician Zarifa Aliyeva. Azerbaijani people celebrate the birthday of Zarifa Aliyeva, who is the wife of Azerbaijan’s national leader Heydar Aliyev, with great respect. To designate her birthday as the Mothers’ Day would reflect people’s love towards Zarifa khanim as well as add a new public holiday to our calendar. This Mothers’ Day should be established and designated as a non-working day.

Academician Zarifa Aliyeva (1923-1985) was the wife of Azerbaijan’s third president Heydar Aliyev and the mother of the fourth, incumbent president, Ilham Aliyev.

The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan has already called this resolution an indirect pressure on Azerbaijani courts. "This action can be judged as unreasonable step that puts into question the independence, fairness and impartiality of the [Azerbaijani] judicial system providing indirect pressure on decision-making of the courts," Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said. 

The Parliament set up a commission to prepare a statement about the aforementioned EU resolution. The Speaker said that the EU adopted this resolution to pressure Azerbaijan’s position in negotiation process around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict; the Vice-Speaker called the resolution "the peak of injustice" while someone remarked that "it was prepared by Armenian diaspora."

Samad Seyidov, the Head of the Azeri delegation to PACE who also heads international relations commission of the Parliament proposed to reconsider Azerbaijan’s relations with EU:

According to MP Samad Seyidov, the forces that do not love Azerbaijan have become active. He considers that the resolution should be reacted in two manners.

"Protest should be expressed against the resolution. First of all, this resolution is connected with Azerbaijan’s leadership in the region. On the other hand, we should analyze our work. In what direction are we working with them? We should explain Azerbaijan’s importance for Europe in the language they understand. The resolution is biased," he said.

The commission prepared a letter of protest to EU Parliament which in turn was voted in the plenary session. According to Azeri Press Agency (APA), the Parliament called the EU resolution "an attempt to damage democratic image of Azerbaijan." Here is an excerpt in APA’s translation:

Azerbaijan is working together with the European Union and prefers democratic values.

Human rights protection is one of the country’s supreme goals. No one can make us avoid this way. Our future links with the democratic development. We hope that the European Parliament will not put aside the main tendencies of the country and not be based on the principle of generalization of the different exceptional cases, while reviewing the issues about Azerbaijan.

Proclaimed on 28 May, 1918 and overthrown by Russian Bolsheviks on 28 April, 1920, ADR maintained a true democracy: gave a suffrage to the women (1919) and the youth, long before the main European nations did; created a truly democratic parliament, where assigned MP quotas to almost all ethnic minorities, and even gave special representation to workers’ unions; and made preparation to summon the Constituent Assembly (alas, interrupted by the Russian Bolshevik invasion). Besides, ADR remained strictly committed to the parliamentary form of government, where the Council of Ministers was accountable to the parliament, and was dismissed in the case if it lost the confidence of the majority of MPs.

While all state, public and private TV channels preferred to broadcast exclusively cultural content with concerts and patriotic songs, Azeri youth and youth movements decided to mark the anniversary with various flash mobs. Throughout the city, young people wore T-Shirts with a letter of ADR initials and posed for photographs in groups to form a full picture – "A.D.R."

Some members of OL! Youth Movement drew an interesting graffiti dedicated to ADR:

And young members of oppositional parties paid a traditional visit to a remote Bakuvian village of Novkhani to lay flowers in front of a statue of Mammed Amin Rasul-zadeh, one of the founders of ADR. Despite Rasul-zadeh’s a prominent role in establishment and policies of the first Azerbaijani republic, his memory is in official exile in Azerbaijan. While his name was stripped from Baku State University (which he helped to found) and from school textbooks, and his image removed from national banknotes, the place in downtown where it was planned to erect a statue of him recently was occupied by a huge fountain.

Political Analyst based in Baku, Ilgar Mammadov has taken his daughter to the same fountain – in his words – to the statue of Rasul-zadeh that doesn’t exist.

However, as his 5-year-old daughter was waving Azerbaijani flag near the fountain, at least 8-9 policemen approached them and tried to prevent from further actions near the fountain.

Police has also harassed the youth who were engaged in flash mobs. As Ilgar Mammadov reports in his blog, police have detained three young people who had themselves photographed in ADR t-shirts near Baku’s famous Maiden Tower. According to Radio Free Euope/ Radio Liberty, this was not a single case – police have detained members of at least three youth movements, and it seems indiscriminately, as they have also rounded-up some people not engaged in flash mobs. Vugar Safarov from AN Network has told RFE/RL Azeri Service that they were detained while walking in downtown:

Policeman has approached us and demanded our IDs, and we gave them. Then they took us to 9th Police Division of Sabayel District. When we asked for the reason, they told us that they are investigating the reason. After a while one policemen said that we were planning a picket, thus they have detained us. One guy asked what picket is and the policeman answered that a flower picket. We declared that we were just marking the holiday. And they answered us that we should go and mark the holiday with a party.

This is not the first time when Baku police arrest young people while walking in the streets. 18 days ago they had arrested a group of youth who was trying to lay flowers in front of State Oil Academy, where a shooter gunned down 12 people, mostly students, before killing himself. The Government had refused to declare a mourning day in honour of the victims and proceeded with millions-dollar-worth Holiday of Flowers in honour of late Azeri president Heydar Aliyev, who is also the father of the incumbent Azeri President. When hundreds of youth and students took the streets to express their protest, police detained around 50 people, and just dispersed the protesters by force.

While foreign heads of states have sent their congratulations to the Azerbaijani government, "the young citizens of Azerbaijan" weren’t forgotten either. The International Federation of Liberal Youth issued a statement congratulating Azeri youth with the anniversary of ADR and expressed its support for "the liberal and democratic young people of Azerbaijan in their struggle for a more free and just society, as they are the rightful heirs of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic."

Also, three Secretary-Generals of the Young European Federalists, European Liberal Youth and International Federation of Liberal Youth respectively have posted in Facebook a photo of theirs wearing T-shirts with ADR initials. As one young Facebook user noted in exitement, this was the best Independence Day gift ever