Monday 4 February

President Hollande, hosts US Vice President Joe Biden in Paris for talks on Monday, likely to be focused significantly on the mission in Mali, as well as the conflict in Syria. This follows talks between Biden and Russian Foreign Minister on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference. Biden’s next and final stop is London, where similar issues are likely to come up.

Europol, meanwhile, is scheduled to hold a press conference in the Netherlands to announce the results of its investigation into football match fixing.

Finally, there is talk of a three-way summit between Prime Minister David Cameron, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in London (confirmation pending).

Tuesday 5 February

On Tuesday, EU ministers are due to meet in Brussels to discuss the training mission to Mali, which could become operational as early as 12 February, according to its head Brigadier General Francois Lecointre.

Joe Biden, as mentioned earlier, is due to visit London where he will holds talks with Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Finally, French President Francois Hollande, is scheduled to address a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Wednesday 6 February

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague will be grilled on Britain’s relationship with the EU by MPs on Wednesday, when he appears before the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Hague’s cabinet colleague George Osborne, meanwhile, will join OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría at the launch of the OECD’s economic survey of the UK.

Finally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected in Paris to meet French leader Francois Hollande. The anticipated travel comes as the two nations’ football teams square up in a friendly match, which they may attend.

Thursday 7 February

In the US, President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the CIA, John Brennan, will be grilled in an open session of the Senate Intelligence Committee to consider his nomination. Republicans will no doubt focus on the 11 September attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Tripoli. While Democrats are more likely to be interested in drone attacks and extrajudicial killings (which, incidentally, are the subject of a UN inquiry launched last month).

Incoming Bank of England Governor Mark Carney will appear on Thursday before the UK Treasury Select Committee. The Canadian central banker has already been making waves ahead of his arrival, with provocative policy suggestions and expensive housing requirements.

Friday 8 February

On Friday Samuel Mullet, the delightfully-named leader of an Ohio Amish group found guilty last year of federal hate crimes after cutting off the beards of a rival group, is due to be sentenced alongside his co-defendants.

Also Friday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will be discussing prospects for growth in Europe at an event in Singapore.

Saturday 9 February

Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah are said to be planning to hold a further round of reconciliation talks in Cairo.

Images courtesy of ldambies / Frontpage / Shutterstock.com

January

Beyond the ‘fiscal cliff’ in the United States, there is plenty of international news taking place in January.

On 10 January, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is due to commence his third term in office amid increased concerns about his health. Concerns are exacerbated by his decision to nominate his Vice President and Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro to succeed him should anything happen to the firebrand former army colonel.

Barack Obama, meanwhile, is due to commence his second and final term as US President on 21 January when he delivers his inaugural address. Although there is a ceremonial swearing-in on the big day, he will actually take the office a day earlier in a private ceremony.

In Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be hoping to emerge victorious from parliamentary elections, due 22 January. Former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has returned to politics ahead of the poll, abandoning Kadima and founding a new party Hatnua.

Finally, in Addis Ababa, African leaders convene for the African Union’s leaders’ summit. They will have plenty to talk about, from Islamist militants in northern Mali, foreign backed militants in eastern DR Congo and ongoing tensions between Sudan and South Sudan, to name but a few.

February

Viewers worldwide will struggle to understand once again the rules of American Football when the Super Bowl takes place on 3 February. Expect much chat too about the adverts between the match’s interminable breaks.

On 10 February, it is the Chinese New Year, this year being the Year of Snake.

Ecuadorians will cast their votes in presidential and parliamentary elections on 17 February, with incumbent Rafael Correa seeking re-election.

Finally, the first part of the long-awaited civil trial over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010 is scheduled to begin 25 February.

March

Assuming he is re-elected, March will see Israeli Prime Minister travel to the United States to address the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference, the highlight of the influential lobby group’s calendar. Addresses by President Obama and his new Secretary of State are all but inevitable. The conference runs 3-5 March.

In the UK, the long-awaited Al-Sweady Inquiry is scheduled to open on 04 March. The inquiry relates to the detention of Iraqis on 14 May 2002 following a firefight at a vehicle checkpoint known as Danny Boy. Some 20 bodies were returned the following day but it is unclear how many were killed in the firefight.

Kenyans go to the polls to elect a new president on 04 March. Last time around, the election resulted in widespread violence as the then-incumbent Mwai Kibaki refused to concede to challenger Raila Odinga. The region will be hoping for a more peaceful process this time around.

Finally, back in the United States, Private First Class Bradley Manning’s court martial is scheduled to get underway over allegations that he was responsible for divulging vast swathes of confidential information to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

April

British Foreign Secretary William Hague will host his counterparts from the G8 on 10 April, with a summit following later in the year.

With global economic woes set to continue in 2013, the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings will see the world’s top financial experts convene in Washington DC from 19-21 April to discuss possible remedies. A slew of economic forecasts will come out in the days leading up to the formal meetings.

On 21 April, Paraguay holds presidential and legislative elections that follow the ousting of then-President Fernando Lugo in June 2012 over a botched operation to evict landless farmers from land they were occupying. The so-called ‘mini-coup’ was widely condemned by Paraguay’s regional neighbours.

May

An inquest opens 1 May into the death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died on 23 November 2006 in London after being poisoned with the now-infamous Polonium-210. Many suspect Russian governmental involvement.

On 8 May, Madagascans will elect a new President in delayed elections. Newsreaders will once again have to get their heads around such names as Marc Ravalomanana – the former President – and Antonanarivo – the island’s capital.

The Cannes Film Festival begins on 15 May, where Hollywood A-listers mix with unknown actors to compete for the prestigious Palm D’Or, which will be awarded on 26 May.

Finally, politics and entertainment collide on 18 May when the grand final of the Eurovision song contest takes place. The Swiss entry this year features a 94-year-old, yes, 94.

June

With Iran’s nuclear programme likely to feature prominently in 2013, amid talk of an impending Israeli attack, there will be intense interest in who will be elected to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president when vote opens on 14 June. In reality, the outcome is unlikely to make much difference since the country’s nuclear policy is widely thought to be controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Three days later, on 17 June, the G8 summit takes place in Northern Ireland, hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron. It represents a historic moment for the once-troubled province.

Finally, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, turns 31 on 21 June. Of course, this will be dwarfed by interest in the Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy, which will have reached hysterical levels by this point. Expect wall-to-wall coverage.

Images courtesy of Mark III Photonics / Shutterstock.com

By Nicole Hunt

Foreign Secretary William Hague visits Moscow on Monday for talks with Sergey Lavrov. The meeting, which always has the potential to be a bit awkward when it comes to Syria and bilateral issues, will likely focus primarily on Iran, as Moscow agreed last week to host the next round of P5+1 nuclear talks on 18-19 June.

Back in London, radical cleric Abu Qatada faces a bail hearing as he continues to fight against attempts to deport him to stand trial in Jordan. Qatada was arrested on 17 April after Home Secretary Theresa May received assurances from Jordan regarding his trial there in order to bring his deportation in line with the European Convention on Human Rights. The ECHR ruled in January that Qatada could not be deported because there was a risk that evidence obtained through the torture of a third party would be used at his trial, but rejected claims that he also faced risk of ill-treatment and lengthy pre-trial detention.

The African National Congress has called for a demonstration outside the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg on Tuesday to protest the gallery’s display of Brett Murray’s painting The Spear, which depicts President Jacob Zuma’s genitalia. The gallery actually closed on 22 May after two men destroyed the painting by slathering it in red and black paint, but Zuma is continuing legal action in an attempt to ban the painting from being reproduced in newspapers and online. The Sudanese and South Sudanese governments are due to resume negotiations in Addis Ababa on border security, ongoing violence in border regions, citizenship and oil revenues, under the auspices of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), chaired by former South African President Thabo Mbeki. Sporadic negotiations have been interrupted and delayed by ongoing military action by both sides, which have threatened to reignite the countries decades-long civil war less than a year after South Sudan gained independence.

What do Madeleine Albright, Bob Dylan and Toni Morrison have in common? All of them will be among those awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama at a ceremony in Washington, honouring their contributions to the security and national interests of the United States, world peace, or culture. Israeli President Shimon Peres is also honoured, but will not be in attendance.

To the courts on Wednesday: the Special Court for Sierra Leone, sitting at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, hands down the sentence for former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was convicted on 26 April of 11 charges, including crimes against humanity, violations of Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, and other serious violations of humanitarian law. The prosecution has called for an 80-year sentence for the 64-year-old, while his defence team have argued against him serving any sentence in a British jail, which they say would constitute a ‘punishment within a punishment’.

Speaking of the British justice system, the Supreme Court issues its ruling on the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was arrested in December 2010 on a European Arrest Warrant requested by Swedish police, who want to question him about allegations of sexual misconduct. Assange has been slowly making his way through the UK courts ever since, having had his extradition to Sweden approved by lower courts and appeals rejected.

The European Commission issues its annual economic recommendations for member states in Brussels, which include structural reforms to be implemented within the next 12-18 months. The recommendations come on the same day that France releases its latest unemployment data, another indicator for new President Francois Hollande of the economic situation he’s just taken over.

Neither of those is likely to be the big EU story of the week though, with Ireland’s referendum on the new Fiscal Stability Treaty taking place on Thursday. Though polls show that the ‘Yes’ campaign is in the lead, between a quarter and a third of voters are still undecided, with Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brian Hayes recently saying that the vote will be ‘much tighter than people think’. The result is announced on Friday.

The annual four-day Bilderberg Conference – which, despite its extremely secretive nature seems to always have at least its date and venue leaked to the transparency activists and conspiracy theorists that hound it – kicks off in Chantilly, Virginia on Thursday. Mario Monti, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger and the Queens of Spain and the Netherlands are among guests rumoured to be attending, as well as Josef Ackermann, who steps down from his 10-year role as chief executive of Deutsche Bank on the same day.

Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his first official foreign visits since taking office, meeting with Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus on Thursday before travelling to Germany and France for meetings with Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande on Friday. Putin raised eyebrows by choosing not to go to the G8 and NATO summits in the US earlier this month, opting instead to send Dmitry Medvedev, so his first meetings with Barack Obama and David Cameron won’t come until the G20 summit in Mexico on 18 June.

Bulgaria’s recently-approved smoking ban comes into effect Friday, prohibiting smoking in all indoor public spaces, including restaurants, bars, cafes, and stadiums during sporting and cultural events, as well as outside nurseries and schools. The ban has been criticised by restaurateurs and bar owners, who say it will hurt business and cause job losses as smokers stay away, but heath authorities are hoping it contributes to a drop in the number of smokers in the country, which includes around 40% of all adults.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies’ annual Shangri-La Dialogue begins in Singapore, bringing together defence ministers from the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delivers the keynote address, while US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta uses the meeting a springboard for a week-long Asian trip, which will see him visit Vietnam and India.

The verdict in the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal is due on Saturday. The former leader was tried for premeditated murder and attempted murder in connection with the deaths of over 800 protesters during the country’s January 2011 revolution, while his sons were charged with profiteering, using th
eir positions for illicit gains, and squandering public funds. The prosecutor in the case has asked for the death penalty if Mubarak is convicted, though delays and accusations of stalling from the interior ministry during the trial mean that the outcome of the case is anything but certain.

Italy’s three largest trade unions have called for a mass demonstration against the government’s economic policy in Rome. The protest coincides with Republic Day, which the unions say marks the birth of a Republic ‘founded on labour’ a concept which has been ‘disregarded’ by the government.

The Organization of American States’ annual General Assembly begins in Cochabamba, Bolivia on Sunday. It is currently unclear whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will attend, as he’s been keeping a low profile while undergoing and recovering from cancer treatments; but if he does, he’s unlikely to be very popular, having recently called for Venezuela to withdraw from the OAS’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, likening it to a ‘sword of Damocles’.

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 

The week starts off with a bang as humankind hits a big milestone on Monday – the UN is marking the day as the moment the world’s population surpasses seven billion people.

A deadline set by the Arab League two weeks ago for Syrian President Bashar al Assad to open dialogue with the Syrian opposition council expires. Syria risks expulsion from the regional bloc over concerns at the rising death toll from nine months of action against anti-government protesters, which has already topped 3,000.

With Cannes off-limits to all but world leaders, the traditional anti-G20 rally is being held in Nice on Tuesday. The demonstration kicks off a four-day ‘alternative summit’, with many of the world’s biggest NGOs expected to be in attendance.

The two-day London Conference on Cybersecurity begins in London, with Foreign Secretary William Hague, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales all scheduled to speak.

Turkey hosts the Istanbul Conference for Afghanistan on Wednesday, focusing on security and cooperation in the heart of Asia; Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai are among those attending. While the Conference could have been lost in the build up to the G20, Karzai’s expected announcement of the next areas where Afghan security forces will take control from NATO is bound to keep it in the headlines.

Of course the G20 itself kicks off on Thursday, though it wouldn’t be surprising if many of the European leaders involved are quite sick of seeing each other – for some, this will be their third meeting in 12 days.

While the G20 leaders are discussing the world’s financial problems, the European Central Bank’s Governing Council will be holding the first of its two meetings this month. The meeting is the first chaired by former Italian Central Bank Governor Mario Draghi, who replaces Jean-Claude Trichet as ECB President on 1 November.

The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca begins on Friday. The five-day festival has in recent years attracted nearly two million foreign pilgrims, making it the largest pilgrimage in the world. Muslims who have the means to make the journey are required to do so at least once during their lifetime.

The Mars500 simulated mission to Mars ‘returns’ to Earth at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. The crew members have been in an isolation chamber for 17 months, even performing several simulated spacewalks during their journey.

Italy’s Partido Democratico holds a pro-democracy, anti-Berlusconi rally in Rome on Saturday. The opposition party is using the occasion to launch its proposals for the reconstruction of the world’s economy and an alternative to Silvio Berlusconi’s embattled government.

In Cape Town, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, an international tribunal investigating Israeli complicity in human rights abuses against Palestinians, opens its South African evidence session, with opening remarks from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and an address from Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

The week closes with two Central American elections. In Guatemala, Otto Perez Molino of the Partido Patriota faces off against Manuel Baldizon of the Libertad Democratica Renovada party in a presidential run-off. Molina won 13 per cent more of the vote in the 11 September first round election.

Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, incumbent President Daniel Ortega is eligible for a second term following an October 2009 decision by the country’s Supreme Court that removed constitutional obstacles that would have prevented him from standing again. Voters also elect members to the country’s parliament.