A round up of world news in the week ahead from journalist resource ForesightNews.

Monday 17 December

Monday marks two years since Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation, an act of protest that that inspired millions to challenge the status quo across the Middle East. Two years on, despite regime change in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, the continuing unrest in countries such as Syria, Egypt and Bahrain suggests the region’s upheaval has some time to run yet.

In North Korea, they will be marking the first anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-Il. The successful satellite launch last week means there is considerably less pressure on his son Kim Jong-un as he completes his first year at the helm of the secretive communist state.

Meanwhile, a hearing is due to take place in Milan in Silvio Berlusconi’s trial over his alleged sexual exploits with Moroccan dancer Karima el Mahroug. Ruby, as she is also known, was supposed to be testifying at the hearing but is in Mexico with no plans to return until next month.

Gujarat in Western India holds the second and final phase of its assembly elections. The state is led by Narendra Modi of the BJP and his expected re-election would bolster his case for one day becoming India’s Prime Minister. Counting takes place on 20 December.

Finally, in Washington DC,  the IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde is due to submit a report to member’s of the fund’s board on actions taken by Argentina to address serious concerns about the reliability of its official growth and inflation data. The fund has warned Kristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s government that failure to adequately address concerns could result in ‘additional measures’ being taken by the fund.

Tuesday 18 December

On Tuesday, imprisoned former Ukranian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is due back in court facing charges of embezzlement dating back to the 1990s. Convicted of abuse of power in October last year, she is currently awaiting the judgement of an appeal lodged with the European Court of Human Rights, which may be handed down as early as this month.

In The Hague, the International Criminal Court is scheduled to hand down its judgement in the case of Congolese militia leader Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, who stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Lastly, in the United States, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is due to speak at the National Press Club about challenges facing America’s military.

Wednesday 19 December

Wednesday is election day in South Korea. Leading candidates to replace Lee Myung-bak are Park Geun-hye of the incumbent New Frontier party, and Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic United party. Whether North Korea’s successful launch has an impact on the presidential poll remains to be seen; both figures have vowed to take a more conciliatory approach with Pyongyang than that taken under President Lee.

In France, an appeal court is due to decide whether or not pursue its investigation into suggestions that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF head and one-time French presidential contender, was involved in a prostitution ring. This follows last week’s settlement in New York of the civil case brought against Strauss-Kahn by Sofitel employee Nafissatou Diallo.

French President Francois Holland is due to begin an official a two-day visit to Algeria, where he is to meet his counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

In New York, the UN Security Council will have plenty to talk about at its regular monthly meeting on the Middle East.

Finally, there are further protests planned in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires against Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s policies.

Thursday 20 December

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to hold an annual press conference where is likely to face questions on a raft of issues, not least his position on Syria as Russia appears to be distancing itself from Bashar al Assad’s regime.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, still holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, is due to speak to supporters.

Friday 21 December

On Friday, US President Barack Obama is scheduled to head to Hawaii, where he plans to spend the holidays with the First Family. However, it remains to be seen whether the impasse over fiscal cliff negotiations ends up forcing the president to stay in DC. As the New Year deadline looms, partisanship in the US capital shows no sign of abating.

In Italy, Mario Monti is due to hold his end of year press conference. He has vowed to step down as Prime Minister once he has pushed through next year’s budget, with elections now expected in February. It remains to be seen whether Silvio Berlusconi’s announcement that he plans to seek to lead Italy once more is enough to change Mr Monti’s mind.

Finally, Vladimir Putin is due to travel to Brussels for the EU-Russia summit.

Saturday 22 December

On Saturday, Egyptians are due to vote in the second phase of a referendum on the country’s new constitution, with opponents of President Mohamed Morsi urging people to reject the new constitution. Regardless of the result, more unrest seems certain.

Sunday 23 December

Finally, Japan’s Emperor Akihito turns 79 on Sunday. He traditionally meets with reporters on his birthday, and may be asked about regional tensions.

Some images courtesy of fotostory / Shutterstock.com.

 "There are not many films about Ukraine," she said, "It’s an unknown country."  

"History will judge Yuschenko most harshly [as] a huge disappointment."  

"His speeches were still as brilliant," an analyst recounted in Emery’s film, "but his actions dwindled to nothing."  

"That is the main danger of Ukraine," Lutsevych said, "if we don’t have rule of law."

"They all know about politics [Compared to British youth who seem to know less about politics]. They all have great English […] in Ukraine, they all know about it.  It’s incredible!"

"That hasn’t worked in Belarus!"  He added, "democratization can only happen by Ukrainians."  

By Nicole Hunt

The World Health Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review both open in Geneva on Monday. The WHA, which runs until 26 May, is due to agree on a Draft Global Vaccine Action Plan, while the UNHRC, which runs until 4 June, is due to consider the human rights situation in Bahrain, Tunisia, Morocco, India, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and the UK, among others.

Following talks between the IAEA and Iranian officials last week, IAEA Director General Yukia Amano heads to Tehran to meet with Secretary of the Supreme National Council Saeed Jalili and other senior government officials. The visit comes two days before Iran is due to resume talks with its P5+1 partners in Baghdad on Wednesday.

Imprisoned Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko’s trial for embezzlement resumes in Kharkiv. Tymoshenko’s appeal trial for her earlier conviction on abuse of power charges was abruptly postponed last week to give the court more time to study new material. Awkwardly for Ukraine, that decision means that her next hearing on 26 June will take place during the Euro 2012 tournament, guaranteeing even more international attention.

Italy’s national statistics agency releases its annual report on the state of the nation on Tuesday, which in all likelihood is not going to be particularly positive. The report looks at socio-economic developments in the past 20 years, focusing on inequalities in the economic system, and considers prospects for the country’s economic future.

Other than that, Tuesday is all about big court dates. The European Court for Human Rights issues its judgement in the long-running case of Scoppola v. Italy, which considers prisoners’ voting rights in the EU.  In Port Louis, Mauritius, two men go on trial for the January 2011 murder of Northern Irish honeymooner Michaela McAreavey, daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte.

In Ventersdorp, South Africa, the verdict is due in the case of two men, one of them an unnamed teenager, who are charged with the April 2010 murder of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre’blanche. And in Manama, a court hearing is scheduled in the re-trial of 21 activists charged with attempting to overthrow the monarchy, including hunger striker Abdulhadi al Khawaja,

After months of protests over military rule and weeks of legal wrangling over candidates and the election itself, Egypt’s presidential election is finally set to go ahead on Wednesday. Former Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa and moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh are front-runners in the campaign, which has seen several candidates disqualified. Voting continues on Saturday, with a second round scheduled for 16-17 June.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy hosts an informal meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, the first for French President Francois Hollande and presumably the only meeting for Greece’s caretaker Prime Minister Panagotis Pikrammenos, who is keeping an eye on things while Greece prepares for new elections on 17 June. EU growth and ongoing political uncertainty are expected to dominate the agenda.

The European Parliament wraps up its four day session in Strasbourg on Thursday with a vote on a resolution regarding the situation in Ukraine and Yulia Tymoshenko. MEPs actually debate the resolution on Tuesday, but any official censure of the Ukrainian government will have to wait until today’s vote. Parliametnarians also vote on a resolution on the fight against homophobia in Europe.

Amnesty International launches its annual State of the World’s Human Rights report in London. Last year’s report focused on the use of new technologies to combat human rights abuses throughout the world, and particularly in the Middle East. This year’s update will allow us to see how or if human rights have progressed in those same countries, many of them under new governments or constitutions.

The Square Kilometre Array Organisation, which is responsible for deciding whether the €1.5bn telescope will be built in Australia or South Africa, meets in Amsterdam on Friday. A decision on the site had been expected in April, but the SKA instead set up a working group to look at maximising value from the investments made by both candidates. A final decision could be made at Friday’s meeting…or the members could instead decide to go away and think about it some more.

The UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries wraps up a five-day visit to Libya, the first to the country by independent experts designated by the UN Human Rights Council. A press conference is planned in Tripoli to discuss the Group’s preliminary findings regarding allegations about the use of mercenaries during last year’s conflict and an assessment of the measures taken by the Libyan government to address the issue and its aftermath.

The African nation of Lesotho is holding parliamentary elections on Saturday, hoping to choose a functioning government and avoid the years of political deadlock that followed polls in 2007. Prime Minister Mosisili Pakalitha recently made waves by defecting from the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy, opting instead to create the Ntsu Democratic Congress.

Fans of Europop, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Central Europe are in for a treat, as Baku, Azerbaijan hosts the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. Organisers have come under fire for holding this year’s contest in Baku despite strong criticisms of Azerbaijan’s human rights record and allegations that a park adjacent to the Baku Crystal Palace (where the contest is held) was created by illegally evicting homeowners and expropriating the land.

Nepal’s MPs have until Sunday to promulgate a new constitution, which was originally due in May 2010. The deadline has been repeatedly extended over the past two years, but lawmakers recently announced that they had come to an agreement on some of the most contentious issues, raising hopes that Sunday’s deadline may be the last.

In other international parliamentary news, Iran’s new parliament is sche
duled to begin a new session, with a customary opening speech from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini. Following elections in March, the new parliament includes nearly 200 new MPs and is dominated by conservatives, many of them opposed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which means Ahmadinejad could once again find himself hauled before parliament for questioning.

By Nicole Hunt

All eyes will be on newly-elected French President François Hollande and the euro zone this week, kicking off with a meeting of euro group finance ministers in Brussels on Monday ahead of a wider ECOFIN meeting on Tuesday. Hollande has previously talked about renegotiating the EU stability treaty, but with his government not quite officially in office yet, the mood at the meetings is likely to be somewhat uncertain.

Gulf leaders gather in Riyadh for the annual Gulf Cooperation Council summit on Monday, with Syria and Iran likely to feature prominently on the agenda. The leaders of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also expected to discuss proposals for a political federation that would see the group share foreign and defence policies, according to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal.

In Vienna, Iran begins two days of talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The talks follow IAEA visits to Iran in January and February this year, and come ahead of the resumption of P5+1 discussions in Baghdad on 23 May.

Tuesday is the big day! Hollande is sworn in as President at the Elysée Palace in Paris in the morning, and one of his first orders of business will be to fly to Berlin to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Meanwhile, France’s national statistics institute releases preliminary figures for quarterly growth, job creation and labour activity, which will give the new president a better idea of the current state of the economy. On top of that, Greek, German and euro zone first quarter GDP figures are also out.

If anyone doesn’t feel like discussing European economic prospects, they might be interested to know that Germany’s other favourite subject is also in the news, as the Kiev Court of Appeal holds a hearing for jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of abuse of power in October; she also faces a separate trial for embezzlement, which resumes in Kharkiv on 21 May. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, meanwhile, is expected to be in Moscow to attend an informal meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States, hosted by new President Vladimir Putin.

In Nairobi, United Nations Development Programme administrator Helen Clark launches the first African Human Development Report, which focuses on food security on the continent.

Wednesday’s Hollande-story-of-the-day: the new President chairs his first cabinet meeting, at which he’s expected to announce a cut in his own salary, as well as those of his ministers. The cabinet won’t be the only ones earning less money in France, as Hollande is expected to work quickly to introduce one of his most popular election pledges: a 75% tax on earnings over €1 million.

Aside from that, there’s a lot happening in Dutch courts. The Assen District Court is due to rule on a petition filed by the public prosecutor to dissolve and ban the Martijn organisation, which lobbies for the social acceptance of sexual relationships between adults and children.

At the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, former Bosnian Serb Army Commander Ratko Mladic goes on trial facing 11 counts of criminal responsibility and superior criminal responsibility for genocide, complicity in genocide, persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, inflicting terror upon civilians, cruel treatment, attacks on civilians and taking hostages.

Over at The Hague’s special trial chamber for the Special Court for Sierra Leone (which otherwise sits in Freetown), a sentencing hearing takes place for former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was convicted of crimes against humanity on 26 April. Following submissions from both sides, Taylor will be sentenced on 30 May.

Thursday is looking relatively quiet, so far. The official Handover Ceremony for the Olympic Torch takes place at the Panatheanic Stadium in Athens, following an eight-day torch relay around Greece, with Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Princess Anne among those in attendance.

In Chicago, NATO spokesman James Appathurai is due to participate in a debate with Andy Thayer of the Coalition Against the NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda. The debate is part of NATO’s efforts to ‘reach out’ and ‘exchange views’ with activists, who have planned a week of protest events ahead of the weekend summit.

The two-day G8 Summit begins at Camp David on Friday, with US President Barack Obama playing host. The meeting is Hollande’s big international debut, but one person he won’t be meeting there is Putin, who has opted to skip the summit and send Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in his place.

Facebook is widely expected to launch its stock flotation on Friday, following a cross-country roadshow to drum up interest – which has been either weaker or stronger than expected, according to various sources. The company has been valued at up to $100 billion, and is reportedly making around $11 billion in shares available in its first offering.

The Queen is hosting a jubilee lunch for other sovereign monarchs, which normally wouldn’t be notable to anyone besides royal-watchers, but the potential guest list has come under scrutiny as of late. King Hamad of Bahrain is rumoured to be among the invitees, despite ongoing human rights and security issues in the country, which have been criticised by the Foreign Office.

The G8 Summit continues on Saturday, when we can expect the final communiqué to be released , but otherwise it’s looking like another quiet day. Baby Milk Action holds its annual Boycott Nestlé demonstration at the company’s Croydon headquarters, protesting against ‘aggressive’ and ‘unethical’ marketing of baby milk formula in developing countries.

Most of the G8 leaders will make their way from Camp David to Chicago on Sunday for another two days of meetings, this time to discuss NATO.  Since the G8 Summit was moved from Chicago, preventing any large protests from getting near the meeting, the biggest demonstrations are also scheduled for Sunday.

Three elections taking place on Sunday:  a presidential vote in the Dominican Republic, where Danilo Medina and Hipolito Meja are vying to replace Leonel Fernandez Reyna, who is stepping down; a runoff in the Serbian presidential election, which saw incumbent Boris Tadic narrowly beat his main challenger Tomislav Nikolic on 6 May; and the runoff votes for the municipal elections in Italy, following the first round of voting on 6-7 May.

Finally, Google’s annual top-secret Zeitgeist Conference takes place in London. According to a leaked schedule obtained by Forbes in April, speakers include former US President Bill Clinton, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, Independent chairman Evgeny Lebedev, former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow, BBC’s Paul Mason, and, er, Annie Lennox and Arsène Wenger.