The BBC News website looks at what could be dominating the headlines around the world this week - and offers some key background on those stories.
MONDAY 15 MAY
Saddam trial: Lawyers for the former Iraqi leader begin the defence case, after a three-week adjournment.
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N Ireland devolution: The Northern Ireland Assembly meets for the first time for nearly four years, with a six-week deadline from the UK government to elect an executive sharing powers between Nationalist and Unionist politicians.
Bush address: US President George W Bush gives a live television address in which he is expected to announce the deployment of the National Guard along the US-Mexico border to help combat illegal immigration.
Enron trial: Closing arguments in the fraud trial of former Enron chiefs Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, charged over the collapse of the energy giant in 2001.
TUESDAY 16 MAY
US mid-terms: Primary elections are held in Pennsylvania, a key state in the US mid-term polls in November.
Joining the EU: The European Commission decides on the timetable for Romania and Bulgaria to join the European Union. Bulgaria will be told it still has to take urgent measures to crack down on corruption and organised crime.
Cultural Revolution: It is 40 years since the first signal of Chairman Mao's disastrous purge of his rivals - a Communist Party denunciation of the then mayor of Beijing. Altogether about three million people were denounced and tens of thousands died in prison.
WEDNESDAY 17 MAY
Climate change row: Ministers from countries signed up to the Kyoto Protocol begin talks on how to extend it. But attention is likely to focus on the chairwoman, Canada's Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, after she proposed softening the terms of the accord.
Cannes Film Festival: Ken Loach's Irish Civil War film competes with Pedro Almodovar's Volver and Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette for the festival's prestigious Palme d'Or prize.
THURSDAY 18 MAY
Fiji elections: Results are due from the 5 May polls, which pitted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's Fijian-dominated SDL party against the predominantly ethnic Indian Labour party of Mahendra Chaudhry.
FRIDAY 19 MAY
Da Vinci Code screenings: The film of Dan Brown's blockbuster book goes on general release around the world, amid criticism from senior Catholic churchmen.
Glitter appeal: Former British glam rocker Gary Glitter begins his appeal in Vietnam against his three-year jail sentence for abusing underage girls.
SATURDAY 20 MAY
The dam is expected to generate 84.7b kwh of electricity annually
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Three Gorges dam: The builders of the world's biggest hydro-electric project, the dam across the Yangtze River in central China, finish construction of the massive concrete walls. Completion of the whole project is not scheduled until 2009.
New Orleans leadership: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is to face challenger Mitch Landrieu in a run-off election considered crucial to the hurricane-hit city's future.
Eurovision Song Contest: The final is in Athens this year. It has been in the headlines already, after Serbia-Montenegro withdrew because of a politically-charged dispute, and Finland chose a heavy metal band.
SUNDAY 21 MAY
Balkans referendum: Montenegro votes on whether to remain in the same state as Serbia. Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic backs independence, but opinion polls show the country divided on the issue.
This guide to the week ahead is not intended as an exhaustive list, and the events noted may be cancelled or postponed.
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