The Week Ahead

The new Coffee Party movement in the US is scheduled to host its National Coffee Summit. The party, born on Facebook to counter the conservative Tea Party movement, will celebrate in hundreds of cafes across the country.

Jeremy Clarkson, inset below, will hit the big 5-0 as he celebrates his birthday.

MONDAY

The TaxPayers' Alliance, a right-wing lobby, will take a lorry– mounted debt clock on a 1,300-mile tour of Britain. The clock ticks as the government borrows more cash.

Jade Goody's widower, Jack Tweed, will go on trial for rape.

Police and justice powers will be formally devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

TUESDAY

Sikhs will mark New Year.

Royal Mail is scheduled to issue a set of mammal-themed stamps.

Scottish rail workers due to go on 48-hour strike.

The 2010 Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy meeting is scheduled to be held at the University of Glasgow.

Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney will mark his 71st birthday.

A much-awaited unauthorised biography of Oprah Winfrey will be published, with an initial print run of 500,000.

WEDNESDAY

A 17-year-old boy will be sentenced for the manslaughter of his baby daughter. Joshua Bacon, of St Helens, left his seven-week-old daughter Caitlyn Smith with severe head injuries after visiting her in hospital, where she was being treated for an infection.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp is scheduled to appear in court accused of a 40,000 tax evasion. Redknapp, 62, has been jointly charged with two counts of cheating the public revenue with Milan Mandaric, the former chairman of Portsmouth City FC, the club Redknapp used to manage.

THURSDAY

Rail workers to demonstrate outside the Scottish Parliament.

Britain's first prime ministerial debate will be shown live on ITV. Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and David Cameron will be refereed by news anchor Alastair Stewart.

Serial killer Peter Tobin will appeal against his life sentence in Edinburgh.

The last batch of tickets for the World Cup in South Africa will go on sale.

North Korea will celebrate its biggest holiday of the year: Sun day, the birthday of its leader, Kim Il-sung.

FRIDAY

Legal high Mephedrone will be banned.

Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne will appear in court in Yorkshire on drink-driving charges.

Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright will play Edinburgh's Usher Hall.

Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate his 83rd birthday at the Vatican City in Rome.

The Chinese Grand Prix begins.

Glasgow's fourth biennial International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art is scheduled to take place.

SATURDAY

The Scottish Grand National will be held in Ayr.

UK adventurer and environmental campaigner Roz Savage is scheduled to set off into the history books as the first woman to row solo across the Pacific. She will leave from Kiribati, to cross the 2000 miles (around 1m oarstrokes) to Cairns, Australia.

The World Snooker Championship will begin in Sheffield.

Victoria Beckham will mark her 36th birthday.