East and South Asia

The perpetrators of a now-notorious Delhi gang rape will be arraigned today.

More tension between Pakistan and India over the province of Kashmir.

Challenges ahead for Cambodia’s economy.

Blogger Alex Au will apologize, under some duress, for comments about Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Incoming South Korean president Park Guen-hye launches her official transition team.

66% of the Chinese population is now apparently boycotting Japanese products.

How to make the Bank of Japan an offer it can’t refuse.

North America

U.S. president Barack Obama will nominate former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, as the next defense senator.

Dan Drezner’s tour de force on Chuck Hagel and the Republican Party’s foreign policy.

Latin America / Caribbean

The New York Times profiles the personally austere president of Uruguay, José Mujica.

Diasdado Cabello is sworn in as speaker of Venezuela’s National Assembly, with all eyes on Hugo Chávez in advance of a January 10 inauguration.

Africa

Sudan president Omar al-Bashir and South Sudan president Salva Kiir of South Sudan have agreed to a buffer zone after Friday’s talks.

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi’s entry into the Kenyan presidential race brings problems for the two other frontrunners.

Ghanaian president John Dramani Mahama’s state-of-the-nation remarks on the eve of his swearing-in.

Europe

Ukraine’s far-right nationalist Svoboda party gets some notoriety.

Ireland’s Labour Party is undergoing a bit of a civil war.

More rumbling over Europe from U.K. prime minister David Cameron.

A new wave of trouble in Belfast.

Middle East

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu would welcome any of Israel’s five fractured center-left parties into a future governing coalition, though former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni and Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich are having constructive unity talks.

Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, once a frontrunner for the Egyptian presidency, remains suspicious of the ‘felool’ elements in the National Salvation Front.

A new Egyptian cabinet has been sworn in.