East and South Asia

Chinese growth has slowed to a 7.8% rate, which is its lowest in 13 years, though that rate would make any U.S. president cry for joy.

More about Tahirul Qadri and his Pakistani crusade.

More on Park Guen-hye’s transition in South Korea.

North America

U.S. House Republicans may cave in order to have a traditional government shutdown fight.

Latin America / Caribbean

Chile’s Mapuche people achieve a voice.

Africa

Disaster in Algeria.

A Zimbabwe deal over the constitution?

Andry Rajoelina steps aside in Madagascar elections.

The Cord Alliance’s Raila Odinga leads the Jubilee Alliance’s Uhuru Kenyatta 51% to 39% in Kenya.

Europe

Former finance minister George Papaconstantinou is in trouble on the ‘Lagarde list.’

UK prime minister David Cameron cancels his EU speech.

Czech presidential candidate Karel Schwarzenberg seems to be running against the incumbent as well.

Italian technocratic prime minister Mario Monti is a bit squeamish about embracing gay marriage.

Middle East

Washington recognizes Mogadishu.

Turmoil in Egypt over upcoming parliamentary elections.

Tzipi Livni calls for a unity government.

East and South Asia

Pakistan’s election will come on or before May 6.

Pakistan and India will de-escalate tensions over Kashmir.

Hong Kong chief executive Chun-ying Leung addresses housing.

In advance of June elections in Malaysia.

North America

Current U.S. deputy national security adviser Denis McDonough is set to become the Obama administration’s fourth permanent chief of staff.

Latin America / Caribbean

President Evo Morales wants to bring more tourists to Bolivia.  [Spanish]

Venezuela will face a post-Chávez economic hangover.

Grenada goes to the polls on February 19.

Africa

What The Washington Post thinks you need to know about Mali. h/t Andrew Novak.

Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor would like his pension, please.

Tensions arise over a successor to Uganda’s president since 1986, Yoweri Museveni.

Europe

Germany wants its gold back.

Austria is holding a referendum on mandatory national service on January 20.

Vince Cable, perhaps the UK’s most beloved Liberal Democratic leader, warns coalition leader David Cameron on Europe from the left.

Methinks UK Labour leader Ed Miliband is not the second coming of Margaret Thatcher. But who am I to judge?

French tanks head towards northern Mali.

Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate has a new state premier.

Middle East

Tajikistan has blocked access to Facebook.

A third week of escalating protests against the Iraqi government.

East and South Asia

Pakistan’s Supreme Court, in its latest volley over corruption charges against the president, has ordered the arrest of prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka gets a controversial new chief justice.

A crackdown on bloggers in Vietnam.

India and Pakistan are still fighting over Kashmir.

South Korea is also dealing with extraordinary smog.

North America

U.S. president Barack Obama to back additional gun control measures in the United States.

Layoffs for Cirque de Soleil?

Latin America / Caribbean

Former vice president and failed chavista candidate for Miranda state governor Elías Jaua will be the new Venezuelan foreign minister.

Vice president Nicolás Maduro gives the Venezuelan state-of-the-nation speech.

The first outbreak of cholera in Cuba in decades.

Guatamalan president Otto Pérez Molina’s approval rating hits 70%.

Africa

Konna, that strategic town in Mali, may, uhhh, have been recaptured by Islamists?

Kenya’s three top coalitions are set to nominate on Thursday their presidential candidates for March 4 elections.

Europe

Georgia’s top two leaders had a conversation last night during the Orthodox New Year celebrations (pictured above).

Greece’s government stands firm in the face of anti-ND violence.

The governing Civic Democrats have endorsed Karel Schwarzenberg for Czech president. The Social Democrats are still pondering an endorsement.

Right-wing Tories are warning UK prime minister David Cameron not to buckle on the UK’s role in Europe.

Technocratic prime minister Mario Monti calls former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi the ‘pied piper’ of Italian politics.

Middle East

A new election law seems unlikely before Lebanon’s summer elections.

Jeffrey Goldberg breaks an Obama criticism of Israel, and Likud accuses the U.S. president of interference in Israeli elections.

Israeli forces killed a 17-year-0ld Palestinian youth in the West Bank.

Saudi Arabia jails Egyptian human rights lawyer.

Qatar prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani says he won’t let Egypt go bankrupt.

On Egyptian water policy.

The link between Bahrain’s repression and U.S. arms.

An independent Iraqi Kurdish state?

Global

The World Elections blog looks to the 2013 elections.

East and South Asia

Understanding Tahir-ul Qadri’s march on Islamabad.

A guide to the seven candidates running for Bangkok governor.

South Korean president-elect Park Guen-hye’s transition team hits a snag.

Ai Weiwei dons a gas mask (pictured above) to protest Beijing’s latest smog attack.

North America

Vice President Joe Biden is getting some serious credit these days.

Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig on the prosecutorial bullying of Aaron Swartz.

The race for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party enters its final stretch with Sandra Pupatello in the lead for now.

Latin America / Caribbean

FARC’s ceasefire is set to end January 20 with talks ongoing with the Colombian government in Cuba.

Buenos Aires governor Daniel Scioli rebuffs Argentina president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner over foreign currency reserves.  [Spanish]

Africa

A permanent ceasefire in the Central African Republic.

Le Monde considers the divisions of Mali.

Mali’s Info Matin on the French intervention.  [French]

Europe

UK prime minister David Cameron tackles his country’s role in the European Union.

Iceland suspends talks to join the European Union in advance of elections in April.

Why Russia’s stirring doubts about a European bailout for Cyprus, and an interview with the Cypriot finance minister.

How France came to wage war in Mali.  Former prime minister Dominique de Villepin is pessimistic. Charlemagne‘s take.

France’s government will proceed with a push for same-sex marriage despite protests over the weekend.

Germany’s SPD challenger for chancellor, Peer Steinbrück, is not doing so well.

A trial of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on charges of paying for sex with an underage prostitute will proceed, notwithstanding the February 24-25 elections.

Middle East

A retrial for former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

East and South Asia

What Burma can learn from Chile.

At least 93 Pakistanis have died in a bomb blast in Quetta.

More stimulus for Japan.

North America

The 2013 nominees for the Academy Awards.

California governor Jerry Brown proposes a state budget with a surplus.

Latin America / Caribbean

Grenada is headed for early elections.

Venezuela holds a presidential inauguration without its president.

Africa

More pressure on Zimbabwe from South African president Jacob Zuma?

Europe

Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem remains the favorite to head the Euro Group.

The Czech presidential campaign is winding down.

Artur Mas continues to agitate for Catalan independence.

Middle East

A rare snowstorm in the Levant in pictures (Baalbek in Lebanon pictured above).

Is Israeli politics necessarily shifting rightward?

The latest poll in Israel has good news for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Egypt also has a new central bank governor.

Photo credit to STR/AFP/Getty Images.

East and South Asia

Tensions continue to heat up between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir border.

Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying has survived an impeachment hearing.

Trouble for Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra with two months to go in his reelection bid.

The fight over rare earth metals.

North America

No one knows what will happen with the ominously looming debt ceiling fight in February, but some people are certainly anxious about the signature (pictured above) of likely U.S. treasury secretary nominee Jack Lew.

Remembering the 100th anniversary of former U.S. president Richard Nixon’s birth.

One Log Cabin Republican quits over the LGBT group’s attacks on U.S. defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel.

Latin America / Caribbean

Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice rules that president Hugo Chávez need not re-take the oath of office.

The three worst countries in which you could be born in Latin America. [Spanish]

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva may be investigated in an ongoing vote-buying scandal.

Africa

Violence in Tana delta puts Kenya on edge.

Europe

John Sfakianakis shares reflections in Foreign Policy on the economic depression in Greece.

The Swiss Central Bank is engaged in an edgy strategy to maintain the Swiss franc’s value.

The United States tells the United Kingdom to stop edging toward a potential exit from the European Union.

The latest on the Lower Saxony state elections.

Klaus Wowereit’s days are numbered as Berlin mayor, Der Spiegel argues.

Middle East

Egypt’s upcoming parliamentary elections will probably be in April.  Maybe.

Youssef Makhioun will lead the Salafist and incredibly conservative Al-Nour Party, which currently holds the second-largest number of seats in Egypt’s parliament, into those elections.

Global

Maplecroft charts political risk and hot spots in 2013.

The world’s population may decline in coming years.

The always-insightful World Elections gives us the top 10 elections of 2012.

East and South Asia

Longtime lawmaker Moon Hee-sang will become the emergency leader of South Korea’s Democratic United Party.

Foreign Policy considers India’s new direct-benefit transfer policy.

More on the LDP’s planned stimulus for Japan’s economy.

North America

On the expiration of the U.S. payroll tax holiday.

Arguments for and against the ‘platinum coin’ solution.

Latin America / Caribbean

Although president Hugo Chávez will miss his swearing-in on January 10, the Venezuelan National Assembly has voted to allow him to remain in Cuba for cancer treatment indefinitely.

Africa

M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have declared a ceasefire.

More ICC woes for Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto.

Former Ghanaian president John Kufuor weighs in on the NPP’s court challenge to the December 2012 presidential vote.

Europe

French far-right Front national leader Marine Le Pen is scolding the West on its pro-rebel stance in Syria.

The eurozone unemployment rate reaches a new high of 11.8%.

Fully 50% of Scots oppose independence, while just 32% support it, according to a new poll.

Middle East

Libya’s liberals have withdrawn from the national assembly over delays in drafting the country’s constitution.

Possible early elections in Iraq.

Australia

A heat wave sends temperature from red-hot to purple-hot (pictured above), and causes alarm among environmentalists.

East and South Asia

The chief minister of Jharkhand state in India has called for the dissolution of the state assembly.

North America

Five groups with knives out for former U.S. senator and now, nominee for U.S. defense secretary, Chuck Hagel.

Latin America / Caribbean

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez remains, apparently, in stable condition two days before his scheduled re-inauguration.

Africa

John Mahama is sworn in for his first full term as Ghana’s president.

Europe

The Lega Nord (Northern League) has agreed to form a center-right coalition with Silvio Berlusconi’s party, Il Popolo della Libertà (the People of Freedom), but prefer former finance minister Giulio Tremonti over Berlusconi as prime minister, who has now (once again) ruled out standing as prime minister.

Middle East

Courtroom appeals have been denied for 13 activists in Bahrain.

Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi and his failure to step Egypt’s economic decline.

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.

East and South Asia

Police have filed charges in the horrific Delhi gang rape (now murder) that has much of India in protest.

A senior Pakistani militant leader, Mullah Nazir, has been killed by a U.S. drone strike in South Waziristan.

Considering whether Shinzō Abe’s government is pursuing economic stimulus or stealth nationalization.

Jason Mikian in Foreign Policy has a fascinating story on the role of Surat, a city in Gujarat, on the world diamond trade.

More political wrangling in Indonesia for the support of Megawati Sukarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.

The governing Awami League narrowly leads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Former Hong Kong chief executive Henry Tang is calling for a freely democratic election in 2017.

Beijing and Shanghai are offering 72-hour visa-free stay policies.

North America

Alejandro García Padilla has been inaugurated as Puerto Rico’s new governor.

U.S. congressman John Boehner gets a boost with his reelection as speaker to the U.S. House of Representatives.  Long live the Merlot revolution.

Latin America / Caribbean

Hugo Chávez is now facing respiratory failure following his surgery in Cuba.

Francisco Toro argues that the Cubans have become the key power player in the drama over Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and any possible succession.

Rafael Correa has an overwhelming lead for reelection with 61%, followed by banker Guillermo Lasso with just 11%.

Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto will move forward with fiscal and energy reforms in 2013.  [Spanish]

Panamá’s worsening crisis over president Ricardo Martinelli’s alleged corruption. [Spanish]

Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner gets pushback against her incendiary letter to the United Kingdom regarding the Falkland Islands.

Africa

Talks between Joseph Kabila’s government and the M23 rebels are on again in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, if hanging by a thread.

Why development doesn’t automatically follow growth in Africa.

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan backs away from 2015 reelection talk.

The ANC hopes to clean up Jacob Zuma’s reputation in advance of 2014 elections.

Europe

Russian president Vladimir Putin has changed the election system for Russia’s Duma from 100% proportional representation to 50% PR and 50% single-member districts in hopes of boosting his United Russia (Еди́ная Росси́я) party.

Comrade Depardieu?  More from Le Figaro. [French]

A to-do list for German chancellor Angela Merkel in 2013.

Portuguese president Cavaco Silva questions whether parts of Portugal’s ‘troika’-initiated austerity program are constitutional.

Middle East

One of the three leaders of Orthodox Jewish party Shas calls for a long-term peace deal with the Palestinians and withdrawal from the West Bank.

Lebanon’s governing cabinet proceeds with a plan for coping with increasing numbers of Syrian refugees.

Egypt faces its own austerity amid a crippled economic climate.

Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan says the era of political violence in Turkey is over.

Global

The Economist charts the top 10 countries forecast to grow in 2013 and the bottom 10 forecast to shrink in 2013.  Iraq, Timor-Leste and Mongolia are among the winners. Hint: the losers are 80% European.

East and South Asia

Beate Gordon has died at 89.

North America

Does the Republican Party need a new foreign policy?

U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton is discharged from hospital.

Latin America / Caribbean

Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has sent a letter to UK prime minister David Cameron demanding the return of the Falkland Islands to Argentine sovereignty.

The opposition in Venezuela considers Hugo Chávez’s impending inauguration on January 10.

Africa

Rebels in the Central African Republic have halted their campaign against the capital, Bangui.

Who will become Ghana’s next finance minister?

Musalia Mudavadi is seeking to use the ‘Jubilee’ coalition name in a legal tussle with presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.

Europe

Italian premier Mario Monti sort-of launches his sort-of campaign to sort-of run for reelection.  [Italian]

Die Miete is too damn high.

The latest on Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has been subjected to parliamentary veto override.

Victor Ponta’s government in Romania seeks to lower the VAT from 24% to 19%.

Middle East

The Economist showcasing its typical tact: ‘Markets now live in the policy equivalent of Beirut in 1982.’

East and South Asia

A proposed anti-rape law in India may feature the name of the 23-year-old girl who died as a result of a Delhi gang rape.

Hong Kong residents marched Sunday in protest of chief executive Leung Chun-ying (pictured above).

The South Korean generation gap.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gives a New Year’s address.

North America

The United States will not fall off the ‘fiscal cliff,’ following a key late-night vote in the House of Representatives.

Latin America / Caribbean

The United States and Venezuela may already be discussing a post-Chávez thaw in relations.

Colombian forces have killed 13 FARC guerillas, with peace talks still scheduled to proceed in Cuba.

Africa

The latest on the political crisis in the Central African Republic.

The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan will meet on Friday.

Europe

More grief for SPD chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrück over chancellor pay.

France’s top constitutional court has overturned the new top income tax rate of 75% implemented by president François Hollande.

Marking the 20th anniversary of Slovakia’s split from the Czech Republic.

Middle East

Mark Lynch at Foreign Policy revives his ‘Calvinball’ theory of Egyptian politics.

A new U.S. ‘green zone’ in Sana’a?

Photo credit to Sam Tsang of the South China Morning Post.

East and South Asia

Former constitutional judge Kim Yong-jun will head the transition committee of incoming South Korean president Park Guen-hye.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari marks his emergence into Pakistani politics on the fifth anniversary of the assassination of his mother, Benazir, and is using the nation’s judiciary as a foil.

The Narendra Modi for prime minister bandwagon moves on quietly.

Cacique democracy in the Philippines (h/t Tyler Cowen).

Bloomberg examines the ‘princelings’ of the Chinese Communist Party (with a seriously awesome graphic).

Shinzō Abe’s new Japanese government will review the plan to phase out Japan’s nuclear power by the 2030s.

North America

U.S. general Norman Schwarzkopf, who led the United States-led mission to free Kuwait from Iraq in 1991, has died.

The United States prepares to jump off the so-called ‘fiscal cliff,’ with only meager hope resting on the U.S. Senate to broker a deal.

Latin America / Caribbean

The government of Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner gets a setback from the country’s constitutional court in its media-empire fight.

Africa

Rebels are threatening the capital of the Central African Republic, and the U.S. embassy in Bangui has been evacuated.

A summit between Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan and former president Olusegun Obasanjo in advance of 2015 elections?

South African president Jacob Zuma is in the doghouse for some impolitic remarks about whites and pets.

In Ghana, the New Patriotic Party prepares for its day at court.

Europe

Spain’s Bankia is once again in trouble.

The Vatican indicates it will back a new Italian government headed by technocratic incumbent Mario Monti.  Here’s the link to the piece in the Vatican’s daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. [Italian]

Belgium’s king, Albert II (pictured above with EU president Herman Van Rompuy), warns against populist scapegoating.

Russian president Vladimir Putin indicates he will sign a bill banning the adoption of Russian children by U.S. parents.

Middle East

The liberal secular opposition’s leaders — Hamdeen Sabahi, Amr Mousa and Mohammed ElBaradei — will now be apparently investigated for treason by Egypt’s new Muslim Brotherhood-backed president, Mohammed Morsi.

Iran’s only female government minister has been dismissed.

East and South Asia

The victim of a Delhi gang rape — an incident that has angered much of India — has been transferred to Singapore for medical treatment, although she’s quickly becoming the Mohamed Bouazizi for women’s rights throughout South Asia and beyond.

Delhi police may have detained and assaulted women who attended the anti-rape protests.

Sumit Galhotra on the increasing violence in India for journalists covering the anti-rape protests throughout the country.

Tim Duy on the monetarization of fiscal deficit spending in Japan (but really with consequences for central banking globally).

Shinzō Abe was sworn in yesterday and announced his (right-leaning) cabinet.  The full line-up.

Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari may be gearing up to hand over leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party to his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

A potential alliance between former Indonesian president Megawati Soekarnoputri and current president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in advance of 2014 elections?

North America

Former U.S. president George H.W. Bush’s condition is worsening, and he’s currently in intensive care.

In defense of Michèle Flournoy as U.S. defense secretary.

Latin America / Caribbean

Estimates for Paraguayan GDP growth in 2013 are 10.5%.  [Spanish]

What happens on January 10 if president Hugo Chávez cannot be present in Venezuela for his inauguration?

Coca licensing in Bolivia.

Africa

Former South African president Nelson Mandela goes home from the hospital.

Kenyan justice minister Eugene Wamalwa backs deputy prime minister Musalia Mudavadi for president after Mudavadi’s departure from the Jubilee coalition.

Europe

The ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children is approved by Russia’s Senate.

A group of centrists backing technocratic, pro-austerity prime minister Mario Monti is taking shape.

On the eve of an election year, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union holds a 41% to 27% advantage over the Social Democratic Party, a seven-year high, according to a new Forsa poll, though Merkel’s coalition partners, the Free Democrats win just 4% and the German Greens win 13%. [German]

Middle East

The defection of Syria’s commander of military police seems like a material development.

Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, showing humility, calls for unity after pushing through referendum on Egypt’s new constitution.

Potentially harsher charges for former Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Likud doesn‘t necessarily want an alliance with Tzipi Livni.

Welcome back after a wonderful Christmas break.

It’s been a busy stretch for world elections and world politics over the past couple of weeks, and I’ll have thoughts on Egypt, Venezuela and other countries soon, with some other thoughts on world politics as we close the books on 2012 and look to 2013, where key elections await in the first quarter in Israel, Italy, Kenya and elsewhere.

As usual, thanks to all of my readers — please share the word, and a happy holidays to all!

* * * * *

East and South Asia

Shinzō Abe and the Liberal Democrats take office in Japan today — a coalition government with the Buddhist New Kōmeitō party.

Fumio Kishida will serve as Japan’s new foreign minister.

Former trade minister Banri Kaieda will become the new leader of the now-vanquished Democratic Party of Japan, largely from the most critical elements of the DPJ.

The gang rape of a woman in Delhi has finally caught the attention of India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh, who addressed the nation earlier this week.

Is India the worst nation in which to be a woman?

The People’s Republic of China has opened the world’s longest high-speed rail from Guangzhou, near Hong Kong in the south to China’s capital, Beijing (see above).

BusinessWeek anoints the Jim Cramer of China.

South Korean lawmaker Yoo Il-ho will serve as chief of staff for the transition team incoming presidential administration of Park Guen-hye in South Korea.  Here’s more on the transition.

Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood has been appointed the governor of Punjab, the most populous province of Pakistan.

North America

In a Christmas Eve piece, Foreign Policy examines the chances of former U.S. senator Chuck Hagel — a Republican from Nebraska — to become the next U.S. secretary of defense.

‘Monsieur’ John Kerry’s French connection.

Latin America / Caribbean

Americas Quarterly examines the relationship between Brazil and Africa.

The year in Brazilian politics.

Snap elections could take place in Guyana, Grenada and Barbados in early 2013.

Venezuelan vice president Nicolás Maduro claims to have had a 15-minute conversation with president Hugo Chávez, who is said to be recovering from surgery in Cuba.

Africa

Updates on the recovery of former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Starting point for Kenya’s March 4 presidential election.

Europe

UK prime minister David Cameron’s popularity is on the wane, now more than halfway through what should be a five-year government.

Outgoing technocratic Italian prime minister Mario Monti won’t run in his own right in February’s elections, but he will serve as head of a coalition government if asked and he will provide an agenda during the campaign for what he believes Italy should do next.

In Greece, Alexis Tsipras of SYRIZA is leading polls and campaigning hard against the coalition government and austerity.

Is German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble planning his own post-election austerity regime for Germany late in 2013?

Middle East

Egyptians have apparently confirmed the hotly disputed constitution with nearly 64% of the vote after the second round of voting in a referendum finished Saturday.

With former foreign minister and Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman being questioned by police over an ongoing scandal, Tzipi Livni may be Benjamin Nethanyahu’s choice for foreign minister after Jan. 22 Knesset elections, accordingly to sources.

Centrist Yair Lapid mocks Netanyahu’s red-lines graphic to emphasize the plight of the Israeli middle class.