East and South Asia

What will it take for Western governments to grant a visa to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi?

Full results from India’s regional state elections (more to come on those from Suffragio tomorrow).

Older voters swung the Dec. 19 South Korean presidential race to Park Guen-hye.

What comes next for former presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo?

The Bank of Japan moves toward the position of incoming prime minister Shinzō Abe.

Xi Jinping gives his full support to beleaguered Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying.

North America

Hoping for a boom in Nova Scotia (I have to say, I’ve seen no place more beautiful in autumn).

Spiegel mocks U.S. gun culture: ‘one nation under guns.’

Latin America / Caribbean

Ecuador’s top banker faked his economics degree.

Happy Mayan end-of-the-world day.

Assurances from Yucatán state governor Rolando Zapata. [Spanish]

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva will be investigated for his role in ‘mensalão‘ vote-bying scandal from 2005.

Africa

The United Nations has authorized an African-led intervention force in Mali.

Nigeria passes its 2013 budget.

Another small party in Ghana chides the government for irregularities during elections earlier this month.

Kenya’s Jubilee coalition is disintegrating.

Europe

Russian president Vladimir Putin’s 4.5 hour press conference.

Urban planning and politics in Moscow.

Without apologizing, French president François Hollande has recognized French’s profondément injuste et brutal colonialism in Algeria.  [French]

Polish president Bronisław Komorowski boosts Poland’s entry into the eurozone.

The pro-life view on Ireland’s new controversial abortion liberalisation law.

Middle East

Egypt’s top elections official steps down two days before the final round of president Mohammed Morsi’s impromptu constitutional referendum.

Bayit Yehudi, the party in Israel that’s most likely to gain seats in Knesset elections on January 22 is targeting English- and French-speaking voters.

East and South Asia

The internet in North Korea.

Votes are being counted in Gujarat‘s recent election.

A profile of Hu Chunhua, the incoming Chinese Communist Party chair of Guangdong province.

Malaysian elections seem likely to fall next spring.

North America

Former U.S. ambassador to China and Singapore and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman has some thoughts on the future of the U.S. Republican Party.

Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives hold a narrow lead against the NDP and the ruling Liberal Party (in third place) before what’s likely to be a spring provincial election.

Latin America / Caribbean

The incumbent advantage in Latin American elections.

Africa

How Algerians feel about French relations upon the state visit by French president François Hollande. [French]

Hollande’s not apologizing for France’s colonial history in Algeria.

Senegal will move to prosecute Chad’s former president, Hissène Habré.

An update on Sudan’s opposition.

Europe

Artur Mas will continue as the regional president of Catalunya.

Spiegel looks at the return of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Italy seems set to go to the polls on February 24, and technocratic prime minister Mario Monti seems likely to run.  [Italian]

The Dutch economy is expected to contract.

It’s not Christmas until Irish president Michael D. Higgins (pictured above) gives us his Christmas address.

Greece gets a credit rating upgrade for Christmas.

Russia’s Duma is considering a ban on adoptions by U.S. parents.

Middle East

Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey’s foreign minister, says the fall of Damascus is only a matter of time.

Tarek Masoud at Foreign Policy on the Egyptian referendum mess.

Australia

The story behind Australia’s 1996 gun control law.

East and South Asia

Bookies aren’t as excited as pollsters about the BJP’s chances in Gujarat’s election (votes to be counted Dec. 20).

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and his road to Delhi.

The South China Morning Post four-part series on Bo Xilai focuses on his, uhhh, torture chambers.

Rising Chinese Communist Party star Hu Chunhua will replace Wang Yang as the party chair of Guangdong province.

So can Shinzō Abe save Japan’s economy?

The Democratic Party of Japan will choose a new leader on Dec. 22.

Has Abe’s new government already reached an accord with the Bank of Japan for a 2% inflation target?

North America

An independent inquiry finds fault with U.S. state department in Benghazi attack.

Foreign Policy notes its top books of 2012.

Latin America / Caribbean

Troubling signs about the Argentine government’s fight to break up media group Clarín.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is recovering from surgery and a respiratory infection.

Africa

South African president Jacob Zuma has defeated deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe by nearly a 3-to-1 margin in the African National Congress leadership vote.

A profile of Cyril Ramaphosa, the man who will replace Motlanthe as deputy president.

More revelations about the Jubilee Alliance in Kenya.

Europe

Catalunya seems headed for a stable government and a referendum vote in 2014.

French president François Hollande goes to Algeria on the 50th anniversary of independence.

An ally of former rightist prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, economics spokesman Renato Brunetta, savages prime minister Mario Monti’s austerity, calls for lower taxes.

Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych cancels a trip to Moscow.

Middle East

Iraq’s Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, has had a stroke.

Amr Moussa warns not to continue Egypt’s constitutional referendum on Dec. 22.

East and South Asia

The second round of Gujarat’s regional elections finished Monday, with exit polls showing victory for longtime BJP chief minister Narendra Modi.

The late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s embalmed body has been unveiled (see above).

Congress in the Philippines approves a key contraception bill.

Negative campaigning a day before South Korea’s presidential election.

Lee Jung-hee, a minor South Korean presidential candidate, dropped out of the race Sunday.

One-time presidential contender Ahn Cheol-soo will leave for the United States immediately after South Korea’s vote Wednesday.

South Korea presidential candidates Moon Jae-in and Park Guen-hye faced off in a final debate Sunday.

Indonesia raises the minimum wage.

Indonesia considers the 2014 presidential election.

North America

U.S. senator John Kerry of Massachusetts seems set to be nominated to be U.S. secretary of state.

In Québec, the governing Parti québécois retains a narrow polling lead.

Puerto Rico’s credit rating was downgraded to just above junk status last Thursday by Moody’s.

Potential U.S. secretary of state and former U.S. senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is not so popular in Israel.

U.S. senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who is popular in Japan as the first Japanese-American senator, has died at age 88.

Latin America / Caribbean

A setback for Venezuela’s opposition in Sunday regional gubernatorial elections.

Henrique Capriles, who won reelection as governor of Miranda state, remains the top opposition leader in Venezuela.

Africa

South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma appears to have beaten back a challenge to his leadership of the African National Congress.

Kenya’s Jubilee Alliance determines a new way to pick a presidential candidate for March elections.

Ghana’s failed presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo will lead his party’s challenge of fraud in their case to the Supreme Court.

Ongoing struggle within Zambia’s ruling Patriotic Front.

Europe

A new vote will be held in September 2013 to determine whether Jean-François Copé or François Fillon will lead France’s center-right Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP, Union for a popular movement).

Romanian president Traian Băsescu formally nominated Victor Ponta as prime minister.

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny will not join his followers’ new party.

Catching up with newly re-installed Ukrainian prime minister Mykola Azarov.

UK prime minister David Cameron can imagine withdrawal from the European Union.

Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem now seems the favorite to succeed Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the eurozone finance ministers group.

Middle East

Hesham Sallam on why Egypt’s president Mohammed Morsi is past the point of return.

Egypt’s State Council refuses to monitor the second round on December 22.

Foreign Policy interviews Mohamed ElBaradei.

Former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri attacked Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attacked the concept of separation of powers.

East and South Asia

Moon Jae-in is tightening the gap with Park Guen-hye in the final polls before the Dec. 19 vote.

Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda hasn’t had such amazingly great luck.

Asahi Shimbun profiles Shinzo Abe.

Former Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has been charged with murder.

Gujarat’s voters went to the polls in the first of two rounds of voting on Thursday.

North America

Susan Rice withdraws from consideration as a candidate for U.S. secretary of state.

Latin America / Caribbean

Cayman premier McKenna Bush won’t resign.

Which Caribbean country is set for the highest GDP growth estimates in 2013?

Argentina agrees to largest bondholder payout since 2001.

Africa

Kgalema Motlanthe is challenging Jacob Zuma for the leadership of the African National Congress in South Africa.

More on Egyptian and Sudanese tensions over Ethiopia’s planned Blue Nile dam.

The NPP will challenge the NPC’s win in Ghana’s presidential race, but will respect the Ghanaian Supreme Court’s ruling.

Uhuru Kenyatta and Musalia Mudavadi are battling for the presidential nomination of Kenya’s Jubilee coalition.

Europe

The United Kingdom’s AAA debt rating may be downgraded.

Europe moves toward a banking union.

Silvio Berlusconi might not run for prime minister again in Italy if current technocratic prime minister Mario Monti runs. But who knows? [Italian]

Ukraine’s parliamentarians brawl (literally — see photo above).

A Bulgarian view on the Romanian election.

Jean-François Copé and François Fillon are still dividing the center-right UMP in France. [French]

Middle East

Foreign Policy considers a post-Abbas West Bank.

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati offers to step down in exchange for election law reform from the March 14 coalition.

Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman was charged with fraud and breach of public trust.

New Republic profiles Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi.

Foreign Policy profiles Beppe Grillo, the Italian blogger and comic who founded the populist Five Star Movement (interesting fact: he was convicted for manslaughter in 1983).

Uruguay’s lower house of parliament approved a same-sex marriage bill.

After the center-left’s landslide victory on Sunday, Romania’s president Traian Basesçu is looking for alternatives to name as prime minister in lieu of his nemesis, Victor Ponta.

Japan enters its fifth recession in 15 years.

Egypt’s opposition will vote against the constitution, and the referendum will be held on two voting days: December 15 and 22.

Ukraine’s parliamentary opposition tangles up the vote to appoint Mykola Azarov for a new term as prime minister.

The top two autonomist Catalan parties have agreed on an independence referendum within two years.

Kenyan vice president (and a frontrunner for the March 2013 presidential election) Uhuru Kenyatta is banned from visiting Europe.

Although it once dominated Norway, Sweden has now become a source of cheap labour — and jokes.

The war between former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and Germany begins.

Francisco Toro considers Venezuela’s succession.

Top French actor Gérard Depardieu will move to Belgium to avoid the high tax rates instituted by president François Hollande’s government.

The BJP may win a blowout landslide in Gujarat’s election, and may be rewriting Indian politics in so doing.

Just 12 days into office, Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto is proposing a wide education reform. [Spanish]

A Europe 2013 predication.

Wolfgang Münchau on the latest Italian crisis (though I would argue Monti’s economic and labor market and tax collection reforms are the more important key to Monti’s success).

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, showcases her diplomatic, uh, skills.

The always-thoughtful Éric Grenier gives us his take on Ontario’s Liberal leadership race.

It’s a bad week for Caribbean prime ministers — today, it’s the arrest of Cayman Islands prime minister McKeeva Bush.

Rahul Gandhi goes to Gujarat.

Mali’s new prime minister.

A disturbing report of the Muslim Brotherhood’s conduct.

Displaced Haitians are threatened with evictions.

The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and allies are expected to win over 300 seats in the House of Representatives.

A nice profile of Leoluca Orlando, the anti-mafia mayor of Palermo.

Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi suspends his controversial decree, but empowers Egypt’s army in advance of Dec. 15 constitutional referendum.

Brazilian authorities have arrested the former Turks and Caicos prime minister.

The government of Malta’s prime minister Lawrence Gonzi has fallen after the 2013 budget failed to pass by a one-vote margin (elections are scheduled for March 9).

Moldova leapfrogs Ukraine on Europe’s remaining to-do list.

Xi Jinping’s already differentiating himself from Hu Jintao.

The high price of a bailout for tiny Cyprus.

No major surprises during the second of three presidential debates in advance of South Korea’s Dec. 19 vote.  Another wrap-up here.

Former Tokyo vice governor Naoki Inose leads in the nine-candidate field competing in the Tokyo gubernatorial election on Dec. 16.

More Tory backlash on gay marriage rights in the United Kingdom (which Tory PM David Cameron supports).

Germany’s center-left Social Democrats formally nominate Peer Steinbrück as its candidate for chancellor.  He’s now on Twitter.

The Republican Left of Catalunya is edging closer to coalition with Artur Mas’s CiU.

French president François Hollande now has a 60% disapproval rate (35% approval).

Tzipi Livni is taking aim at… everyone in Israeli politics, including Labor, Yesh Atid and other opponents of Benjamin Netanyahu.

South Korea holds its first of three presidential debates.

Angel Merkel officially launches her bid for a third term as Germany’s chancellor.

Artur Mas hasn’t given up on a broad left-right separatist coalition in Catalunya.

More anti-Morsi demonstrations in Cairo with 11 days before the snap constitutional referendum.

Two Kenyans facing trial in the International Criminal Court will run on a joint ticket in March elections.

Nana Akufo-Addo leads very narrowly in the latest poll for Ghana’s presidential election on Friday.

A Paraguayan peasant leader has been murdered.

The Dutch government has a Senate problem.

Foreign Policy interviews a cagey Ehud Olmert, although Olmert is virtually certain not to run in the upcoming election.

Labor’s leader Shelly Yacimovich and former Labor leader Amir Peretz are fighting over whether Labor could ever join a coalition under Benjamin Netanyahu.

Deputy (Likud!) prime minister Dan Meridor may lead Ehud Barak’s Independence party in January.

Ukraine’s government under prime minister Mykola Azarov has resigned.

Seven Kadima MKs are leaving Kadima to run under the Tzipi Livni Party banner in the January Knesset elections.

Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi unveils the BJP’s manifesto in advance of elections later this month.

Slovenia elects former prime minister Borut Pahor as its new (largely ceremonial) president.

Former South Korean presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo emerged Monday to give only tepid support to DUP candidate Moon Jae-in.

South Korea’s presidential candidates will face off in the first of three presidential debates tomorrow.

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan has narrowed its deficit with the Liberal Democratic Party in advance of Dec. 16 elections for the Diet.

Kuwait’s election debacle.

Lebanon will go to the polls on June 9 of next year.

Burkina Faso goes to the polls.

Ethiopia’s Blue Nile dam implicates riparian politics in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

Enrique Peña Nieto was sworn in as president on Saturday.

Liberal leadership frontrunner Justin Trudeau takes heat for his derogatory comments about Alberta.

In Greece, another high-profile PASOK minister is leaving PASOK to form a new party.

Many liberals and Islamists alike are boycotting tomorrow’s Kuwaiti parliamentary elections.

Inder Kumar Gujral, a former prime minister of India from 1997-98, has died.

Cairo’s street graffiti.

Nigel Farage gloats after his UK Independence Party places second in by-election result.

Growing pains for Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto with Diet elections in Japan just 17 days away.

Further thoughts on Japan’s political fragmentation.

Meanwhile, Tokyo also has a mayoral race on December 16.

Enrique Peña Nieto, on the eve of his inauguration, announces his cabinet. [Spanish]

Former French president Jacques Chirac celebrates his 80th birthday quietly.

Germany approves €43.7 billion in Greek aid.

Georgia’s new foreign secretary comes to Washington.

Protests continue against the new Egyptian constitution and the process by which it was adopted.

A cabinet reshuffle in Ethiopia.

The United Nations votes overwhelmingly to recognize the state of Palestine.

What comes next.

A new poll ahead of Israeli elections.

Final party list set for Japan’s elections.

An update on Mauritania’s politics, with the return of president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz following his treatment for a gunshot wound last month.

Plan C for Greece.

Who knows why Ahn Cheol-soo does anything anymore?

Even after Oslo, no one said peace in Colombia would be easy.

Eric Pape’s tour de force on the French right’s civil war — the UMP fight between François Fillon and Jean-François Copé.

The UMP may hold a referendum on whether to re-run the leadership vote.

Egypt’s constitution is set to go to a vote on Thursday.

More backsliding in Hungary.

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert backs Kadima, while former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni is forming a new party to launch her political comeback.

Boris Johnson takes India.

Catalunya’s Republican Left, the second-place winner in Sunday’s election, will not join a formal coalition with Artur Mas’s CiU, but will provide support for Mas’s government.

On the rift between Nigeria’s president and its former president.

On the eve of his inauguration, Mexico’s president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto is ready for his North American close-up.

I’m back from Ethiopia — I’ll have many more thoughts on Ethiopian politics, last week’s electoral politics from Spain to Egypt to Sierra Leone, not to mention a plethora of elections in December and January.

In the meanwhile, some daily links to get back in the swing of things.

* * * *

The new governor of the Bank of England is… the governor of the Bank of Canada. The view from Ottawa.

British conservatives are having jitters about gay marriage in the United Kingdom.

Reassurances about Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah following health problems and surgery.

Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is facing a vote of no confidence over corruption charges.

South Korea’s presidential campaign officially kicks off, following the withdrawal on Friday of independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo.

Japan’s LDP leader and former prime minister Shinzō Abe is calling for a full-fledged Japanese military.

Germany’s Pirate Party is still struggling over its policy agenda.

Algirdas Butkevičius has been officially elected prime minister by Lithuania’s Seimas.

Jean-François Copé is confirmed as the leader of France’s center-right Union pour un mouvement populaire.

Pier Luigi Bersani narrowly leads Florence mayor Matteo Renzi in the contest to become the prime ministerial candidate for the Italian center-left, with a runoff set for December 2.

Silvio Berlusconi is (once again) threatening a comeback to become to prime ministerial candidate for the Italian center-right.

Mohamed ElBaradei speaks out against Mohammed Morsi’s controversial decree from last week asserting extraordinary powers.

Catalan president Artur Mas remained defiant despite setbacks in Sunday’s regional elections.

Belgrade mayor Dragan Đilas is the new opposition leader in Serbia after his election as the new leader of the Democratic Party.

Georgia’s new prime minister is already looking to find ways to curb Mikheil Saakashvili’s powers.

Israeli defense minister and former prime minister Ehud Barak is leaving frontline politics.

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, meanwhile, are joining forces in advance of January’s Knesset elections in Israel.

Sierra Leone’s reelected president Ernest Bai Koroma pledges economic growth following first-round electoral victory last week.

Australian prime minister Julia Gillard is in hot water over a 20-year-old union fund.

Toronto mayor Rob Ford is removed from office.

The shooting death of boxing champion Héctor ‘Macho’ Camacho underscores Puerto Rico’s growing crime problem.

Elton John dedicates his Beijing concert to dissident artist Ai Weiwei.

Felix Salmon is the latest to forecast the coming Argentine debt crisis.

Is Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wagging the dog with Gaza?

A pregnant woman’s death in Ireland after being refused an abortion is leading to calls for new abortion legislation.

A look at the gubernatorial race in the Venezuelan state of Amazonas.

The student movement in Chile and the 2013 presidential election.

Muslim protests escalating in Ethiopia.

Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi’s fine line on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

A report that Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy is considering an IMF-only bailout, bypassing European conditions.

Voting nears within the Constituent Assembly on Egypt’s constitution.

Did Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda call early elections to avoid an internal putsch within the Democratic Party of Japan?

Fortuño urges statehood as outgoing Puerto Rican governor.