Mexico’s president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto met with Spanish king Juan Carlos I (pictured above) and Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy.

Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty is stepping down as leader of the provincial Liberal party and as premier.

Alex Tabarrok provides some background on this year’s Nobel economics laureates, Al Roth and Lloyd Shapley.

Could Panamá adopt the euro as well as the dollar as its official currency?

Daniel Altman in Foreign Policy argues that Argentina is heading for a crisis.

EU expert Michael Geary expounds on why the European Union deserves its Nobel Peace Prize.

The Pakistan People’s Party may enter into a formal electoral alliance with the party that was once the primary vehicle boosting Pervez Musharraf.

Quartz (A new business publication from The Atlantic) looks at the push to create an economic opportunity zone in Honduras.

Catalunya president Artur Mas doubles down on Catalan independence.

In Israel, the Knesset has been dissolved and elections are expected on January 22, 2013.

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde calls for limits to austerity — make no mistake, this is a game changer for international politics.

Writer Mo Yan becomes the first Chinese national to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

A poll shows Lithuania’s government (still) set for defeat in advance of Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

In Lebanon, prominent Maronite politician Amin Gemayel warns about Hizbollah.

On the eve of elections Sunday, Montenegro seems headed toward European Union membership.

Reaction in Spain to the latest credit rating downgrade.

The family of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori is seeking a pardon on medical grounds.

French Polynesia looks toward independence.

Who would head a merged ticket between Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo in South Korea?

Galicia’s premier may have shifted around €400 million to balance the books in 2011.

Egypt’s constituent assembly has produced the first draft of a constitution.

Sierra Leone looks forward to an election on Nov. 17.

The challenges ahead for Hugo Chávez.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras are meeting for official talks today in her first trip to Greece since the eurozone crisis began.

Gujarat, a state on the west-central coast of India and a BJP stronghold, will hold elections on December 13 and 17.

The Dutch GroenLinks (Dutch Green Left) have a new leader in Bram van Ojik following September’s parliamentary elections.

Mariano Rajoy’s party looks set to retain power in Galicia ahead of Oct. 21 elections.

In Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose Georgian Dream coalition won last week’s parliamentary election, has named 13 initial potential cabinet members.

More defections from DUP presidential candidate Moon Jae-in to independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo. Moon now trails Ahn by 6.5 points, according to an early October poll.

Tiny Montenegro prepares for elections on October 14.

Fred Kaplan at Slate pans U.S. presidential contender Mitt Romney’s foreign policy speech.

Silvio Berlusconi may not stand for election in April 2013 and may support current caretaker prime minister Mario Monti instead.

Spanish political elites at the federal and regional level are drawing together in opposition of Artur Mas’s plan for greater Catalan autonomy.

France’s national assembly today passed the European fiscal compact treaty.

Will Israeli prime minister call early elections in January?

Libya’s new prime minister has been dismissed after failing to appoint a cabinet.

Justin Trudeau officially launched his campaign for leadership of the Liberal Party today in Canada. (See prior coverage here).

German media respond to the naming of Peer Steinbrück as the SPD’s candidate for chancellor in 2013.

The Diplomat wonders if the Chinese system is in for a 1991 Soviet-style collapse.

Former German foreign minister and Green party leader Joschka Fischer discusses the European crisis.

Labour leader Ed Miliband delivers a speech to his party conference in Manchester with an attempt to steal Disraeli’s ‘One Nation’ theme from the Tories.

The latest on the Greek government’s talks with the ‘troika.’

Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda overhauls his government’s cabinet.

A new poll in South Korea shows Park Guen-hye easily leading a three-way race for the December 19 presidential election, but in a close contest with either Moon Jae-in or Ahn Cheol-soo.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls set out an alternative economic vision for the United Kingdom at the Labour Party’s annual conference.

The free-market VVD of caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte and the Labour Party have reached an agreement on the 2013 budget, a sign that coalition talks are progressing following the Sept. 12 election in The Netherlands.

Same-sex marriage was defeated narrowly today in Northern Ireland.

Venezuelan presidential challenger Henrique Capriles said today he will name an active general as defense minister if he wins — but didn’t name who exactly his choice will be.

Support for Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal Party is collapsing in Canada’s largest province, as the Conservative Party and the New Democratic Party vie for first place in anticipation of elections in 2013.

Silvio Berlusconi’s one-time supposed protegé, Angelino Alfano, now says that Berlusconi is the ‘natural candidate’ to lead Berlusconi’s center-right Popolo delle Libertà in the upcoming 2013 Italian elections.

Richard Morgan’s thoughtful piece on being a long-term permanent resident in the United States.

Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta comes to Brussels.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has spoken out in Beirut in favor of the ongoing protests in the Middle East.

Last week’s German constitutional court ruling may jeopardize the European Central Bank’s plan from ten days ago to purchase debt directly from eurozone countries.

Dutch caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte and Labour leader Diederik Samsom’s discussions for a new Dutch government so far seem promising, but it’s a long road to forming a coalition — the next step is Thursday’s report to the parliament from negotiator Henk Kamp.

On the rise of Wang Yang, the liberal party head in Guangdong province.

Madrid’s regional government leader Esperanza Aguirre has stepped down after nine years.

Foreign policy and the Venezuelan presidential election.

The policy differences that would need to be bridged in any VVD-Labour coalition in the Netherlands following Wednesday’s election.

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh passes reforms to ease foreign investment in India’s retail and aviation sectors.

Catching up with Hamdeen Sabahi’s leftist/nationalist movement in Egypt.

Moon Jae-in is set to win the presidential nomination on Sunday of the Democratic United Party (민주통합당, or the ‘Minju Tonghap-dang’) in South Korea; but whither Ahn Cheol-soo?

London mayor Boris Johnson is now the most respected politician in the UK.

A Spiegel interview with Philipp Rösler, Germany’s economy minister on his Vietnamese roots.

Allies and opponents alike are lining up against the potential reelection of president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina.

Will October be too late for Greece?

U.S. president Barack Obama tells Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his ‘red line’ is Iran’s acquiring a nuclear bomb.

Senegal’s legislature votes to abolish its senate.

Québec liberals have a new interim party leader in Jean-Marc Fournier.

@USEmbassyCairo snarks the Muslim Brotherhood on Twitter for talking out of both sides of its mouth (one Arabic, one English).

Juan Cristóbal Nagel at Caracas Chronicles does not care for Venezuelan presidential candidate Henrique Capriles’s pandering on continuing (and expanding) the Misiones social programs of president Hugo Chávez.

David Remnick’s home-run piece on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cold war with U.S. president Barack Obama.

The Diplomat on China’s “one country, two systems” and why it might be collapsing.

The Economist‘s Banyan blog pans Rahul Gandhi.

Henk Kamp, the current social affairs minister, will lead the cabinet formation process in the Netherlands following yesterday’s election.

Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping resurfaces after a 13-day absence.

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

A superb profile of incoming Quebec premier Pauline Marois.

More commentators join the bandwagon in favor of a (very unlikely) federal Liberal leadership run by former Quebec premier Jean Charest.

More commentators join the bandwagon in favor of a (very unlikely) Tory leadership run by London mayor Boris Johnson.

Defeated president candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador is leaving his party, the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), to form a new youth-based movement on the Mexican left.

The shortlist of Booker Prize novels will be announced tomorrow.

The field in December’s South Korean presidential election remains unsettled.

Germany’s top constitutional court will rule on the European Stability Mechanism this week.

While talks between the ‘troika’ and the Greek government continue, there are signs that German chancellor Angela Merkel has changed her mind about a potential ‘Grexit.’

A roundup on the Dutch election campaigns with just two days to go before voting.

France’s wealthiest man is seeking Belgian citizenship.

Is it the end of Dutch election poster wars?

South Koreans are running out of patience with the will-he-won’t-he candidacy of Ahn Cheol-soo.

Liberal Democratic leader and U.K. prime minister Nick Clegg hits back at his internal critics.

In Colombia, president Juan Carlos Santos will hold peace talks in Norway in October with armed revolutionary group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC, or  Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). The Economist‘s take here.

Americas Quarterly reviews the platform of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.

Global Post looks at Germany and the country’s attitudes on the eurozone in a series of pieces.

Opposition members in Angola are arrested on the eve of elections.

It’s now likely that former Panamá City mayor Juan Carlos Navarro will be the presidential candidate for the center-left Partido Revolucionario Democrático in Panamá in 2014 after he won the chairmanship of the party last weekend.

Here in the United States, it’s convention week for the Republican Party, and Uri Friedman in Foreign Policy frisks the G.O.P. platform on foreign policy.

A French prosecutor is investigating whether former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was murdered after an al-Jazeera report last month suggested he may have been poisoned.

The Montreal Gazette ponders whether a victory for sovereigntists next Tuesday in Québec would lead to an anglophone flight from the province.

The Dutch Socialist Party seems to be falling back after the first debate in the Netherlands.

Meet the Dutch version of Todd Akin.

The Philippine economy shines.

Your latest FT Alphaville review of the Greek bailout.

An explosion at the Amuay refinery in Venezuela brings the presidential campaign to a temporary halt.

The German Bundesbank and the European Central Bank at contretemps.

Pakistan’s prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf gets a reprieve on the constitutional crisis until September 18 (also, the next Pakistan general election will be held on April 4).

Worries about Internet freedom in India.

Comedian and upstart politician Beppe Grillo calls the leader of Italy’s Democratic Party a zombie.

Galicia will now hold early elections on the same day as the Basque Country (October 21).

Dutch party leaders held their first debate Sunday in advance of the Sept. 12 election.  Polls showed Labour party leader Diederick Samsom as the (surprising) winner.  Here’s a Dutch language summary.

Stephen Kinnock is not gay, says his wife, Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Feminist icon Germain Greer criticizes Australian prime minister Julia Gillard and her, ahem, arse.

Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras now turns to domestic politics and talks with his coalition partners.

Anything tú can do, yo can do better.

Former Reuters correspondent Barry Malone remembers Meles Zenawi.

An interview with André Glucksmann on the future of Europe.

India gets its own ‘gate’ — Coalgate — and it’s starting to become a serious matter for Manmohan Singh and his government.

Canada remembers the former leader of the New Democratic party Jack Layton one year after his death.

Mali has a new government.

The Kremlin is lashing out at Western support for Pussy Riot, the three-woman punk-rock activists jailed last week for two years (pictured above).

Mitchell Prothero in Foreign Policy has a great takedown of Hezbollah’s role in the latest Lebanese tumult.

With six weeks to go, Venzeulan president Hugo Chávez holds a narrow 49% to 47% lead over Miranda state governor and Mesa de la Unidad Democrática presidential nominee Henrique Capriles.

Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras asks for more time in an interview with Germany’s Bild. English summary from Spiegel here.

Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi will visit the United States on Sept. 23.

A new Forum Research poll shows Jean Charest and the Liberals are once again in the lead in Québec with 35% to just 29% for the sovereigntist Parti québécois.

Liberal Democratic leader Nick Clegg is coming under pressure from his own party’s rank-and-file to step down before the United Kingdom’s next expected election in 2012.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has emerged in advance of the Sept. 12 election, calling for a €1,000 tax break for every worker.

Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta’s fight against president Traian Băsescu shows no signs of abating.

Photo credit to Andrei Stenin of RIA Novosti.