Presidential elections will be held in Indonesia on 8 July 2009 (with a run-off on 8 September, if needed), to elect President and Vice President for 2009–2014 period. This election likely to become the main contest and rematch between incumbent Democratic President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle former President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Polls from early January 2009 saw Yudhoyono lead with 43% to Megawati’s 19%, with all other candidates at 5% or less.

The US and its European allies are ­preparing to plant a high-profile figure in the heart of the Kabul government in a direct challenge to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, the Guardian has learned.
The creation of a new chief executive or prime ministerial role is aimed at bypassing Karzai. In a further dilution of his power, it is proposed that money be diverted from the Kabul government to the provinces. Many US and European officials have become disillusioned with the extent of the corruption and incompetence in the Karzai government, …

Pakistan sealed off city exits to activists trying to march on the capital and stopped a key lawyer from boarding a flight Saturday, widening a crackdown on protests that has sparked turmoil.
President Asif Ali Zardari, whose popularity ratings are at rock bottom, is locked in a standoff with the main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif over demands that he reinstate judges sacked by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Opposition activists and lawyers have called on hundreds of thousands of protesters to march on the capital Islamabad by Monday, but the authorities …

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was in stable condition and recovering from head injuries Friday night after a car wreck that killed his wife, Susan, medical sources told CNN.
The crash, on a busy two-lane highway between Tsvangirai’s hometown of Buhera and the capital city of Harare, comes just weeks after the start of a power-sharing agreement between Tsvangirai and his political rival, President Robert Mugabe.

Iceland’s interim government has called an early parliamentary election for April 25, a spokesman for Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said on Tuesday.
Parliament would be dissolved at the end of March or no later than April 4, spokesman Kristjan Kristjansson said.
Sigurdardottir’s centre-left coalition government was established on Feb. 1 after the government of Prime Minister Geir Haarde collapsed amid public protests over its failure to prevent a financial crisis that smashed the island’s economy.
Central bank chief David Oddsson has refused to step down despite calls from the prime minister and the …

Venezuelans yesterday voted to abolish term limits for elected officials, boosting Hugo Chávez’s ambition to rule the country for decades.
Electoral authorities said 54% of voters in the referendum backed a constitutional amendment allowing indefinite re-election, with 46% rejecting it – a margin of almost 1 million voters.
An exultant Chávez appeared on the balcony of the presidential palace in Caracas to address cheering supporters after the result was announced. “It is a clear victory for the people,” he said. “It is a clear victory for the revolution.”

Provincial elections that were meant to strengthen democratic rule in Iraq and distribute power more equally are now threatening to upend almost two years of peace in Anbar province, the vast western desert where Al Qaeda in Iraq once operated freely.
With preliminary polling results scheduled for release as early as Thursday, tribes of the Anbar Awakening and other clans that helped U.S. forces crush the insurgency here have charged that last Saturday’s elections were a sham. The tribes insist that they were double-crossed by the region’s sitting government and suggest …

Iraqis were voting in provincial elections on Saturday in a crucial test for a nation struggling to emerge from years of sectarian strife and strengthen its fledgling democracy.
Security for Iraq’s first ballot since 2005 was extremely tight with Iraqi police and military deployed in strength as part of ramped-up measures aimed at preventing militant attacks.

Reporting from Springfield, Ill. — Brushing aside the governor’s pleas of innocence, the Illinois Senate unanimously voted Thursday to remove Rod R. Blagojevich and impose a “political death penalty” that bars him from ever holding public office in the state.
The action came after a four-day impeachment trial on allegations that the Democrat had abused his power — trying, among other things, to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

One mystery was solved today when it was confirmed that New York Gov. David Paterson would appoint Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate.
But a bigger mystery remained: Why did perceived front-runner Caroline Kennedy abruptly announce she was no longer interested in the job?