Country: Mexico
Government: Federal Republic
Leader: Enrique Pena Nieto
Mexico: Enrique Pena Nieto:
- His election marked the return to power of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which controlled the Mexican presidency for more than 70 years.
-Enrique is the fifth member of his extended family to serve as governor of the State of Mexico.
- eldest of four sibilings in a middle-class family
- his father, Gilberto Enrique Pena del Mazo, was an engineer for an electric company and his mom, Maria del Socorro Nieto, was a school teacher
- many call him "the Teflon" because trouble seems to slide off him like the rumor that he fathered two children in affairs while his wife raised the couple's 3 children or the investigation of the sudden death of his wife at home in 2007
- two years after his wife's death, he announced his engagement to the soap opera actor Angelica Rivera who became his wife through a star-studded wedding ceremony and is now the first lady of Mexico
Country: China
Government: Communist State
Leader: XI Jinping
China: Xi Jinping:
- Xi Jinping was the first leader who had a PH.D.
- He is seen as "princeling" because he owes some of him success to his anscetors. In this case, he is the son of revolutionary veteran Xi Zhongxun who is one of the Communist Party's founding father.
- married a folk singer in 1987 named Peng Liyuan who also holds the rank of army general
- Ms. Peng was the better-known half of the couple before he became the leader of the Communist Party
- has a daughter named Xi Mingze who is studying at Harvard University in the United States http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11551399
Government: Federal Republic
Leader: Pranab Mukherjee
India: Pranab Mukherjee:
- He is among the small handful of politicians of India to have the three key ministries of finance, defense, and external affairs.
-According to his daughter, he is a compulsive workaholic. Mukerjee works nearly 18 hours a day and hasn't taken a holiday since the last 20 years.
- taught Political Science at the Vidiyanagar College
- worked as a journalist before becoming involved in politics
- rated as one of the best finance ministers of the world in 1984 and was adjudged the best parliamentarian in 1997
- had a conflict with Rajiv Gandhi and started his own party called Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress
Country: Afghanistan
Government: Islamic Republic
Leader: Hamid Karza
Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai:
- After a civil war broke out between many groups, Karzai resigned from his place as deputy foreign minister in order to help organize a grand council to resolve differences between the groups.
- Karzai, along with the military commander of the Northern Alliance named Massoud, warned the United States that the Talibans were connected with al Qaeda and that they were planning on a great attack on America. The United States ignored these warnings.
- well versed in several languages, including Peshto (his native language), Persian, Hindi, French, and English
- Emerged as a resistance leader under Taliban rule and worked to undermine the regime
Country: Germany
Government: Federal Republic
Leader: Joachim Gauck
Germany:
Joachim Gauck (president):
- He beat his main rival Beate Klarsfeld, who was a veteran anti-Nazi campaigner, 991 to 126 votes.
- When he was 11 years old, his father was sent to jail for allegedly spying and was in there for four years. This gave him the idea that freedom would be the main theme for his presidency.
Angela Merkel (Chancellor)
- graduated from University of Leipzig in 1978 with a physics and physical chemistry degree and earned a PhD in quantum chemistry from the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1986
- has been Chancellor since November 2005
- earned the top spot on the FORBES list of "Most Powerful Women In The World" for eight of the 10 years
Country: United Kingdom
Government: Constitutional Monarchy and Commonwealth Realm
Leader: David William Donald Cameron
United Kingdom:
David William Donald Cameron (Prime Minister):
- He is a descendant of King William IV and became the youngest prime minister since 1812 and was 43 when he took office.
- One of his very first actions after becoming prime minister was forming a pact with Nick Clegg, who was the Liberal Democrat Leader. This resulted in the first coalition government since World War 2.
- was packed off at age seven to Heatherdown which was a highly exclusive preparatory school,Prince Edward and Prince Andrew both attended there
- after Heatherdown, he attended Eton, which is Britain's top private school and is a family tradition to attend there
- first child, named Ivan, was born disabled and needed care all day
- Ivan died in February 2009
- This experience is said by friends to have broadened Cameron's horizons and has led an almost charmed life to that point
Queen Elizabeth:
- became queen on February 6, 1952 and was crowned on June 2, 1953
- reign lasted 60 years and counting
Country: France
Government: RepublicLeader: Francois Hollande; Jean-Marc Ayrault
France: Francois Hollande
- He is the first Socialist president since 1995 when Francois Mitterrand left the office.
- During his campaign, he promised renegotiating the austerity agreement, withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, lowered the retirement age, and higher taxes for the people who were extremely wealthy.
- no previous experience in a national government position
- shared a 30-year relationship with his mom, Segolene Royal
- born in 1954 in the city of Rouen to an extreme-right physician father and progressive social worker mother
Country: Brazil
Government: Federal Republic
Leader: Dilma Rousseff
- It was her first time ever running for an elected office when she became president.
- After joining the resistance movement against the British military dictatorship, she was jailed for three years and allegedly tortured in the 1970s.
- been divorced two times
- has a degree in economics and rules the country with the eigth-biggest economy in the world
- went through chemotheraphy in 2009 for lymphoma and is in remission
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/04/world/americas/dilma-rousseff---fast-facts/index.html?iref=allsearch
Country: Venezuela
Government: Federal Republic Leader: Nicolas Maduro Moros
Venezuela: Nicolas Maduro Moros:
- Before becoming politically active in the 1990s, he belonged to the transit union and worked as a bus driver for Caracas Metro.
- He beat Henrique Capriles Radonski in the 2013 presidential election by two percentage points.
- introduced to Hugo Chavez in 1992
- After Chavez and other members of the military were imprisoned for and coup, Maduro began campaigning for his release. He was released in 1994 and won the election for presidency four years later.
- Chavez selected Maduro to serve as vice president after he won his third term in October 2012.
- worked alongside the president and served as one of his closest advisers as well as a loyal spokesperson
- Chavez died at the age 58 on March 5,2013 from cancer and Maduro took his place
Country: Saudi Arabia
Government: Monarchy
Leader: Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud
- While he was in charge, Saudi Arabia joined the World Trade Organization.
- On September 15, 2011, he announced that women will be able to run for office and vote in local elections in the year 2015. This was the biggest chance in a decade for women in a puritanical kingdom that practices strict separation between males and females. This was the only country in the world who banned women from driving.
- has fathered 22 children, the youngest when he was age 79
- worth approximately 21 billion dollars
- appointed commander of the Saudi Arabia National Guard before he became king
- vistited Pope Benedict in the Apostolic Palace in November 2007 making him the first Saudi monarch to visit the Pope
- called for a "brotherly and sincere dialogue between believers from all religions" in March 2008
- granted women the right to vote an
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/28/world/meast/king-abdullah-bin-abdulaziz-al-saud---fast-facts/
Country: Iran
Government: Theocratic Republic (religion based government)
Leader: Ali Hoseini-Khamenei ( Supreme Leader); Hasan
Fereidun Ruhani ( president)
Iran:
Ali Hoseini- Khamenei (Supreme Leader):
- After being appointed after Mohammad-Ali Rajai's assassination, he became the first cleric to serve in the Iranian presidency.
- He issued a religious prohibition against any insult to Muhammad's wives or companions. Also, he forbid the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons.
- took place in street protests against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran and was exiled after the uprising was crushed
- was in prision many times
- in 1975 he was exiled to a region in southeastern Iran
- elected President of Iran in 1981 and re-elected in 1985
- became Iran's Supreme Leader in 1989
Hasan Fereidun Ruhani (president):
- held several parliamentary posts, including deputy speaker
- served on the Supreme National Security Council
- elected President of Iran in June 2013
- openly critical of the previous president saying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "careless, uncalculated, and unsteadied remarks" have costed the country dearly
- wanted Israel wiped off the face of the earth
- wanted Israel wiped off the face of the earth
Country: Israel
Government: Parliamentary Democracy
Leader: Shimon Peres ( president ); Binyamin
"Bibi" Netanyahu (prime minister)
Shimon Peres (President):
- in 1994, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Prime Minisiter Yitzhak Rabin.
- When he addressed the Turkish parliament, he became the first Israeli president ever to speak to a Muslim country's legislature
- born in Belarus but his family fled to Palestine in 1934 to escape from the persecution of Jews
- after Arab forces launched attacks on the new state of Israel in 148, he was given the chief responsibility to secure military equipment for Israel
- organized Israel's nuclear program and regarded as the father of Israel's atomic bomb
- in charge of Israeli negotiations during peace talks with the Palestinians.
Binyamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister):
- lived in the US in the years 1956-68 and then again in 1963-67
- his brother, Jonathan, was killed in July 1976 in the course of the Entebbe Operation where he was one of the commanders
- Quote: "There are those who say that if the Holocaust had not occurred, the State of Israel would never have been established. But I say that if the State of Israel would have been established earlier, the Holocaust would not have occurred."
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/03/world/meast/shimon-peres---fast-facts/
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