The 30-year-long reign of Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, came ever closer to an end, as hundreds of thousands of Egyptians filled the centre of Cairo, calling on him to step down. There were also big demonstrations in Alexandria, Suez and other Egyptian cities. A loose opposition front took shape, including secular liberals, students, trade unionists and Islamists, with Mohamed ElBaradei, a former head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, tentatively at its head. Violent clashes broke out as government supporters tried to clear the protesters from the streets of Cairo. See article

After a month of protests in Jordan, King Abdullah sacked his government and appointed a new prime minister. Opposition leaders, who want the king’s powers curbed, said this was not enough. See article

With demonstrations continuing in Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s president, announced that he would step down in 2013 when his current term expires and that he would not hand power over to his son. See article

Iraq’s health ministry said that 159 civilians were killed in violent attacks in January, the highest monthly death toll since September; 55 policemen and 45 troops were also killed. On January 27th a car-bomb attack on a funeral in a Shia district of Baghdad left at least 45 people dead and injured scores more.

Official results of a referendum last month in South Sudan put those voting to secede from the rest of Sudan at nearly 99%. The new country is expected to come into formal existence on July 9th. See article

No bail-out for Cowen

Ireland’s prime minister, Brian Cowen, called an early general election for February 25th. He is standing down; his Fianna Fail party is expected to lose badly. Standard & Poor’s set the scene by downgrading Ireland’s credit rating by one notch, from A to A-.

The Irish government said it would expel a Russian diplomat after an investigation revealed that six Russian spies in America had used stolen Irish identities. Russia threatened to retaliate.

America and the European Union imposed sanctions on officials from Belarus, after December’s stolen presidential election. They also promised aid to opposition groups seeking to oust Belarus’s president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Four traffic policemen were shot dead in Kabardino-Balkaria, a republic in the north Caucasus, and two insurgents were killed in Dagestan, highlighting the lawlessness prevalent across the region.

Spain’s government concluded a social pact with employers and unions that includes wage-bargaining changes and a rise in the pension age to 67 by 2027. The euro crisis has increased the pressure on Spain to make reforms. See article

Mexican two-step

Ángel Aguirre Rivero, of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, was elected governor of the state of Guerrero in southern Mexico. The race had been close, but Mr Rivero benefited when the candidate from the conservative National Action Party dropped out, in order to prevent the Institutional Revolutionary Party from coming to power. The two parties may try to repeat their ideologically incongruous alliance at next year’s presidential election.

Assets worth $5.7m belonging to Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, a former dictator of Haiti, were frozen after Switzerland implemented a new law making it easier to confiscate the wealth of foreign politicians. Mr Duvalier returned to his country last month after 25 years in exile, and faces criminal charges there.

Closing in

India’s former telecoms minister was arrested in a corruption scandal involving the sale of licences for mobile networks. Andimuthu Raja, an ally of the ruling Congress party, resigned in November when it emerged the licences had been sold for less than they were worth, potentially costing India $38 billion in lost revenue and tarnishing the clean image of Manmohan Singh, the prime minister.

Myanmar’s dictator, Than Shwe, chose not to run for the post of president, who will be elected by the country’s new sham parliament. Presumably he will continue to exercise power behind the scenes.

The constitutional court of Kazakhstan rejected a proposal by parliament, criticised by America, to allow the long-serving president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to remain in office until 2020. The parliament, made up entirely of members of the president’s party, then passed constitutional amendments allowing Mr Nazarbayev to call a snap election, throwing what counts for the opposition off-guard.

The world’s greatest internal migration began in China as people returned to their hometowns to celebrate the New Year of the Rabbit. Perhaps two billion trips will be made over the coming weeks.

Looking a bit poorly

A federal judge in Florida ruled that the health-insurance mandate contained in the health-care-reform act was unconstitutional, and that as the provision is so integral to the reforms the whole act should be overturned. Four federal courts have now made decisions on the act, two of which support the legislation. Meanwhile, a measure to repeal the act, passed by Republicans soon after taking control of the House, was defeated in the Senate.

Early voting in Chicago’s mayoral election was disrupted by a blizzard. There were no further disruptions to Rahm Emanuel’s campaign after Illinois’s Supreme Court reinstated his candidacy, rejecting a lower court’s argument that the former White House chief of staff did not meet the state’s residency requirements. Election day is February 22nd.

Jon Huntsman said he was stepping down as America’s ambassador to China, fuelling speculation that he will join the list of potential Republican candidates for president. Mr Huntsman was governor of Utah when Barack Obama picked him for the Beijing job in 2009. See article

The Democrats chose Charlotte, North Carolina, as the host city for their presidential nominating convention next year. In 2008 Barack Obama became the first Democrat to win the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976. The Republicans are holding their 2012 convention in Tampa, Florida.