Putin Prepares his Counterattack: Jeffrey Tayler

Vladimir Putin may be down, but don't count him out.

In the wake of Russia's largest anti-government demonstrations in two decades, the popularity of the country's prime minister and leading presidential candidate is, by some accounts, rising. As of January 14, Putin’s rating -- that is, the percentage of votes he would receive in immediate elections, according to the respected Russia Public Opinion Research Center -- stood at 52 percent, up from 45 percent in late December.  Communist Leader Gennady Zyuganov, Putin's most formidable opponent, came in a distant second, at 11 percent. Veteran liberal Grigory Yavlinsky garnered only 1 percent.

What began in early January as a heavy-handed police operation to clean up an area of downtown Sao Paulo has sparked an impassioned debate about drug policy and urban regeneration in South America's biggest city -- with some strange twists and turns.

Sao Paulo's ornate old city center was once one of its most desirable addresses. But in recent decades it became notorious for crime, drug addiction, homelessness and prostitution. Nowhere was the change more apparent than in the warren of narrow streets and alleys where for more than a decade crack has been openly sold and consumed: an area known as "Cracolandia," or Crackland.

In the great Indian novelist Yashpal's magnum opus about Partition, Jhootha Sach ("The False Truth"), one character swears that he is telling the truth -- and if not, "may the curse of spilling a cow's blood fall on me."

This line may be taken as emblematic of one of the most special man-animal relationships in the world, that of Indian Hindus with the cow. Not only is the cow central to the Indian agricultural system -- supplying milk for family nutrition and for sale, and dung for manure and fuel -- it also has many sacred associations in Hindu mythology and everyday life. On street corners one can find a cow tethered by its owner to a tree or post, being fed grass paid for by passers-by, who consider the gift a small act of kindness and empathy for the day. Even the languages of India are rich with cow proverbs and metaphors. Cows, whether as living animals or symbols, are always within the field of vision.

The details of the most famous judicial verdict in recent Chinese history are well known to most educated Chinese adults. Or, rather, they were until Monday, with the shocking disclosure of previously confidential documents in Nanjing.

The ensuing reaction, which is really just getting underway, touches on many of the most sensitive and pressing issues in China today, including the role of the press, the possibility of a politically independent judiciary and the ever-precarious state of the Chinese self-image.

An eerie calm has descended over Russia's political scene as the ruling elite and the newly enlivened opposition gird for their next confrontation.

Even as the opposition announced via Facebook that the next mass protest meeting will be held on Feb. 4, opinions on the success of the last one in December diverged. In his Live Journal blog, diehard nationalist Eduard Limonov, the leader of the Other Russia party, wrote the "the protest forces did not manage to successfully dispute the results of the parliamentary elections," which are widely regarded as fraudulent. The new State Duma "has begun to function.”

On Jan. 10, the reality show "Big Brother Brasil" kicked off its 12th season on the Globo network. The show -- part of the worldwide TV franchise in which contestants are confined to a house, filmed 24 hours a day and voted out (and sometimes back in) by the public -- dominates Internet and Twitter chat. It has everything Brazil likes: sex, gossip, flirting, glamour, socializing, sex and showing off.

But this year, "Big Brother" has competition. "Rich Women," which began airing a week before on the rival Band network, follows five rich, glamorous women through their day-to-day lives of staggering luxury.

As Western commentators discuss the potential for military conflict with Iran, those in the Middle East worry about another devastating possibility: sectarian war in the region.

This past week saw a wave of deadly suicide bombings in Iraq that increased tension between Sunnis and Shiites, continued sectarian violence in Syria, and Sunni-Shiite unrest in both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Though he has championed anti-regime revolts in the Arab world, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was moved to caution, “The structure that has emerged is leading to a religious, sectarian and racist civil war. This has to be prevented.”

The New Year's Eve holiday ended in Brazil not with a bang, but with a combination of floods and transport chaos that exposed the cracks in the country's creaking infrastructure.

In heavy rain on one of the busiest travel days of the year, Rio de Janeiro's Santos Dumont Airport closed three times. Just 12 of its 332 flights left on time, and 119 were canceled. At the international Tom Jobim airport, 46 percent of flights were delayed.

Since China’s so-called “one child” policy began in 1979, cheap, easy and anonymous birth control has been tantamount to a government-guaranteed right. Chinese pharmacies have long made birth control pills and emergency contraceptives -- also known as the “morning after pill" -- available without a prescription.

But on Dec. 21, in a move that shocked Chinese citizens, the local Food and Drug Administration of Fuzhou, the capitol city of Fujian Province, abruptly issued an order requiring its pharmacies to acquire "real name registration" -- the names, phone numbers and government identification numbers -- of women seeking emergency contraceptives.

If the largest anti-government demonstrations since the fall of the Soviet Union have had any meaningful effect on Russia's leadership, you would hardly have guessed it from the president's traditional New Year's Eve address to the nation.

Standing rigidly in front of a nocturnal backdrop of illuminated Kremlin towers and gilt onion domes, Dmitri Medvedev said that a “completely special atmosphere” reigns in every home, and that “how the coming year turns out will be up to us.”