The coming days

What may make the headlines

• KENYA goes to the polls on Thursday December 27th. The chances of a reasonably fair ballot are good and there has been no serious violence. Kenya’s electoral commission has done a reasonable job of staying independent and working to avoid vote rigging. And the last poll before the election suggests a close contest. Raila Odinga, who helped to defeat Danial arap Moi in the presidential election of 2002, by supporting Mwai Kibaki’s coalition, has a good chance of toppling Mr Kibaki from the presidency this time.

• THE new year is a good day to start afresh. On Tuesday January 1st Japan takes over the presidency of the G8 group of industrialised countries and Slovenia assumes the rotating six-month presidency of the EU. Freshness comes to France in the from of a smoking ban in bars and restaurants and the chance to shine is awarded to Liverpool, in Britain, and Stavanger, in Norway, which share the right to call themselves the European culture capitals for 2008.

• THE candidates hoping to become America’s next president will have little time to recover from their new year celebrations before the battle for the nominations begins in earnest. On Thursday January 3rd the first contest of the electoral season, the Iowa caucuses, takes place. The battle is proving fascinating, with the Democrats’ Barack Obama challenging their front-runner, Hillary Clinton, and threatening an early upset. Rudy Giuliani, for the Republicans, faces a strong showing from Mitt Romney and other rivals.

• GEORGIA claws back from the brink in the new year. With the main opposition television station reopened, and foreign advisers frantically trying to burnish President Mikheil Saakashvili's tarnished image, the run up to Georgia's presidential elections on Saturday January 5th is looking smoother and more presentable than many imagined. The big test is not whether Mr Saakashvili is re-elected—which looks highly likely—but whether he will learn from the mistakes of the past year and start a more open, transparent and less cronyist style of rule.