Globe Trot 11.07

Heart-stopping elections in the United States did not halt world events, though the outcome is sure to affect them.

China’s 18th Party Congress opens tomorrow and will mark the nation’s once-a-decade transition of power, albeit without elections. Some Chinese believe it can bring long-awaited policy revisions—including changes to China’s longstanding one-child policy—as a majority of the leadership is retiring and with the changing climate in the country.

Neil Heywood was a spy … and The Wall Street Journal is due a Pulitzer for staying with the melodrama surrounding the murder in China of a British tycoon by the wife of a now-disgraced member of the Politburo, Bo Xilai.

President Obama allowed “freeing ourselves from foreign oil” as his foreign policy priority in a second term. But nearer crises and events will intervene, including the global fiscal cliff, the Middle East, and Iran, for starters. On the first Forbes’ Bill Frezza writes, “Despite a good look at the bankruptcy of entitlement democracy playing out across the eurozone, Americans have gone to the polls demanding to join the death spiral. Offered a clear choice, the promise of free stuff vanquished our abandoned heritage of freedom.”

It’s perhaps no surprise then that Germans polled 91 percent in favor of President Obama.

Here’s a look at e-voting around the world, as a post-mortem on the conduct of U.S. elections is surely needed.

Iraq once figured to be key among U.S. allies in the Arab world. Now, it’s making arms deals with Moscow.

A promising peace negotiation in Mali is underway, according to the foreign affairs minister of Burkina Faso after three days of talks with an extremist group whose members control parts of northern Mali.

In Homs, the city first embattled in Syria’s civil war, the last remaining Christian there has reportedly died.

We’re following: the Syrian National Initiative launched in Qatar, the potential for a transition from President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and the missteps of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others in the Obama administration.