Mexico:
Federal Republic
President Enrique Pena Nieto
He was the eldest of four siblings in a middle class family; his father, Gilberto Enrique Pena del Mazo was an engineer for the electric company and his mother, Maria del Socorro Nieto a schoolteacher. Reports that he fathered two children in extramarital affairs while his wife Monica raised the couple's 3 children, plus the investigation into the sudden death of his wife at home in 2007 have prompted many to call him the Teflon candidate because trouble seem to slide off him. Two years later he announced his engagement to soap opera actor Angelica Rivera. Rivera became his wife in a star studded wedding ceremony two years ago and is now the first lady of Mexico.
Germany:
Federal Republic
Chancellor Angela Merkel
Graduated from University of Leipzig in 1978 with a degree in quantam chemistry from the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1986. Has been Chancellor since November 2005. Merkel has earned the top spot on the FORBES list of Most Powerful Women In The World for eight of the past 10 years at number one.
Venezuala:
Federal Republic
President Nicolas Maduro
China:
Communist State
Premier Ll Kequiang
He is the son of revolutionary veteran Xi Zhongxun, one of the Communist Party founding fathers. He married folk singer Peng Liyuan who also holds the rank of army general, in 1987. To many in China, Ms. Peng was the better known half of the couple before Xi Jinping became leader of the Communist Party. The couple have a daughter name Xi Mingze who is studying at Harvard University in the US.
United Kingdom:
Constitutional Monarchy and Commonwealth Realm
Prime Minister David Cameron
Saudi Arabia:
Monarchy
King and Prime Minister Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud
He has fathered 22 children, the youngest when he was 79. He is worth approximately 22 billion dollars. He was appointed commander of the Saudi Arabia National Guard a post he was still holding when he became king. In November 2007, King Abdullah visited Pope Benedict in the apostolic Palace. He is the first Saudi monarch to visit the Pope. In March 2008, he called for a "brotherly and sincere dialogue between believers from all religions." In 2011, he granted women the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, the biggest change in a decade for women in a puritanical kingdom that practices strict separation of the sexes, including banning women from driving (the only country in the world with such a ban.)
India:
Federal Republic
President Pranab Mukherjee
He taught Political Science at the Vidiyanager College and worked as a journalist before entering politics. Mukherjee was rated as one of the best finance ministers of the world in 1984 and was adjudged the best parliamentarians in 1997. He had a conflict with Rajiv Gandhi (who took over as Prime Minister from his mother Indira after she was assassinated in 1984) and started his own party - Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress.
France:
Republic
Francois Rollande
Hollande has no previous experience in a national government position. The mother of his four children is Segolene Royal with whom he shared a 30 year relationship. He was born in 1954 in the city of Rouen to an extreme right physician father and progressive social worker another.
Iran:
Theocratic Republic
President Hasan Fereidun Ruhani and Supreme Leader Ali Hoseini - Khamenei
In 1963, Khamenei took part in street protests against the U.S. backed Shah of Iran. After the uprising was quashed, Khamenei was exiled. Khamenei was imprisoned multiple times and, in 1975, was internally exiled to a remote region in southeastern Iran. Was elected President of Iran in 1981 and re-elected in 1985. Became Iran's Supreme Leader in 1989. Ruhani has held several parliamentary posts, including deputy speaker and has also served on the Supreme National Security Council. Recently elected President of Iran in June 2013. He has been openly critical of the outgoing president, saying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "careless, uncalculated and unstudied remarks" have cost the country dearly.
Afghanistan:
Islamic Republic
President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai
He emerged as a resistance leader under Taliban rule and worked to undermine the regime. He is well versed in several countries, including his native Peshto, Persian, Hindi, French and English.
Brazil:
Federal Republic
President Dilma Rousseff
Dilma opposed Brazil's military dictatorship of the 1960s and 70s and served three years in prison, where she was repeatedly tortured. She has been divorced twice and has a degree in economics and now rules the country with the eigth-biggest economy in the world. She also underwent chemotherapy for lymphoma in 2009 and now in remission.
Israel:
Parliamentary Democracy
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Presiden Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres was born in Belarus. To escape the persecution of the Jews there, the family fled to Palestine in 1934. When Arab forces launched their attach on the new state of Israel in 1948, Peres was given the chief responsibility for securing military equipment for Israel abroad. Later he organized Israel's nuclear program and is regarded as the father of Israel's atomic bomb. As Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres was in charge of the Israeli negotiations during peace talks with the Palestinians. In the autumn of he showed the Nobel Peace Prize with his own Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
