South African Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, was appointed President of the African National Congress, effectively ensuring him as a shoe-in for the Presidency next year, despite the on-gooing controversies in his personal life, from financial irregularities to his recently acquitted rape trial, where he admitted that his defence against AIDS was, er, to have a shower afterwards.

Week 45 – and General Pervez Musharraf, who siezed power in a military coup in Pakistan in 1999, but yet is still an ally in the War on Terror, was in the news this week for declaring emergency rule in Pakistan, imposing a State of Emergency, suspending the Constitution, firing the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, postponing next years presidential elections and putting rival and former president Benazir Bhutto under house arrest.

Edit (27 Dec 2007): Small change as I realised I’d included two Ace of Spades, and no Eight. Remedied now.

Week 43, and for the Two of Spades it’s King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who this week was preparing to visit the UK for the first visit of a Saudi monarch in 20 years. The visit was contraversial for a number of reasons, from Saudi Arabia’s disregard for human rights and use of capital punishment, the recent (conveniently dropped) enquiry into British Aerospace’s and the
Government’s dealing with the country, and the King’s comments on the 7/7 London bombers.

Week 41 – and this week it’s former US Vice President and technically-president (if you count the votes properly) and now Nobel Prize for Peace winner Al Gore… assuming there’s no re-count

Week 39, and this week I’ve chosen Nobel prize winner, democracy campaigner, and (technically at least) president of Burma, who made a rare public appearance to support the protesting monks from her home where she has been under house arrest by the military junta.

Apologies once more for the second brief hiatus recently. Anyway, retrospectively back again with this card for the week ending 24 August – German chancellor Angela Merkel, who was in Britain this week partly for a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and partly to attend the England v Germany game at Wembley Stadium (England lost…)

This week it’s South African President Thabo Mbeki, who this week shocked AIDS/HIV campaigners across the world by sacking his Deputy Health Minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. Madala-Routledge was responsible for the large-scale roll-out of antiretrovirals across South Africa, a scheme opposed by both Mbeki and her superior, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who favoured, amongst other things the use of the beetroot as a cure for AIDS. More here.

Getting in a day early for a change (as I’m off on my hols tomorrow), here’s Bush-baiting Russiam Premier Vladimir Putin, who this week announced that Russian nukes were again being targeted at European targets in response to the USA’s anti-missle system. Sounds like there’ll be a chilly, Cold War-esque atmosphere at this week’s G8.

This week it’s the turn of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose election last week prompted riots on the streets of Paris. Ok, I know that was last week, but I make the rules…