The most prominent of Syria's al-Qaeda-linked rebel factions, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (meaning Greater Syria), widely known as ISIS, was attacked and reportedly defeated in a number of places in northern Syria by its less jihad-minded rivals, as President Bashar Assad and his government forces looked happily on. Meanwhile, the UN's secretary-general invited an array of countries, including the United States, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, but not Iran, the Syrian government's closest regional ally, to attend peace talks in Geneva on January 22nd. ISIS was also engaged in battles against Iraqi government forces in Anbar, a province west of Baghdad abutting both Syria and Jordan. Its men controlled much of the province's two biggest cities, Ramadi and Falluja, but the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, said he was determined to recapture them. Egyptians prepared to vote in a referendum on January 14th and 15th on a new constitution put forward by the army-backed government, which ousted an Islamist-led one last July. Followers of the Muslim Brotherhood, the former ruling party that has recently been banned as a terrorist movement, are calling for a boycott. Representatives of South Sudan's government under President Salva Kiir and of rebels loyal to his former vice-president, Riek Machar, met in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, to discuss peace. Their forces back home continued fighting. In a separate meeting Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, met Mr Kiir in Juba, South Sudan's capital. An ugly statistic The murder of Mónica Spear, an actress and a former Miss Venezuela, and her husband prompted protests in the country about levels of violence. Unofficial figures put the number of homicides in Venezuela, which has a population of 30m, at almost 25,000 in 2013. Reforms allowing Cubans to buy and sell modern cars without needing special permits from the government came into force. But absurdly high prices - more than $250,000 for a Peugeot - meant more lookers than buyers. Brazil's finance minister, Guido Mantega, sought to alleviate concerns about the public finances, announcing that the country had posted a larger-than-expected primary budget surplus last year. The political battlefield Bangladesh's ruling Awami League won a general election, after a boycott by the main opposition party. Voter turnout was low. At least 150 people died in violence before the election and during it. Security forces in Cambodia shot and killed five garment workers at a march against low wages. The protest formed part of a wider opposition movement against the three-decade rule of Hun Sen as prime minister. America's energy secretary postponed a trip to India because of an increasingly bitter row over the arrest and strip search of a female Indian diplomat in New York on charges of visa fraud and underpaying her nanny. The government in Delhi is furious, even threatening to impose traffic fines on American embassy cars in the Indian capital. Thailand's anti-corruption body decided to charge more than 300 politicians for trying to change the constitution. Most of them are from the governing party. The move is a further twist in Thailand's political gridlock ahead of an election on February 2nd. Beat policemen Around 350 police officers in Ankara, Turkey's capital, were removed from their posts. The purge of the police force came in the wake of a wide-ranging corruption investigation that plunged the country's political leadership into crisis. The government of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is intensifying efforts to sideline those who are driving the investigation, including plans for a law to give it greater control over the judiciary. Princess Cristina, the youngest daughter of Spain's King Juan Carlos, was charged with tax fraud and money laundering, an unwelcome scandal after a series of public-relations disasters that have beset the increasingly unpopular royal family. The examining magistrate summoned the princess to appear in court on March 8th. The move could lead to the first trial of a member of the Spanish royal family. Laimdota Straujuma was set to become Latvia's first female prime minister. She will replace Valdis Dombrovskis, who stepped down amid public anger at the collapse of a supermarket roof in Riga, Latvia's capital, last November, killing 54 people. Elections are due in October. Workers at a Goodyear factory in northern France released two managers they had held captive for 30 hours in a dispute over plans to close it. Union leaders and managers have been negotiating for years about how to deal with the American tyre company's loss-making site. The inequality agenda Six Republicans joined Democrats in the Senate to prevent a filibuster of a bill that would temporarily reinstate unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks. Benefits were extended in 2008, but the programme expired in December, ending the benefit for 1.3m people. New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced that marijuana would be allowed for limited medical purposes in the state, which despite its liberal leanings has stern laws on the drug's use. Meanwhile, the legalisation of marijuana for recreational use in Colorado was popular, with licensed shops reporting that they were running out of the weed because of high demand. Chris Christie, New Jersey's normally ebullient governor, said he was "outraged" that one of his aides had apparently colluded with officials to cause traffic problems in a town where the mayor had not supported Mr Christie's re-election bid. He denied knowing about the affair, but the vindictiveness displayed by his staff may dent his popularity. Much of North America shivered through a "polar vortex," with many towns as far south as central Florida recording their coldest temperatures in 20 years. New York endured a bone-numbing -16°C (4°F), though that was positively balmy compared with the −40°C recorded in Brimson, Minnesota.