Will Venezuelan voters continue on the Bolivarian path or opt for a return to capitalism?  Also, a terrorist assault in Mogadishu proves deadly, and people who lost big parts of their savings in Cyprus get an offer they’ll probably refuse.

Polling stations have closed in Venezuela, and votes are being counted in the first post-Hugo Chavez Presidential election.  There are eight candidates running, but it’s early down to two:  Chavez’ hand-picked successor Nicolas Maduro or the more free-market minded Enrique Capriles.

Nineteen people were killed in a bombing and armed attack in the Somali capital Mogadishu.  Most of the fatalities happened in an armed assault on the main court buildings.  A suicide bombing on a Turkish aid convoy killed three people.  An Islamist group called Al-Shabab claimed responsibility.

China is reporting 11 new cases of H7M9 bird flu, bringing the total number of infections to 60.  Two more people died, bring fatalities to 13.  All cases are in China and the World health Organization says there’s no evidence of human-to-human infection.

Cyprus is offering a consolation prize to foreign investors who lost more than A$3.75 Million in the EU bailout of the island nation’s broken banks.  The offer seems aimed at members of the Russian business community who got hit the hardest. 

Israel will not have a criminal investigation into the bombing of a house in Gaza last year.  12 civilians were killed on 18 November when the house was hit by an Israeli missile.  The Israeli Defense Forces says the deaths were “regrettable” but a senior Hamas militant was the target.  That target escaped unharmed.

Scientists in American are announcing some success in “rebuilding” a kidney in a lab, and transplanting it into an animal.  In a study published in the journal “Nature Medicine”, the doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital say they took a rat kidney and washed out the old cells and pumped in new ones; put it in an oven to replicate a rat’s body temperature; and put it back in a rat, where the kidney reached 5 percent effectiveness.  It's a step.  Not for the rat, but perhaps for future generations of lab rats as the technique is perfected.