For much of Washington, 2014 could not come soon enough. November's mid-term elections represented Barack Obama's last hope of redrawing the US political map and moving on from a year marred by divided government and Congressional stalemate.
Whether Democrats succeed in their unlikely dream of seizing back control of the House of Representatives or Republicans instead continue to make inroads on their fragile lead in the Senate is another matter, and much depends on whether the White House can first restore public faith in its flagship healthcare reforms by the 31 March enrolment deadline.
Spring will also see Republican leaders under renewed pressure from their Tea Party wing, which is preparing primary challenges against moderates in the Senate that will further constrain any ability to cut deals with Democrats once election fever starts.
Several potential bright spots could lift everyone's spirits, however. A recovering economy may take pressure off America's anaemic job market and shocking social stagnation. US troops should return from Afghanistan – with or without a deal in Kabul to retain a security presence. And progress toward Iranian nuclear detente may give the White House cause to celebrate a rare foreign policy success, even if Congress will still need persuading.
Other challenges looming in 2014 have been postponed by the dysfunction and inertia of 2013. Barack Obama still needs to decide whether to authorise the Keystone energy pipeline, which pits environmentalists against North America's unconventional oil boom; expect tough new climate change controls for power companies instead if he does. And with all three branches of government now proposing reform of the NSA, Obama will finally have to decide before January's state of the union address what to do about America's surveillance state.
For much of 2014, the US Capitol dome will be shrouded in scaffolding for renovations – both real and metaphorical. What emerges next December will say much about the future of American democracy.
Dan Roberts in Washington
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The tiny Baltic nation of Latvia is to join the euro on New Year's Day against the wishes of its own people, becoming the eighteenth and poorest member of monetary union five years after its economy crashed in flames.
The country has endured a 1930s-style depression and a drastic experiment in EU shock therapy with stoicism, abiding strictly to the terms of an EU-IMF bail-out.
It has exported its way back to balance and defied critics by defending its euro-peg through thick and thin, yet the feat comes at a high social cost.
Euro accession has been greeted glumly by most of Latvia's 2m people, worn down by lay-offs and 28pc pay cuts for teachers, nurses, and police. A mass exodus of youth has served as an escape valve, leaving an older society behind. Latvia's population has shrunk by 7pc since 2007.
An SKDS poll in November found that just 20pc favour giving up the national currency, the Lats, brief symbol of sovereignty in the interwar years between interludes of Tsarist and Leninist occupation. The Lats was restored with great emotion in 1992 after Latvia broke free of Soviet control.
In Germany, where trading for the year wrapped up on Monday, the DAX index has surged 26% in 2013.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 Index has risen 17% in 2013, the biggest annual gain since 2009, boosted by the gradual improvement in the European economy and the easy-money policies of global central banks.
With the region's debt crisis continuing to ease, investors have stepped in to pick up bargains, with cash flowing into European equity funds after years of outflows.
Countries that fell out of favor with investors during the euro-zone's protracted debt woes have also been strong
Countries that fell out of favor with investors during the euro-zone's protracted debt woes have also been strong performers this year.
Spain's IBEX 35 and Italy's FTSE MIB have gained 21% and 17% respectively, while Greece's ATHEX Composite leapt by 28%.
Europe's markets have enjoyed a particularly strong end to the year as investors shrugged off the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision earlier this month to scale back its monetary stimulus, taking the move as a sign the recovery is gathering pace in the world's largest economy.
That confidence has also bolstered stocks on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching a fresh record close Monday, on track for its best annual performance since the late 1990s.
The first Romanians and Bulgarians with unrestricted access to the UK labour market have begun to arrive despite last-ditch efforts to prevent a feared wave of fresh immigration.
Romanians landing at Luton Airport were greeted by Tory MP Mark Reckless and Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz, who said that those arriving today provided just a ''snapshot'' of those expected to come to the country over the coming months.
The 180-seat aircraft from Tirgu Mures only had 140 passengers on board, he said, most of whom already live and work in the UK.
''Just on the conversations we've had with people who have come here, a lot of them are returning people, they already work in Britain and they're coming back after a holiday so they're not people coming here for the first time,'' Mr Vaz said.
''We've seen no evidence of people who have rushed out and bought tickets in order to arrive because it's the 1st of January.
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