Politics this week

Ahead of a European Union summit, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, called for changes to the European Union treaties to enforce tighter fiscal rules. The pair said they wanted all euro-zone countries to introduce laws limiting government deficits, and for spendthrifts to be punished. David Cameron, the British prime minister, came under pressure from Eurosceptic members of his Conservative Party to hold a referendum on any new treaty. See article

In Russia’s parliamentary election the ruling United Russia party of Vladimir Putin won just under half the votes, less than it had expected. After widespread reports of voting irregularities Moscow saw its biggest political protests in years. Several prominent opposition figures were arrested and jailed. See article

Elections were held in Croatia and Slovenia. Both were won by centre-left parties; as predicted in Croatia’s case, but surprisingly in Slovenia’s. See article

Italy’s new prime minister, Mario Monti, announced a new austerity budget of €30 billion ($40 billion) in tax rises and spending cuts. The welfare minister broke down in tears as she announced a big shake-up of Italy’s generous pension system. See article

After a world-record 541 days, Belgium finally formed a government, under pressure from the markets. The new prime minister is Elio di Rupo, a Socialist from the Walloon (French-speaking) community.

Fundamentalist concerns

The Muslim Brotherhood won an even bigger proportion of the vote than predicted in the first of three sets of votes for Egypt’s parliament, getting 37% in party lists but raising its seat tally to 46% after a series of run-offs in single-member constituencies. The Salafists, a more extreme group of Islamists, surprised pollsters even more, getting 24% of the vote on party lists and 21% overall after the run-offs. The Brothers said if they won they would not team up with the Salafists but would form a coalition with secularists. The voting is due to end in mid-January. See article

Kuwait’s emir dissolved parliament amid a crisis over allegations of corruption. Elections will be held within 60 days.

The United States opened a “virtual” embassy for Iranians that offers them services such as visa information. The real American embassy in Tehran has been closed for more than 32 years. Meanwhile, Iran claimed to have shot down an American drone over its eastern border.

Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of Côte d’Ivoire, appeared at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The first former head of state to go before the court, he was charged with crimes against humanity in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election a year ago.

Day of mourning

Two bomb blasts in Afghanistan killed 59 people on the most important day of Muharram, a Shia festival. The bombs exploded near religious sites in Kabul and the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif as worshippers gathered, and were a rare form of sectarian violence in the country. The next day, 19 people travelling in a minibus were killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand province. See article

India’s communications minister asked Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and Microsoft to screen user-generated content for offensive material before it goes online. The move is aimed at protecting the sensibilities of Indians from blasphemous material, though the volume of content posted online by India’s 100m internet users makes any such regulation impossible. See article

Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, which was seriously damaged after March’s earthquake, was found to have sprung a leak. Some 45 tonnes of contaminated water spilled out of the plant into a nearby wastewater area.

Thailand jailed a Thai-born American citizen for two-and-a-half-years for criticising the monarchy. Joe Gordon uploaded a blog post about the king written from Colorado, but was arrested when he entered Thailand.

The new battle of Cajamarca

Peru’s new president, Ollanta Humala, declared a state of emergency in the northern department of Cajamarca and sent troops to quash protests against Minas Conga, a $4.8 billion gold and copper mining project. See article

Brazil’s labour minister resigned under an ethical cloud, the sixth minister to depart this year over corruption claims.

Brazil’s Senate approved a reform of the country’s Forest Code, reducing the amount of forest cover farmers are obliged to maintain, but requiring them over 20 years to replant areas illegally deforested. This came as the government announced that deforestation in the year to July had fallen to the lowest level since satellite monitoring began 23 years ago.

The leaders of 33 countries met in Caracas to found the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). They condemned the American economic embargo against Cuba and supported Argentina’s claim to the Falklands (Malvinas). But they did not support a plan by the host, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, to give CELAC a permanent secretariat or budget.

Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, and America’s president, Barack Obama, signed an agreement called Beyond the Border under which Canada will share information about people entering and leaving the country while the United States will ease some security checks on cross-border trade. See article

Progressive values

Barack Obama went to Kansas, deep in the Republican heartland, to give a big speech on the economy, in which he attacked Republican economic policy and said America was at a “make-or-break moment for the middle class”. Mr Obama laid out his case in the same town where Teddy Roosevelt called for a progressive “new nationalism” in 1910. See article

Herman Cain “suspended” his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, in effect ending his candidacy. Newt Gingrich is likely to be the main beneficiary of his withdrawal from the race. See article

Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison for a range of crimes, including trying to sell Mr Obama’s old Senate seat. He is the second consecutive former governor of Illinois to be jailed for corruption.