Politics this week

Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of Myanmar’s democracy movement took their seats in parliament. It is the first time that Ms Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest after the regime ripped up the election result in 1990, has held public office. Her protest against the wording of the parliamentary oath had threatened to stop her entering parliament, but she relented during a visit to Myanmar by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general.

Chen Guangcheng, a blind Chinese activist, escaped from house arrest in coastal Shandong province and fled to the American embassy in Beijing. Mr Chen left the embassy after six days, when American diplomats said they had received assurances from Chinese officials that he and his family would be treated humanely. He later claimed to have left because government thugs threatened his wife. Mr Chen’s plight sparked a diplomatic row between America and China, but the Americans insisted they had not pressured him to leave. See article

A bomb in Nepal killed four people during a demonstration near the Indian border demanding a separate province for speakers of Maithili.

A nationalisation trend

Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president, announced that he would nationalise Transportadora de Electricidad (TDE), the country’s national power-grid company, which belongs to Spain’s REE. Though the decision was widely compared to Argentina’s recent expropriation of YPF, a Spanish-controlled oil firm, Bolivia gave Spain ample warning and promised to pay fair compensation. Moreover, TDE represented only a small fraction of REE’s total revenues. See article

Colombia’s FARC guerrillas broke their promise, made earlier this year, to stop kidnapping civilians and said they had abducted Romeo Langlois, a French journalist, whom they claimed was wearing a government military helmet and vest. Juan Manuel Santos, the president, said there were “clear indications” the group’s claims were accurate and urged it to free Mr Langlois.

Mexico’s Congress passed a law authorising the government to pay compensation to victims of organised crime and human-rights abuses by security forces. It set the maximum payout at $73,000.

The hard road to democracy

At least 20 people were killed in protests in Cairo against Egypt’s ruling generals. Many of those demonstrating were supporters of Hazem Abu Ismail, a Salafist who has been barred from standing in this month’s presidential election.

The chief of staff of Israel’s army, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, seemed to contradict the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, by implying that Iran might yet decide not to build a nuclear weapon. The general was backed by two former heads of the internal and external security services. See article

Tzipi Livni, Israel’s former foreign minister, said she would stand down as a member of parliament. She recently lost the leadership of Kadima, Israel’s main opposition party.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, said Syrian forces killed at least 95 civilians and burned or destroyed hundreds of houses in the fortnight before a ceasefire came into effect on April 12th.

Gunmen thought to belong to Nigeria’s Boko Haram, an extreme Islamist group, attacked churches in three towns, including Kano, leaving at least 32 people dead. See article

Two parliamentarians were among the seven people killed in a suicide-attack in a town in central Somalia. The Shabab, the al-Qaeda-linked militia which controls the biggest swathe of Somalia, claimed responsibility.

Exit, stage right?

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and François Hollande, his Socialist challenger, squared off in a bad-tempered televised debate before the second and final round of the presidential election on May 6th. Mr Hollande remains the firm favourite to win. See article

The gruff treatment of Yulia Tymoshenko, the imprisoned Ukrainian opposition leader, led to calls for European leaders to boycott the Ukrainian part of the Euro 2012 football championships, to be held jointly with Poland. Several heads of state, including Germany’s president, said they would stay away from a summit in Yalta in mid-May. See article

The centre-right government in Romania fell, after losing a vote of confidence. It had been in office for less than three months. Its centre-left replacement will be in office for little more than six months before new elections in November. See article

A British parliamentary committee investigating the phone-hacking scandal at News Corporation’s British newspapers declared that Rupert Murdoch was not “fit” to run a large international company, and said he had “exhibited wilful blindness” to his papers’ misdeeds. Several MPs on the committee dissented from the contentious accompanying comments in the report that News Corp said were “unjustified and highly partisan”. See article

Votes are out there somewhere

Barack Obama paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan where he signed a co-operation agreement with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, which offers support after American troops leave the country in 2014. Soon after Mr Obama left Kabul a bomb killed seven people.

Mr Obama’s trip was also part election politicking. He went to Afghanistan amid a political row in America on the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden by American special forces that was sparked by Mr Obama’s public doubts as to whether Mitt Romney would have been as committed to hunting down al-Qaeda’s leader. Republicans moaned that Mr Obama was turning national security into a partisan issue, something which is usually considered their department.

A gay adviser to Mr Romney on foreign policy quit his campaign, blaming the “hyperpartisan discussion” of his sexuality by social conservatives. Richard Grenell’s appointment had been attacked by many Republican Christian groups. The Romney team had urged him to stay. His departure was described as a “huge win” by a spokesman for the American Family Association.

Newt Gingrich officially quit the Republican race for president, after finishing last in some recent primaries.