Politics this week

An army parade in Kabul attended by Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, and foreign ambassadors was disrupted by Taliban gunmen. Three people were killed. After a long gun-battle two days later the government claimed that the Taliban network involved had been wiped out. See article

Despite continuing vilification in China's official press of the Dalai Lama, the Chinese government announced it would reopen talks with representatives of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.

More than 70 people were killed in China's deadliest train crash in more than a decade. The accident happened on the line linking Beijing with the coastal city of Qingdao, which will host the sailing competition during the forthcoming Olympics.

Talks were held in Dubai between Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari, leaders of the two largest parties in Pakistan's ruling coalition. The coalition is under strain because of disagreement about the future of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf.

The rebel soldiers who attacked Timor-Leste's prime minister and president in February surrendered. The government denied that it had given them any promise of lenient treatment.

In Japan, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party was defeated in an important by-election, which the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan won. Nevertheless, the prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, carried out his promise to reinstate an unpopular petrol tax. See article

Preparing a stitch-up

Government sources in Zimbabwe said that the result of the presidential poll on March 29th would at last be released, but that all sides would have to “verify” it before it was deemed official. Morgan Tsvangirai may be declared the winner of the first round over the incumbent Robert Mugabe but with less than 50% of the vote, thus necessitating a run-off. See article

American forces said they had killed at least 79 Iraqi gunmen loyal to a firebrand Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, for the loss of half a dozen Americans in four days of fighting in eastern Baghdad. Mr Sadr had called for a truce, which many of his fighters plainly ignored.

The leader of al-Qaeda in Somalia, Aden Hashi Ayro, was reported to have been killed by an American air raid in a town in the middle of the country.

EPA

Conservatives consolidated their majority in Iran's parliament after run-offs for a quarter of the seats. The first round of the election was held in mid-March.

The International Criminal Court at The Hague made public a warrant for the arrest of Bosco Ntaganda, the alleged leader of a rebel group in eastern Congo, who is one of four people indicted for war crimes there by the court. The trial of another Congolese rebel leader, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, is due to start next month.

Castro's agenda

Cuba's president, Raúl Castro, announced that a long-overdue Communist Party congress will be held at the end of next year. He also set up a new executive committee of the party's Politburo, consisting mainly of veteran officials.

Haiti's president, René Préval, named a development banker, Ericq Pierre, as his new prime minister. The previous prime minister was sacked by the parliament last month after food riots that left seven people dead.

In a fierce gun-battle between rival drug gangs, 17 people were killed in Tijuana, on Mexico's border with the United States. In a jail in Honduras nine prisoners were hacked to death during a riot by imprisoned gang members. In Colombia police shot dead Victor Manuel Mejía, a suspected drug lord and one of two twin brothers on a list of alleged criminals most wanted by the United States.

Getting clubby

The European Union offered to sign an association agreement with Serbia, which is normally a prelude to membership negotiations. The offer came 12 days before a general election in which it is feared that anti-EU nationalists in Serbia will do well.

Austria's government said it would launch a campaign to improve the country's image after it emerged that a 73-year-old man had kept his daughter locked in a basement for 24 years, fathering seven children by her. This horrific tale followed an earlier case, in which a man abducted and held a young girl in a cellar for several years.

Rome elected a former neo-fascist, Gianni Alemanno, as its mayor. His easy defeat of the centre-left candidate led some of his supporters to cry “Duce! Duce!” and raise their arms in salute. The right in Italy now controls the central government and the two biggest cities, Rome and Milan. See article

Britain's voters went to the polls in local elections, with most interest centred on the race to be mayor of London, between Labour's Ken Livingstone and the Tories' Boris Johnson.

Turkey's parliament voted to soften Article 301 of the penal code, which makes “insulting Turkishness” a crime. Article 301 has been used against hundreds of authors and journalists. The EU praised the vote as “a welcome step forward”.

With friends like these

AP

Barack Obama tried to put more distance between himself and Jeremiah Wright, after his former pastor made a series of public remarks in which he stirred up more controversy on race. Mr Obama said he was “outraged” by Mr Wright's views. See article

Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic Party, reiterated his call for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton to pull out of the presidential race in June after the states have held their last primaries. Mr Dean said that carrying the nomination battle to the party's convention in August would cause long-lasting damage.

The Supreme Court upheld Indiana's requirement that voters produce photo identification at polling booths. More than 20 states require some form of ID; this is said to deter poor and elderly people, who may not have the right sort of documents, from voting. See article

The Census Bureau estimated that Hispanics now make up more than 15% of America's total population.