Politics this week
Aug 16th 2007
From The Economist print edition
In Iraq at least 250 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a co-ordinated four-bomb attack on the Yazidi community in the north-west of the country. It was the single deadliest insurgent strike in more than four years of war. The American army blamed al-Qaeda for the bombings. Meanwhile the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, held a series of meetings with the main Sunni, Shia and Kurdish party blocks in an effort to break the political deadlock in the country. See article
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's former prime minister, comfortably retained the leadership of his centre-right Likud party in a primary election. Moshe Feiglin, a once-marginal figure from the extreme right, garnered 23%, stoking fears in the Likud mainstream about the party's future.
America confirmed that it was considering designating Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation. The force is a political and commercial as well as military power in Iran. The move might make it vulnerable to international sanctions.
Sierra Leone went to the polls to elect a new president. Observers declared the election, the second since the end of the country's civil war in 2002, to be free and fair.
Trouble on the line
A home-made bomb exploded on a railway line in Russia, derailing the Moscow-St Petersburg express and injuring scores of passengers. Russia has had a recent lull in terrorist attacks. The police are looking for two suspects.
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party nominated Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, to the presidency. It was the fiercely secular army's objections to the previous nomination of Mr Gul that led to the recent election, which AK won handsomely. See article
Poland is likely to have an early election after its government fell apart. The prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, sacked all four ministers from his two junior coalition partners. Mr Kaczynski's party, Law and Justice, is trailing its right-wing rival, Civic Platform, in the opinion polls. See article
Six Italians thought to be linked to a feud within the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta organised-crime group were shot dead in the centre of Duisburg, Germany. See article
Good times, and bad times
India celebrated 60 years of independence from Britain with Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, promising that “the best is yet to come”. Meanwhile, Pakistan marked the 60th anniversary since its bloody partition from India, unsure how its president, General Pervez Musharraf, would overcome his declining fortunes. America has dissuaded him, for now, from declaring a state of emergency. See article
Severe flooding is thought to have left 300,000 North Koreans without homes and ruined a tenth of all farmland in what is already an economic basket case. International agencies are eager to help, but find it hard to operate in the world's most repressive state. A decade ago, famine killed up to 2m people, and many in North Korea are malnourished today. See article
A court in Taiwan cleared Ma Ying-jeou, the opposition Kuomintang's candidate for presidential elections next March, of charges of corruption while he was mayor of Taipei, boosting his chances of succeeding Chen Shui-bian. The ruling party's contender, Frank Hsieh, faces similar allegations of corruption.
Myanmar's military junta doubled the price of petrol and diesel, sending cars and buses off the road. The Burmese are already suffering from economic mismanagement and from Western embargoes imposed in protest against the detention of the democratic opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Presidential prerogative
Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, announced proposals to change his country's constitution, which dates from the early years of his rule. They include the abolition of term limits to allow indefinite re-election of the president. Mr Chávez said the changes were necessary to make Venezuela a socialist country. See article
Hundreds of people were reported to have died in Peru when a powerful earthquake hit Ica, a prosperous farming area 265km (165 miles) south of Lima.
Cuba's government released two political prisoners, including Francisco Chaviano, who was arrested in 1994 for allegedly revealing state secrets while researching rafters who disappeared or died while trying to flee the island.
Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, reshuffled his cabinet. He removed Gordon O'Connor, the defence minister, who had clashed with the army commander, replacing him with Peter MacKay, who had been foreign minister.
Into the sunset
Karl Rove announced his departure from the White House. George Bush's closest political adviser, credited with being “The Architect” of a string of Republican election victories, has received some of the blame for the party's current political woes. The Democrats rejoiced, but said they still wanted Mr Rove to testify in Congress about the sacking of nine federal prosecutors. See article
Mitt Romney won the Republicans' Iowa straw poll, viewed as a measure of organisational strength in the state ahead of their caucus, the first hurdle in the presidential election cycle. Mr Romney took almost 32% of the vote, but the three other leading candidates did not take part and dismissed the result as meaningless. Tommy Thompson dropped out of the race. See article
Meanwhile, Iowa's governor indicated that the preferred date for the state's caucus would remain sometime in early January, and not December as mooted by some. He was responding to the decision by Republicans in South Carolina to change the date of their primary to January 19th.
Mr Bush held an informal lunch for Nicolas Sarkozy at the Bush summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. The meeting of the American and French presidents, over a menu of hot dogs and blueberry pie, was intended to mark a break with the strained relationship that developed between Mr Bush and Mr Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac. Asked by a journalist if he thought Mr Sarkozy would bring cheese to the meal, Mr Bush replied, “I think he's bringing goodwill.”
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