Saudi Arabia executed 47 people on terrorism charges, including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia Muslim cleric. Many Shias around the world reacted angrily. In Iran protesters stormed the Saudi embassy. The Saudi government, along with allies in Bahrain and Sudan, cut diplomatic ties with Iran, although it said talks this month on the Syrian civil war would not be affected. In Yemen Saudi fighter jets intensified their bombardment of Iranian-allied Houthi forces. Iran said they had bombed its embassy in Yemen.

Burundi’s government refused to join peace talks with the opposition. Sporadic violence continued in the capital, Bujumbura. Around 400 people have been killed since April, when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would seek a third term in office.

Two former prime ministers were set to face off in the second round of a presidential election in the Central African Republic. The first vote on December 30th was peaceful, but militias still control most of the country, which has suffered Christian-Muslim violence since 2012.

Another poke in the eye

North Korea claimed to have detonated a thermonuclear, or hydrogen, weapon underground. It was the rogue country’s fourth nuclear test since 2006, though international experts questioned the claim, arguing that it may have been a smaller “boosted-fission” explosion instead. Reports that the North had fired a missile from a submarine for the first time also surfaced. China, North Korea’s supposed ally, expressed anger at the test.

In Bangladesh the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Motiur Rahman Nizami, who heads Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamic party. He was convicted last year for war crimes committed during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971, when he helped the Pakistani army identify and kill pro-independence activists. Critics claim he did not receive a fair trial.

A French journalist left China after the government refused to renew her press credentials. She was the first foreign journalist resident in China to be forced to leave the country since 2012. The government objected to her reporting on the suppression of ethnic Uighurs, a mostly Muslim minority in the west of China.

Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, said his government was very concerned about the disappearance of Lee Bo, the owner of a shop selling books about Chinese politics. There are widespread suspicions that he was abducted from the territory by mainland Chinese agents. Four others connected with the shop disappeared last October while visiting Thailand and mainland China.

China announced it was building an aircraft-carrier entirely from domestic technology. It has only one such ship, which was built in the Soviet Union.

A terrible start to the year

Gisela Mota, the mayor of Temixco, a town south of Mexico City, was murdered less than a day after her inauguration. The killers are thought to have links to Los Rojos, a drugs gang. See article.

Police in Guatemala arrested 18 former military and government officials on charges that they committed human-rights abuses during the country’s civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996. Prosecutors said that the accused commanded forces that were responsible for massacring civilians.

Venezuela’s newly elected parliament, the first to be controlled by the opposition to the country’s populist regime in 16 years, was sworn in. Four MPs were barred from taking their seats pending the outcome of an investigation into electoral fraud. The opposition Democratic Unity alliance defiantly swore three of them in, restoring the two-thirds majority it won in December’s election. The new head of the National Assembly called for the removal of President Nicolás Maduro within six months. See article.

Bad tidings

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, vowed to prosecute the men who formed mobs that molested women during new-year celebrations in Cologne. Over 100 women filed complaints claiming they had been groped, robbed and in one case raped. Police described the perpetrators as having “north African or Arab” appearances, further inflaming tensions over Germany’s acceptance of over 1m Middle Eastern refugees. See article.

Sweden introduced border controls on the Oresund bridge that links it to Denmark as part of an effort to slow down the influx of Middle Eastern asylum applicants. Denmark responded by bringing in checks at its border with Germany. Business leaders warned that the controls threaten to undo the region’s economic integration.

Catalonia’s president, Artur Mas, announced that he will schedule new elections, after failing to form a government to carry out his programme of declaring independence from Spain.

The far-right government in Poland passed a media law that dismisses the heads of the public broadcasters and puts them under the control of the treasury minister. It is the latest in a series of steps by the Law and Justice party to gain control over the country’s courts, intelligence services and public media.

David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister, confirmed that the government will take a clear position in a referendum, expected this year or next, on whether to leave the European Union, but that he would let ministers hold a “different personal position”.

Jeremy Corbyn, the leftist leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, tightened his grip on the party in a reshuffle of the shadow cabinet, promoting an opponent of Trident nuclear weapons to defence. The big surprise was that Hilary Benn, who gave a stirring speech in favour of air strikes in Syria, to the obvious displeasure of Mr Corbyn, kept his job in foreign affairs.

Tears, it seems, are not enough

Citing the long list of mass shootings in America Barack Obama said he would use his presidential powers to bypass Congress and ensure that most people who sell guns are registered. Even this very limited gun-control measure was met with stiff resistance from the National Rifle Association. Gun sales are expected to soar, as they have each time Mr Obama has spoken of gun restrictions.