The World Today

The Iranian nuclear site at Natanz is already one of the most protected places on earth, and the apparently never-ending diplomatic minuet over Iran’s nuclear activities may be no more than Tehran stringing out negotiations until its nuclear protection programme is complete.

For the first time in more than forty years, the two-round presidential election which concludes on May 6 will present two clearly contradictory world visions. If, as is widely expected, the conservative Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Socialist maverick candidate Ségolène Royal go head to head.

Europe is stuck with the problem of Bosnia and despite the difficulties cannot just walk away. Fifteen years ago this month, the European Union recognised it as an independent state and the Balkan war broke out. Some two hundred thousand deaths and atrocities on all sides eventually produced a peace agreement. Now, EU membership is hovering on the horizon; the drama may be less deadly but the danger is still there.

The minister paused, leaned forward and fiddled with his cufflinks, ‘It wasn’t about whether the election was rigged or not,’ he said. ‘The truth is, everybody rigged it. We just rigged it better than them.’ Does the next Nigerian presidential election in April promise anything different?

Nigeria’s elections are a world away from those Westminster politicians have to face. When British parliamentarians visit they are concerned by corruption and eager to encourage responsive government, but local representatives are all too hard to track down.

Efforts are faltering to bring to justice the top leaders of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge for the mass crimes committed during their rule between 1975 and 1979, when almost two million Cambodians died. The reasons are many and complicated, but the failure of the United Nations-backed special Khmer Rouge court would be a blow to victims and their families and to the developing system of international criminal justice.