Good old Robert Mugabe was reelected as President of Zimbabwe last week, winning 90% of the vote. Of course, the opposing candidate was driven into exile and most of his supporters were beaten and arrested, but still, a win's a win, right?

The United States is now trying to get the UN to slap sanctions on Mugabe's regime, which is increasingly becoming one of Africa's biggest blights. Of course, efforts to crackdown on Mugabe are hampered on a number of fronts; the Russians and Chinese are staunch backers of his regime, and most of the African neighbourhood, including, significantly, South Africa, has shown very little interest in disciplining him in any major way. Just this week, in fact, Mugabe attended a meeting of the African Union and was given full honours, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.