He is now concentrating on relatively non-controversial projects such as a city-wide clean-up (though he tactlessly, and unsuccessfully, asked the workers to collect the rubbish after hours without charging overtime).

ECONOMIST: Miami politics

EU's envoy to Macedonia, who, on the eve of his arrival on June 27th, proposed rather tactlessly that the Slav-led government should hold its nose and negotiate with the rebels: a realistic assessment, perhaps, but one that so enraged the Slavs that he was obliged to backtrack within 24 hours.

ECONOMIST: The Balkans