Cameroon's president, Paul Biya, looks at the world upside down. In power for almost a quarter-century and seen by almost no one except his aide-de-camp, Biya regards his country's saintly Catholic cleric Christian Tumi as an opposition leader because of his strong support for human rights. "I was born a Cameroonian," the down-to-earth cardinal told me, "and became a Christian and priest. Why can't I have views about what is [...]

The World Bank is a strange place. It believes it is doing humanitarian work, but humanity does not return the favour, thinking the bank an enforcer of bloodless rules and an abetter rather than reliever of world poverty. Yet, for all its perceived faults, it is a UN agency and an important source of advice and money (roughly $20bn a year) for countries trying to climb the development ladder. Its [...]