Commonwealth update

The prospect of a third war between India and Pakistan, this time involving the use of nuclear weapons, set alarm bells ringing in the world's capitals in the first half of 2002. India rejected mediation and the most tentative of Commonwealth approaches were, as so many times in the past, rebuffed. The tension was eased in June on promises by Pakistan that it had stopped militants infiltrating through Kashmir. In Zimbabwe the violence continued unabated and inflation spiralled in the wake of President Robert Mugabe's election win. Britain and Spain tried to work out joint sovereignty for Gibraltar, but the people and government of the Rock would have none of it