Ali Ahmed is living “the garden life,” as a new bit of Iraqi slang puts it. Two years after earning his engineering degree, the 27-year-old is among Iraq’s teeming numbers of jobless with nothing to do but hang out in Baghdad’s parks.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, visiting former colonies in North Africa on Tuesday, said France should recognise its colonial history but not repent for it.

Whether it be mothers who lost their sons in combat or other Shiites whose homes were destroyed in Israel’s blitz of Beirut a year ago, Hizbollah is still riding high on its home turf.