US elections to be monitored by OSCE
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has been approached by the US State Department to monitor the November US presidential elections, the Guardian reports today. The news has also been reported in the US press. Assuming this actually happens, this will be the first time ever, that US presidential elections have been monitored by an international independent body.
The OSCE usually monitors elections in third world countries, but given the bad blood caused by disputes which took place after the 2000 elections (problems with invalid ballot papers and also concerns raised subsequently about the possibility of tampering with voting machines), this seems like a smart move.