After 12 years of a Republican-controlled Senate, the balance of power has shifted. The Democrats have won in the US.

Not just Americans are overjoyed - I suppose Iraqis, Iranians and North Koreans and many in impoverished and spied-upon countries are happy as well. This is the reality of a globalised world where election results in one country can spell, as the Chinese say, 'danger and opportunity' in another.

In the case of the US, the sole superpower and symbol of the world republic (to use a George Lucas metaphor from the Star Wars series), the imminent booting out of the "hee-hawing rodeo-politicking high noon-Republican-war-mongering oil-starving Bush regime" is sending good vibes even to places such as Kandahar, Fallujah, and Nablus.