Iran may be caving on enriched uranium, and unemployed former Communist apparatchiks are up to their old tricks in Ukraine. Pitcairn Island, of Bounty and Fletcher Christian fame, now turns out to have been not a South Seas paradise but a cesspool of sexual abuse for many of its 214 years. And U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan insists he won't resign his post despite son Kojo evidently having taken buckets of money under the table in connection with the U.N.-run oil-for-food program in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Comments on other news items of note. . .

President Bush has ventured to Canada to ease strained relations - but his task is tough. In 1981, just 8 percent of Canadians had an unfavorable view of the U.S.; now 45 percent do. The place is an expanding bastion of political correctness. Ministers of certain churches (e.g., the United Church of Canada, the country's largest Protestant body) are seeking to unionize to win higher wages and secure protection from parishioner abuse.

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And there are reports - blasphemous? - that during the past month Canadian border guards have been swamped by a flood of fleeing American animal-rights activists and sociology profs fearing Bush's re-election will lead in the States to compelled hunting, praying and agreement with Bill O'Reilly - not to mention federal decrees against Volvos, latte and free-range chicken.

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The world still boasts countless countries with sense. In the weeks before the U.S. elections, Australia re-elected its pro-American prime minister. What's more, Hamid Karzai, winner of Afghanistan's first presidential election at about the same time, speaks of the joys of American-wrought democracy.

He says: "We are not like America or like France or other European countries, which have had this freedom and right of franchise for centuries. We are not like Indians, who have done this for 50 years. We are just emerging from the bed of thorns, misery, poverty, homelessness and destruction and interference. We have succeeded in just three years. There are countries which could not do this in years. . . . We should not weaken this foundation but make it even stronger."

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What is the rationale for holding elections as soon as possible in countries hostile to the U.S., but for delaying them until "the proper time" in pro-American countries such as Iraq?

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