Alice in Wonderland syndrome refers to the heroine’s ability to believe three impossible things before breakfast. Yet sometimes, impossibly bizarre news items turn out to be true: on 17 December in Nigeria, the Asaba High Court threw out 170 charges of corruption against former Governor of Delta State James Ibori. In 2007, a British court froze assets, linked to him, worth US$35 million. His annual salary at the time was under $25,000. A month earlier, President José Eduardo dos Santos announced that Angola’s oil wealth had been squandered: ‘Irresponsible people have taken advantage of this circumstance to squander resources and to carry out illicit and fraudulent acts of management.’ Earlier still, Germany’s Siemens, charged with grand corruption in Nigeria, declared itself ready to work with the World Bank ‘to eliminate fraud and corruption’ and to pay $100 mn. towards the work of anti-corruption activists. Sounds impossible? Then think of law firm Carter-Ruck’s rearguard action against a campaign to reform Britain’s 19th century defamation laws. Without such laws, Carter-Ruck say it would be impossible to defend people’s rights against a ‘vicious’ and ‘aggressive’ press. Carter-Ruck’s clients have included Zimbabwean businessman John Bredenkamp, the late Saudi billionaire Khaled bin Mahfouz and oil-trading company Trafigura, which has just won a defamation case in the London High Court against the BBC.