New Year's wishes: All I want for 2005 is...

Students, scholars and at least one Nobel prizewinner have had trouble getting into the United States this year, thanks to immigration rules that have grown ever tighter since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Zhores Alferov, who won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on semiconductors, stormed out of the US consulate in St Petersburg, Russia, this September without his visa after being grilled about the nature of his work.