Apart from biggish powers like Russia, the war on piracy is attracting small countries.

ECONOMIST: Piracy and private enterprise

Spain is the only biggish European economy planning fiscal cuts worth more than 1% of GDP this year.

ECONOMIST: Myths about fiscal austerity

Private equity funds are prowling Germany, and have been involved in several mergers and restructurings involving biggish companies.

ECONOMIST: Financing Germany's Mittelstand

YouSee offers 18 channels at present, including biggish ones like CNBC Europe and Nickelodeon, and the number is rising.

ECONOMIST: Media conglomerates in the downturn

That may be large compared with the pulsar, but on the cosmic scale it is minuscule about the size of a biggish asteroid.

ECONOMIST: Pulsars: In a wink | The

But fighting two biggish, prolonged campaigns is straining Britain's shrunken armed forces.

ECONOMIST: The generals can't wait to get out of Iraq

Shares of obviously energy-related firms adjust at once, but broad stockmarket returns fall only during the following month or even two months a pattern that is clearest with biggish oil increases and in countries that are most dependent on energy.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood

She had a habit of assessing her looks mercilessly: she approved of her eyes, liked the shape of her wrists and the length of her fingers, put up with her calves, but was unforgiving about her thighs, her chin, her biggish knees, her hips, her upper arms.

NEWYORKER: Miracle Polish