When Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, was born one fifth of the Earth's surface was covered by the British Empire.

CNN: Amanpour, Quest: Britain's lament

It was a voice so sonorously deep, yet so delicately controlled, that it seemed to issue forth from the Pachamama herself, the earth goddess of the Quechua-speaking people of the Inca empire from whom Ms Sosa partially descended.

ECONOMIST: The soundtrack of a past era

With the demise of the Soviet Union, Mr Terrill says, China is now the only empire left on earth, if the term empire is defined as a multicultural country held together essentially by force.

ECONOMIST: China and America