But were the Americans to have a change of heart, and if international consolidation took flight, a combined BA and Iberia may just be strong enough to stay afloat.

ECONOMIST: BA and Iberia: Uniting in the sky | The

The head of the IMF was a heavyweight, a big beast who has been at the heart of international efforts to prevent a global recession.

BBC: Strauss-Kahn affair turns French politics upside down

PlanetHospital is looking to work with Global Heart, a new Austin, Texas-based group that works with domestic and international hospitals to secure low prices for the uninsured.

FORBES: Outsourcing Your Health

As well as his personal victory, he also saw it as an opportunity to strike at the heart of Rupert Murdoch's News International, which owned the Sunday tabloid.

BBC: The rise and fall of Tommy Sheridan and the left

This week's court-enforced auction of a hulking concrete pile in the heart of Prague belonging to one of them, the International Union of Students, was halted amid squabbles among its dozens of creditors.

ECONOMIST: Some cold war skeletons are in surprisingly good health

Instead it was Flintoff who applied the coup de grace with a solid thump straight back down the ground over the ropes off Harris, to give England heart going into the one-day matches that begin with a Twenty20 international on 20 August.

BBC: Pietersen reign starts with a win

"I know in my heart that the dangers to my health of committing myself to all that goes with international cricket off the field are just too great, " he said after turning down the chance to play in this year's ICC World Twenty20 tournament.

BBC: Trescothick flies home from India

The Irish Under-19 international started out in the heart of the midfield for a long spell before moving back to centre-half last season.

BBC: Killie sign Scott Severin, Chris Maguire, Rob Kiernan

The attack on a high-profile event in the heart of the capital is seen as a big symbolic blow to Somalia's attempts to reinvent itself on the international stage after years as a failed state.

CNN: Bomb kills top Somali sports officials