Dr Ramdip Rae, a surgeon in India who is due to take his UK entrance exams next month, said there was still a big incentive to sit the exams even if there was no job at the end of it.

BBC: Image of doctor and patient

"Before yesterday, we thought there were still safe places to sit and have a nice time with friends, but with this explosion we know there is no safe place in Iraq, " survivor Hassan Karim told the Associated Press.

BBC: Aftermath of bombing in Sadr City

But he'd just sit there, like he was still getting clipped.

CNN: Killer's barber: His mom did the talking

Mr Maharaj said there were still some South Africans who "sit with their dogs in front in a van or truck with a worker at the back in pouring rain or extremely cold weather".

BBC: South Africa's Jacob Zuma in dog ownership row

Nominal wage inflation remains very low, as companies sit on vast piles of cash but remain reluctant to spend, and there is still a large amount of slack in the U.S. economy, particularly given a stubbornly high rate of unemployment stuck at 9%.

FORBES: Goldman Sachs Sees Signs Of Disinflation: Bernanke's Cue For QE3?

There is a restlessness so terrible that you can no longer bear to sit still in your house.

NEWYORKER: Miracle Polish

"You can just sit here and have the set lunch and have a good time that ethos is still there, " he explains.

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