Father stayed in his room, talking on the telephone.

NEWYORKER: Naima

Cultural distance, however, is a bit harder to kill, especially when company and customer are talking to each other on the telephone.

ECONOMIST: It��s Barbara calling

Or so Sierra Leone's detained rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, told journalists on March 9th, after talking to religious leaders and, reportedly, to rebels in the field by radio-telephone.

ECONOMIST: Sierra Leone