David Masiel's second maritime adventure, published in America last December and now just out in Britain, pitches the reader into a cruel world of betrayal and corruption.

ECONOMIST: New fiction: Wanderings of a drugstore ship | The

She has obviously internalized its dictates and knows to be careful about what she says and how she says it, even as the stirrings of her own heart begin to lead her away from the cruel utilitarianism of her world.

WSJ: Juvenile Fiction: Matched

Virtually every government prior to World War I was cruel and barbaric by modern standards.

FORBES: The Case Against The Case Against Voting

And so Paul Ryan and all the other Republicans hasten to assure the world that they would never be so cruel as to cut entitlement redistribution schemes: their only goal is to save them.

FORBES: It's Time To Kill The 'Robin Hood' Myth

In the address, Pope Benedict quoted an obscure text that described the Muslim prophet Muhammad as "cruel and inhuman, " sparking deadly riots across the Muslim world.

WSJ: Pope Defended Church Teachings

"In just over a week's time it will have been one year since the best husband and father in the world was snatched from me in a sudden and cruel manner, " she told MPs.

BBC: Common Fisheries Policy debate

It is typical of this cruel sport that after a win over Mike Tyson and a brave world title defeat to Vitali Klitschko, Williams is now contemplating the end of his career.

BBC: SPORT | Boxing | Williams playing dangerous game

This week, Ms Rice seemed to change course: she said that the UN ban on the torture or cruel treatment of detainees applies to all American personnel (including the CIA) throughout the world.

ECONOMIST: So, what��s all the fuss?

Well, 10 years ago the Berlin Wall fell, ending communism's cruel and arbitrary division of Europe, unleashing the energies of freedom-loving people there after two world wars and the Cold War to be united in peace and freedom and prosperity.

CNN: Transcript: Clinton speaks at Memorial Day Event