Optimists are hoping for a flourishing cross-border trade that might help to develop the whole of India's restless and impoverished north-east, cut off as it is from the rest of the country by India's partition in 1947.

ECONOMIST: Myanmar��s future in Asia: Brave new world | The

It was from this gauntlet that the British-commanded Jordan Legion sought - with the help of the Arabs of Jerusalem and surrounding villages - to cut the Jews of the city off from the rest of the country and so to conquer the nascent Jewish state.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Jerusalem, the Eternal Front Line

His town of Chikoti(ph), which likes next to the frontier that separates Indian and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, was cut off for several weeks from the rest of Pakistan by landslides.

NPR: India, Pakistan's Post-Quake Peace in Jeopardy

Analysts at Commerzbank noted that the cut-off date for the CFTC data does not take into account the continued slump in prices for the rest of week, so the situation may be different once newer data is released.

FORBES: FOCUS: Speculators Increase Exposure To Precious Metals -- CFTC

This is what happens when a city is cut off from the rest of the country by desert, developed by the Mob, built on broken get-rich-quick dreams and where visitors outnumber locals nearly 20 to one.

BBC: Las Vegas week