As the Audit Commission recently pointed out, many treatment services are wasted or ineffective because they fail to deal with the other problems - mental health, housing, social care - which often afflict the lives of addicts.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Magazine | Drug users take treatment in-house

In her first months in charge Yingluck has had to deal with a busy in-tray, including responding to some of the most severe monsoon floods to afflict the country in living memory.

CNN: Country profile: Thailand

Hilgartner, now 67, was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), one of the more lethal forms of severe fibrotic conditions that afflict more than 10 million Americans.

FORBES: Scar Wars

Mr Schwartz is a former director of the Institut Pasteur in France, and his book maps out with great clarity the scientific investigation into how scrapie a disease that has long been known to afflict sheep came to cross the species barrier to cows, and then from cows to humans.

ECONOMIST: Food safety