When in January of this year the insurgents torched two libraries belonging to the Ahmed Baba Institute, as they were retreating from Timbuktu, the covert rescue operation was already half-complete - and the libraries themselves had been all but empty for months.

BBC: How Timbuktu's manuscripts were smuggled to safety

It's a photo taken in 1972 of a Philip Morris office space, all white and empty but for rank-and-file black telephones on the floor hooked up to outlet poles as if on IV support.

WSJ: The Confidence of an America in Full Stride | Ezra Stoller: Beyond Architecture | Yossi Milo Gallery | By Julie V. Iovine

In front of us were the lime trees and Father's apiary, but it was all empty now.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Esther's Inheritance'

You know it's all empty calories, but some folks eat it anyway.

CNN: Possible 2016 candidates make CPAC pilgrimage

He looked through the kitchen window, but the yard was empty and all he could see, among the thistles and scrap iron, was a dilapidated cart with two rusty wheels.

NEWYORKER: Waiting

They've spent hours in the forest already, but all the traps they've set are empty.

CNN: Tracking deadly viruses' spread from animals to humans

But if this is all you can say in your defence, then you are running on empty.

ECONOMIST: A presidency that is shrinking even as you look at it

Now the trains are going back west empty, but he hopes to fill them with beer, soda, water and paper, all of which already go west-to-east.

FORBES: Join The Cold Train