Our universal desire to avoid suffering and to be happy is a starting point for establishing ethical principles.

FORBES: Compassion: The Bedrock Of Our Capacity To Serve

To avoid suffering the fate of their improvident predecessors, they would invest massively in irrigation and grain storage.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

They say Mr Brown mismanaged the economy, building up a huge fiscal deficit that had to be sorted out to avoid the UK suffering the sort of problems Greece and Ireland have had.

BBC: Gordon Brown warns cuts are a 'great misjudgement'

Late last year, Jack and Lisa Nash, a Colorado couple, opted for the high-tech approach to avoid their new baby suffering from Fanconi anaemia, a rare inherited bone-marrow disease, which plagues their daughter.

ECONOMIST: Gene genies

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that reducing animal suffering is not the activists' main concern.

ECONOMIST: Animal rights extremists

"It is also important for anyone suffering from diarrhoea to avoid swimming pools as Cryptosporidium can survive in chlorinated water".

BBC: Isle of Man illnesses 'connected to animal rescues'

Rajoy, in order to avoid losing face with his constituency that is already suffering the slings and arrows of an intense economic crisis, developed a budget that took into account recommendations from European authorities and further austerity.

FORBES: Spanish Bank Stress Test Reveals $76B Capital Short Fall; Path Cleared For Bailout

In the summer, Manchester City defender Micah Richards was found to be suffering from swine flu and in September, the Swedish Football Association recommended players avoid shaking hands after one team was sidelined by the virus.

BBC: Postponement angers French clubs