By 2008 it will be consuming something like 0.3% of the GDP of the entire planet, and the idea that one person, however able they are, can actually deal with all the minutiae that go on in the NHS, absolutely everything from a bed pan dropping off a bed to a cancelled operation, is frankly absurd.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Why an independent NHS board?

Then an hour and a half after that call, another one came to say the operation was cancelled again.

BBC: Northern Ireland

Last year the Peace Corps and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's mission to Chechnya left after their operating agreements were cancelled.

ECONOMIST: Who needs democracy?