But more than a quarter of people on combination treatments fail to stick to complex plans which involve taking up to 15 pills every day.

BBC: Drug simplifies living with HIV

And those prosecutors who take race-hate crimes seriously often fail to make charges stick: it is frequently hard to find witnesses or persuade them to give evidence.

ECONOMIST: Central Europe��s skinheads

If they fail, radio operators could be content to stick with analog.

FORBES: Big Audio Dynamite

But Beckham has won the country's sympathy vote and may be prepared to stick around if he cannot be persuaded by Barcelona, and Real fail to come up with a suitable deal.

BBC: Beckham's transfer options