There was a heavy emphasis on numbers, describing a wide range of subject matter enemy attacks carried out, development projects completed, kilowatt hours of electricity generated, barrels of oil exported, palm trees sprayed against disease, chicken embryos imported.

NEWYORKER: The General��s Dilemma

Sometimes they are deliberately used in that way: for example, Mexico used to insist that imported American pigs be vaccinated against hog cholera, a disease that disappeared from the United States in the 1970s.

ECONOMIST: Are regional trade agreements a good idea?

No country in the world has managed to eliminate the disease - although almost all cases in the United States are imported.

BBC: Long shadow cast by MMR scare

So the first thought of the disease detectives at the health department working on the latest Cyclospora outbreak was imported vegetables.

ECONOMIST: A bug with social aspirations

One unexpected revelation was that France had offered to consider allowing beef from Scotland to be imported again where grass-fed herds could be shown never to had any contact with BSE or mad cow disease.

BBC: French feel the heat in beef row