Rather, it was whether lingering issues with the system's software would prove more long-lasting and more inconvenient than city officials hoped.

WSJ: Open to All, New York City Bike Share Copes With Glitches

An old but creaking system of consensus, the lingering loyalty of bosses and employees to an unaffordable social-welfare model, and a web of constitutional checks and balances designed to prevent even the most fleeting thought of another tyranny, have all made it extraordinarily hard to carry out reform in Germany.

ECONOMIST: Drowning in troubles | The

This reflects not only Mr Saleh's lingering personal popularity, and the weight of a patronage system that extends beyond the large bureaucracy and army to tribal leaders and favoured businessmen, but also the widespread fear that the country is simply too fragile to cope with a transfer of power.

ECONOMIST: The big surprise is that this was a real live election