That may not be much help to local groups which regularly complain about a lack of performance space.

CNN: GAINING CULTURAL CAPITAL

But he thinks Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are still too far apart, and Rice's style of letting the parties take the lead may not be of much help.

NPR: Rice Renews Push for Israeli-Palestinian Talks

Geographic proximity is not going to be much help to Samsung against Apple.

FORBES: Samsung Best Buy Experience Won't Bruise Apple

But those actions probably will not be of the scale needed to help much in slowing the heating of the planet.

NPR: PROMISES, PROMISES: Climate Change

The publisher's defence will be that the book could not have been much help: many of its tips are wrong and others are common sense (eg, don't leave fingerprints behind).

ECONOMIST: Free speech

Still, it can be argued that buybacks did not help bank stocks much in 2011.

FORBES: Large-Cap Banks Poised for 2012 Comeback: Analysts

The much-praised hospice movement may now be asked to help patients decide not how to die but when to die.

ECONOMIST: Doctor-assisted suicide

The Americans seemed to be asking Turkey to help with a war George Bush had not yet publicly declared he would wage, while much of the rest of the world was still scrambling to find a peaceful way out.

ECONOMIST: Turkey's promises were always too hard to keep