The rivalry between the two retail giants would make a book in itself, with Branson turning up with suitcases of cash to try and gazump HMV for prime city centre shop locations.
The generals are annoyed by the refusal of Turkey's left-of-centre prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, to take action against them.
His foreign circle ranges from Peter Mandelson, confidant of Tony Blair, the British centre-left prime minister, to Joachim Bitterlich, former adviser on Europe to the centre-right Helmut Kohl.
Mr Berlusconi, 76, was forced to resign as prime minister of a centre-right coalition last November.
In Sweden's recent election the far-right Sweden Democrats won seats for the first time, denying Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister, a centre-right majority (he is now running a minority government).
If cabinet government means collective decision-making, it vanished in the first world war, when the job of the state grew and power was spun out to a web of committees with the prime minister at the centre.
Back in 1978 the centre-right prime minister of the day, Raymond Barre, raised social-security contributions and cut hospital spending.
Appeals for calm by Costas Karamanlis, the centre-right prime minister, were mostly ignored.
Under Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the previous centre-right prime minister, reforms of both public-sector pensions and public health-insurance were pushed through despite demonstrations and strikes.
Maybe nothing: although Wim Kok, the popular centre-left prime minister, resigned on May 19th, it remains unclear whether he or his government will actually be gone for good.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin, France's centre-right prime minister, had originally decided to sacrifice this public holiday after the summer canicule (heatwave) in 2003, in which 15, 000 people died, many of them elderly.
ECONOMIST: A row over Pentecost further sours the French public's mood
The second is Sweden's centre-right prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, who recently refused to rescue a loss-making carmaker, Saab (though when a Swedish-led consortium agreed to buy Saab from General Motors, his government was ready to offer loan guarantees).
It was passed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government last year.
Ex-Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said his centre-right Gerb party's chances had been damaged by comments from other parties on the eve of the polls.
He has ruled out working with Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister and head of the centre-right People of Freedom party, which came second.
Former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez, a socialist, is seen as a potential rival to Mr Blair, as is Jean-Claude Juncker, the veteran centre-right Luxembourg prime minister.
France - there is every possibility that centre-right parties will defeat the governing centre-left in parliamentary elections in June - despite the fact that Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has privatised more state companies than his centre-right predecessor.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the centre could stay to pursue plans to expand, and warned that any violations would be severely punished.
Very good indeed for a prime minister wanting to appeal to the centre ground and who won't meet any of the Republican contenders for the Presidency.
BBC: David Cameron, Barack Obama and the Special Relationship
The new centre-right government of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, which came to power last May, says it wants to find a "tough but fair solution".
Mr Amato needs to foster such creativity if he is to have a chance of surviving for a year as prime minister, let alone lead the centre-left into the next general election.
Mr D'Alema thinks his predecessor has been treacherous: after all, it was Mr D'Alema, back in 1995, who picked him as candidate for prime minister at the head of a centre-left front.
Having kept a relatively low profile since being forced to step down as Italy's premier last year, Silvio Berlusconi, the bad boy of Italian politics, has decided to run for the fourth time as the centre-right's prime ministerial candidate in a keenly awaited parliamentary election likely to take place in February.
The two leading candidates are the former prime minister, the right-of-centre Mark Rutte, and the centre-left Labour Party's Diederik Samsom.
He has ruled out forming a coalition with the centre-right bloc of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the second largest force in parliament.
Mr Prodi, who has offices in the city centre, served two terms as prime minister, with a spell as president of the European Commission sandwiched in the middle.
By staying in power as prime minister, argues Boris Makarenko of the Centre for Political Technologies, Mr Putin at least has a chance to revise the legacy of his rule.
In a speech at a children's centre in West London, the prime minister said he would keep coming back to the issue of speeding up adoptions, which he has made a government priority.
Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron placed Monitor at the centre of his plans to reform the NHS in England, giving it more power to regulate hospitals and health providers around the country.
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