Toulouse is the biggest city in the French rugby heartland in the south west of the country and Les Bleus played with real joie de vivre in front of their passionate fans.

BBC: France 87-10 Namibia

It is a part of Africa at the intersection of the Arab world -- of enormous strategic importance to the West -- and the West African heartland, a region only now becoming more stable after years of unspeakable human tragedy.

CNN: Algeria crisis is a wakeup call for America

There was a danger that the militants would have seized control of Bamako and the southern Malian heartland before any of the European military trainers or the West African intervention forces had arrived.

BBC: France: How was it dragged into the Malian conflict?

She said there was a sense of jubilation in Anbar province, the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad.

CNN: Peace rules as polls close in Iraq

The Tories snatched the southern constituency of Bexley and Bromley - a true blue heartland - and Ealing and Hillingdon to the West.

BBC: Tories and Labour tie GLA count

The U.S. has not spoken publicly about possible compromises in recent days, though there has been some speculation it would propose a partial construction stop in the West Bank heartland, east of Israel's separation barrier.

NPR: Palestinians Cool To Partial Settlement Freeze

In 2006-09 the region's GDP (excluding Inner Mongolia, which extends into the north-east, but is not part of its industrial heartland) grew faster than that of the country's other three main economic regions, in the east, centre and west.

ECONOMIST: Reforming the north-east