Kofi Annan believes that during this phase the UN force strength should increase from its present level of 4, 500 to around 5, 600.

BBC: Call for more Lebanon peacekeepers

It is an imbalance in this status quo that has allowed the seasons to change: the daylight hours of summer, the time of good, shortening, whilst the time of evil, the winter of night, has gained strength, the interim period, known as dusk, when both are present, becoming an all consuming battle for supremacy.

FORBES: Some Ideas for Replacing 'Harry Potter'

For Bartholomew, the mystery that was the source of all spiritual belief, present through catastrophe and plague and evil, was a strength now, too, and more than it had ever been.

NEWYORKER: Faith

An intellectual argument says that it would be a bad thing anyway, because the present concentration of power (and therefore accountability) in a single elected chamber is an acknowledged strength of Britain's governing arrangements.

ECONOMIST: Elect the Lords

In the Middle Ages, for example, city-states in present-day Italy or Spain traded from a position of strength with north European suppliers of textiles and north African sellers of gold.

ECONOMIST: History��s most important sea