"It's time to declare war on this blight, " says Alan Bradley, London's "street environment" czar.

FORBES: Gobstoppers

How can this blight of worklessness be squared with Britain's much-trumpeted low rate of unemployment?

ECONOMIST: Labour��s crusade

This blight is a symptom of cricket's mismanagement.

ECONOMIST: Pakistan's cricket scandal

It will fall to Barack Obama's administration to rectify this serious blight on its predecessor's record of keeping us safe.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Hail to the Chiefs

Even more expensive is wood from chestnut, a once ubiquitous species that ceased to be a source of timber not long after chestnut blight arrived on this continent around 1890.

FORBES: Barn Again

But hardly any details have been decided, particularly the tricky ones of how this will ease South Korea's blight of overcapacity in practically every industry, from shipbuilding to semiconductors.

ECONOMIST: South Korean restructuring

Yet for all Europe's excoriations of Gitmo as a blight on America, no one jumped at this easy chance to reduce the prison population.

WSJ: Palau to the Rescue

Paying out in this way seems to support protectionists' contention that trade is a blight on employment like no other.

ECONOMIST: Are poor countries pinching the rich ones�� jobs?

This is a radical move... poor numeracy is a blight on an individual's life chances and we believe that employees will be as keen as their employers to improve their skills.

BBC: Workplace maths challenge aims to boost numeracy

The slight let-up in potholes this time last year may have been just a blip in the annual pothole blight that seems to beset us each spring.

BBC: 'Millions of cars' damaged by potholes