He received three unpalatable meals a day usually a sandwich of bread and cheese, or cold rice with canned vegetables, or soup.

NEWYORKER: Hellhole

If the Fed were to reduce rates to a negative level, it would result in a politically unpalatable situation where depositors are charged to put their money into a bank.

FORBES: Fed's Next Move Will Be To Ease Interest Rates

However unpalatable this may seem for a new Labour administration, the alternative looks even bleaker.

BBC: Public to choose between tax rises and benefit cuts

The fiscal pressure may make the most unpalatable measures, such as a reform of state pensions, economically inescapable.

ECONOMIST: Renaissance? What renaissance? | The

That leaves Europe facing a range of unpalatable options (see table).

ECONOMIST: Greece has no good options left

Yet do the measures, however unpalatable, really equate to a disaster?

FORBES: 5 Reasons Why The U.S. Should Jump Off The Fiscal Cliff

Through Mr Mubarak, Mr Demirel delivered to Syria's President Hafez Assad a menu of demands so unpalatable that the Arabs assumed Turkey wanted war.

ECONOMIST: Turkey and Syria

The automatic spending cuts were included in the bill with the idea that they would be so unpalatable to lawmakers that they would have a strong incentive to avoid them by making a deal to reduce the budget deficit.

NPR: Wall Street Holds Its Nerve As Spending Cuts Near

And, sure enough, when the Obama Administration produced a plan earlier this year, it was a disappointing mix of a few good provisions and several unpalatable proposals.

FORBES: With Washington Now Imposing the World's Highest Corporate Tax Rate, Every Day is April Fool's Day for American Companies

Last week, in a bid to sweeten the pot for its shareholders and creditors, who must agree on an unpalatable financial restructuring, it asked the British and French governments to extend its operating franchise from a mere 65 years to 999 years.

ECONOMIST: From here to eternity | The

Photos at Airlinemeals.net, a website dedicated to aeroplane food, illustrate the stodgy and unpalatable stereotypical imagery --- and reality -- that many airlines need to counteract.

BBC: A possible end to plane food

The unpalatable truth seems to be that some Americans simply do not care to eat a balanced diet, while others, increasingly, cannot afford to.

ECONOMIST: A shortage of healthy food is not the only problem

But Mr Netanyahu's people say that Israel's new government, elected by a right-lurching public, cannot be bound by such unsigned, unpalatable understandings.

ECONOMIST: Peace talks between Israel and Palestine