Squeezed between Turkey and Israel, Syria had to boot out the PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who now languishes in a Turkish jail.

ECONOMIST: Turkey is rethinking its place in the world

It would have placed a large bureaucratic boot at the Labour leader's nether regions and kicked him out of the door faster than you could say Professor King. (The prof wrote a learned paper a few years back on how the BBC was too Anglo-centric).

BBC: Has Miliband got his nations in a twist?

Nigeria's military leader, General Sani Abacha, ordered his troops to boot out the junta in Sierra Leone without a mandate from the United Nations and without telling its secretary-general of his intentions, as he had promised (see article).

ECONOMIST: Nigeria does it again