1.   Treasury officials say they want to save one billion pounds on defence, the opening demand in a vicious Whitehall battle.

2.   Among jacanas, hard-working males are fought over in vicious battles between females and many males get the chance to sire young.

3.   A Japanese garrison had fought to the last man after an exceptionally vicious battle on the tiny Pacific Island of Iwo Jima the previous month.

4.   For the past week, President Clinton has been embroiled in a vicious battle of words with Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president for the National Rifle Association.

5.   Here was Israel, locked in vicious battle to destroy Hamas at home and Hezbollah in Lebanon, allowing scores of its worst enemies to enter the country untouched.

6.   If that holds, it would be highly unusual for a party accustomed to vicious primary battles.

7.   It was a vicious PR battle going on among the services throughout the war effort.

8.   Kiosks sell boxed sets of graphic videos of the most vicious battles of the war to a public eager to watch their glory repeated as often as possible.

9.   Nobody was able to film the vicious battle for the central government buildings, in part because most journalists were trapped by the fighting.

10.   Not only did she barely beat Williams, but she also had to survive a vicious Democratic primary battle that included accusations that she had abused drugs.