1.   Cost-improvement programmes, which are meant to generate internal savings, are proving far harder to deliver, finance officers say.

2.   Also, he contends this newest wave may prove harder to assimilate.

3.   Also, the torn meniscus may prove harder to overcome than the torn ligaments.

4.   Although Serb fervor has proved harder to stoke now, the hostility to ethnic Albanian dominance of Kosovo remains acute among Serbs.

5.   And getting it may prove a lot harder than getting elected.

6.   As a result, winning higher wages for workfare participants could prove even harder than unionizing them.

7.   But as the recent violence suggests, the Algerian problem is festering to the point where it may prove harder to ignore.

8.   But if no deal with Syria is reached before Israel withdraws from Lebanon, compromise could prove harder.

9.   But it proved much harder to make common cause against strife in Bosnia, even without an expanded membership with a more diverse ethnic, historical and geographic character.

10.   But punishing the aviators accused of sexual misconduct has proved far harder than almost anyone involved had expected.