The cost to the taxpayer is much greater: officials in Newham, in east London, which has lost 260 covers and gratings in recent weeks, put the cost of replacement at £60,000 ($110,000).Luckily, nobody has been hurt by falling down the holes, although that is sadly the case in other, poorer countries where such thievery is more common.
Greater official recognition of the Russian language has been a rebel demand.
They expect a law on greater official use of the Albanian language to be ratified soon as a first step.
Increasingly, the Chinese public has been clamoring for greater official transparency and accountability, while the Chinese government has been making progress on these fronts.
Some reform advocates see some signs of hope in the government's vow to overhaul "re-education through labor," which is used to jail citizens without trials, and some point to Mr. Xi's own promises of greater official accountability.
To Afghans, they are a frightening reminder of the brutal extremes of Taliban law -- an authority that may soon have greater official sway over the country -- and they raise questions about the sincerity of the Taliban in the peace negotiations.
But Mr. Xi has come to power at a time when such strains are especially acute, and the pressure of public expectations for greater official accountability is growing, amplified by millions of participants in online forums.
According to their figures, in the four games Italy have played, they've been guilty of 25 dives (more than any other team), four instances of referee-bullying (only Croatia are greater official tormenters), seven fake injuries and two expulsions.
On Wednesday, he followed up with a press conference in which he solemnly promised, as he has done before, to provide greater official protection to vulnerable journalists, and also to vigorously pursue their killers.
But Caijing may now be testing the Chinese media's equivalent of Ohm's law: The more readers, money and fame a publication accrues through muckraking, the greater official resistance becomes.
2015 will see a greater official effort to curb the prevalence of vaping, but those measures appear to be no match for the sheer popularity of these products.
