International disarray over the crisis was starkly underlined by Kofi Annan's resignation as international envoy on Syria, or "mission impossible" as he called it.
For supporters, this is proof of his humility, which was further underlined for them in his first address as pope to the masses in St Peter's Square, where he eschewed the usual jewelled crucifix in favour of a simple wooden cross.
The prime minister underlined the government would not allow Australian "jihadists" fighting in overseas conflicts back into the country.
Shadi Sadr, a London-based Iranian lawyer with the rights group Justice for Iran, told the Guardian that the case against Razieh Ebrahimi - also known as Maryan - underlined a hidden social and legal issue in Iran.
The budget underlined this plan, which means the amount of gross government debt outstanding will grow with the size of the economy, year in, year out, even when the government returns to surplus and the proceeds from asset sales flow to the government and bolster the headline cash budget balance.
The task facing Hart and the five main parties at Stormont has been underlined by the eruption of sectarian violence on a Protestant-Catholic interface in east Belfast over the past 72 hours.
It underlined that although the SNP had long dreamed of displacing Labour as Scotland's dominant centre-left party, any prospect of doing so with a genuinely radical policy agenda had been shelved in the 1980s.
All the pledges and debates and drudgery all over again, but this time underlined by an inescapable sense of resignation.
That one of the most famous of the nearly 3 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan should have been able to get the card underlined for many the corruption that riddles much of government.
Measured but never bloodless, ranging from skittish to melancholy, it was a fittingly virtuoso way to close an evening that underlined the Academy's reputation for musical excellence.
The changing shape of the music industry was also underlined by the growing importance of streaming.
