If conquered peoples paid tribute and did not make trouble, they were largely left alone.

ECONOMIST: Arab conquests

Such VPNs are mainly used by foreigners in China, less likely to be trouble-stirrers. (Fee-free VPNs are routinely blocked.) Gmail and other non-Chinese e-mail providers have also been largely left alone.

ECONOMIST: Authorities with the jitters

"If wolves can be largely left alone, and tolerated to live in areas where they can find sufficient territory and prey to reach recovery targets, wolf recovery appears to be within our grasp, ahead of schedule and under budget, " according to Predator Project's report.

CNN: Northern Rockies wolf report released

If this strategy works, it will threaten those full-service brokerages that have so far largely left Internet broking alone.

ECONOMIST: Stockbroking

After he came to office in early 2011, Mr Faizov started to remove conservative imams and banned religious textbooks from Saudi Arabia, whereas his predecessor had largely left the Salafists alone.

ECONOMIST: Russia and Islam