Word: airtight
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...Nepal to cover the British Everest Expedition and beat the Times of London, off he went. But how he could beat the Times, or even get the story, was a puzzler. The Times was subsidizing the expedition; by excluding all rivals from climb and climbers, it had a guaranteed airtight exclusive. Nonetheless, Correspondent Izzard, innocent as a fox, timid as a lion, moved in. An Innocent on Everest is his modest and amusing story of how, in spite of the Times, the expedition, the Foreign Office and the forces of nature, Reporter Izzard got his story...
Behind the closed doors of an Oslo courtroom, seven judges were trying Communist Asbjoern Sunde, a wartime resistance hero, for transmitting Norwegian military secrets, passports and police cards to the Russian embassy. The prosecution built a seemingly airtight case: eyewitnesses testified that they had seen Sunde hand over papers to a Soviet attaché at obscure rendezvous; Sunde's sister-in-law and a friend acknowledged that he had asked them for their passports. But after two weeks of testimony, Sunde perked up and announced cockily: "I've been playing with the police...
...make matters worse. Big Ben's powerful ventilating system began to pump explosive fumes and heavy smoke through the ship. As far down as the sixth deck, the blast jammed the airtight doors. The eight men on duty in damage control put wet rags over their faces and went about their critical work of relaying messages from the bridge to the fire fighters, as their oxygen supply dwindled. "This is my last breath," one of them gasped over his headset-and it was. With agonizing slowness, rescue parties cut through the wreckage...
Another aim of the rule is to keep irresponsible groups, which might reflect badly on the University, from appearing before large audiences. But, carried to the extreme, the prohibition is hardly airtight. Any student may appear on radio or television as a person. Even a large group, accidentally comprising the full membership of some organization, could theoretically appear on any show. Moreover, the blanket rule, in following the Administration's no-favorites policy, also sidelines groups which would add credit to the University...
Finally, the government thought it had an airtight, tamperproof case. The 17 went on trial in a bleak, whitewashed room where the only ornament was a faded portrait of Franco on one wall and the only touch of color was the red plush of the judges' chairs. The accused had six defense attorneys, headed by an able lawyer named Augustin Lacort. The prosecutor read his charges and introduced 17 confessions. Then the presiding judge turned to the first defendant, a worker named Juan Grajales...