Word: direness
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...million euros a day. That's the amount of money Alitalia, Italy's national airline, is now hemorrhaging. That nice (or, rather, nasty) round figure succinctly quantifies just how dire the carrier's crisis has become. Alitalia's troubles are nothing new, of course, as the government-controlled company tallied some three billion euros in net losses between 1999-2006, becoming a running joke among industry insiders and a mounting burden on Italian taxpayers. Last fall, Prime Minister Romano Prodi declared the situation at Alitalia "out of control," and vowed to personally lead the search for a solution. But when...
Human and animal prostheses are in dire need of a makeover. Typically, the stump of a damaged limb is simply inserted into a socket at the top of a prosthesis and held fast by a plastic sleeve or belt, or suction. The prostheses themselves might have gotten lighter and more flexible over the years, but the stumps' socket attachments have remained largely unchanged--and that's not good. It can be notoriously unstable and is prone to causing breakdown of soft tissues, as constant rubbing leads to pain and infection...
Unlike some Western officials who visit Baghdad, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had no national troops to buck up when he began his surprise three-day visit Sunday. After all, Paris opposed the U.S.-led war against Saddam Hussein, with warnings of dire consequences that have mostly come to pass. So what was Kouchner's purpose in the Iraqi quagmire that most of his countrymen look to with "we told you so" dismay? In large part, to send the clear signal to Washington that France is determined to continue mending diplomatic relations that deteriorated, in large part, over Iraq...
...early August, American Home Mortgage, a mortgage lender with little subprime exposure, declared bankruptcy, stoking speculation that troubles are bound to spread to securities backed by higher-quality mortgages. It didn't help when lenders Countrywide and Washington Mutual subsequently issued dire warnings about losing liquidity because so few people want to buy mortgages on the secondary market right now. "One of the most interesting things is, we don't know who's going to suffer," says Karl Case, a housing economist at Wellesley College. "Obviously, the people who get foreclosed against suffer. That goes without saying. But who bears...
...case, the needs in Peru are dire and immediate. Production Minister Rafael Rey said the most immediate needs are food and water, since Pisco's water system had collapsed. The civil defense institute has begun flying in supplies, including tents for the swelling numbers of homeless. "The President has pledged all the resources required to attend to the needs of the victims and repair damage to infrastructure," Rey said in a telephone interview...