Word: embarrassment
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Silvio Berlusconi's critics used to worry about what he might do once in office: slant media coverage, rewrite laws to favor his own business and legal interests, embarrass Italy with gaffes on the world stage. Many of those fears, though perhaps not the worst of them, were realized in the media mogul's last term in office, from 2001 to 2006. But now that Berlusconi has swept back to his third term as Prime Minister with an impressive victory over former Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, Italians are more concerned about what he might not do. Italy faces difficult public...
...Beijing and the Dalai Lama are a long way from productive dialogue right now, of course, and each side sees reason to mistrust the other. Chinese leaders view the Tibet rebellion as having been stoked by the exiled Tibetan leadership in order to embarrass Beijing on the eve of its Olympic coming-out party, hoping to internationalize their quest for independence in the way that the Kosovar Albanians have - an outcome China will resist at any cost. The activists may be hoping to provoke an international boycott of the Beijing Olympics as a way of forcing China to deal with...
...businessman had departed for Florida, amid rumours in the press that the money had been an illegal contribution from Chavez for the electoral campaign of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Both leaders denied the charge, with the Argentinean president suggesting it was part of a U.S. plot to embarrass Chavez. "People have accused me of being a secret CIA operative somehow involved in this alleged conspiracy," says Telpuk...
...Calling Selig and Fehr back does makes some sense. In 2005, in the face of skepticism about its motives, Congress effectively used its bully pulpit to embarrass baseball into strengthening its steroid penalties and testing procedures. Now Congress has a right to seek closure, to again goad baseball into accepting the recommendations. But the suits are just a prelude to the main event, a potential circus that doesn't seem to serve any real purpose...
...promises an immediate repayment of $22.7 billion of the $47 billion bail-out). Should shareholders block the takeover, and no other suitable bidders are found, the British government could decide to nationalize the bank or force it into bankruptcy, stripping shareholders of their investment. Either resolution would further embarrass a government still reeling from criticism of its handling of the early stages of the crisis. In September, nervous pensioners withdrew $4.14 billion in less than a week despite the government's extravagant bailout package, and reassurances from the Prime Minister that the bank was solvent. Eventually, only Chancellor...