Word: french
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...take the stage at the Met this Christmas, but then Beijing called. They wanted him to open the first performance season of China's highest palace of performance, the $40 million National Grand Theater, better known in Beijing by its shape, as the "egg." The building, designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, is a gleaming dome with a subtle ying-yang design, surrounded by water and one of the most distinctive new buildings in a city consciously trying to turn itself into a 21st century metropolis...
...things that makes terrorism so difficult to prevent is it's designed to strike targets you don't really expect, or can't predict because they only look different from thousands of other potential targets in hindsight," says a French counter-terrorism official. "That's one reason why extremists haven't gone after political leaders often: those are the holders of real power everyone expects jihadists would want to kill...
...Going after a well-protected leader or politician is harder, so the situation has to be just right," says a French intelligence official. "That usually means ambient chaos, possible help from within security forces, and good chance of success...
...Bhutto's assassination, one thing seems clear early in its aftermath: it has helped create the uproar and turmoil al-Qaeda has always seen as its best method of destabilizing enemy regimes it wants to replace. "To al-Qaeda, any means of bringing that about is fair game," the French counter-terrorism official notes, saying the group's active involvement or connivance in Bhutto's murder may be a mere detail compared to the result. "If its leaders thought political assassination of Musharraf's main rival would create real trouble for Musharraf himself, why would they hesitate? They're willing...
...Mehsud had been party to an agreement with the Pakistani government to cease his protection of al-Qaeda in his region. The Pakistani government has since then considered the agreement to have been broken. Says Frederic Grare, a former French diplomat in Pakistan and a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "Mehsud is a very convenient [person to blame]. He?s the bad guy in the trouble areas." He asks, "Why would Mehsud be willing to kill Benazir? Beyond the stated fact that she?s against extremism. How do [Mehsud's people] benefit from Benazir?s assassination...