Word: gripped
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Syria has more immediate worries in Lebanon itself. Outrage at the assassination threatens its long domination there and could even fuel opposition to the Baath regime in Damascus. For nearly three decades Syria has kept a tight grip on its client state, exercised through the 14,000 military and intelligence forces still based around Beirut and the Bekaa Valley. But opposition to the Syrian presence has grown. Damascus made a serious miscalculation last August when it manipulated the constitution. Hariri resigned in protest and quietly backed the U.N. resolution sponsored by France and the U.S. calling on Syria to depart...
...Jong Il, who runs North Korea like a murderous schoolmaster, has recently identified a new threat to his grip on power. Men in the North are letting their hair grow longer, a social trend so disturbing to Kim?who is instantly recognizable for his gravity-defying bouffant?that he is trying to eradicate it at its roots. The Dear Leader recently decreed that extravagant male locks, defined in the state media as exceeding 5 cm in length, are a bourgeois affectation that could undermine socialism. In a televised campaign called "Let's Trim Our Hair According to the Socialist Lifestyle...
Hardly acknowledging the woman who has to swipe your card for a meal? Pushing into someone on an icy sidewalk without even so much as an apology? Not even making eye contact with the Spare Change guy while you tighten your grip on your...
...Before relinquishing the helm, Jiang installed important allies in the Party's bureaucracy who continue to be loyal to him and his powerful Politburo acolyte, Vice President Zeng Qinghong. The Party's General Office, for instance, which controls the daily flow of memos and intelligence, remains in the grip of Jiang appointee Wang Gang. Until Hu maneuvers more of his own people into key political positions, the President must watch his step. "Most leaders have to shore up their credibility with the Party's Old Guard before moving forward," says Anthony Saich, director of the Asia program at Harvard...
...Falluja’s dazed refugees trickle back to the rubble of their possessions, they will be choked by the cold grip of American freedom. Indefinitely parted from their livelihoods, denied their history, ripped from the fabric of a vibrant society, and separated from the irreplaceable life of a city, refugees will have earned a brutal freedom to start anew, from nothing. The freedom to part their arms and legs at checkpoints, the freedom to watch idly as Americans rebuild their city according to plans drawn in Washington, and, of course, the freedom to submit to a war for liberation...