Word: grips
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...fires forced the closures of schools and outdoor markets and prompted some residents to don surgical masks. Most garbage service returned to normal by week's end, but the crisis renewed attention to the so-called "eco-Mafia," the Mob's alleged responsibility for ecological damage caused by its grip on public infrastructure such as toxic-waste disposal and water distribution. Organized-crime clans throughout southern Italy have obtained a sizeable chunk of public works services, often by bidding through a front company. Once contracts are obtained, environmental activists say, Mob bosses defy laws meant to protect the ecosystem...
...Even if Kim should fall to a U.S. onslaught, it's unlikely there will be post-overthrow photographs of joyful North Koreans celebrating the demise of their oppressor. Kim keeps the public in constant fear of a U.S. attack to maintain his grip on power. Schoolchildren are instructed to chant "The U.S. is our worst enemy" in front of the U.S.S. Pueblo, an American spy ship captured by the North Koreans in 1968 that is still on display on the banks of the Daedong River in Pyongyang. They win school sporting contests by being the first to use a wooden...
Bashar, it turns out, is his father's son after all. He is as obsessed with the Arab struggle against Israel as Hafez ever was. On Bashar's watch, Syria's military grip on neighboring Lebanon has loosened only slightly. Syria's support for violent groups like Hizballah and Hamas is unwavering. Despite his Western education, he's in no hurry to promote reforms that might threaten his regime's control. Like his father, Bashar is ready for a peace deal with Israel that wins back the Golan Heights, lost in the 1967 war, but he is holding...
Tight-fisted corporate execs have been the biggest brake on growth for several years, but they appear to be relaxing their grip. Tony Raimondo, CEO of Behlen Manufacturing in Columbus, Neb., estimates that war jitters were costing his metal-fabricating firm $2 million a month in lost orders--about 20% of his anticipated business. Raimondo expects spending to pick up now, as it did after Gulf I. Orders last week were twice what they were a year ago. Says Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo: "When I visit our customers throughout California, they all tell me they need...
...Less than two weeks ago, medical investigators thought they might be getting a grip on this puzzling killer. Doctors emerged from their labs to announce they had identified the likely pathogen that causes SARS: a mutation of the coronavirus that normally causes nothing more harmful than the common cold. Researchers averred that while the disease was contagious, it chiefly required close contact with an infected patient to be spread, most likely through respiratory droplets sprayed into the air by a cough or sneeze. Finally, quarantines were instituted in Singapore, Canada and, after much dithering, in Hong Kong, leading to predictions...