Word: grips
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...State of Fear The army has ruled burma with an iron grip for 46 years. The opposition has been so beaten down that it may not have the organizational power to challenge the generals. And the discussion by those in faraway lands over the possibility of an intervention may only further entrench the generals. "This public discussion of unauthorized landings, and even a possible invasion of Burma," says a Burma military expert, "simply adds to the regime's paranoia and makes it even more suspicious of the long-term intentions of foreign governments offering assistance...
There are several more immediate reasons why Philadelphians might be unusually willing to cut police a break, or to be less than fully sympathetic with the men who were beaten. The city has been in a grip of a wave of shootings in recent years. There were 392 homicides in 2007 and 406 the year before in a city of less than a million and a half residents. In some parts of the city, gunfire is a common sound and it's hardly unheard-of for innocent bystanders to be injured or killed. Nutter, who is black, was elected mayor...
...Spain is in the grip of its worst drought in a century as a result of climate change - this year's total rainfall, for example, has been 40% lower than average for the equivalent period, and the country's reservoirs are, on average, only 30% full. The reservoirs serving Barcelona are only 20% full, and without significant rainfall, supplies of drinking water will likely run dry by October. "We're in crisis," says Joan Armengol, professor of ecology at the University of Barcelona. "And you can't leave 5.5 million people in crisis. The government has to take the bull...
...military junta descended on the village. Were they coming to bring badly needed food, water and building materials to the people of Too Chaung? Hardly. Instead, the government men forced villagers to participate in a constitutional referendum that critics have labeled a sham dedicated to legitimizing the military's grip on power. Two days earlier, Min Soe shook his head when I asked whether the plebiscite, which Burma experts believe will be rigged if the results aren't to the ruling generals' liking, would go ahead in Too Chaung. "No, they cannot do so," he said, incredulous at my ridiculous...
...global warming we need to fight, or global cooling? That's if we humans influence the climate at all, an open question. Recent years have seen global average temperatures leveling off or declining. For most of the past 2.5 million years, the Earth has been in the grip of ice ages, broken by relatively short warm periods lasting 10,000 to 15,000 years. We are lucky to live in such a period. Dietrich E.Koelle, Germany...