Word: grips
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Arab capitals, aware of the implications of the new statistics, are warning of higher tension and instability in the Middle East. Some of them hint at Soviet-American collusion; most assume that Israeli hard-liners will count on immigrants to help tighten their grip on the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. President Saddam Hussein of Iraq called the arrivals "a catastrophe befalling the Arab world." The government-run Egyptian daily al-Ahram was equally impassioned. "This is a blatant invasion," one of the paper's columnists said, blaming "American and Soviet strategies" that...
...they are, the economy might slide into a recession. But if it eases rates, the already flagging U.S. dollar might slump even more, which could readily spark inflation because Americans would have to pay more for imports. Even so, the Bush Administration hopes that the Fed will ease its grip on credit. Bush publicly called for lower rates when he addressed a group of homebuilders in Atlanta two weeks ago. Said Bush: "I want to see them come down even more...
...much for hope, so much for promises. Last week Haiti lay in the grip of "a state of siege" declared by Avril's government and launched by his 1,200-man Presidential Guard. Citing "an increase of violence," the regime claimed that the crackdown was necessary to "protect the democratic accomplishments against terrorism." In dubious pursuit of that goal, Avril's police and some members of his army embarked upon a frightening expedition, beating up critics of the regime, silencing the media and sweeping up political opponents -- jailing some, exiling others...
...afternoon, the entire city closed down. Some Haitians wondered whether Avril was trying to pre-empt a revolution in the Palace Guard. Others were certain that Avril never intended to relinquish the presidency in the first place, and was consolidating his power for a long rule. But Avril's grip over his country is not as strong as that of Haiti's greatest dictator, Papa Doc Duvalier, and by week's end the President, showing signs of succumbing to diplomatic and internal pressure, renewed his promise to hold elections. Given the history of democracy in Haiti, such promises are hard...
Most Western diplomats and scholars have long believed that Gorbachev's grip on power was solid because of his political skills: he purged large numbers of his political opponents, as well as the deadwood, at the top of the party. After more than four years of such culling, it seemed to Sovietologists that Gorbachev could not be toppled by traditional Kremlin plotting of the type that ended Nikita Khrushchev's reign in 1964. That analysis leaves open the question of a coup by the security forces, the army and the KGB. There has never been an army coup in Russia...