Word: loyal
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...opportunity because Washington has come to see the Hamas government as a primary obstacle to peace. The U.S. has made no secret of its desire to oust the government elected a year ago, and to that end has enforced financial sanctions against the Palestinian Authority, substantially boosted armed forces loyal to Abbas, and egged on the Palestinian President in moves to oust the government - by calling new elections, for example, even though none are due until 2010. Effectively, this has made getting rid of the Hamas government a precondition for progress in Abbas's prime goal, which is negotiating...
Pity poor Xiang Xiang. Pampered from birth, his every need anticipated by a loyal band of caregivers at Sichuan's Wolong Giant Panda Breeding Center, the baffled bear received the shock of his young life soon after his fourth birthday. Without warning, he was driven into the middle of thick bamboo forest and abandoned, a first attempt by Chinese scientists to return captive-bred animals to the wild. Though he'd had some survival training, Xiang Xiang soon found he'd been dropped in a very rough neighborhood indeed. A few weeks ago, forest wardens spotted Xiang Xiang...
...high drama. After all, he had ruled for nearly three decades by a crude medieval code that vulgarized Iraqi public life. And yet the former dictator's final moments--the screams of "Go to hell" from spectators at the gallows, the taunts of "Muqtada, Muqtada" by guards evidently loyal to Shi'ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr--were undignified even by Saddam's standards. As if to block out the barbs, Saddam loudly intoned his final prayer, the traditional Islamic invocation to God and the Prophet Muhammad. But that too was cut short: without warning, the hangman opened the trapdoor beneath...
...some have been planning to do so all along. One afternoon last October, I watched the televised Saddam trial in the company of Abu Hamza, a former senior officer in the Republican Guard. Watching his former boss sitting sullenly in the dock, Abu Hamza shook his head. Even a loyal follower could see no dignity there. Then, in a cool, matter-of-fact tone, he began to talk of Saddam's death. "They will just hang him one night and announce it the next day," he said. "They will bury him quietly and forbid his family from building a mausoleum...
...Last week, Mogadishu dodged a bloodbath when the fighters loyal to the Courts left the city rather than fight the Ethiopian forces spearheading the drive by the internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government to take charge of the city. But with the Islamists gone, many in Mogadishu feared an immediate return to the rule of the warlords - not least because the several of them are ministers in the Transitional Government. Growing anxiety may be measured by the sound of weapons being test-fired at the arms market inside Bakara - a sign of brisk commerce, say old Mogadishu hands...