Word: mayhem
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...perestroika, Gorbachev has made into a mantra the phrase "There is no alternative." Even Ligachev and the conservatives, wary as they are about the mayhem being done to Marxism, agree that something must be done. As Gorbachev well knows, one of the safeguards of perestroika is its links to glasnost: now that the economy's inherent flaws have been aired, it is impossible to retreat and pretend once again not to see them. "The notion that Ligachev or anyone else can bring perestroika to a halt now simply does not square with reality," says Soviet economist Gavril Popov. "Empty store...
Simon Brett specializes in what mystery fans call "the cozy," a story in which most of the mayhem is discreetly offstage, and the detective is more likely to be a canny old woman than a boozy middle-aged man. Of the many imitations of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, none has been quite so slippery and criminous as Melita Pargeter, a white-haired, well-heeled widow of a burglar whom Brett beguilingly introduced in 1987's A Nice Class of Corpse. Having skewered the pretenses of her fellow residents of a retirement hotel in that volume, she returns...
Venezuela had not seen such mayhem since 1958, when a popular insurrection toppled dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez and ushered in democracy. Overnight, Venezuelans faced martial-law restrictions, including a 6 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew. When the riots ended, severe food shortages in the capital threatened to stir more disquiet. The most important victim of the upheaval was probably President Perez himself, who had begun his second term in office (the first was from 1974 to 1979) with a huge margin of popularity. That goodwill was suddenly forgotten when the rattled leader failed to stop the violence with a rambling...
...1980s to almost 40% this year. The problem is double edged. On one hand, crack abusers frequently seem indifferent to the use of deadly force. On the other, the street-level drug trade is so lucrative that it seems worth killing for. In Washington law-enforcement officials attribute the mayhem to turf wars between rival dope gangs vying for shares of the city's wide-open, de-centralized crack market. The deadly competition in the two cities is made still more lethal by arsenals of sophisticated firearms smuggled from Virginia and other states with permissive gun laws...
...such vehicular mayhem justified? Many police and some legal experts argue that high-speed chases help maintain respect for the law. Says Sergeant Jim Mattos, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol: "As soon as you develop a policy of no chases, then the only people who are going to stop are the honest ones." Moreover, supporters insist, many chases end in the capture and arrest of serious criminals. Asks Donald Schroeder, adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan: "If it were the Son of Sam in the car that you were chasing, would...