Word: primed
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Tarek William Saab is a veritable Renaissance man, a Venezuelan human-rights lawyer and a published poet who reveres Bob Dylan and the writers of America's Beat Generation. But this former Congressman and now two-term governor of Anzoategui, a prime oil-producing state on Venezuela's eastern coast, is also one of President Hugo Chávez's most popular and devoted lieutenants. That means he has lots of issues with the U.S. and is watching President-elect Barack Obama with a hopeful but wary...
...said he will make Canada the destination of his first foreign visit as President.) Improving relations with the western hemisphere - as an early item on his diplomatic agenda and not as an afterthought, as most U.S. Presidents approach it - could turn out to be a relatively easy way to prime the pump for better relations with the rest of the world. "Compared with the challenges he faces elsewhere, Latin America's are more manageable," says Michael Shifter, vice president of the InterAmerican Dialogue in Washington. "Strengthening alliances and partnerships in this hemisphere affords him the opportunity to enhance the political...
...That's a typically Johnsonian exaggeration. The Prime Minister has gained international kudos from his quick action to recapitalize British banks, which was copied around the world. But Labour is trailing the Conservatives in the polls and opposition to the third runway may further undermine support for the government. For the villagers of Sipson, a Labour defeat at elections due by spring 2010 could yet save their homes since construction work isn't due to begin for at least five years. Still, nobody is banking on that outcome. Sheila Taylor, a pensioner who moved there in the 1930s, finds...
...some key military and political leaders have urged that it expand the goals of its current operation and use its momentum to take control of Gaza City and decapitate Hamas. Most vocal in advocating this option is Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish front runner in the race for Prime Minister, who will portray any outcome that leaves Hamas intact in Gaza as a failure - bad news for his chief rivals, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni...
...regime change" option is even reported to have support from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who sees it as a way to restore the control over all Palestinian territories of his peace partner, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Skeptics, including Barak and Livni, warn that pursuing regime change would require the Israeli military operation to continue for months, risking diplomatic isolation and a dramatic increase in casualties. And the Israeli security establishment is justifiably skeptical of the prospects for reimposing the already enfeebled Abbas on a hostile Gaza. Rather than boost his power, the latest confrontation has further marginalized Abbas. Even...