Word: primed
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...Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand's new Prime Minister, hasn't helped much. He has extended an emergency decree that makes it hard for rights-abusing soldiers and police to be prosecuted, and his vow to boost the halal-food industry and other local projects does not address the conflict's complex roots. By blankly rejecting Amnesty International's recent claims that the Thai military was systematically torturing Malay Muslims, Abhisit also struck a yoga position familiar in Thai politics: saving face by burying your head in the sand...
...Lukoil secured key oil and gas concessions in the North African nation. And Putin offered an extra sweetener: he wrote off Algeria's near $5 billion Soviet-era debt. Then there was the deal Putin cut with Libya just before he stepped down from the presidency to become Prime Minister: that one involved an agreement to sell $2.5 billion worth of arms, while cancelling Libya's $4 billion Soviet debt. Or there was last October's agreement with Venezuela in which Medvedev gave Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez a $1.1 billion credit line so the country could...
...Fiji Trouble in Paradise A day after Fiji's court of appeal declared the regime of military chief Frank Bainimarama unlawful, his ally, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, abolished the constitution, sacked Fiji's judges and reinstated Bainimarama as Prime Minister. Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, wants to reform a political system he calls racist and corrupt. Critics, however, call him a dictator. Fiji's central bank has devalued its currency 20% to boost exports and tourism amid the turmoil...
That said, The Mentalist works because it's such an elegant example of its kind; if it's comfort food, it's prime-grade meat loaf. Much credit goes to the sly scripts, overseen by Bruno Heller (HBO's Rome), which take the viewer to familiar places by clever routes, providing a jocular corrective to the relentless noir gore of CSI et al. The mysteries are engaging but not byzantine; you can probably figure out the culprit just a step before Jane does. And who doesn't want a handsome man to make him or her feel smart...
...dispel cultural stereotypes and reverse traditional gender dynamics. Citing their heightened spontaneity and “zest for life” as the root of her attraction to younger men, Stacey suffuses her statements with not-so-subtle sexuality, gloating: “I’m in my prime, they’re in their prime, so not only is that connection outside the bedroom, it’s inside the bedroom as well!” Swap the genders and this assertion reeks of sexual exploitation. Yet, when applied to Stacey’s zesty boy-toys...