Word: primed
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...Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki initially promised a "decisive battle" in Mosul a year ago, when some wondered whether insurgent attacks there would renew bloodshed in Baghdad and other cities. That battle never came, of course. But al-Maliki has not seemed overly troubled by the fact that Mosul is effectively not under his control. It's been governance as usual for the Prime Minister, whose tangible political power essentially extends across a rump state that includes Baghdad and the oil-rich southern provinces of Iraq. On most days, al-Maliki appears content with that reality, and may remain...
Moreover, if al-Maliki's government asks U.S. forces to stay in significant numbers in Mosul, any negotiated extension of the U.S. presence risks stoking political attacks from the Prime Minister's Shi'ite rivals. Any move by al-Maliki to allow U.S. forces to keep up major operations in Mosul may weaken his standing in parliamentary elections, which are expected to happen in December or January of next year...
...handover of three Muslim extremists to end the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in Kandahar, Afghanistan, a decision that proved disastrous - one of the jihadis who was released was later sentenced to death in Pakistan for the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl. L.K. Advani, the BJP's prime-ministerial candidate, was India's Home Minister at the time but recently said he was unaware of the planned exchange. "There are only two possibilities," Gandhi said. "Either Vajpayee [who was Prime Minister] didn't trust him, or Advani is not telling the truth...
...Perhaps the most unexpected criticism has come from General Vo Nguyen Giap, a revered Vietnamese military leader who helped defeat the French and later the Americans. In a letter to Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, the 97-year-old war hero voiced concern over the presence of large numbers of Chinese in the Central Highlands, which is a strategic gateway to Vietnam, one where battles have been won and lost...
...Hanoi government says it is listening to concerns but it appears to be unmoved. Dung recently declared bauxite mining a "major policy of the party and the state." Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai reaffirmed the government's support, and several local provincial officials were on hand at a recent mining conference to defend the project, arguing that despite the presence of the Chinese workers, development will benefit the impoverished ethnic minorities who live in the region...