Word: primed
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...long accused Maliki, a Shi'ite, of being too much of a sectarian partisan to offer evenhanded leadership in a coalition government comprising Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds. That was a fair criticism until November 2006, when the Sadrists, too, began a boycott of Mailiki's government because the Prime Minister refused to press for an American withdrawal. Tensions between the two formerly allied Shi'ite factions built until open clashes erupted in Basra in March, when Iraqi forces attacked Mahdi Army havens there. The move sparked months of fighting that spread across southern Iraq and Baghdad - and offered Maliki...
...that calculation has much to do with lingering disputes between the two camps, such as over the fate of thousands of Sunni detainees in Iraqi jails the National Accordance Front wants freed. But a new reality is emerging that may factor into the thinking of potential political allies the Prime Minister is courting: Maliki is looking more and more like a lame duck as October elections in Iraq approach...
...between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and guerrilla fighters in Sadr City flared again Monday despite the announcement over the weekend of a cease-fire. On the afternoon Maliki spoke, sporadic clashes in Sadr City left at least 11 dead and 19 wounded - and opened the question of whether the Prime Minister has the ability to make peace at all anymore...
...castle: subjects covered in the few extracts already published in the British press read more like the ingredients of a lightweight thriller than a serious political memoir. Yet Cherie Blair's book has already had a heavy impact on Gordon Brown, her husband's successor as Prime Minister. Struggling to reassert his authority after his Labour Party was savaged in municipal elections this month, and eager to avoid another rout in a byelection on May 22, Brown urgently needs to convince the public and his own party that he has the right qualities to lead Britain...
...problem with Gordon," she says, was that he was hungry for power and kept "rattling the keys" of Downing Street over Blair's head. Her description echoes and amplifies similarly damaging images of Brown that have just emerged in two other new autobiographies by Westminster insiders. John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister during the Blair years, paints Brown as a "frustrating, annoying, bewildering and prickly" colleague who could "go off like a bloody volcano." Lord Levy, the former Labour fund raiser, made a claim, immediately disputed by Blair's office, that Blair doubted Brown would be able to beat the telegenic...