Word: standoff
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...brought together the country's two main political antagonists, who were pictured on television kneeling in front of the stern-faced monarch. In a surprising move on Monday, a group of Thai senators filed a petition to the King pleading for him to intervene to end the bloody political standoff on Bangkok's streets. Luckily, this clash was resolved. But what happens next time...
...whole, delegates left Bonn stuck in the same standoff that has all but paralyzed global climate talks over the past several years. Poor nations want rich nations to accept deep, mandatory carbon cuts, and pay tens of billions of dollars in aid to help developing countries combat global warming. Rich nations are squeamish about committing to extreme measures without help from major developing nations like China and India, which will be responsible for the lion's share of new carbon emissions in the decade ahead. And all leaders are feeling the squeeze of the economic downturn, which has shunted public...
...many as 200 years, Somali pirates seized the cargo ship Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean on the early morning of April 8. According to reports, the pirates were overpowered by the Alabama's 20 U.S. crew members but managed to take captain Richard Phillips hostage, inciting a standoff with rescue ships deployed to the scene. In the latest surge of attacks in the region, Somali pirates have hijacked six ships in five days, after seizing 15 in March and more than 130 last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau...
...other achieving a "breakout capacity," meaning that it could quickly and quietly beef up its arsenal until it became capable of launching a devastating "first strike." First-strike capability is dangerous because it is not "crisis stable": it could encourage a preemptive nuclear attack during a tense standoff. (See pictures of a world-class nuclear bunker in West Virginia...
...Pakistan A Deadly Show of Strength Baitullah Mehsud, commander of Taliban groups in Pakistan, took credit for a March 30 raid on a police academy in Lahore that sparked an eight-hour standoff and left at least 12 people dead. In telephone interviews with Pakistani news agencies, Mehsud also promised to "amaze everyone in the world" with an attack on Washington as revenge for U.S. missile strikes on militant bases along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The FBI painted the threat as purely aspirational, pointing out that Mehsud had made similar comments before. Still, the attack comes less than a month...