Word: standoff
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...outcome of the G-8 summit is especially disappointing - though not surprising - to greens because there were signs in the lead-up to the summit that real progress might be made. The essential standoff in international climate negotiations is the division of responsibility between developed nations like the U.S. - historically, the biggest carbon emitters - and big developing nations like China, set to become the major carbon emitters. The U.S. under President George W. Bush in particular has insisted that since developing nations will be responsible for the vast majority of future carbon emissions, no climate agreement can work without mandatory...
...Thousands of Islamic seminary students, joined by members of banned militant groups from across Pakistan, gathered near the site of the Red Mosque to commemorate the death of some 100 militants and students who had faced down the Pakistani security forces in a standoff that rocked Pakistan. The nine-day siege, code-named "Operation Silence," culminated in a vicious firefight in the usually tranquil capital that killed the mosque's firebrand prayer leader, Abdul Rashid Ghazi. At the end the mosque was still standing, but the seminary, or madrassa, had been reduced to rubble...
...siege itself ended a tense six-month standoff between the seminary students and the government. In January of 2007 students from the women's madrassa took over a nearby children's library to protest the destruction of an illegal mosque that had been built on government property. Tensions escalated when seminary students embarked on a vigilante campaign in the capital, forcing music and video shops to close down and kidnapping suspected brothel workers. For several months the government refused to crack down on the students, for fear that any action against them would ignite the wrath of religious conservatives...
...beating of the war drums over Iran may get the most attention, but there are growing signs of progress toward a possible diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff. This week, the top foreign policy adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, declared that Iran could respond favorably to the latest deal offered by Western negotiators, which he described as acceptable "in principle." It remains unclear whether the unusual declaration by Ali Akbar Velayati, who served as Iran's foreign minister from 1981 to 1997, will translate into government policy. But in New York City on Tuesday, Iran...
...freeze for freeze" plan is designed to prevent further escalation of the nuclear standoff, in which three rounds of U.N. sanctions and escalating rhetorical threats that have fueled war jitters and driven up oil prices have failed to budge Iran. Iranian officials had said before the latest offer was formally presented that any proposal that required them to end uranium enrichment as a condition for talks was "out of the question." At the New York City luncheon, however, Mottaki declined three opportunities to restate that position and suggested that Iran is weighing its options...