Word: thorniest
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Barack Obama is not the only one with a China-size headache. Leaders in Europe have also tangled with Beijing recently on everything from trade to climate change to Iran. But perhaps the thorniest issue between Europe and China is the arms embargo that's been in place ever since the bloody suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests...
...government's focus on Ebadi seems to be designed to hit her before she regains too much power as the thorniest critic in the government's side. But the seizure of her Nobel medal and the threats against her family seem poorly calculated. "The irony of all this is that such policies give Ms. Ebadi more prominence," says Farideh Farhi, an Iran expert at the University of Hawaii. "In effect they make her harassment itself the human-rights message that they are trying so hard to prevent her from expressing...
...Obama has gotten this far in part because he has put off the thorniest questions of who should pay and how big a role government should have. These, he says, are the issues that deepen "some long-standing ideological divisions in our Congress and, frankly, in our society." They are also the ones that have defeated Presidents who have tried to solve the problem, going all the way back to Teddy Roosevelt. But what looked like shrewd politics early in the process is increasingly being viewed on Capitol Hill as a failure to lead. As a senior Democratic congressional aide...
...over the occupied portion of Jerusalem has never been internationally recognized. Under the Oslo peace process launched in 1993, Jerusalem was defined as one of the "final status" issues to be negotiated in a peace agreement, but finding a solution for sharing the city has been one of the thorniest matters...
Washington czarism reflects the fact that some of our thorniest problems sprawl over turf belonging to more than one agency. Bruce Reed experienced this firsthand as director of domestic policy under President Clinton - the czar czar, if you will. He concluded that whether you say "czar" or "point person," it's important that someone have a mandate that cuts across competing domains. "The Cabinet may carry out policy," Reed says, "but the White House makes policy. Every White House has to find the right balance to make clear who has responsibility for what and how to resolve differences when turfs...