Word: westernness
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President Obama left the chill of Washington on Thursday to stump for a pair of ailing Democratic Senators in Western battleground states. In Denver, Obama flexed his fundraising muscles at a pair of events for Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado before heading to Nevada, where Senate majority leader Harry Reid is locked in a bitter contest. Democrats are hoping the sojourn, which comes on the heels of Indiana Senator Evan Bayh's surprise announcement that he will not stand for re-election this fall, will bolster the campaigns of two vulnerable candidates whose races could be key in preserving...
...While the Western swing comes early in the campaign cycle, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One that the timing shouldn't be a surprise. "They are very competitive states, as they were just two years ago. The political landscape not just in these two states but throughout the country continues to be dominated by concern about the economy, not surprisingly," Gibbs said. With the Administration devoting considerable energy to hailing the success of its economic stimulus package, it's clear that Obama's team considers the economy the fulcrum on which the midterms pivot...
...kidnapping - and occasional execution - of foreigners, something that prompted the Paris-Dakar rally to move to South America last year. In December 2008, AQIM kidnapped the U.N. special envoy for Niger, Robert Fowler of Canada, along with an aide and a driver. They were eventually released, together with three Western tourists - two Swiss and a German - reportedly after a ransom of $5 million was paid. But a Briton with the tourist group was executed...
...could be seen as yet another putsch in a remote West African country, save for two things contributing to a growing instability in the region: cocaine and al-Qaeda. The coup is just the latest in a series in West Africa, making the region an increasing focus for Western governments in their ongoing battles against terrorism and drugs...
...nonchalant. Last year, Jan Egeland, a U.N. special adviser on conflict resolution, said no place on earth was more deserving of international attention. Climate change, resource conflict and trafficking in drugs, arms and humans were combining to create "one lethal cocktail," he said. Speaking last year, a Western diplomat in Senegal concurred. "It looked like we'd turned the corner in West Africa," he told TIME on condition of anonymity, as per protocol. "Then suddenly it's coup here, coup there and cocaine everywhere. These things start spreading, and everything, everyone's interests, is down the tubes...