Last month, the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND) -- an ethnically-based militia operating in Nigeria's oil-rich southern region -- launched "Operation Dark February" (which carried over into March), promising to bring about an "Armageddon in the Nigerian petroleum history".
During his election campaign he made no secret of his admiration for America and his desire to mend Franco-American relations.
So it is alarming that the whole Afghan operation has a make-do-and-mend feel to it.
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It has adopted a policy of make-do-and-mend rather than investing in new rails and signals.
"The cabinet and its committees are capable of carrying out little more than a patch-and-mend to the policies which reflect differing departmental strategies and timescales, " they said.
We reflect on the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago to mend a Nation half-slave and half-free under the unifying promise of liberty.
Although the economy is on the mend, a still-tight job market in many areas and a load of student debt will force many 20-somethings to move back home this spring and stay for a while.
Whether or not people are forgiving, they will have noticed that Italy's economy and social fabric have continued to fray, yet the cash to mend it is in ever-shorter supply.
Fellow centre-back Thomas Vermaelen is on the mend after an Achilles tendon operation and Arsenal are planning some behind-closed-doors friendlies for him.
Yet he's pre-emptively eager to mend fences with those bent on abusing the intelligence oversight process for political gain.
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Libya and Sudan get good marks for trying to mend their ways, though al-Qaeda and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad still use Sudan as a safe-haven for logistical purposes at least.
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It may not mend any fences and given the less-than-contrite nature of many of his answers, the whole fiasco hardly seems likely to gain him much sympathy.
He came along at just the moment when a shot of spiritual renewal was needed to mend New York's badly bruised self-confidence.
This will cause some glaring logistical problems, making it tougher for the Mets to make a quick call-up or send players on the mend down for brief rehab assignments.
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Other financial institutions, among them life insurers and fund-management firms, have not started to mend their ways.
Towards the end of the 2005 legislative session, she pushed through a long-stalled 9.5-cents-per-gallon increase in the petrol tax to mend the state's roads.
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This is especially true now that Sino-U.S. relations are on the mend.
Mr Webb said the extra money was useful but they would need far more to mend all of the potholes on the county's 5, 600-mile road network.
In early September he uprooted his family and headed south for what he hopes is a 9-to 12-month stay, tackling the system issues and trying to mend damaged customer relationships.
So far, rich-country governments have relied on diplomatic persuasion to get them to mend their ways.
Another hope is that Mr Yanukovich will mend the rift between Kiev and Moscow opened by Mr Yushchenko's pro-western orientation.
Network Rail organised the drop-in session to hear views from local residents about work to mend the A371 Ansford Bridge near Castle Cary.
Mr Kouchner visited Baghdad last week to promote France's role in efforts to solve the Iraq crisis and mend relations with Washington damaged by France's opposition to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
Until America and Europe own up to the true magnitude of the problem and sort bad debt from good to get toxic liabilities off financial-industry balance sheets, no amount of talking or stimulus will mend the global downturn, he warns.
The chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, hitherto a seriously hyper-active type, needed a break from using fiscal policy to mend every last thing in the economy that does not work exactly as he thinks it should, and so did the country.
While the U.S. housing market has clearly been on the mend, mortgage application stats and the relative outperformance of companies catering to higher-end buyers, including builders like Toll Brothers, indicate that the benefit is more concentrated than the type of wide-ranging recovery that could help spur the economy and boost the job market.
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This hands-off policy was supposed to have the extra virtue of allowing America to mend fences with its Arab allies and help rebuild support for the United Nations embargo on Iraq.
Rumors that the relationship of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson is on the mend are prompting speculation over whether their love is an everlasting one, or the well-timed reunion is a political coup meant to reinvigorate the Twilight fan base ahead of the release of the final installment of the billion dollar franchise.
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That said, it is striking that in the boom years before the crash of 2007-8, none of the big banks replaced their so-called legacy systems with new modern ones - which some would see as another example of how they did too little sensible long-term investment when the sun was shining, and are now struggling to mend their roofs in less clement weather.
America's government lobbied European countries to support post-war Iraq, and the Europeans surely saw the deal as a way to mend transatlantic ties.
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