And Ian and Mary might look like the perfect 70s couple – she barefoot in cheesecloth, Madonna hair drooping over a pale and fragile face; he with long, curly tresses, legs widely spread in tight denim – but how long have they got?
Once a monarchy, Nepal is now a fragile democracy facing a May 28 deadline to draft a Constitution that would restructure the national government and create a federalist state.
"Flood Insurance, Already Fragile, Faces New Stress" (front page, Nov. 13) is correct in its analysis of the federal government's National Flood Insurance Program.
Centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, heading a fragile minority government, faces calls from within his own Social Democrat party to tighten immigration - policies that over the decades welcomed refugees from Vietnam war draft dodgers in the 1960s to Gulf War refugees in the 1990s.
However, that sounds like a fragile defence in the face of a catch-all French law, délit de solidarité, the offence of solidarity, which can be used against those who provide humanitarian assistance.
Unfortunately, the young country faced a fragile future and numerous challenges.
The housing report was one of several released on Wednesday that reflected the uncertainty facing a fragile economy.
Besides, political consultants from both parties say, even as Ms. McCaskill, an early supporter of President Obama who has struggled to hold onto support in an increasingly conservative state, finds her campaign benefiting from her opponent's woes, she still faces a fragile balancing act.
This is arguably the biggest challenge facing the NHS – the problem of an older population, the long years of infirmity that many of us will face and a fragile social care system underpinning it all.
He spoke at the end of a two-day conference of finance ministers and central bankers from the world's 20 leading economies, who gathered to discuss ways of shoring up a fragile global recovery in the face of the European debt crisis.
