After making its first aerial incursion into Japanese-controlled airspace near disputed islands, China compounded tensions with Japan by bolstering its territorial claims at the United Nations.
Compounding tensions with the Saudis is what regular visitors describe as a sense of drift in Riyadh, where 88-year-old King Abdullah is ailing, reforms are moving at a glacial pace and the future is uncertain.
The disclosure of that CIA finding has roiled Washington, prompting calls for a broad congressional probe, compounding tensions between the president-elect and U.S. spy agencies, and extending the turmoil of a turbulent campaign.
Sectarian conflicts that divide the Alawites and other minority communities from the majority Sunni population will accelerate, compounding tensions in neighboring Lebanon, where Sunni fighters are now staging attacks into Syria, and also in Iraq, where sectarian violence has sharply increased in recent weeks.
Thus, Manila's close relationship with Washington further complicates the former's dealings with Beijing, and it also compounds tensions between Beijing and Washington.
On 26 September, student demonstrators stormed the main government compound and tensions escalated, with the police using pepper spray to evict them.
This problem has been compounded by tensions between the French and Dutch speaking communities in Belgium, which has produced significant politics dysfunction.
Further, if the long-delayed trial goes ahead, it is expected to revive the perennial debate about whether the pursuit of justice can do more harm than good, in this case compounding political tensions or even provoking more bloody clashes between Hezbollah and its pro-Western rivals at home.
But in recent years, we are witnessing a surge of new problems compounding the tensions in the region: The underlying historical and territorial issues between regional countries have come to the fore.
Earlier, the secretary general of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, compounded international tension over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, telling Reuters there was a "high probability" of a Russian military intervention.
