It is the opinion of the leading diplomatists, as expressed in their despatches to their respective Governments, that the situation in China has reached a crisis necessitating positive action by the Powers, if a much more serious crisis, rendering armed intervention imperatively necessary, is to be avoided.
To make that case, Mr. Powell unveiled before the Security Council an array of previously classified evidence on a scale not seen in that room since Adlai Stevenson appeared during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, armed with photographs of Soviet missiles.
The gravity of Mr. Panahi's statement only underscored the real and often calamitous world events that have informed a number of the films here, with selections touching on the American war in Iraq, the global financial crisis, religious fundamentalism, armed revolutionary struggles and the usual man's inhumanity against man, women and children.
At the same time, South Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, is facing a major food crisis and heavily armed ethnically based militias that have been sweeping parts of the countryside, killing hundreds and making a mockery of the South Sudanese security forces.
The worst man-made humanitarian crises stem form armed conflicts, which lead to large-scale suffering of human beings and destruction.
"It's dangerous when leaders who spark armed crises start turning a little crazy," Kaplan writes.
The crisis began last month when armed groups seized the country's major oil export terminals, claiming that the national oil company had engaged in corrupt sales.
That is the strongest start to deal-making since the financial crisis, as corporate boards, armed with cash and cheap financing, felt comfortable enough to seek out growth by acquisitions.
Chalk up the popularity of these adrenaline-pumping excursions to a collective midlife crisis of baby boomers armed with enough money and technology to allow them to go where only the world's elite adventurers could go before.
