Yet Sepp Blatter has been adamant that nothing would derail either tournament, declaring as recently as last week after meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin that "nothing will get in the way of Russia hosting the best ever World Cup".
But, she added, "I can only speculate as to why they'd put in these elements without declaring as much ahead of time, because it doesn't help their image much".
While some analysts were declaring as early as March that the darkest days were done, a German watchdog agency warned just a few hours agothat the crisis may yet worsen.
Carey Goldberg (NYT) WASHINGTON PROTECTION SOUGHT FOR SAWFISH -- The Commerce Department proposed declaring as endangered the smalltooth sawfish, a motorboat-size denizen of Southern coastal waters that was once so plentiful that it was harpooned for sport.
Bush had dismissed Kerry's speech in Las Vegas, by declaring, as he often does, "Freedom is on the march".
Mr Bush's vice-president, Dick Cheney, was especially reckless when declaring as incontrovertible truth that Mr Hussein had resumed his nuclear-weapons programme.
