There was also an embarrassing incident at Downing Street when Chinese security officials appeared at a photoshoot, blocking television coverage of prime minister Gordon Brown standing beside the flame.
For it would surely improve the domestic standing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an unbudgeable hawk, and thereby indefinitely delay peace on that Middle Eastern front.
And while the governor of the central bank issued just such a warning this week, more cuts in an economy already struggling to grow will further diminish the already fragile standing of Prime Minister Brian Cowen.
The low standing of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin in the polls and the political ascendancy of Nicolas Sarkozy, the economy minister and a fierce rival of Mr. Chirac, have fueled speculation that Mr. Chirac may promote Mr. de Villepin, perhaps his closest confident in government, to prime minister.
Conservationists have broadly welcomed the legal action, praising the government of Prime Minster Kevin Rudd for standing up to Japan.
Many units performed admirably, and we should recognize the bravery of Prime Minister Maliki in standing up for the rule of law against a threat from a militia of his fellow Shiites.
Crucially, Mr. Abbas, who clearly dislikes the public spotlight and the exhausting duties of prime minister, has not gained much standing among Palestinians.
It called the policy "part of the Bush administration's foolish and shameful moves to ostracize the D.P.R.K. politically and morally on the international arena and isolate and stifle it by terming it a 'rogue state.' " But for Japan, the largest economy in the region, North Korea's hostility only serves to strengthen the political standing at home of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
I won't be standing for the office of prime minister at all.
That is astonishing compared with the dismal run of prime ministers who preceded him and with Mr Abe's disastrous first term as prime minister, in 2006-07.The Wasummiton summit appears to have boosted his standing further.
Jim, the runaway slave, is nine feet tall, a handsome black man in the prime of life, standing very straight and gazing somewhat apprehensively into the distance.
