Once again, Diane Russell reluctantly finds herself in a dangerous standoff with undercover narcotics agent Harry Denby, who may know the truth about Kirkendall's ex-husband.

He helped to handle a number of delicate and dangerous standoffs with the local indigenous tribe, and his return to Toodyay was greatly regretted.

The statement provides, for the first time in over a year, an opening to defuse what has become one of the world's most dangerous standoffs.

Underlying the thaw is a 1994 agreement, known as the Agreed Framework, that defused a dangerous standoff between North Korea and the allied powers.

In the days before his confession to me, we had discussed the dangerous standoff looming in Iraq, precipitated on August 5 by Saddam Hussein's announcement of a ban on continued weapons inspections.

But that success has been overshadowed by the growing crisis in East Asia, where the atomic energy agency's new vigilance and the North Koreans' determination to have the bomb are producing a dangerous political standoff.

The move seemed likely to inflame the already dangerous standoff involving a protest movement that has been unable to wrest freedoms from a government that opposition activists say is methodically blocking all avenues for dissent.

In fact, what happens to the pool, believed to contain the raw material for four or five nuclear bombs, could determine the course of this dangerous standoff in a matter of weeks.

They include a dangerous standoff with Pakistan over nuclear fuel, gaming out an eventual collapse of North Korea and allegations against China of global hacking.

However, if the dangerous standoff in Illinois was still under way by sunset tomorrow, he would give the order to move on the Tranquility in spite of the risks.