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• n  something that causes irritation and annoyance

• A year ago they were still dismissed as an insignificant irritant by both the Serbs and moderate ethnic-Albanian leaders; now they're the dominant political voice in Kosovo and the .
• In short, it was a typical week for the United States' most prominent and charismatic irritant not named Kim Jong-il, and we discussed all of the events in 2006 that saw .
• Russia's iron-willed leader has rebuilt his country as a great power and an irritant to the West.

• thorn

News & Articles

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• Kabul demands British forces transfer prisoners within weeks
  KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded on Saturday that Britain hand over within two weeks more than 80 prisoners of war being held in a British base in the south, saying the detention was against Afghan law and a breach of sovereignty. The issue of prisoner transfers is an irritant in the relationship Karzai between and his Western backers, and has become more pronounced as ...
  June 9, 2013 - Reuters via Yahoo! News
• Obama, Xi agree to work together on cybersecurity
  RANCHO MIRAGE, California (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed on Friday on the need to work together to resolve disputes on cybersecurity, a topic that has become a major irritant in relations between Washington and Beijing. Obama, speaking after the first in a series of meetings with Xi in sun-baked southern California, said he and Xi had recognized ...
  June 8, 2013 - Reuters via Yahoo! News

Quotes

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• Walter Isaacson in Telegraph.co.uk
  We are talking about something that is a major legacy of the Vietnam War, a major irritant in this important relationship,said Walter Isaacson, co-chairman of the committee made up of scientists and policy-makers from both countries. "The...
• Jon Huntsman in Telegraph.co.uk
  I think there is probably a tension within the administration between those who would find the ICC to be an irritant and an obstacle to peace efforts in Darfur, whereas there are others who may be arguing that this might facilitate those... David Scheffer http://www.google.com/url?q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Scheffer&source=dictionary&usg=AFQjCNHdKfXIqFGElLzbC5VV5FXodipwzQ International Herald Tribune http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/15/america/NA-US-Sudan.php&source=dictionary&usg=AFQjCNHeLlNRtNXEO4fx2Ym28vyrv3jafw Jul 14, 2008 53887 70897 irritant Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador to China, said in Hong Kong yesterday: I think it takes an irritant off the table in the US-China relationship."