Everywhere, the struts that upheld the region's tenuous stability are wavering, and fierce new winds are blowing.

Its gloomy assessment of the challenges facing Iraq said that an environment of tenuous stability was the best-case outcome the country could expect through the end of 2005.

Today the Joe Mondragon affair threatened once more to upset the tenuous stability of their lives.

Among three possible developments described in that document, the best case was tenuous stability and the worst case included a chain of events leading to civil war.

Whatever tenuous stability Minnie had felt at home crumbled as that initial touch turned into an affair.

Opponents of the president said his tougher tone could upset the tenuous stability in cross-strait relations that he has achieved.

A National Intelligence Estimate prepared for President Bush in July concluded that the best that could be hoped for in Iraq over the next 18 months was tenuous stability.

The best-case scenario was a country with only tenuous stability.

The assessments in the intelligence estimate outlined three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, ranging from a worst case of civil war to a best case of tenuous stability.

Officials who have read the July 2004 National Intelligence Estimate have said that even as a best-case situation, it predicted a period of tenuous stability for Iraq between now and the end of 2005.