 | | Game in Washington | | DESPITE all the bluster about an impending default on the government's debt, most observers in Washington and on Wall Street still believe the two parties will reach a crisis-averting agreement.
That's because the practice of American politics assumes that all players will negotiate according to predictable patterns _ that they will realise they can get more from compromise than by demanding everything and winning nothing.
Under that assumption, President Obama is right to keep pressing for a compromise, because eventually the Republicans will fall in line. But as two wildly different fields _ game theory and the study of elephant mating patterns _ show, there are limits to the usual assumptions: Sometimes players simply refuse to play the game, and when that happens, the best advice for their opponents is to do the same.
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|  |  | | CAN'T THE US DO THIS RIGHT? | | THERE is only one thing worse than Republicans and Democrats failing to agree to lift the debt ceiling, and that is lifting the debt ceiling without a well-thought-out plan and with hasty cuts totalling trillions of dollars over a decade. What business do you know _ that is still in business _ that would operate this way: making massive longterm cuts, negotiated by exhausted executives, without any strategic plan? It certainly wouldn't be a business you'd expect to thrive.
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Qatar in 3rd round WC qualifier despite 1-2 loss to Vietnam
AP HANOI QATAR took the next step in proving its World Cup credentials by advancing to the third round of Asian qualifying despite a 2-1 loss at Vietnam on Thursday. The result was not enough to overturn Qatar’s 3-0 win from the first leg, and the 2022 World Cup host moved into the group-stage third round with a 4-2 aggregate win.
Striker Yusef Ahmed Ali put Qatar ahead 4-0 on aggregate with a powerful volley from outside the penalty area in the ninth minute, before Vietnam responded through Nguyen Trong Hoang in the 60th and a Nguyen Quang Hai header in the 78th.
Kuwait came from a goal down to beat the Philippines 2- 1 in Manila, while two goals in each half saw Syria through 6-1 over two legs.A goal in each half took Bangladesh to a 2-0 win at home against Lebanon, but the visitors went through thanks to their 4-0 first leg victory.
Oman were two goals up against Myanmar in Yangon when the match was abandoned — reportedly for crowd trouble — with the FIFA website saying the final match result would be decided in due course.
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