When another spark lit the tinderbox this month, it was all over though not before another hundred had died.

ECONOMIST: From now on, the Palestinians are not themselves

This is the tinderbox that Osama bin Laden ignited.

FORBES: Why the Middle East doesn't work

Another factor that makes the garment sector a tinderbox is its location or rather, the lack of an industrial zone for garment manufacture.

FORBES: Bangladesh's Burning Problem

All of the conflicts in this tinderbox, which controls shipping lanes from the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea, can potentially give rise to regional, and indeed global conflagrations between competing regional actors and global powers.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Condi��s African holiday

The ongoing battle in Syria between the government and rebels is a reminder that the region remains a tinderbox.

CNN: History's jury is still out on George W. Bush

Gujarat has been a potential tinderbox since the earlier riots.

ECONOMIST: Another atrocity in Gujarat leaves India fearful

However, some hill farmers and crofters believe the failure of large estates to muir burn every year that has left areas of the land like a "tinderbox".

BBC: 'If you drop a match, it just goes'

"Other countries, once they see Iran getting nuclear weapons, will rush to get their own nuclear weapons and then the Middle East will become a tinderbox, " he said.

BBC: Israel ready to act on Syria weapons, warns Netanyahu

And today, this weakened leader is presiding over a tinderbox that threatens to engulf the nuclear-armed state and its neighborhood.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Pakistani nightmare

There is a small fire burning among a tinderbox of surrounding sun-weary trees, presumably built by a ranger in the predawn cold.

WSJ: Jeeping Up on India's Wild Lions