Intensive-care nurses at Cincinnati Children's used to watch helplessly as 60 kids a year developed this deadly infection.

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Some dashed to the headland, only to watch helplessly as a wooden boat carrying as many as 100 asylum-seekers smashed against rocks.

ECONOMIST: A tragic sinking revives a debate about boat people

During his tenure at Space Command, he witnessed visitors to its headquarters expressing incredulity that the United States could only watch helplessly if a missile were launched at this country, even if by accident.

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Did the Federal Reserve watch helplessly as Lehman failed because, as its officials have repeatedly asserted, they had no legal authority to stop it?

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