1.   He rescues a Taiwanese busboy from a savage beating by local Yakuza thugs, losing his little finger in the process.

2.   He said he had been picked up by two well-known local thugs who talked him into robbing the drugstore.

3.   His story about a fast-food killing spree helped put two local thugs on Death Row.

4.   Hours earlier, a group of English hooligans and local thugs bloodied the streets with ugly rioting.

5.   In this case, it meant that no one was killed, and the apparent target was a man described in the newspapers as a local thug.

6.   NATO commanders place a high priority on remaining impartial and protecting their soldiers, fearful of provoking local thugs as they did in Somalia or of causing casualties.

7.   The local thug is causing trouble again, this time beating up his own people, not the neighbors.

8.   The local businessman forced to pay off a cop or local thug is going to charge more to the multinational client.

9.   The story takes several melodramatic turns after Jimmy saves Samir from a savage beating at the hands of local thugs and is himself nearly killed.

10.   They do not prod local thugs to settle their differences, but rather encourage them to wait until the Americans go home.