"The decision to abolish the agreement on the military air base, Manas, has been made, and there is no turning back from this, " Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev told a Kyrgyz news agency.

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Armed with a fake passport and complicated flight itineraries, he had headed for Australia - before losing heart, turning back, and learning no-one had realised he was missing.

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On the other hand, once the proverbial cat is out of the bag, there is no turning back, and might sometimes cause unintended consequences.

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And at one point there was no turning back.

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But as I said the other night at my press conference, I'm a big believer in the idea of persistence -- the idea that when the American people put their mind to something and keep at it, without giving up, without turning back, no obstacle can stand in our way, and no dream is beyond our reach.

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Ms. ANGELA KELLEY (National Immigration Forum): You know that horse has left the barn, I can't imagine now turning back the clock and saying oh no, we're just going to increase detention beds, we're just going to increase boots and binoculars at the border and that's going to solve the problem.

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They shout "women drivers" and "man she's nuts, she's turning too early" and "ah no, she's coming back out".

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The best he can hope for is that the peace talks with the ELN and the FARC both advance to such a stage that there can be no turning back.

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And both major German political parties - Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats led by Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier - make clear there is no turning back from a close embrace of Russia.

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