With that infamous incident providing such an ominous precedent, Van Halen fans are probably ecstatic that this particular appearance didn't pan out.

The problems associated with the common contraceptive pill, brought to light decades after its introduction, might seem to serve as an ominous precedent.

General Pace cited an ominous precedent, the failed relief mission to Somalia, which included the deaths of 18 troops in a 1993 firefight in Mogadishu.

This was an ominous precedent for free-expression issues, but the telco's crushing of a radical-fringe magazine passed without serious challenge at the time.

It establishes an ominous precedent for Venezuela, the Philippines and more than 30 other debtor nations.

This is regarded as an ominous precedent: the first prosecution of an Internet service in the West for providing access to material it did not produce.

It created an ominous precedent in international relations.

This had never happened before; it was an ominous precedent for the museum.

Mr. Bush apparently forgot that Van Buren's road was rather rocky and offers an ominous precedent.

Beneath these innocuous-sounding phrases lies an ominous precedent - the Senate manipulating Federal funds to promote an official interpretation of American history.