Word: alie
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Compassion, says the Oxford English Dictionary, means "suffering together." There has been plenty of that among politicians in London and Washington since Scotland's Justice Minister freed Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi on "compassionate grounds" Aug. 20, citing doctors' reports that he was dying of prostate cancer. Al-Megrahi, the sole person jailed for the deaths of 270 people in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, had served just eight years of a 27-year sentence. After all their grieving, the victims' loved ones had to watch al-Megrahi land in Tripoli, Libya...
...stage with him, bringing a tear to the host's already tired eyes. A lack of stars proved to be the downfall of a 1980 telethon to raise money for burn victims. After comedian Richard Pryor's nearly fatal burning accident that year, noted guests like Redd Foxx, Muhammad Ali and Alex Haley were scheduled to appear, but never showed. Just $140,000 of the $1 million goal was pledged...
...situation appeared to be calming on Friday, after unrest had erupted in Gabon's cities the previous afternoon with the announcement that Ali Ben Bongo had won the election to succeed his father Omar Bongo, who died in June after having ruled the nation with an iron fist for 41 years. On Thursday, opposition supporters clashed with security forces in the capital, Libreville, while others in the main economic city of Port-Gentil ransacked shops, set fire to the French consulate and attacked the compound of French oil giant Total. Their grievances were clear: after having helped Omar Bongo squash...
...fact that France has stayed silent in the face of loud claims in Gabon that Ali Ben Bongo's election victory, with 41.7% of the vote, was gained by fraud further suggests that Sarkozy is finding it easier to live with Françafrique than to end it. And he's not the only one. Just hours before the announcement of the election results on Thursday, French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner said he'd been in contact with Ali Ben Bongo and his two main rivals, all of whom were claiming victory. "I hope they will come...
...Activist Ona says the Bongo family fortune allowed Ali Ben to finance ubiquitous advertisements in a lavish campaign that his opponents could never have come close to matching. Meanwhile, Ona notes, local and international observers have marveled at how more than 800,000 names were registered on voter rolls in a nation of only 1.3 million people - an astonishing increase of more than 200,000 voters from the last election, in 2005. "That this election was unfair isn't even an issue, but there's so much suspicion of fraud that France should be voicing concern or protesting...