Word: coups
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Minister of Culture, he spends most of his time in cafés, drinking coffee and exchanging gossip. HE IS ALSO KNOWN AS ONE OF THE BEST JOKE TELLERS IN CAIRO, no small compliment in a land noted for its wit ... He supported Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1952 coup d'état but gradually grew disillusioned with the colonel's policies. 'It is true that the revolution liberated the Egyptian people and pushed them into modern life,' says Mahfouz, 'but it led to many wars that tired us out.' Mahfouz found himself at the center of controversy in 1979 when...
...Thailand's 18th coup d'?tat since 1932, bloodless for a change, and its leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin was at pains to present it as the kindest, cuddliest one yet?a "soft coup," it's being called. While smiling Thais handed flowers to soldiers, their Asian neighbors had more somber anniversaries to consider. Eighteen years to the day before the Thai coup, Burmese soldiers shot dead hundreds of prodemocracy protesters in Rangoon; 16 years before that, late dictator Ferdinand Marcos put the Philippines under martial law; and another seven years earlier, a general called Suharto seized power in Indonesia. Burmese...
...insisted all along: democracies don't work and civilians can't run countries. Burma is a large, ethnically diverse nation scarred by civil war, and the military has always presented itself as the only guarantee of national unity (while simultaneously running the country into the ground). The Thai coup will bolster its case...
...Even in the region's democracies, General Sonthi's coup is widely welcomed. Filipinos?who endured 14 years of authoritarian rule under Marcos?see Thaksin's military ouster as a portent of embattled President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's own political demise. Arroyo was a big Thaksin fan. She applauded "Thaksinomics," as his pump-priming policies were termed, and even vowed to "do a Thaksin" on her country's drug dealers after he unleashed a killing spree in which more than 2,500 drug suspects died. But Arroyo's popularity slumped to record lows amid allegations that she cheated...
...With her rock-bottom popularity, Arroyo is now so dependent on the support of the Philippine military that many Filipinos might argue that a "soft coup" has already taken place in their country. Earlier this year Arroyo declared a brief state of emergency after supposedly foiling the latest in a series of plots to overthrow her. But a pro-Arroyo senator interviewed by TIME suggests the President is more likely to "do a Marcos" and declare martial law. "That's the only way for her to stay in power," he says...