Word: firebrand
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...royalists, big businessmen and urban middle class Thais who are opposed to the return of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup, convicted of conflict of interest charges by Thai courts last year and is now living in self-imposed exile. Sondhi's firebrand speeches full of demagoguery rallied crowds of supporters in prolonged, occasionally violent, protests last year against Thaksin, but he has been accused by critics of stoking hatred against rural people, who form Thaksin's support base, and of being antidemocratic for advocating appointed, as opposed to elected, representatives. (See pictures...
...brother after Fidel underwent surgery in 2006) has indicated that he would like to open a dialogue with the U.S. Fidel himself, upon meeting the Congressional Black Caucus in early April, reportedly asked, "How can we help President Obama?" - although his later comments reverted to his typical uncooperative, firebrand type. The U.S. has extended a small olive twig to an ailing nation run by the brother of an ailing man, and what happens next is anyone's guess. Will Cuba respond by releasing political prisoners? Allowing free trade? Or will the 82-year-old former President and his brother rebuff...
Twenty years ago, when Lula was a firebrand unionist, that sentiment might have been dismissed as dreamy rhetoric. Not today. However the crisis ends, there is widespread agreement that developing economies such as Brazil, China and India will be crucial to ensuring that demand remains buoyant. Lula, too, has changed. These days he's a pragmatist who is as popular inside corporate boardrooms as he is in the favelas. On March 17, he will meet new U.S. President Barack Obama - a fellow moderate liberal who shares Lula's passion for green-energy ventures - in the White House. He will...
Even so, some of Europe's most hide-bound institutions are realizing that drastic change may not be such a bad thing. France's truculent leftist daily, Libération, was founded by Jean-Paul Sartre and a group of former Maoists in 1973. In its early firebrand days, employees from the editor to the janitor all received the same salary. It's been on life support for years, and it's a wonder no one's pulled the plug...
...Standing on the balcony of the Miraflores presidential palace to declare victory Sunday night in his trademark red shirt, the socialist firebrand shouted: "Today we opened wide the gates of the future!" Chávez may well have opened another kind of gate. For much of the latter half of the 20th century, it was the norm in Latin America to limit presidents to one term, a safeguard against the lifetime rule so many caudillos had set up for themselves in the past. As democracy gained a stronger foothold on the continent, many countries voted to allow their leaders...