Word: firebrands
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...muezzin's call to prayer with a barrage of bullets and missiles. Within two hours the main building of the seminary had collapsed, killing some 80 men inside, according to local witnesses. The madrassa was reputed to be a refuge for local and Afghan Taliban, and its firebrand leader, Maulvi Liaqatullah - believed to have been killed in attack, according to army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan - was a vocal Taliban supporter...
...Correa, 43, is not a military firebrand like Chavez, an indigenous standard-bearer like Bolivia's Evo Morales or a former factory worker like Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In fact, five years ago he received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois, and he was briefly Ecuador's finance minister until he was removed last year for publicly excoriating the World Bank. Soon after, Correa launched his leftist Alianza Pais (Country Alliance) Party and positioned himself as the political outsider for the 2006 presidential race. It was a smart move in an impoverished nation whose...
...producing unwelcome results). Such a climate is unhelpful to those seeking to get behind the contradictory and opaque face that Iran displays to the world. The country presents no shortage of paradoxes. In the past eight years, Iranians have elected both a Kant-quoting liberalizer, and a conservative firebrand Holocaust-denier. Both figures came to power through arguably free elections, in itself a strange practice for a repressive Islamic theocracy...
...broad spectrum of Iran's political factions, including reformists, backs a nuclear program as a way of ensuring the country's regional status. Former President Mohammad Khatami might have made the point more softly, but consensus existed long before the arrival of firebrand Ahmadinejad, who makes the case in louder, more menacing tones. There's certainly disagreement over how much Iran should risk in running this course, and what incentives it should settle for in suspending it altogether. But there is a core belief here that without a nuclear program, Iran will be blocked from consolidating its growing influence...
...reason for the delay in Iran's response may be that its leadership is not nearly as monolithic or unified as is often portrayed. The debate over how to respond to the Western offer is being conducted amid a complex power struggle underway between Iran's firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and more pragmatic conservative forces (including Larijani) that dominate in the unelected executive bodies that outrank the presidency...