Word: grips
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...bullet-riddled SUV storms along a dirt track in Mozambique, spraying out dust and rocks like a vacuum cleaner in reverse. Hunched behind the steering wheel, Leonardo DiCaprio wrestles the vehicle while Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou grip the rear seat as if their lives depended on it, which, in this scene of director Edward Zwick's film, they do. "Faster!" shouts Zwick. "We need more speed." DiCaprio nods and backs up, and the bucking drive begins again...
...cause for relief. But tranquillity rarely lasts long in Somalia. Since the overthrow of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991, the country has been a byword for dysfunction, less a nation-state than a destitute, unremittingly violent land ruled by the barrel of a gun. Last June the warlords' grip on power was finally broken by a dedicated confederacy of fundamentalist Muslim militias that fought their way into the former capital and sent the warlords fleeing...
...chaos of post-Saddam Iraq. As an Islamic scholar of note, few questioned his right to lead the AMS, and he organized the clerics' body into a stridently anti-American organization that gave voice to the Sunni community's anxiety and resentment over the loss of their centuries-old grip on political power...
...have been worse. Anti-American sentiment in Iraq is at an all-time high, and opinion polls show that most Iraqis-regardless of sect or ethnicity-want the U.S. forces out of their country. Hatred for the U.S. military runs deep among the minority Sunnis, whose centuries-old grip on power ended with the fall of Saddam Hussein; Sunni resentment fuels the insurgency that has raged ever since...
...wars that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia. "Ethnic cleansing" has continued apace inside Baghdad, as Shi'ite militias extend their control over mixed neighborhoods by violently forcing out Sunnis. But if the Shi'ite militias control much of the capital, reports suggest that Sunni insurgent groups are tightening their grip along road-transportation routes into and out of the capital. Such tactics have previously allowed the Sunni insurgents to choke fuel supplies into the capital. With that kind of virtual stalemate prevailing, Maliki won't likely be taking orders from Washington anytime soon...