Word: last
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...year-long civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam finally ended this year after Sri Lanka's army closed in on the separatist group's last stronghold, killing Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. At least 7,000 Tamil civilians died in the offensive; another 250,000 were displaced by the fighting. In December the government moved to accelerate their resettlement...
...Last month, 56 U.S. softball players traveled to Cuba for a series of goodwill games that probably did more for America's public image on the island than any single political effort over the past 50 years. And in Nicaragua, where political relations with the U.S. have frayed ever since former revolutionary Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2007, U.S. ambassador Robert Callahan has discovered he can do some of his best work wearing a baseball mitt. (See TIME's top 10 sporting moments...
...Callahan can still hustle, which he demonstrated on several occasions off the diamond in recent months when forced to make quick escapes from Sandinista mobs. Leaders of Nicaragua's ruling party declared Callahan persona non grata last October after he gave a speech reiterating U.S. concern about the Sandinistas' judicial power play to green-light Ortega's re-election bid in 2011, despite a constitutional ban prohibiting...
...Sometimes, of course, baseball and politics don't mix. When U.S. public-diplomacy envoy Cal Ripken Jr. visited Nicaragua last year, the Hall of Fame shortstop was forced to cut short his baseball clinics because of postelectoral political riots. But that hasn't soured interest in developing baseball here...
...Sunday, Iran's opposition made the symbolic journey from a square named after its most revered hero toward a monument dedicated to freedom, along a street called Revolution. The last remaining protesters used V signs to hail their taxis home...