Word: missions
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Before it began, United Nations officials had described U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Burma as a diplomatically risky mission that could end in failure. After it ended, following two days in Burma and two rare and lengthy meetings with General Than Shwe, the reclusive leader of the country's military government, Ban had come away with nothing concrete to show for his venture. His requests to meet imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi were rejected. His pleas for the government to release its 2,000-plus political prisoners were ignored. "I believe...
...During his first meeting with Than Shwe, Ban asked for permission to see Suu Kyi. Than Shwe refused. The U.N.'s top diplomat said the success or failure of his mission should not be judged solely on the benchmark of meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, though he lamented that it would have been "an important symbol of the government's willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful engagement" that would lend credibility to the elections. Ban said his mission served the purpose of allowing him to convey what the international community and the United Nations expects from the regime...
Even though he says it's too early to predict success, General Stanley McChrystal, the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, is satisfied that the Helmand mission is moving in the right direction. "The operations are not aimed at the enemy force. They are aimed at taking away the population from the enemy," he told TIME. "What we are trying to do is change the dynamics in the area where we are operating." In order to do that, Marines are leaving their armored humvees and sitting down with village elders and tribal leaders to assess their needs...
...thin mustache, outfitted in white hat and boots, green shirt, orange pants, pink scarf, leopard-skin vest. He's determined to stop his nemesis from turning the Tamil dish of vegetarian crepes into all-meat patties in a chain of McDosa fast-food restaurants, and to achieve his mission he'll need to be reincarnated, as himself. Originally a series of spots for MTV India, the feature version is lovingly, lavishly, almost libelously indebted to Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns. It also makes passing reference to The Terminator, Pulp Fiction and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - and, since every Indian film needs...
...This difficult step was necessary to ensure that we can continue vital programs core to our mission," Smith wrote...