Word: outset
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...must be stated at the outset of this inquest with the greatest possible emphasis that in truth Mr. de Menezes was in no way associated with bombs, explosions or any form of terrorism," judge Michael Wright told the jury at the start of the hearing. British law requires an inquest when a person dies unexpectedly, violently or of unknown causes. The goal is not to determine criminal responsibility, but to establish the facts of the case. At the end of the inquest, the jury can issue a narrative verdict detailing events as they see them, along with a judgment...
That would be an easy mistake for this 41-year-old political prodigy, who rose with extraordinary speed from new Member of Parliament in 2001 to the pinnacle of his party just four years later. From the outset, Cameron conducted himself with the confidence of a veteran. Only three days into his job as Conservative leader, he faced then Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of the greatest natural politicians of the age, in the House of Commons. "You were the future once," quipped Cameron, his skin smoother and shinier than Sock Man's. His opponent suddenly looked old and spent...
...Kosovo, arguably, was the hardest case of all. At the outset, I opposed the war, not just because the decision to get involved was taken in the teeth of Russian opposition, but also because NATO was openly taking sides in a civil war (Kosovo was legally part of Serbia). As the scale of Serbian atrocities in Kosovo became clear, I changed my mind, coming to believe that there were rare cases when humanitarian intervention - that sly little euphemism for war - was justified. But nobody can say they weren't warned about what would happen next. In their new book America...
NATO's very purpose had been to contain the Soviet Union in the wake of World War II. The Red Army had just broken the back of Hitler's Wehrmacht and put Moscow in control of the Baltic states (annexed at the outset of the war), Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. Having watched Central Europe transformed by Soviet military power into a patchwork of authoritarian vassal states, Western Europe was only too willing to join an all-for-one military alliance with the U.S. and Canada to even up the odds in the event of further Soviet...
...dark underground caverns of a prestigious New York newspaper are the right setting for the murder at the outset of Black and White and Dead All Over (Knopf; 368 pages) by John Darnton, the author of biology-fiction thrillers Neanderthal and The Darwin Conspiracy. A 30-year veteran of the New York Times, Darnton delivers a knowing, insider's portrait of the newspaper with great sympathy and humor, and successfully captures the intense human drama and daunting business imperatives in the world of newspapering. A sense of impending doom hovers over the enterprise, a sense that its greatness is slipping...