Word: ra
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Caracas or Cape Town. Many Iraqis still point to the years before the U.S. invasion, when Baghdad had a reputation for some of the safest streets in the Arab world. "In the eyes of the Americans and Europeans, maybe these statistics could be acceptable considering their crime rates," says Ra'ad Mahmoud, a 51-year-old computer technician and lifelong Baghdad resident. "But for us Iraqis, we never witnessed such crime rates in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s. We used to have an anti-crime squad. It was one of the most efficient in the Arab world. If there...
...embargo - to pursue business in the country, which still has roughly the same number of phone lines as it did in the 1950s. But the fate of the embargo rests in the sensitive hands of politicians, and no one is sure what Cuba's reaction will be. President Raúl Castro (who took over for his brother after Fidel underwent surgery in 2006) has indicated that he would like to open a dialogue with the U.S. Fidel himself, upon meeting the Congressional Black Caucus in early April, reportedly asked, "How can we help President Obama?" - although his later comments...
...gleefully does business with regimes like China, whose human-rights violations are more egregious than Cuba's. At the same time, it's curious at best that embargo foes like California Representative Barbara Lee, who led a congressional delegation to Havana last week that met with President Raúl Castro and his brother Fidel, rarely mention Cuba's jailed dissidents but will, as Lee has, blast China for "repression against the Tibetan people." (Read a brief history of Cuba-U.S. relations...
Posada's is a quintessential Cold War story. As a CIA operative in the 1960s, he worked unsuccessfully to overthrow the communist regime of then Cuban leader Fidel Castro (who officially ceded power to his younger brother Raúl last year because of failing health). At the time of the 1976 airliner bombing, he worked for Venezuela's secret police. Despite abundant evidence against him, a Venezuelan military tribunal acquitted him of the Cubana attack. That verdict was overturned, however, and in 1985, while Posada was being tried in a civilian criminal court, he escaped disguised as a priest...
...part, appears closer than ever to passing legislation to lift the Cuban travel ban for all U.S. citizens - prominent lawmakers like Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar now call the embargo a failed policy - and Obama would probably sign such a measure. At the same time, Fidel and Raúl Castro have both in recent days expressed an unusual willingness to talk with the U.S. about improving Washington-Havana relations. The two aging communists even met with a delegation of U.S. Congressmen this week and asked what they could do toward that end. One possible answer: if the U.S. does...