Word: sandstorm
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...north, things were different, and for almost a month the Kurds lived a dream. An uprising that began on March 4 in the town of Rania spread like a sandstorm to engulf all Iraqi Kurdistan. The peshmerga (those who face death), as the rebel fighters are called, did not need to capture towns, as local Iraqi Kurdish militiamen spontaneously joined the rebellion. Fighter Kamal Kirkuki repeated joyfully to all who would listen, "We Kurds are finally free." Jails were thrown open; prisoners set at liberty. Kurds spoke openly of their travails without fear of retribution from Baghdad's once omnipresent...
...greater heat bends them toward the surface again. The result, says astronomer Robert Noyes of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is a "sun ringing like a bell, but not one that is being struck by a clapper. Rather, it is vibrating somewhat like a bell suspended in a sandstorm, continuously struck by tiny grains of sand...
Oscar Wilde's aphorism comes close to summarizing John Tower's last-ditch defense. Forget the sandstorm of charges swirling around the diminutive former Senator; ignore the serious questions of sobriety, sexual escapades and the sale of Government expertise. To the beleaguered nominee for Defense Secretary, the real issue is the motivation of his judges in the Senate, who he implied were hypocrites pursuing the partisan politics of personal pique. "Is it an acceptable standard for Senators late in the evening who've had a few drinks . . . ((to)) vote on vital issues of nuclear deterrence?" Tower asked with rhetorical venom...
Royal Decree M/13 struck the 4 million foreigners living in Saudi Arabia with the force of a sandstorm. Prompted by sagging oil prices and a projected $10 billion budget deficit, King Fahd declared by edict last week that foreigners, including 35,000 Americans, must pay income taxes of up to 30% for individuals and 45% for companies...
...Soviet-made equipment, including combat aircraft, tanks and rocket launchers. The defeat, stated a Chadian military communique, enabled government forces a few days later to seize Faya-Largeau, Gaddafi's last major stronghold in Chad. Even before that final blow, some 3,000 Libyans, fighting despondency and a violent sandstorm, had begun retreating north...