Word: shying
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Mehdi, who, his oldest son says, "loved the Americans," was the sole breadwinner for his large family of 13, which includes the two wives of his oldest sons and three grandchildren. The Shi'ite family lived in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of al-Dora in southern Baghdad up until the peak of sectarian violence in late 2006. That was when Mehdi's youngest son Ali, then 4, was kidnapped by insurgents and held for ransom for more than a week. After paying to get him back, the family left all their furniture and belongings and fled to Karrada, a safer...
...letter. In May the Committee had given Iraq a negotiating window to present an argument for dissolving its national panel or remedy the situation, but said the government had failed to comply. (The speculation is that "political interference" is shorthand for what is believed to be the predominantly Shi'ite government's appointment of co-religionists to replace the mostly Sunni membership of the Iraqi Olympic committee...
...threats through five years of war, Hussein was not going to be stopped by training disadvantages and a lack of funding. She saw an overarching hope for helping to heal some of Iraq's bitter sectarian divides with this Olympics. "Sports can unify the Iraqi people - no Sunnis, no Shi'ites, just sport for the country," she says. But after learning the IOC's decision, Hussein was devastated. "With this horrible situation, who is to say I'll even be alive in 2012," she told CNN through tears, as her coach reminded her about the possibility of competing...
...losing the bronze medal game by a single goal to the mighty Italians. They had been the Cinderella team of the Games, and like their proud countrymen, I celebrated the team's success. Three years later, as their country was being torn apart by a bloody sectarian war between Shi'ites and Sunnis, the team (comprising of players from both sects) won the Asia Cup, leading to incredible scenes of jubilation on Baghdad's streets. The ghost of Uday Hussein and memories of his torture devices seemed to have been well and truly exorcized...
...reason: in May, the Iraqi government disbanded the country's Olympics Committee and replaced it with new appointees. The government said the old committee has failed to hold proper organizational elections, but many in Baghdad suspect a sectarian motive. They point out that the sports minister is a a Shi'ite, whereas the country's sports administration had traditionally been in Sunni hands...