Word: stern
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...danger of the Persian Gulf exploding was foremost in the minds of diplomats the world over, including those representing the superpowers. In capitals throughout Europe and Asia, U.S. envoys buttonholed their Soviet counterparts and delivered a stern lecture: with 85,000 Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan and East-West relations already severely strained, there was a strong predisposition in Washington to attach the most sinister interpretation to anything that could be construed as Soviet intervention in the Iraq-Iran war. Presidential National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski went on television to caution: "We feel it is very important for the Soviet...
LIBYA, which in September formed a union with Syria that no one in the Middle East takes very seriously, last week became the first and so far only Arab state to give open support to the Iranians. In a stern message to Saudi Arabia's King Khalid and the rulers of smaller gulf states, Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi declared, "Islamic duty dictates that we ally ourselves with the Muslims in Iran in this crusade [against] the West." From Israel came reports that Iranian air force cargo and refueling planes were flying jet fuel to Tehran from Libya...
Meantime from the podium he projected another character of his own creation, the cosmopolitan, eccentric lecturer: authoritarian but also authoritative, alternately mock-stern and mischievous (he sometimes started over in mid-lecture, to see how long it would take the class to notice), arrogant yet never harsh, in fact downright kindly at times. After explaining that the transformed Gregor Samsa in Kafka's The Metamorphosis was not a cockroach but a beetle, and that beneath his carapace he possessed unsuspected wings, Nabokov told his students: "This is a very nice observation on my part to be treasured all your...
...jury found him guilty of the one rape he was actually on trial for, Judge Robert Sklodowski pronounced him a "rape bomb, ready to explode at any time." Sklodowski handed down the maximum sentence: 60 years, 30 of which must be served before he can be paroled. Such stern penalties are rare from many judges, but they are standard procedure in three courtrooms on the fifth floor of a dingy gray stone building on Chicago's South Michigan Avenue. Its nickname: "the Rock...
Since most terrorists have tended to be in their teens or early 20s, the generals directed much of their first efforts to bringing the chaotic schools under control. General Haydar Saltik, secretary of the ruling National Security Council, as the junta calls itself, sent a stern message to all students calling for military-like discipline on the campuses. Teachers were warned to keep their instruction free of political ideology or face dismissal. In Kütahya, a province west of the capital of Ankara, the military commander ordered all youths to get haircuts and shaves. On the whole, most Turks...