Word: strike
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...side, though variations exist. But the game's telegenic oomph (and there's plenty) comes from sustained volleys, deadly serves-the hard plastic ball reaches speeds up to 100 km/h-and the cartwheel spike, a power move of agility and aggression where a player backflips into the air to strike the ball with his foot (the court is only covered with thin matting, so landing without injury requires practice). A defender usually leaps up to block a spike, resulting in a dramatic acrobatic showdown-on nearly every play. Some rallies include many spikes and blocks, ratcheting up the suspense until...
...celebration, like so many in this grinding global conflict with the jihadists, was short-lived. NATO's press release went out of its way to say that Dadullah "will most certainly be replaced in time." It didn't take that long: four days after the strike, the Taliban's leader, Mullah Omar, announced that Dadullah would be succeeded by his brother. Dadullah was uniquely abhorrent, a one-legged mastermind of suicide bombings and beheadings who had earned the nickname Afghanistan's Zarqawi. But his death won't likely damage the Taliban any more than Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi's liquidation...
...potential successors. "He killed the guys above him, so quite a lot of capable or respected leaders have disappeared in his move up the ranks of the Taliban," says a Western Intelligence official in southern Afghanistan. A possible successor, Ahktar Mohammed Osmani, was killed in December in an air strike. Another, Obaidullah Akhund, was captured in February. But it remains to be seen whether Dadullah's death will herald a breakdown of the Taliban's command-and-control structure, or inspire his followers to avenge him and close ranks by intensifying their own deadly efforts...
...precise details of his death remain unclear. NATO said he was killed during U.S.-led operations when he "left his sanctuary into southern Afghanistan." Intelligence officials said he was killed in the southern province of Helmand. But it remained uncertain whether Dadullah had been killed by an air strike or in ground combat, Western military officials said...
...violence that has claimed 41 lives since Saturday and left the city paralyzed by a general strike on Monday began when MQM supporters took to the streets to prevent opposition supporters from welcoming Iftikhar Choudhry, the chief justice sacked by Musharraf two months ago, whose legal challenge to his ouster has become a rallying point for government opponents. Iftikhar was scheduled to attend the 50th anniversary of the Sindh High Court Bar Association in the city, but a couple of days before his arrival, the MQM announced plans to hold a rally at the same time to challenge the opposition...