Word: tien
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...five former Soviet republics in Central Asia were in a beauty contest, Kyrgyzstan would win. This becomes obvious as you rumble down 30 kilometers of tarmac into Bishkek. The snow-capped Tien Shan mountains rear up like a tsunami. But unlike Nepal or other lauded upland destinations, this country and its capital are still an unknown quantity...
...Smoke of Kyrgyzstan - a country that makes up in character what it lacks in vowels. If the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia were in a beauty contest, Kyrgyzstan would win. This becomes obvious as you rumble down 30 km of tarmac into Bishkek. The snow-capped Tien Shan Mountains rear up like a tsunami. But unlike Nepal or other lauded upland destinations, this country and its capital are still an unknown quantity. Unknown, at least, to tourists, because they're pretty familiar to the French, Dutch, American and Norwegian troops from the U.S.-led antiterror coalition camped...
...Given that he stood accused of "abusing democratic freedoms," the 10-month prison sentence handed down to Tran Dung Tien in Hanoi last Wednesday was light. Tien, 78, had openly criticized corruption in Vietnam's Communist Party, but he's no garden-variety dissident. Tien joined the revolt against the French in the 1940s, was a longtime Party member?and for a few years served as the personal bodyguard of Ho Chi Minh...
...considered dangerous," says a Western diplomat in Hanoi, because "they're saying the government has become the kind of institution they fought against." In 1999, war hero Lieut. General Tran Do was expelled from the Party for airing his disenchantment, and several veterans quit the Party in protest. Tien, who left the Party a year before, issued a stream of public protests. Hoang Minh Chinh, 81, a war veteran who's been imprisoned several times, was at the courthouse last week to support Tien. "If I am afraid to speak out," he said, "I am no better than a slave...
...fact, Time has learned that Liao did indeed want the bill passed last week and was saying so after Tien's visit. Tien cheerfully admits he may have misinterpreted Liao's advice. If anyone was winking and nodding to him two weeks ago, they have apparently stopped. "Beijing is so mad at me," he laughs. "I wouldn't dare to go to Beijing right now." Tien has become an unexpected hero of democracy among the Hong Kong masses, although he's clearly unused to the role. He doesn't want a change in government, although he admits that the protesters...