Word: union
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...Somalia?s capital Mogadishu last month, it seemed to offer some hope for peace in the war-torn Horn of Africa country. Somalia has had no central government for 15 years, and the country was a patchwork of fiefdoms run by murderous warlords. The rise of the Islamic Courts Union worried the U.S., which says the group has ties to Al-Qaeda and harbors known terrorists, but others saw opportunity: perhaps the Islamists could finally end the bloodshed and bring a functioning government to Somalia...
...weeks on and those hopes are disintegrating quickly. Hardliners within the Islamic Courts Union have pushed aside moderates and appointed as their head a man the U.S. suspects of collaborating with al-Qaeda. Mogadishu locals, who had cheered the demise of the warlords, began to fret when their new Islamic leaders cracked down much as the Taliban did in its early days in Afghanistan: young men watching World Cup football from Germany were beaten, and men wearing long hair were forced to have it cut. Talks between the Islamists and the fragile interim Somali government - elected in neighboring Kenya more...
...Then, in the past week Islamic forces surrounded Baidoa. The Islamic Courts Union says it will not attack the interim government, which is mostly secular in outlook, but the government?s closest ally, Ethiopia, is worried enough to be massing troops to take on the Islamic forces itself. The Islamists and Somali journalists say that Ethiopia has already sent troops over the border, a claim Ethiopia denies. But there is no doubting Ethiopia's intentions. ?We will use all means at our disposal to crush the Islamist group if they attempt to attack Baidoa,? Ethiopian Information Minister Berhan Hailu told...
...July, a wistful Senator Joseph Lieberman tried to summon his inner Samuel Gompers as he accepted the Connecticut AFL-CIO's endorsement in his dead-heat primary campaign against the aristocratic antiwar upstart Ned Lamont. "Sometimes you work hard, and people forget," he said, thanking a straggly crowd of union leaders for remembering the picket lines he'd walked over the years. "My folks were working people. I grew up thinking that people who work deserve a fair deal. It takes government to ensure...
...course, avoiding the subject. A giant papier-mache statue of George W. Bush kissing Lieberman on the cheek-the Senator's famed Britney-Madonna moment, which transpired after Bush finished his 2005 State of the Union address-sat on the back of a nearby pickup truck, thoughtfully provided by a group called Connecticut Bloggers. There was no mention from Lieberman of the elephant in the truck, no explanation of his alliance with the President over the war in Iraq. Just an oblique plea that this should not be a one-issue campaign...