Word: vacuumed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Guinea-Bissau is one of the Colombia cartels' most critical points for smuggling cocaine into Europe and, just before dawn on Monday, the tiny West African country plunged into a political power vacuum. At that moment, the long-time president of the country was shot dead in his home just hours after an armed attack on the military headquarters killed his Army chief of staff. The two men were adversaries in a bitter power struggle, one that had fueled a civil war in the late 1990s...
...Bissau for decades, could help to pave the way to democracy. "This could be a golden opportunity for the international community, and for Guinea-Bissau, to move ahead, get rid of the past, and reform the security sector," he says. That all depends, though, on who fills the power vacuum in the country. The drug lords of Colombia may well want to have...
...starting in 1979, war uprooted whatever fragile government protections had been put in place and thousands of priceless artifacts, some even looted from the national museum in Kabul, were spirited out of the country. But it was the fall of the Taliban in December 2001, and the subsequent power vacuum, that unleashed the most devastating rape of Afghanistan's heritage to date. "Ironically, poverty and war are what kept these sites safe," says Jolyon Leslie, head of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which promotes the rehabilitation of Afghanistan's cultural heritage. In times of conflict, civilians were afraid...
...nation of Tibet. For 58 years, the Communist regime in Beijing has waged a quiet war against the Tibetan people and their unique culture. Their clandestine methods follow the guidelines established by their imperialist predecessors: hide Tibet’s holy relics, erode traditional Tibetan practices, and fill the vacuum with Chinese culture. The evil genius behind the Chinese plan—and perhaps the only reason why the suppression of Tibet has not garnered much attention in the Western world—is that the Chinese government has undertaken this attack under the guise of technology and progress...
...province may prove to be a setback for the entire country. "You can disagree with his very strong style of governance," the commentator says. "But with a growing presence of the Taliban in the south, he was playing a role in stopping their spread. Now there is a vacuum. The government is also sending a wrong message. On the one hand, it is negotiating a deal with the Taliban in Swat, and on the other, it is pushing democrats out of the political system...