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Husák, Gustav

(Encyclopedia)Husák, Gustav go͝osˈtäf ho͝oˈsäk [key], 1913–91, Czechoslovakian political leader. A member of the Communist party from 1933, he helped to lead the Slovak national uprising against the German...

hostage

(Encyclopedia)hostage, person held by another as a guarantee that certain actions or promises will or will not be carried out. During periods of internal turmoil, insurgents often seize hostages; recent examples in...

Nasheed, Mohamed

(Encyclopedia)Nasheed, Mohamed mōhäˈmĕd näshēdˈ [key], 1967–, Maldivian political leader. A journalist, he often ran afoul of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and was imprisoned several times. “Anni” was...

Murdoch, Rupert

(Encyclopedia)Murdoch, Rupert (Keith Rupert Murdoch), 1931–, Australian-American publishing magnate. Combining sensationalist journalism (often reflective of his generally hawkish, strongly conservative political...

O'Brien, William Smith

(Encyclopedia)O'Brien, William Smith, 1803–64, Irish revolutionary. He entered Parliament from Ireland in 1828 and worked for Catholic Emancipation, Irish poor relief, and state support of the Irish Catholic cler...

lie detector

(Encyclopedia)lie detector, instrument designed to record bodily changes resulting from the telling of a lie. Cesare Lombroso, in 1895, was the first to utilize such an instrument, but it was not until 1914 and 191...

Lewis, John Robert

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, John Robert, 1940–2020, African-American politician and civil-rights leader, b. near Troy, Ala., B.A. American Baptist Theological Seminary, 19...

Kunstler, William Moses

(Encyclopedia)Kunstler, William Moses, 1919–95, American lawyer, b. New York City, grad. Yale (1941), Columbia law school (1948). Flamboyant and often brilliant, Kunstler defended the unpopular and unfailingly su...

Wolf, Markus Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Wolf, Markus Johannes vôlf [key], 1923–2006, East German spymaster. A legendary cold-war espionage chief, he was called “the man without a face” because until 1978 there was no known photograp...

vendetta

(Encyclopedia)vendetta vĕndĕtˈə [key] [Ital.,=vengeance], feud between members of two kinship groups to avenge a wrong done to a relative. Although the term originated in Corsica, the custom has also been pract...