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Vladimir Putin is one of the most recognized politicians in the world. Currently, he is the President of the Russian Federation, and he is regularly featured by magazines like Time and Forbes as one of the world's most influential and powerful individuals. This captivating biography traces Putin's early years, his education, and his career in the Soviet KGB. Readers will follow his rise in politics and the current role he plays in both Russian and international politics, as well as the way he is regarded in the United States.

This book offers readers a compelling look into the lives, challenges, and successes of Somali immigrants.

"Amina lives on the edges of Mogadishu. Her family's house has been damaged in Somalia's long civil war, but they continue to live there, reluctant to leave their home. Amina's world is shattered when government forces come to arrest her father because his art has been officially censored, deemed too political. Then rebel forces kidnap Amina's brother, forcing him to become a soldier in Somalia's brutal ongoing war"--OCLC.

The breakup of the Soviet Union was a time of optimism around the world, but Russia today is actively involved in subversive information warfare, manipulating the media to destabilize its enemies. How did a country that embraced freedom and market reform 25 years ago end up as an autocratic police state bent once again on confrontation with America? A winner of the Orwell Prize, The Invention of Russia reaches back to the darkest days of the cold war to tell the story of Russia's stealthy and largely unchronicled counter revolution.

In the summer of 2000, Tommy Caldwell, Beth Rodden, Jason Smith, and John Dickey went rock climbing in Kyrgyzstan. The oldest was 25. Asleep in their portaledges high on the Yellow Wall in the Pamir-Alai Mountains, they awoke at daybreak to gunfire. Kidnapped by fanatical Islamic militants linked to Al Qaeda, they were used as human shields for ransom. The fanatical Islamic militants hid the climbers by day and marched them by night through freezing, treacherous mountain terrain, with little food and no clean water, and under the constant threat of execution. Their will to survive was their most important asset and led to the climatic decision that gained their freedom.

Presented with an unexpected assignment, Alex Rider's greatest nemesis, Yassen Gregoravich, recalls his life and the path that led him to become an assassin while his one-time friend, Alex's uncle, became a spy.

The author shares the story of her life growing up in Baghdad in the 1970s during the early days of Saddam Hussein's repressive regime, discussing how her family suffered after her father discovered wrongdoing by the Ba'ath party.

Journalist Jay Bahadur presents a narrative expos?e on Somali pirates, discussing the history of Somalia, and describing who the pirates are, where and how they live, their treatment of hostages, how they spend the ransom money they collect, and the response of the United Nations and other international bodies to the rise in piracy in the twenty-first century.

"A timely, topical book grounding Russia's recent turn towards conservativism in pre-1917 culture and explaining what this shift could mean for the rest of the world"--.

Chronicles the life and career of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.