Question: a lifetime's
Of a lifetime, more or less

Answer: it is not possible to tell

Question: The long, narrow park stretching southwest from Haghia Sophia is known as the Hippodrome (At Meydane), and in Byzantine times that's exactly what it was.
The Hippodrome is a narrow park near Haghia Sophia.

Answer: yes

Question: Like the Taliban leadership, most southerners are ethnic Pashtun Sunni Muslims who, though accounting for the majority of the Afghan population, had not fared well in the civil war.
The entire Taliban leadership is made up of ethnic Pashtun Sunni Muslims.

Answer:
it is not possible to tell