Word: ancient
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...begins, all eyes in the capital of Phnom Penh turn to a pair of hungry royal oxen for guidance. Placed before the sacred beasts are seven golden trays bearing, respectively, rice, maize, sesame, beans, rice wine, water and grass. What the cows eat-and don't eat-during the ancient Royal Plowing Ceremony predicts the upcoming year's harvest. Munching on rice is good, a signal of a bountiful crop to come. Forgoing water for rice wine could presage a drought, along with a possible surge in public drunkenness...
...There is an ancient ambivalence in China toward the very idea of the legal system as a protector of individual rights. As George Washington University legal scholar Donald Clarke points out, for millennia the main role of China's courts was to remind citizens of the power of the state. In an essay on China's legal system, he cites a passage written by the 17th century Qing Emperor Kangxi: "If people were not afraid of the tribunals, and if they felt confident of always finding in them ready and perfect justice, lawsuits would tend to increase to a frightful...
...four families of Zhuangtouying have spent 13 years dealing with the modern-day descendants of Kangxi and his mandarins. Like millions of Chinese for whom the legal system has provided little satisfaction, they have sought redress through petitions in Beijing, exercising an ancient right to bypass the courts and appeal directly to the central government. Official statistics are unreliable, but legal scholars say that out of the nearly 12 million petitions filed in 2006, only a few thousand will succeed. Out of those, petitioners able to translate Beijing's decrees into corrective action by local officials likely number...
Today, the ancient city has emerged as one of a string of economic miracles on Europe's northern fringe. Trade volume in Riga has more than doubled over the past 10 years, and the average annual income has almost tripled to $6,200. Nearly 80% of Latvia's exports - from timber to textiles to farm machinery - now heads to markets in the West. Tourism is booming, too: last year, ferries, cruise ships and low-cost airlines disgorged 1.5 million visitors in Riga, up from 1.1 million the previous year. Visvaldis Lacis, an 83-year-old author and parliamentarian, recalls that...
...strikes. Israeli troops sliced through Egyptian defenses in the Sinai Peninsula, moved against the Syrians in the Golan Heights and outflanked King Hussein's Bedouin army in the West Bank. In 132 hours, it was all over. Israel had more than tripled its territory, its forces moving into ancient Jerusalem, fulfilling the age-old quest of the Jews to return to their holy city. The war changed mental maps in the Middle East as much as it did the political landscape, altering hopes and fears. In 1967, Israel as a nation was not quite 20 years old, born...