Word: australian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...deals, common in Europe for decades, got jump-started in the U.S. in 2005 when Chicago enriched its treasury by $1.8 billion by selling a 99-year lease of the Chicago Skyway to Spanish roads operator Cintra and Australian bank Macquarie. At about the same time, Texas bagged $1.2 billion to let a Cintra-led consortium build the first part of the Trans-Texas Corridor and collect tolls on it for 50 years. In 2006 Indiana signed a 75-year lease for the 157-mile (253 km) Indiana Toll Road in exchange for $3.8 billion, funding the state's transportation...
...roadside bomb blast that killed Australian soldier David Pearce in southern Afghanistan on Oct. 8 reflects a new turn in the tactics of Taliban fighters bent on recapturing the country. Regularly bested by Coalition forces in battle, the Taliban are making increasingly effective use of improvised explosive devices - and of intimidation...
...that killed Pearce, a member of the reconstruction task force based at Tarin Kowt in Oruzgan province, was one of more than 25 that have targeted Coalition troops in the area since June. "What we've seen is an increase in the number of attacks," said Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston, "and an increase in sophistication...
...Australian leaders responded to Pearce's death by restating their commitment to the U.N. effort to secure and rebuild Afghanistan. "It's a just cause and this soldier was part of an Australian contribution to that just cause," P.M. John Howard said. Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said a Labor government would consider sending more troops...
Blackwater isn't the only company getting paid to protect American personnel in Iraq. The security guards who shot two women to death in Baghdad on Oct. 9 were working for an Australian-owned firm that was hired by U.S.-based contractor RTI International. Talk about outsourcing: a significant percentage of U.S. security guards in Iraq are neither Americans nor Iraqis. Here's a look at how many of these guns for hire can be labeled as mercenaries for fighting under a foreign flag. [This article contains a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy of magazine...