Word: beginnings
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Middle East Nuts and Bolts Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in the Egyptian resort town of Taba to begin discussing details of the transition to Palestinian self-rule, beginning in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. Among the issues: security arrangements, the size of the Palestinian-controlled zone around Jericho, the fate of thousands of Palestinians imprisoned or deported by Israel and control of water sources...
...Andrew Purvis, our correspondent in Mogadishu, mornings come early after uneasy nights broken by the clattering of combat helicopters on patrol. Just after dawn, Somali drivers gun their engines outside the Hotel Sahafi, signaling to Andrew that it's time to begin another day covering this demanding and often dangerous story. There was water in the taps, and electricity most of the time last week, and some cotton towels for a change, so things were looking up. More important, the fighting that had claimed 18 American soldiers the week before had subsided. There were tentative signs of peace...
...place but quibbled about the total: ''All these stories of billions of dollars of arms business in the past 12 years are total nonsense.'' Actually they are not nonsense. As early as December 1978, Eisenberg was in China sizing up business opportunities. According to a senior aide to Menachem Begin, Eisenberg paid a call on the then Prime Minister and said that he could use his influence to open China to Israeli goods -- mostly military -- if Begin would give him exclusive rights to all weapons deals. It was a time when China was looking for first-rate military technology that...
...culturally wrong. He was a Catalan artist, and the difference -- as anyone who knows Catalans will know -- mattered greatly to him. Catalunya, that triangle in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula whose capital is Barcelona, has always prided itself on its differences from the rest of Spain. They begin with language, for Catalan is no mere dialect of Castilian Spanish but a distinct language, closer to Provencal and Italian. They pervade the region's history, politics, folklore and sense of itself, from the 11th century down to the present day. Catalans like to think of their culture as both older...
...short term, the recent shifts to a debate over withdrawal can be seen as a win for Obama, who is most identified with the strategy. But the Republican playbook is also strong, and the blurring of positions on Iraq could ultimately help McCain. Once both candidates begin to discuss leaving, the debate shifts away from who is for or against continuing the unpopular war to who is best suited to lead the nation's military in such a challenging retrenchment...