Word: britishisms
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...lead role in the Lars von Trier film Antichrist, which required her to attack Willem Dafoe with a shovel and simulate mutilating her own genitals. For her troubles, she won the Best Actress Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Gainsbourg - the daughter of French singer Serge Gainsbourg and British model Jane Birkin - spoke with TIME about working with Beck, her father's musical legacy and growing up in one of France's most famous families. (See TIME's 10 best albums...
...Taking solace where they could, British officials hailed the official end of a recession that began in the second quarter of 2008. Though tiny, the country's fourth-quarter growth ended the nation's most severe economic slide in more than half a century - one responsible for a 6.1% decline in growth. The return to positive growth, however slight, was enough for Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to declare, "We are on a path to recovery," even if he qualified it by adding that he'll "always remain cautious." (See the best business deals...
...playing both sides is an ancient one. Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, in his 4th century B.C. classic The Art of War, mentions double agents as a source of useful information. In 1779 infamous turncoat Benedict Arnold offered to surrender the fort at West Point to the British for £20,000. While his conspiracy was quickly discovered, that of Edward Bancroft, who spied both on and for Benjamin Franklin, didn't come to light for more than 100 years...
...encrypted messages more than just fodder for thrillers. Austro-Hungarian agent Dusko Popov, the reported inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond, gallivanted around Europe feeding false intelligence to the Nazis and sleeping with countless women. (His fondness for ménages à trois earned him the code name Tricycle.) British spymaster Kim Philby spent 30 years rising nearly to the top of MI6, only to be unmasked as a double agent in 1963--having sent decades of secrets to the Soviets...
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson temporarily stepped down from his post on Jan. 11 after revelations that his wife Iris--who resigned her seat in the British Parliament two days later--secured $80,000 in loans from property developers to help her 19-year-old lover open a coffee shop. Though Peter Robinson maintains that he was unaware of the transaction, the scandal threatens to derail the province's already shaky Protestant-Catholic coalition government...