Word: central
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...Canada's central bank also slashed its overnight rate three quarters of a percentage point, to 1.5%, the lowest level since 1958 when John Diefenbaker was prime minister. The move is intended, in part, to prop up sinking consumer confidence and provide some much-need relief for key sectors such as forestry, mining and oil that have been particularly hard hit in recent months by a commodity bust. (See pictures of the global financial crisis...
What was needed was a more coordinated effort - one that targeted all the nests on a block or in a neighborhood. Just as important, the strategy had to involve all the relevant government agencies. Rats found on the edge of Central Park, for example, might be living in a nearby subway station and dining on garbage left on the sidewalk by a grocery store or restaurant. Getting rid of that rat population would require collaboration between the three city agencies that govern the subway, the park and the sidewalks - an endeavor that has gotten easier since the mayor's office...
...military officers, speaking privately, concede that the bleak outlook in Afghanistan will probably prompt a scaling back of U.S. goals for the country. The desire to build a strong central government with a large army is likely to be de-emphasized in favor of a provincial structure that relies more on local militias to provide security. "There's a widespread belief in national-security circles that the Bush Administration's goals for Afghanistan were too ambitious," says Stephen Biddle, a military expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "If George W. Bush had served a third term, my guess...
...spoils are huge. "We estimate about 400 metric tons of cocaine are moving through the Central American corridor, meaning most of it would go through Guatemala," says U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, Stephen McFarland. That makes for a business worth over $7 billion, based on the National Drug Intelligence Center's estimated average wholesale price of cocaine in Los Angeles...
...Calderon, declared two years ago upon taking office. Since then gnarly murders and vicious turf wars have broken out in both Mexico and Guatemala, as traffickers seek to reposition their operations. Mexican cartels are also looking to control routes along the highly porous Guatemala-Mexico border and elsewhere in Central America. "Now there's an all-out struggle to see who gets to dominate this link in the drug trafficking chain," says Bagley. The contenders include Mexico's two dominant drug enterprises - the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels, along with their Guatemalan partners...