Word: civil
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...where concerns over the environmental and economic effects of an Anglo-Australian-run copper mine sparked a secessionist struggle that claimed 15,000 lives over the course of a decade. (The mine, one of the world's largest open-pit sites, is now closed as a result of the civil war, which officially ended in 2000.) Separately, the national government was forced to declare a state of emergency in Southern Highlands province three years ago when protests over a multinational consortium's proposed gas pipeline reached a crescendo. (The project has since stalled...
...women are unlikely to have much of an immediate impact on the Diet. But their influx has unquestionably added a dash of diversity - and perhaps will instill some social conscience and sensitivity to the concerns of working-class Japan. "Many came from local legislatures and some have experience in civil movements, which will bring about a new perspective in legislation," says Mari Miura, associate professor of political science at Sophia University in Tokyo. Japan's female lawmakers are generally seen by voters as kokumin no mesen - ordinary citizens - who have a better understanding of grass-roots issues. "There have been...
...even some of the more modest predictions about Jacob Zuma's rise to power had been correct, South Africa would be an empty, corrupt dictatorship by now. Back in 2006, South African memoirist Rian Malan ended his dismal assessment of the nation's prospects ("Not civil war, but sad decay") in British magazine the Spectator by asking: "Anyone want a house here?" A year ago, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said he was "deeply saddened" when Zuma staged a party coup against his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, "deeply disturbed" that both had used institutions of state in their struggle and warned that...
...from that. State institutions have been hurt by the departure or exclusion of apartheid-era workers and their replacement with officials too often appointed for their political connections. Zuma's aide says the biggest obstacles to success are "corruption and ineptness in the bureaucracy." But reforming the civil service would mean turning on many of those who put him in power. "There is one very bold thing that can be done," says Andrew Feinstein, a dissident former ANC member. "That's saying: 'No more jobs for pals. It's jobs for those who can actually do them.' And there...
...Mercedes from a road-construction group that had more than $50 million in contracts with the department. Though Ndebele handed the car back, along with two cows, Zuma told him he had no need to. In June, an auditor general's report accused 2,000 senior civil servants of rigging contracts worth $75 million to themselves or relatives between 2005 and 2007. Little action has resulted...