Word: curtail
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...northern state of Haryana, was horrified last month when the interest rate he pays on a $15,000 adjustable-rate home loan jumped from 9% to 12%. "There's no way I can [pay] that," he says. "I'll probably have to borrow from friends or relatives and curtail household expenses." Srinivas says a lot of people are in similar straits. Out of India's middle class of about 90 million people, some 20-30 million have taken on more debt than they can handle, he estimates. Rising rates of loan defaults appear to back up the claim. For example...
...Riviera Beach's population is two-thirds African American, and the campaign to curtail sagging, as the style is called, was led by Bishop Thomas A. Masters, the city's African-American mayor and a Baptist church pastor for more than two decades. "Everywhere I went, there was a groundswell, a cry for something to be done for what the community was seeing as disrespect, indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, as related to the pants situation," Masters explained. The collection of more than 4,700 signatures in a petition drive to place the issue on the ballot only emphasized the city...
...What They're Taxing in France: Jean-Louis Borloo, Minister for the Environment, said France will begin taxing nonrecyclable cutlery and plates to entice consumers to buy more eco-friendly products. The so-called picnic tax of 58¢ per lb. ($1.29 per kg), part of an effort to curtail waste, may be extended to cover other household items like washing machines, refrigerators and televisions. The nation has a similar system in place for cars, whereby heavily polluting vehicles pay steeper taxes...
...Many Zimbabweans see such accusations as a ploy by Mugabe's government to thwart the deal that will curtail their power. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa dismissed as "nonsense" accusations that the party is responsible for violence. Even more ominous, though, was the tone adopted by Mugabe on state television on Wednesday, when he lamented that "If we had not blundered in this election, we would not be facing all this humiliation." The bitterness of their president's words will have burned in the ears of army generals and ZANU-PF hardliners who have vowed never to accept MDC rule...
...halving the maximum length of their stay from 14 days to seven and requiring special approval to enter Macau via Hong Kong. The Macau police said the changes would help prevent potential mainland criminals from committing crimes during their stay, but many see the move as an attempt to curtail growth in the city's gambling market. Mainland Chinese, many of them wealthy high rollers, account for 55% of Macau's visitors...