Word: eastern
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Eastern cultures, business and political leaders routinely consult horoscopes. Jessica Adams, an Australian psychic astrologer who trained at the London College of Psychic Studies, expresses bafflement that Westerners don't follow their lead. "We could see this Capricorn cycle coming," she says. "I could see these household names crumbling...
...doubt that enlargement helped transform the region. Eight central and eastern European countries joined the E.U. five years ago along with Cyprus and Malta, while Romania and Bulgaria followed in 2007. The enlargement process encouraged a wrenching industrial overhaul of those nations, based on the privatization and liberalization that was set as part of the price for E.U. membership, and in doing so shepherded their makeovers from stodgy Soviet vassals into economic dynamos. Slovakia and the Baltic states saw growth rates as high as 7-10% in their best years. And in Poland, the unemployment rate dropped from...
...when the financial crisis hit, these darlings of international capitalism found their open economies amongst the most vulnerable. The International Monetary Fund - recently involved in bailouts for Hungary, Latvia and Ukraine - now forecasts a 3.7% drop in GDP for the central and eastern European region for 2009. The downturn has brought down governments in Latvia and Hungary, and a prolonged crisis could translate into further political instability. (See pictures of the global financial crisis...
...more countries perched on the E.U.'s outer rim, eager to join, but the downturn means they are probably in for a long wait. A plan to draw poorer neighbors such as Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine closer to the E.U. will be launched on May 7. But this "Eastern Partnership" - which nudges them towards European norms of democracy, open markets and the rule of law - is also jeopardized by the crisis. "When E.U. member states themselves are entering dire straits, it will also be increasingly difficult to commit more E.U. funding for the neighbors," says Nicu Popescu from the European...
...Anger became open violence last year when Roma homes and citizens were shot at, and firebombed with Molotov cocktails. The first fatalities, a Roma couple living in the eastern village of Nagycsécs, occurred in November. In February in a village 39 miles (63 km) south of Budapest, Csaba Csorba, 27, and his four-year-old son were gunned down after firebombs had been used to flush them from their house...