Word: formerly
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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Critics point to the selection of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton as Europe's President and Foreign Minister as symbolic of a lack of vision. Van Rompuy, a former Belgian Prime Minister, is known for his ability to balance local sensitivities - no small feat in Belgium - and cajole opposing camps towards a consensus. Useful attributes, no doubt, but hardly the ones needed to make the E.U. count on the international stage. Ashton, a former British minister and European trade commissioner, has little experience in foreign affairs. "Van Rompuy and Ashton give the impression of being chosen for their limits...
...decades ago, a Thai gardener climbed into the palace of a Saudi prince through a second-story window, busted open a safe with a screwdriver and stole some 200 pounds of jewelry. The former Saudi chargé d'affaires in Bangkok told the Washington Post that the gardener stuffed "rubies the size of chicken eggs" in his vacuum-cleaner bag, along with a huge, nearly flawless blue diamond, which at 50 carats would be one of the largest blue diamonds in the world...
...Though the DSI insists there's no proof that the murders and kidnapping are connected to the theft, the former Saudi chargé d'affaires, Mohammed Khoja, was adamant, telling the Bangkok Post in 1995 that the murder case and heist were linked. Despite the deaths, the Thai police tried to return the gems that weren't yet sold by Kriangkrai in an official visit to Saudi Arabia, hoping it would end the scandal. It didn't take long, however, for Saudi Arabia to claim that most of the returned goods were imitation baubles. To add insult to injury...
...Charging five current or former police officers for the murder of the Saudi businessman who disappeared in 1990 - along with the subsequent trial, slated for the end of March - represents the best chance in years to put an end to the long-standing row. All five officers, however, deny the charges and have vowed to fight them in court. The highest ranking of the bunch, Somkid Boonthanom, has blamed politics for the arrest, telling Bangkok's the Nation that he witnessed "outside factors intimidating and pressuring" the prosecutors...
...region's most vital industries: imports of used cars from Europe that are then sold in Russia. The end of that trade has put as many as 20,000 locals out of work. The price of utilities has jumped. On top of that, the unpopular governor, a Kremlin-appointed former tax minister from Moscow named Georgy Boos, levied a new tax on drivers. During the worst bout of unemployment and economic decline in a decade, reports of Boos' lavish vacations to Europe have made many locals despise him. (See pictures of Russian police breaking up an anti-Kremlin rally...