Word: hammered
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...While putting such treasures under the hammer means they could end up outside China again, these days it's hard to outbid the Chinese. In 2000, the bronzes were acquired by China Poly Group, an arms maker linked to the People's Liberation Army, which bought them along with a vase for $4 million. Those purchases helped spur patriotic interest in cultural artifacts among wealthy Chinese, who began bidding in auctions in New York City and London as well as Hong Kong. In 2003, mainland tire manufacturer Lu Hanzhen paid $1.5 million for a Qing vase, while Ho bought another...
...invention, since the Eastwood character always had one (Joe, Mongo, Blondie). And it triggered literally hundreds of Westerns from an Italian movie industry that had already shown itself expert at imitating Hollywood and British genres: the Biblical epic turned into the sword-and-sandal muscleman movies, the sex-charged Hammer and Corman-Poe horror films made into even more erotic thrillers. For ordinary moviegoers of the 60s, the phrase "Italian films" did not conjure up Fellini, Antonioni and the glamour of alienation. It meant vigorous ripoffs of English-language genre films...
...world's largest automaker is desperately trying to hammer out a new contract that would shift the burden to the United Auto Workers (UAW), the union that represents 73,000 of GM's employees and nearly 270,000 retirees. The company wants to fund a health-care trust, administered by the UAW, to pay for retirees' medical needs. The union's old contract expired Sept. 14, and the creation of that trust has emerged as the principal stumbling block to a new one. An eventual deal looks likely; the two sides are haggling furiously over exactly how much GM will...
...Unfortunately, Asia lacks any real security forum to hammer out problems. In Northeast Asia, the six-party talks on North Korea have not developed into a permanent institution. In Southeast Asia, diplomats have invested sweat on a free-trade zone, but pay little attention to the ASEAN Regional Forum, Southeast Asia's security-talk shop. Washington doesn't help, either: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice simply skipped the Forum in August. Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo put the best face on her absence, saying, "Provided the U.S. stays engaged, this can be a new golden age for Asia...
...wants the troops to start coming home. Democratic Congressman Brian Baird, who opposed the war, wants to give the surge a chance: "Progress is being made and there is real reason for hope." But politicians are often anxious about changing their minds. They know opponents are waiting to hammer them as opportunists or just plain confused, as Mitt Romney, dogged by accusations of flip-flopping over abortion, and John Kerry, who ineptly said he had voted for a supplemental funding bill before voting against it, can attest. Yet our nation's leaders often change their minds. If they didn...