Word: importance
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...blocking decisions like takeovers. The E.U.'s second-highest court then overturned the European Commission's 1999 decision to stop a merger between Airtours (now renamed My Travel) and First Choice, two British travel companies. The $1.2 billion deal will not be revived, but the case sets an important precedent. This is the first time a court has overturned a Commission anti-trust decision, and it comes while several larger appeals are pending - including the thwarted takeover of Honeywell by General Electric and the merger of WorldCom and Sprint. It may be too early to declare a new outbreak...
...which employs 70,000 people, last year became the country's second-biggest foreign-exchange earner after tea. But that may all change in 2008, when Kenya will be slightly too rich to qualify for the "least-developed country" status that allows African producers to avoid paying stiff European import duties on selected agricultural products. With trade barriers in place, the industry in Kenya will shrivel as quickly as a discarded rose. And while agriculture exports remain the great hope for poor countries, reducing trade barriers in other sectors also works: America's African Growth and Opportunity Act, which cuts...
...civilian chemical industry in ways that could be diverted quickly to chemical weapons production." Procedurally there is not much difference between making pesticides and making chemical weapons. According to former UNSCOM chief Richard Butler, Iraq takes advantage of the similarities and eludes sanctions by using Jordanian front companies to import lathes and machine tools, which, once inside Iraq, are easily adapted to the production of chemical weapons. The Iraqis consistently deny violating the sanctions or the cease-fire deal...
...villagers didn't get any money, so they saw no value in keeping their traditional ways." Today, entry fees of about a dollar per person have paid for explanatory signposts and language education for bilingual guides. Villagers can use the funds to create unique local handicrafts rather than import mass-produced items. "Now the villagers are proud of their culture, and are once again taking up traditional crafts," says Songnam...
...were tied to resurgent economic growth. But whenever energy prices are high - and despite taking a brief slide Monday as Iraq ended its month-long oil embargo, they still are - the worst kind of price pressures lurk. Add to that the weak dollar increasing domestic prices in the import-dependent U.S., and it's not too hard to imagine some version of that dreaded 70s economy - growth-less inflation and listless stock prices - playing in re-runs this summer. That could force Greenspan into some very unpopular tightening...