Word: important
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...simmering dispute between Abdullah's predecessor and one of his most senior cabinet ministers could be a bellwether of his commitment to reform. Mahathir and Rafidah Aziz, the International Trade and Industry Minister, are engaged in a very public spat over thousands of permits issued by her ministry to import cars. The ex-PM says the permit holders are circumventing heavy tariffs aimed at propping up the country's automobile industry, crippling Proton, the national car company he set up while in office. Mahathir has also noted that the largest recipient of import permits is a former senior official...
...Chinese President Hu Jintao's meeting with George W. Bush this week in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations' 60th anniversary celebration, continues the series of encounters between top American and Chinese leaders that started in 1972. With each meeting, the drama and historical import has diminished. That's a positive thing, a sign of how profoundly the U.S.-China relationship has deepened in three decades. When Deng Xiaoping met Jimmy Carter in the White House in 1979?memorable quote: "Has your Congress passed a law that I cannot smoke?"?the bamboo curtain had just been prized...
...soldiers in Amarah last month. "One suspects this would have to have a higher degree of approval [in Tehran]," says a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad. The official says the U.S. believes that Iran has brokered a partnership between Iraqi Shi'ite militants and Hizballah and facilitated the import of sophisticated weapons that are killing and wounding U.S. and British troops. "It is true that weapons clearly, unambiguously, from Iran have been found in Iraq," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week...
...government. Corruption, red tape and the poor enforcement of laws [deter] investors; our country's strategic location?in the middle of the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean?and our high-quality workers cannot offset that. In the global economy, anything that a country lacks, it can import and outsource?except for two items: good governance and national pride, which must be homegrown...
...compete almost entirely on price, such as those in the toys and textiles industries, say even this 2.1% increase in the yuan's value will hurt sales to cost-conscious U.S. retailing giants such as Wal-Mart and Target. Yu Zhihua, export manager for the Hangzhou Silk and Garment Import Export Corp. in Hangzhou, says her profit margins are so thin already that she can't afford to lower prices to offset the 2.1% difference in currency values. "We expect contracts that would have gone to us will switch to Bangladesh and Indonesia," Yu says...