Word: landings
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Like residents of Berlin during the airlift, inhabitants of Erbil-the capital of the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq-get a little flutter in their hearts when they see planes coming in to land. Built after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, Erbil's international airport is a symbol to Kurds that their years of isolation as an oppressed ethnic minority are over, and that the Kurdish region, unlike the rest of Iraq, is open for business. Passengers flying into Baghdad have to endure a corkscrew landing to avoid possible surface-to-air-missiles. But a trip to Erbil...
...Iraq. But even there, stability is a relative term. True, the airport is putting in a runway long enough to accommodate jumbo jets, but for now it will be used mainly for U.S. military flights. That's because only one Western carrier-Austrian Airlines-is brave enough to land there. Other flights are run by off-brand charters with names such as Flying Carpet and Middle Eastern carriers such as Iraqi Airways. And even those are unreliable. Many of the officials at Iraqi Airways are former Baathists who try to gum up the works. Flights from Turkey often get canceled...
...often a blessing, has come to be a curse for Solomon Islanders living near Gizo, in the country's distant Western Province. The April 2 earthquake, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale, and the ensuing wall of water that swept away anything in its path as it reached land, have left a quarter of the area's population without a home. Unlike in Asia's 2004 tsunami, the water has not receded, adding to the locals' distress...
...severe shortages of food, chronically ill and unschooled children and dire family poverty. This lack of administrative oversight and political will brings resentment, to be sure. But it also allows charlatans to flourish. When natural resources such as fish and trees aren't being plundered, then assets like public land and houses are being stolen by crooked politicians and officials. Normality, for these unlucky folk, is a short hop from despair...
...many headed for the big door marked Sortie? France's gummed-up labor market is a key reason. Youth unemployment of 22% is easily one of the highest in Europe, both east and west, and it's not just school leavers with few or no qualifications who can't land a job. More than 7% of French university graduates in their late 20s are unemployed - one of the worst records in the European Union and about 50% higher than the E.U. average. Moreover, many of the jobs that are available to young people, even highly skilled ones, tend...