Word: largest
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...pretax loss of $1.2 billion in the first half, far worse than the $984 million shortfall recorded in the same period of 2008. A stellar six months at the investment-banking unit of London-based HSBC, meanwhile, helped prop up its falling profits. Income across Europe's largest bank fell to $5 billion, half the level hit a year earlier. At Barclays, the U.K.'s second-biggest lender, profits rose 8%, to $5 billion. (See pictures of London's financial crisis...
...Britain's declining property market. Still, you can't fault Lloyds' optimism. The bank, in which the government has a 43% stake, predicted "high single-digit income growth" within two years. Analysts expect a steep hike in provisions for bad loans when Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Britain's largest taxpayer-funded lender, unveils first-half results later this week. After falling to a $40 billion loss last year, the largest in U.K. corporate history, RBS - more than two-thirds of it in government hands - should at least break even this time around, Maughan reckons. At the very least...
...competition is heating up. Siemens now looks set to form a partnership with Rosatom, Russia's main nuclear-energy company and the world's second largest. The move will give the Russian firm new technological and engineering credibility, and mean another strong rival for Areva right in its own backyard. And China's push for nuclear plants is likely to presage competition from that country. "China wants the ability to build its own nuclear facilities in the future," says Nicolas Véron, a capital-markets and foreign-investment expert with Brussels think tank Bruegel. "A large part...
...that working women in South Korea couldn't use the help. Though South Korea is Asia's fourth largest economy, only about half of its women have full-time jobs; in June, nearly 10 million women were employed nationwide, according to the National Statistics Office, compared to almost 14 million men. In Seoul, many women work infamously long hours, with employers offering few systems to help working mothers keep a manageable balance between their jobs and families. "Because of the very high price of child-rearing in Korea, it may prove more economical to stay behind helping children...
...vain if the current government is allowed to continue. "We came out of 30 years of war to build a new nation based on justice and equality for all people," he thundered before a crowd of some 4,000 gathered on the banks of one of Afghanistan's largest rivers. "No corruption was our hope. But today those hopes are broken, and that is why I am here before you." (See pictures of a U.S. Marine offensive in Afghanistan...