Word: meccas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Pacific. Almost everyone there does it, usually legitimately, at least according to the laws of Hong Kong, where even insider trading is no crime. By the puritan standards of the U.S., says one American banker, "the lack of public disclosure here is scandalous." The city is a mecca for arms dealers, drug traffickers and business pirates of every description. "Where else could I broker a deal that involves machine guns from China, gold from Taiwan and shipments traded in Panama City?" says a Brazilian arms merchant who maintains an apartment in Hong Kong...
Thanks to the new arrivals, the Seattle area is growing as fast as a Sunbelt mecca. In the past year, Washington has gained 100,000 people, most in the twelve-county Puget Sound Basin. A survey by Seattle demographer Laurie McCutcheon for the Puget Power Co. showed that in 1988 the fastest-growing area, suburban King County to the east of Seattle, received 12,700 new households from out of state, 22% of them from California...
...Mount potentially the most volatile 35 acres on earth. Though 19 centuries have passed since Roman troops obliterated Herod's gilded Temple, the Mount remains the object of intense Jewish reverence. But for the past 13 centuries the same trapezoidal tract has also been Islam's holiest site after Mecca and Medina: its Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock honor the spot whence the Prophet Muhammad is said to have ascended to the seventh heaven. Christians too hold in awe this place where Jesus walked. Now a controversy has arisen over whether, and when, a new Jewish Temple...
Iran has often charged Saudi Arabia with failing to protect the sacred sites of Islam. But when Iranian visitors staged riots during the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in 1987, Saudi security forces did not hesitate before attempting to quell the disturbances. More than 400 people, most of them Iranians, died during the violent clashes, leading to a break in diplomatic relations between the two countries the following year. Last week the Saudis demonstrated their resolve to punish disrupters of the hajj. In the largest public execution in recent years, swordsmen in Mecca publicly beheaded 16 Kuwaiti...
Bloomingdale's plans to mount its usual theatrical holiday display of luxury goods. But by the time the gold, frankincense and furs are gone, the mecca for wealthy consumers may be yielding its profits to a new owner. Campeau, meanwhile, must find more ways to meet $1 billion in annual interest payments. Says retailing analyst Walter Loeb: "He's going to have to sell more than just Bloomingdale's to get out of the hole he's dug for himself...