Word: northerners
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...offered his resignation July 14 after failing to negotiate an agreement between Belgium's two main regions, reigniting fears that the country could split along linguistic lines. Leterme--who took office in March, ending nine months without a permanent government--had wanted to grant more autonomy to the majority northern, Dutch-speaking Flanders and the minority southern, French-speaking Wallonia. With King Albert II refusing to accept the resignation, Leterme remains in office...
...California, Texas, Florida and the Eastern seaboard. But if there's a threshold temperature at which risk shoots up - some evidence suggests such a threshold exists at about 13.4 degrees C (56 degrees F) - they expect the hardest-hit regions to be those where mean temperature crosses the threshold: Northern California and the belt running from Kansas to Kentucky...
...unknown will be to what extent weather helps. When the wind blows strong out of the north, Beijing's skies can clear quickly. But when there is no breeze, the city's northern and western hills can easily trap pollution. Last August a four-day car-restriction test resulted in only modest improvements, which the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau blamed on the lack of a breeze. But unlike the 2006 and 2007 tests, which ran for just three and four days, respectively, this year's limitations will have been in place for nearly three weeks when the Olympics kick...
...Hymenoplasty has generated renewed attention here in the wake of a court ruling last month in the northern city of Lille, which annulled a marriage on the basis of a husband's complaint that his wife had falsely promised that she was a virgin - a confession he obtained after furiously waving the new couple's spotless bedclothes before still-celebrating wedding guests. Though the decision made no mention of religion, the fact that the couple were Muslim sparked complaints that France's strictly secular state is being undermined by traditional Arab cultural strictures. The court ruling also infuriated feminists...
...Swiss banks - have raised billions of dollars in fresh capital to strengthen their balance sheets. That may not be enough: a recent report by Goldman Sachs estimated that European banks will have to raise a further $95-$140 billion in fresh capital. And in the event of another Northern Rock-style meltdown, all bets about the banks' stability - and Europe's economic resilience - will...