Word: parlous
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...parlous status of girls' education belies one of the greatest hopes raised when the Taliban was toppled by U.S.-led forces in 2001: the liberation of Afghanistan's women. Yes, they can now vote, they have a quarter of the seats in parliament, and they are legally allowed to find jobs outside the home. Foreign donors and nongovernmental organizations have expended a great deal of energy and capital on building women's centers and conducting gender-awareness workshops. But more than six years since the fall of the Taliban, fewer than 30% of eligible girls are enrolled in schools...
...Economic Promise, Political Risk Such animosity highlights the fragility of ongoing efforts to pacify the North by boosting its parlous economic condition. South Korea's giant conglomerates like Samsung are unlikely to invest significantly until the U.S. removes Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terror and also amends its Trading with the Enemy Act, which imposes sanctions on North Korean trade. And billions of dollars, not just from South Korea but also from the U.S., Japan and China, will be needed to bring North Korea into the global economy - assuming, that is, that Kim Jong Il wants...
...most powerful position for personal reasons, notably a "new, dramatic situation" regarding the health of his wife, who has cancer. His departure engendered great sympathy, of course - but also plenty of questions, for it comes after months of speculation about whether he would stay on in Germany's increasingly parlous grand coalition...
Such is the parlous state of commerce in the world's last Stalinist holdout. On Oct. 2, North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong Il, held a historic meeting with South Korea's President, raising hopes that diplomatic progress in the effort to get Kim to abandon nuclear weapons, along with an easing of the country's self-imposed isolation, might ultimately lead to economic reforms. And for foreign investors lured by what Devonshire-Ellis calls the "barren romance" of the place, North Korea holds obvious, if modest, attractions: a highly literate workforce with average daily wages that are about half...
...hopes to salvage some success for its increasingly parlous enterprise in Afghanistan, that will have to change. At a time when U.S. and NATO forces have come under scathing criticism for civilian casualties--figures compiled by media groups and human-rights organizations indicate that since the beginning of the year, the number of civilians killed by Western forces is on a par with those killed by militants-- putting an Afghan face on the war has become an essential part of regaining the faith of the public. "All this anger about civilian casualties by foreign forces--it's just like Baghdad...