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...Where have Benny and Bjorn been? Well, their music has been on Broadway, eight times a week for the past eight years, and in theaters around the world. Mamma Mia!, the show based on Andersson and Ulvaeus' ABBA songbook, has been the major theatrical hit of the past decade and an international blockbuster of a movie. But those tunes are old; ABBA burst on the scene in 1974 by winning the Eurovision competition with Waterloo, and the quartet - Andersson, Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad - lasted eight more years, breaking up in 1982. Then what? The lads did what...
...That prospect would be a big boost to the casino companies. During the boom years, Macau casinos minted profits at an astonishing rate, but over the past year, the recession has taken its toll on bottom lines. Melco Crown, for example, swung to a loss of $179 million in the first six months of 2009, compared with a gain of $37.5 million in the same period a year earlier. Wynn's Macau operations saw net profit sink 35% in the first half of 2009. CLSA's Fischer, however, believes the industry is set for a turnaround. Cost-cutting measures implemented...
...There could be many more Chinese gamblers around to fill up those new casinos. Part of the reason Macau has suffered over the past year is Chinese government policy. Aiming to cool down what was seen as an excessively heated gambling sector, government officials last year imposed visa restrictions that, at their tightest, limited some Chinese to only one Macau visit every three months. Now analysts believe those limitations are starting to ease, which would allow greater numbers of Chinese to enter the city to gamble. (See pictures of the world's most expensive hotels on LIFE.com...
...strategy worked - perhaps too well. In August, Lou's appearance on the show not only boosted viewer numbers but also sparked an intense nationwide debate about the essential meaning of being Chinese. Over the past month on Internet chat rooms, where modern China's sensitive issues are thrashed out by netizens long before they reach the heavily censored mainstream media, Lou's ethnicity has been the subject of a relentless barrage of criticism, some of it crudely racist. Many think she should not have been allowed to compete on a Chinese show, or at least not selected to represent Shanghai...
...buoyed by his success in resisting the settlement-freeze demand. Indeed, the Israeli Prime Minister's domestic popularity has surged as a result of his defiance of Obama. Abbas, however, who had already been reduced to an increasingly marginal figure by the failure of his negotiating efforts over the past decade to win any significant gains for the Palestinians, suffered further political damage by even showing up for the handshake...