Word: rails
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...weekly highly critical of the Mugabe regime-were expelled from Harare. The government cited work-permit problems, but the moves were clearly part of a clampdown on the foreign press and on reporting of the catastrophic situation in Zimbabwe. Mugabe also invited diplomats to a reception in Harare to rail about the activity of foreign "dirty hands," especially in last year's general election: his 20-year rule was rocked by an opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which almost won a majority of elected seats in Parliament. Any future attempts by "outsider" observers to influence an election...
Last month, executives of Richard Branson's Virgin companies rode a dingy and slightly delayed rail car-not, as it happened, one of Sir Richard's-up to England's East Midlands to unveil the first of a new line of super-fast tilting trains. The jet-shaped thing only crawled along a test track, but it would have been a beautiful sight for any boy who loves trains...
...took over the most dilapidated network in the United Kingdom," he says of the railway lines Virgin got from the old British Rail in 1997. "It hadn't had any investment in 30 years. Trains were falling apart." Virgin introduced airline-style pricing, so that the cost of business class and peak standard-fare tickets went up while pre-booked tickets got cheaper. (A testament to the power of brand: the government forced Virgin to paint its name on the trains as a condition of the sale.) Mean-while, Virgin's two long-distance lines have ranked near the bottom...
...little old-fashioned ballyhoo might help as well. Last month, in response to the steep decline in ridership after Hatfield, Branson announced "The World's Biggest Rail Offer," slicing ticket prices in half. Trouble is, all that demand led to a customer service "meltdown"-Branson's word-and Britain's newspapers were quick to report "chaos" in the rail system. "When Harrods has a sale on and there's a line outside, you don't hear anyone whingeing," says Bowker...
...lead double lives in some way. But our hypocrisies tend to be misdemeanors. Small deceptions. We say we're liberal and then vote for a conservative. We rail about Marc Rich as a tax evader and then don't pay the Social Security tax for our housekeeper. But we make a kind of peace with it. We know our limits. We know where the line is, and we don't cross it. Hanssen apparently not only crossed it, he lived it, he justified it to himself and held himself up as an example of fidelity. That's a moral crime...