Word: reformer
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...mayor is known for being critical of Ahmadinejad. The government, Qalibaf says, has missed a "golden opportunity" to leverage skyrocketing oil prices into reform of the heavily state-controlled economy. He defends Iran's nuclear program, denying that it is designed for military purposes, but hints that Ahmadinejad's provocative foreign-policy pronouncements have not furthered Iran's aims. "One can talk to the world in much better ways," he says. In June, President Bush won consideration from European leaders for tougher sanctions on Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium-enrichment activities. Ahmadinejad scoffed, "The enemy cannot do anything...
...Smith and Bovill are part of a long and illustrious line of spelling malcontents. Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, Teddy Roosevelt and even Noah Webster, father of American lexicography, all lobbied for spelling reform, their reasons ranging from traumatic childhood spelling experiences to the hope that easier communication would promote peace. In 1906, Mark Twain lobbied the Associated Press to use phonetic spelling. "The heart of our trouble is with our foolish alphabet," he once wrote. "It doesn't know how to spell, and can't be taught...
...Caracas Backdoor Reforms On the final day of an 18-month period during which he was granted special decree powers, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez quietly enacted 26 new laws that--among other things--created local militias and expanded government control over areas ranging from private property to commerce and agriculture. The decrees revive aspects of a constitutional-reform proposal rejected by voters last December, spurring opponents to condemn Chávez for surreptitiously advancing his socialist agenda despite the people's wishes...
...women's rights. One of the monarch's first decrees on ascending the throne in 1999 was to throw open the doors of his father's harem in Rabat, pensioning off dozens of concubines who had rarely been allowed outside the palace walls. He later pushed for a reform in family law, giving women more rights than in most Muslim countries in matters of divorce, property and her husband's choice of subsequent wives. (Islam permits up to four wives, but in Morocco the first wife must now approve of her husband taking additional wives.) The result: divorce...
...image hit is likely to cost China more than any activism Cheek would have done during the Games. Although he's the co-founder of Team Darfur, an international coalition of athletes pushing for reform in the Sudan, he's not exactly rabble-rouser. In our interview, Cheek said he was not planning any organized protests, and he had yet to set up any meetings with government officials. He's extremely sensitive to the fact that many Olympic athletes have trained their whole lives for this brief shining moment, and if taking up the Darfur cause is a distraction...