Word: sectoral
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...Lynne Wannan couldn't agree more. Since the government drastically cut funding for community-based child-care centers in the '90s, she has watched the sector stagnate. So she's about to launch Spike Children's Services, a not-for-profit company that will help desperate local parents' groups find the means to set up new centers. Community-based services are usually located in council-owned buildings and run with the help of parents' committees; working with local councils that have either land or empty buildings to offer, Spike would broker the loans and offer know...
...That's regardless of which child-care path parents choose. While the not-for-profit sector treads water, private care has grown rapidly since it became eligible for government subsidies in 1991. About two-thirds of Australia's long-day-care centers are now privately run - 660 of them by Brisbane-based ABC Learning Centres, the world's largest listed child-care provider. Not everyone welcomes the boom. Gordon Cleveland, a child-care economist at the University of Toronto, says Canadian observers are dismayed by Australia's "dependence on the corporate sector - it really frightens us." He argues that child...
...block such deals in the name of the national interest. With energy, though, the case for intervention is more compelling than usual. Energy affects almost every citizen and business, and when things go wrong the costs are felt more acutely than they are, say, in the insurance sector. Antonio López, Madrid-based director of analysis at Fortis Bank, argues that opposition to E.ON's cross-border dash for Endesa signals the Spanish government "is worried about supply." "If the company is German, it will experience any shortage or blackout from a distance," he says. "But [the blackouts] will...
...consumer benefits when the security of supply is increased," points out Nils Machemehl, energy analyst at investment bank M.M. Warburg in Hamburg. "And that would be the case here." Sounds great. But mergers have an odd way of not living up to their architects' expectations, and the energy sector is no exception. While Suez and GdF are aiming to slash annual costs by as much as €500 million, utility deals don't always make stockholders smile. After a study of almost 40 such transactions involving U.S. energy groups, Credit Suisse analyst Dan Eggers recently concluded that mergers "consistently destroy...
...member of a modern, moderate, educated and liberal sector of society, I have learned to respect other people's rights and feelings. And as a Muslim, I was not only hurt but also surprised and disgusted by the cartoons of Muhammad. When the world is on the brink of dividing into two deadly blocs, the Muslims and the West, such cartoons only serve as a catalyst to widen the gap. Even moderate Muslims who are against terrorism can't tolerate any mocking of the Holy Prophet, no matter how the joke is intended. Komal Mehreen Karachi...