Word: vacant
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Morocco's King Hassan II was somber as he stared across the octagonal conference room of his palace in Casablanca last week. In almost the same breath in which he declared open a summit meeting of the 21-member League of Arab States, the monarch deplored "the existence of vacant seats" at the first such gathering in three years. The brocaded chairs intended for Syria, Lebanon, South Yemen, Algeria and Libya were empty. Of the remainder, only eight were filled by heads of state. Most notably absent was Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, who was represented by Crown Prince Abdullah...
...balloting, which would also mark the fifth anniversary of the dissolution of the 1972 martial-law proclamation that began his era of authoritarian rule. Two days later, despite earlier denials, he declared that the balloting would include the vice-presidential contest, reactivating an office that Marcos has kept vacant since 1973 to discourage presidential ambitions among his subordinates. On a rapid foray into the countryside, the President defined the essence of the upcoming campaign in a single word. "The issue," he declared, "is Marcos...
...April) has not tempered that enthusiasm. In the late '70s he suffered visibly while his first wife was losing a struggle with cancer. But he has been renewed by his 1983 marriage to his longtime secretary. In a May speech, reacting to reports that his seat might soon be vacant, he said with a twinkle, "I can't know, of course, what the good Lord may have in mind for me. But I can say that insofar as the suggestions contemplate my voluntary departure, like Mark Twain's reported death, the rumor is grossly exaggerated." After restoring himself...
...commerce building and exhibition hall in 1945. The remains stand just outside the point of the park, across the Aioi Bridge. This shell is Hiroshima's Eiffel Tower, its Statue of Liberty. Where the dome rose, only the supporting beams remain, a giant hairnet capping four floors of vacant gray walls, much of their outer skin peeled away, exposing patches of brick. The interior floors are also gone, making the entire structure an accidental atrium. A front doorway leads to nowhere. A metal spiral staircase ascends to nothing. A pillar lies on its side, wires springing like wild hairs...
...Hebei, Father Benedictus often cooperates with an official church located just down the lane from his courtyard sanctuary. When the church needed help clearing a vacant lot, he dispatched young parishioners to help. But he is most comfortable staying underground?because he wants to report to Rome. "For Catholics," says Bishop Zen, "to be free means to be in contact with the Holy See." China's Catholics hope that the new Pope will be allowed to stay in closer touch with them than his predecessor...