Word: widespread
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...show received widespread media attention, including an article on TIME.com this week. Just before the show aired, Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende remarked in his weekly press conference that the program hurts the image of the country abroad. Referring to the dozens of foreign media covering the show, he asked "if the country should be happy with this sort of publicity." A few days ago, some legislators had urged media minister Ronald Plasterk to stop the show. While calling the show "inappropriate and unethical," Plasterk said the constitution barred him from interfering with the content of public broadcasting...
...rapid construction that is uprooting fragrant frangipani trees in favor of glass-plated office buildings. The newfound wealth, though, hasn't extended much past city borders, and the disparity between rural residents and city folk is only growing. To make things worse, the poor are being victimized by widespread land grabs, in which plots tilled by generations of farmers are seized with little or no compensation by companies awarded government-sanctioned land concessions. In the chaotic rule of the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-79, most of Cambodia's land titles were destroyed, leaving few farmers with proof of property...
...dozens hidden amid the dunes strewn with cigarette boxes, old shoes, stale food and human waste. Others camp in the city, cooking on open fires and bedding down under bridges. In a report last November, the French aid organization Médecins du Monde said illnesses in Calais were widespread and sanitation extremely poor. Yet like Khodadadi, many see Calais as an essential stop in their quest to reach Britain, unquestionably their preferred destination, thanks to the country's ample supply of illegal jobs, relatively liberal immigration laws, large ethnic communities and its use of English, which many of them...
...where oil leaves off. There is the additional economic burden of importing nearly all of the country's food from Europe. Entrepreneurial spirit has all but evaporated: while rich Gabonese may fund new businesses, most are set up and run by Europeans. And the nation is afflicted by a widespread sense of moral degeneration - from bureaucratic corruption to petty theft to sexual violence. "The lack of standards shown by Gabon's leadership has generated a complete immorality in the country," says a European economist in Gabon. "That's the real curse...
...While widespread doubts in the Pentagon remain that the U.S. troop surge is going to work, one thing is clear: It is becoming increasingly costly in terms of American blood. As May comes to a close, the death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq measured over a two-month period has reached an all-time high. Military officials had predicted such a spike as General David Petraeus began to flow close to 30,000 more U.S. troops into greater Baghdad, stationing many in small outposts dotted across the region. Unfortunately, it's one prediction that the brass got right...