Word: widespread
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...Despite widespread opposition to the changeover in Samoa, the government insists it's prepared for the move. Officials have added road humps to slow traffic and, according to the Wall Street Journal, set up a training area near a sports stadium where people can practice driving on the flip side. Sept. 7 and 8 have been declared national holidays to help people ease into the new law. Leau Apisaloma, a village chief, told the Journal there's no cause for alarm: "In the beginning, it will be hard, but we'll learn - we're not stupid...
...that easy. Recent polls show widespread disapproval of the stimulus bill: 51% of Americans polled in August 2009 by USA Today and Gallup said they thought the government should be spending less under the plan, while 44% said they thought the government was spending the right amount or should be spending more. If anything, it seems the stimulus plan is hurting the President even as it helps the country...
...between Washington and Kabul, a complication the Obama Administration doesn't need as it grapples with the Afghanistan problem. The most immediate flash point will come in a matter of days, when the election results are officially announced. Getting Abdullah to accept defeat will be hard: there have been widespread allegations of fraud. If the former Foreign Minister contests the results in the street - in the manner of Iran's Mir-Hossein Mousavi - that could set off an ethnic conflict between Karzai's Pashtun base and his rival's Tajik following (Abdullah's father is Pashtun, his mother Tajik...
...glove with legitimate businesses to take control of large swaths of land to mine gold, drill for petroleum and produce palm oil for Colombia's booming biofuels industry. Says Jorge Rojas, who heads Codhes, "In almost every case where there is a big palm-oil development, there is widespread forced displacement." Adding to the confusion, members of the Colombian Army have been accused of killing civilians and dressing them up as rebels and of driving farmers off their land in guerrilla strongholds...
...While McChrystal's redeployed and reinforced troops appear to be making progress in various parts of Afghanistan, there remain staggering challenges. The key southern city of Kandahar - long the capital of Taliban might - appears increasingly under the sway of the insurgency. There are widespread reports of vote fraud in the Aug. 20 presidential election in which incumbent Hamid Karzai claims to be leading. What's more, military and foreign-policy experts - some of whom have been advising McChrystal - say both the U.S. military and civilian presence is inadequate. (See pictures of the new offensive in Afghanistan...