Word: british
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...response by government to the threat of global warming has been underwhelming so far, a fact that remains little changed despite the political agreement negotiated at the U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December. But at least one business leader, the British billionaire and founder of the Virgin Group Richard Branson, says he has heard the alarm from scientists and environmentalists about climate change, and believes that the world must not waste time shifting away from oil and other fossil fuels. (See the Copenhagen climate conference...
...could flip over in a trice). What are described as "close-combat races" are concluded in minutes instead of days, and take place not on empty ocean stretches but on courses close to shore, where thousands of spectators can crowd onto grandstands. Top sailors have joined the circuit, including British double world champion Paul Campbell-James and Austrian double Olympic gold medalists Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher. Hefty corporates are among the backers, lured, perhaps, by the fact that there's room onboard for one guest as well as four crew. Look carefully at each catamaran in competition...
...course, to American and British ears (not to mention taste buds), forcing the French off their horse habit sounds about as reasonable an idea as getting them to stop scarfing snails. (And that's without even factoring in the emotional aversion to seeing a loin of Trigger or fillet of Black Beauty served with pepper sauce.) But opponents of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation effort say there's more than just culinary discernment behind their desire to keep alive a tradition that some historians trace back to the early 1800s, when Napoleon fed his famished soldiers horses slain during the Battle...
...international furor over China's execution of a British man convicted of heroin-trafficking has drawn attention to the country's harsh criminal-justice system. The execution has sparked a diplomatic row between China and the U.K., but global condemnation will do little to provoke reform. China is the world leader in the use of the death penalty - Amnesty International documented some 1,700 judicial killings in China last year, but the true total could be as much as three times that - and Beijing makes no apologies for its hard line. In a statement issued after the execution, a Chinese...
...British government made dozens of appeals on Shaikh's behalf. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "appalled and disappointed" that requests for clemency were denied and that he was "particularly concerned that no mental-health assessment was undertaken." The U.K. Foreign Office also summoned China's ambassador. China's Foreign Ministry rejected the criticism. At a recent briefing, spokeswoman Jiang Yu called complaints "groundless" and said China expressed "resolute opposition." She added that the U.K.'s response threatened to undermine the countries' bilateral relations...